May 22
Despite a slew of terrific performances, Rodrigo Garcia’s Albert Nobbs is a convoluted wreck. Based on a short story by Irish author George Moore, the picture has all the makings of something spectacular and could’ve really been something great. The tale is compelling, when it’s allowed to shine on its own, but the subplots and side characters become staggeringly unbearable.
This Means War is one of the most abrasive, frustrating, mind-numbingly terrible films of 2012. It presents itself as a romantic comedy action flick, but it fails on all fronts and winds up a blubbing mess “highlighted” by foolish characters, awkward lightning and set design, and Chelsea Handler’s nauseating attempts at humour.
You can check out the rest of this review at This Means War DVD Review: A Blubbing Mess at Cinema Sentries
Directed by Scott Sanders, Black Dynamite is a Blaxploitation homage flick that nails it down and knocks it out. Where some attempts at the genre fail, like the hopelessly mediocre Father’s Day, Black Dynamite excels because of one critical thing: commitment.
Produced by the famed Troma Enterainment, Father’s Day is a pretty middling affair. The flick comes written and directed by Winnipeg-based filmmaking collective Astron-6and attempts to slap itself headlong into the grindhouse and late-nite movie genre, using resolute cheese, bad effects, and exaggerated sex and violence to plead its case.
You can check out the rest of this review at Father’s Day (2011) Movie Review: Too Modern and Too Hip for Its Own Good at Cinema Sentries
In a funny way it makes perfect sense to watch Federico Fellini’s masterful 8 1/2 after Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin. Fellini’s vision of dreams, creative block, religion, love, and passion is iconic as a celebration of confusion and, at times, excess. The film, named such as it’s the director’s eighth-and-a-half movie, is a genius work of uncanny ego and arrogance.
