REVIEW: Jack Goes Home [2016]

“Artists write poetry. Assholes just complain.” There’s no question that Thomas Dekker‘s sophomore effort as writer/director is a head-scratcher. What you as a viewer must decide is whether or not to keep scratching. I don’t think anyone outside of Dekker himself can truly unpack the type of psychological chaos occurring within Jack Goes Home and I like that notion. This is an artist using his medium as an outlet to exorcise demons without necessarily factoring in audience expectations. It doesn’t supply easy answers, leaves a ton of loose ends as…

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REVIEW: Kaboom [2011]

“Are you, like, gay or whatever too, or, like, normal?” Using a soundtrack as the score to a generation’s penchant for drugs, sex, and enlightenment, Gregg Araki’s Kaboom portrays a college of liberated psyches running wild to the sounds of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Cut Copy, The xx, and Interpol. It’s a collection of music that can define the new century’s beginning—one ruled by a youth without borders, without limitations, and without fear. But the songs don’t blare over the visuals, the characters don’t make blatant reference…

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REVIEW: A Nightmare on Elm Street [2010]

“I haven’t even cut you yet” So this is what it has come to. Hollywood should really stop making ‘revisionings’ and just tack on another number to the end of the once sacred horror franchise they decide to desecrate. I’ll admit, the new A Nightmare on Elm Street isn’t that bad, at least as far as formulaic genre flicks reveling in blood and gore while leaving any sense of ambiguity out the window go. What truly made the original scary and still fresh when watched today—especially for newcomers unfamiliar with…

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FaneXpo 2009: Day One Recap

“What, do I moderate myself?” – James Kyson Lee Oh, the amusement I get from watching grown adults dress up like characters from their favorite anime/movie/game/etc. Surprisingly, I thought there would be more cosplaying, (I learned a new term), but thankfully I wasn’t alone in my lack of imaginative wardrobe. I did however pimp my Thor tee, so give me some credit. What was first a somewhat subdued looking scene—a scattering of people waiting outside lecture rooms for whatever person/screening was about to start—soon became mayhem once entering the actual…

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REVIEW: My Sister’s Keeper [2009]

“I’m sorry I let them hurt you” I have not read the Judi Picoult novel for which the new film My Sister’s Keeper is based, and I think that is a good thing. Whether I would have thought the movie did or didn’t live up is beside the point as, from the scuttlebutt at the completion of the screening around me stated, the endings are completely different. Truthfully, I think I like the cinematic conclusion much better than the literary one, if these audience members are to be believed. What…

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