By:
On:
In: 2017, Hot Take

Hot Take: Sofia Coppola won Best Director at Cannes for this film and it was well deserved. Don’t overlook some great performances from Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning and Colin Farrell though.

The most impressive feat of The Beguiled, a remake of a 1971 film starring Clint Eastwood of the same name, might be its length. There’s not much of a story in the tale in that it is simplistic. However, there is some complexity to its characters that gets fleshed out in just 93 minutes. The film quickly resolves itself but never feels slight nor does the story feel slighted despite its incredibly short run time. Credit Coppola for altering the source material enough for the film to stand apart from the original and for slimming it down to make every moment throughout the film count which, in this day and age of filmmaking, is a rarity.Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Proof positive looks can be deceiving. So bad I had to double check the initial release date to see if this wasn’t a January release.

I am not a Ben Affleck hater. However, for those that are, Live By Night will offer enough fuel to burn down Gotham before he dodges one more question about his stand-alone Batman movie coming in a couple of years. The only two things Live By Night has going for it is that it is so entertainingly bad at times it becomes entertaining and the film is visually engaging which is a hat tip to Affleck, the director.Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Ummmmmm… Twisted?

Admittedly, I’m not familiar with director Nicholas Winding Refn’s earlier works. The Neon Demon was my first foray into his world of art. It’s fair to call it art. One thing The Neon Demon isn’t is a straightforward movie with a cut and dried plot. This is one for the film school crowd. If it were 1996, my Film History & Appreciation class would have had a field day with this one. Read More →

By:
On:
In: 2016, Hot Take, Trailers

Anticipation (Before Trailer): 30/100

Anticipation (After Trailer): 60/100

Was that a tiger? If The Neon Demon is anything like the trailer, it looks like it’s going to be strange. Guess we’ll have to wait until June 1st to see just how strange this is.

By:
On:
In: 2015, Hot Take

Hot Take: Trumbo has a spectacular cast. The film is smart, witty and funny but also dull, pedestrian and pretentious. This isn’t much more compelling than a 5th grade history lesson even though it pretends to be.

There’s a scene in Trumbo where Arlen Herd (Louis C.K.) challenges Dalton Trumbo’s (Bryan Cranston) Communist beliefs as they look around Trumbo’s lavish ranch. Herd voices a lack of trust in Trumbo because while his beliefs are those of a Communist, his lifestyle fails to match his beliefs. Trumbo responds emphatically, “It’s the perfect combination! The radical may fight with the purity of Jesus, but the rich guy wins with the cunning of Satan.”Read More →