Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

3rd-Grade Dimension
Film review by: Witney Seibold

            I have a personal genre I apply to certain films; one that can be applied to “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.” That is the genre of Films I Would Have Loved When I was 10.

Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit

Film review by: Witney Seibold

            When people refer to Hollywood sentimentality or schmaltz, they’re talking about films like “Seabiscuit.”

Garage Days

Garage Days
Film review by: Witney Seibold

            Australian director Alex Proyas is best known in this country (as of 2003) for his two surreal and nightmarishly beautiful science fiction films “The Crow” and “Dark City,” and while he’s expressed in interviews that he wants to sidle away from genre films, it’s still something of a shock to see him helming a film as bright, as energetic, and with such an ordinary story as “Garage Days.”

Dirty Pretty Things

Dirty Pretty Things
Film review by: Witney Seibold

            Stephen Frears has given us a mixed bag over the years.

Madame Satã

What a Drag Queen
Film review by: Witney Seibold

            Madame Satã was a famed transvestite on the Carnival circuit in Rio de Janeiro. He constantly won costume contests, and was a regular fixture in parades and celebrations. He raised the bar when it came to over-the-top. His past is shrouded in mystery, and there are rumors that he once committed murder. His real name was João Francisco dos Santos, and in Karim Aïnoz’s new biopic, “Madame Satã,” we get a potential past of the legend. Unfortunately, the Aïnouz portrait is not pleasant, or, I dare say, interesting.

Northfork

Angels in the Outland
Film review by: Witney Seibold

            When describing the Polish Bothers’ new film “Northfork,” words like “myth,” “dream,” and “ethereal” pop up frequently. The film embodies those things.

Tetro

Tetro

Film review by: Witney Seibold

 

            The central theme of Francis Ford Coppola’s little oddity “Tetro” is one of family. Now, I don’t know many details of the infamous Coppola legacy in Hollywood, although some cursory Internet research has taught me that Francis was the son of a famous conductor, and the question of legacy has always been a point of contention. Also, that Coppola has spawned some talented film directors himself can only feed into the myth.

Up

Up

Film review by: Witney Seibold

 

            I want to make sure that you know, up front, that I very much liked Pixar’s newest animated feature “Up,” and that I highly recommend it to anyone. When I start to nitpick a little later, know that I’m not by any means dismissing the film.

Warner Bros. Cartoon Shorts (1930-1955)

The Brutally, Delightfully Honest Language of Comedy

An essay by: Witney Seibold

A friend of mine was recently, in a fit of argumentative playfulness, dismissing most every film produced in America from the end of World War II all the way to the advent of the Beatles in the early 1960s. Sure, he posited, there were classics along the way (“All About Eve” sprung immediately to mind, and “Sunset Boulevard”), but for the most part, all American films of the late 1940s and all of the 1950s were infused with a depressing display of bland, repressive square-ness. He would not get behind the colorful melodramas of Douglas Sirk, the English-language noir classics of Fritz Lang, or the gloriously oddball cinematic uncle that is ‘50s sci-fi.

Drag Me to Hell

Drag Me to Hell

Film review by: Witney Seibold

 

            Sam Raimi returns to the genre that made his name: the vaguely-comic horror flick.