Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
Film review by: Witney Seibold
We’re all familiar with the scene: a team of fun-loving college-age kids pull up to a horrid, disused-looking gas station out in the boonies, on their way to a delightful weekend of drink, drug and sexual debauchery. (more…)
Attack the Block
Film review by: Witney Seibold
I am here to report that the hype is true, dammit.
The Help
Film review by: Witney Seibold
There was a moment in Tate Taylor‘s “The Help” wherein the portly black cook/maid Minny (Octavia Jackson), while working for the busty blonde ditz Celia (Jessica Chastain), expounds ever so briefly on the spiritual benefits of fried chicken. “When you’re eating fried chicken,” Minny says, “All seems right with the world.” Celia beams happily, and Minny smiles back in quiet wisdom. The light pours in through the window, and covers the entire kitchen in a halcyon Hollywood light rarely seen outside of Chris Columbus movies. The gorgeous artifice of the scene, paired with the ever so subtly coded racism (twinges of the Magical Negro), had me throwing up my fist in a beautiful display of ironic triumph. (more…)
Norwegian Ninja
Film review by: Witney Seibold
I’m trying to think of an American equivalent to Norway’s Arne Treholt, a man who, during the Cold War, worked for the Norwegian secret service, and ended up going to jail (and is still in jail to this day) for selling secrets to the Russians, which led to the destruction of an off-shore oil rig. (more…)
Griff the Invisible
Film review by: Witney Seibold
There is a risk involved with a clear-cut indie romance like Leon Ford’s “Griff the Invisible.” You want your mentally skewed characters to fall in love with each other, yes, but if you make them too sweet, quirky and charming, you may accidentally make your leads insufferable indie archetypes. (more…)
Grave Encounters
Film review by: Witney Seibold
“Grave Encounters,” directed by a pair of friends who have billed themselves at The Vicious Brothers, have made something that is genuinely creepy with “Grave Encounters,” another entry into the found-footage genre of horror film. (more…)
Tabloid
Film review by: Witney Seibold
I have read some American tabloids, and they are lurid, cheap rags that sensationalize the smallest detail to the point of humiliation (“Look at how FAT they look!”) and eventual celebrity breakdown, which they’ll also get to cover. (more…)
Cowboys & Aliens
Film review by: Witney Seibold
Jon Favreau has now directed several big-budget summer blockbusters, and has proven that he can make a great-looking, well-acted, solid movie with the best of the them. (more…)
Good Neighbours
Film review by: Witney Seibold
“Good Neighbours,” a Canadian thriller from now-grown child actor Jacob Tierney (star of “Josh and S.A.M.”), involves the mysterious hidden identity of a local serial killer, and the potential suspects are our three main characters, played by Jay Baruchel, Scott Speedman, and Emily Hampshire. In order to keep the mystery ambiguous, however, the filmmakers decided to make each of our leads a bugnuts weirdo with extreme social problems, and pathological habits that makes each of them dour or repellant in some way. (more…)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Film review by: Witney Seibold
Rupert Wyatt‘s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” would have been a lot more interesting had it severed itself from any other mythology having to do with “Planet of the Apes.” (more…)
