Posted in March 2012

The ACVF Interview: Joseph Kahn Round Table

The ACVF Interview: Joseph Kahn Round Table

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down with three local area critics for a round table interview with the wonderfully loquacious and energetic Joseph Kahn to talk about his latest film, the genre-blender Detention. Without hesitation, I’ll say that this happens to be one of my favorite releases of the year to date, and if … Continue reading

Review: Take Shelter, 2011, dir. Jeff Nichols

Review: Take Shelter, 2011, dir. Jeff Nichols

Part of me wants to classify Jeff Nichols’ sophomore effort at least partially as horror. Not in the exploitative slashing sense, of course, but more in the vein of Polanski or Friedkin. The aptly dubbed Take Shelter blends highbrow artistic filmmaking and storytelling with moments of utterly numbing terror– apocalyptic visions revolving around monstrous storms … Continue reading

Review: The Hunger Games, 2012, dir. Gary Ross

Review: The Hunger Games, 2012, dir. Gary Ross

There’s so much surrounding The Hunger Games— socially, artistically, politically– that it’s hard to know where to start in writing a review about the latest pop-cultural literary and cinematic phenomenon. It feels somewhat gauche to begin by comparing Gary Ross’ adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ award-winning young adult novel to  Twilight, to which it owes something of a … Continue reading

Go to Film School With Criterion!

Go to Film School With Criterion!

Are you a fan of the Criterion Collection? Have you ever read even mere segments of David Bordwell’s and Kristin Thompson’s exhaustively researched, massively elucidating and informative text, Film Art: An Introduction? No matter what your answers are to either of these questions, the only thing that truly matters is whether or not you have a … Continue reading

Review: Casa De Mi Padre, 2012, dir. Matt Piedmont

Review: Casa De Mi Padre, 2012, dir. Matt Piedmont

Casa de mi Padre is remarkably difficult to categorize. On the one hand, it’s eighty minutes of bizarre, absurdist, surrealist humor bent on taking potshots at immeasurably melodramatic telenovelas as well as the works of Sam Peckinpah. On the other, there’s still very little cinema to which it has a direct analogue. Take, for example, Friday’s other … Continue reading