Gif Review: 12 Years a Slave

Full disclosure: Though I've heard excellent things about both, I've never seen Hunger or Shame, director Steve McQueen's pre-12 Years a Slave flicks. They're on my list… but so are a ton of other movies. Like E.T.. All the movies I watch, and I've still somehow hit 29 without seeing E.T.. I know, I know. What I'm trying to say is that if I had seen Hunger or Shame I probably wouldn't have gone into 12 Years a Slave expecting something Oscar...

Review: Blue Caprice

Director Alexandre Moors doesn't play around. For Blue Caprice, his first feature, he chose a, shall we say, heavy subject: The Beltway sniper attacks of 2002, specifically the relationship between shooters John Allen Muhammad (Isaiah Washington) and Lee Boyd Malvo (Tequan Richmond). In the hands of a lesser director the story of these two men could've come out as an awful, a hackneyed, offensive Lifetime-style movie, or worse. And yet Moors...

Gif Review: Riddick

In which Rebecca has some things to say and some gifs to post about Riddick's treatment of its sole female character...

The Grandmaster: A Weinstein-Cut Wong Kar-Wai Film Is (Much, Much) Better Than No Wong Kar-Wai Film At All

I was a bit anxious going into The Grandmaster, the first film in five years by legendary Chinese director Wong Kar Wai. The source of my anxiety was neither its director, whose films I love, nor its subject matter. In fact, the latter increased my excitement exponentially. See, the subject of The Grandmaster is Ip Man, the legendary martial arts teacher and mentor to Bruce Lee who's been brought to the silver screen in several straightforward kick-'em-up...

My Reaction to Ben Affleck as the New Batman, In Gifs

At first I was like: "Ben Affleck as Batman? That's weird." Because over the last few years he seems to have been making a concerted effort to transition from actor-very-few-people-take-seriously to director-that-lots-of-people-take-seriously. He's not the last person I would expect to jump into spandex for a high-profile popcorn movie role. That would be this guy: But still, Affleck definitely doesn't fit the comic book movie casting rubric,...

Fruitvale Station Will Kick You To The Ground And Make You Cry, And You'll Want To Thank It For Doing So

I had mixed emotions going into Fruitvale Station. It's gotten a lot of buzz—and I mean a lot—since it debuted at Sundance earlier this year, particularly focused on lead actor Michael B. Jordan. I've heard nothing but good things about it. Which concerned me, because what if my expectations are too high? It's not like I've never been disappointed by one of The Weinstein Company's adopted Oscar babies. For example: The King's Speech and Silver Linings...

An Open Letter to Johnny Depp on the Subject Of Whitewashing

Hey, JD. Can I call you JD? I don't mean to come off as aggressive or anything. I'm sure you're a great guy. But I just have to ask... ...What the hell are you smoking, dude...

Review: The Lost Potential of World War Z

Let me start by saying that Max Brooks' World War Z is one of my favorite books I've read in the last ten years. As such, when it comes to watching a film that's very honest about making changes from its source material, I was biased from the start. Hell, I'm still biased. I admit that. All the same, I tried to go into World War Z with an open mind. After all, though it may not be good (as in accurate) as an adaptation of Brooks' book, it...

Gif Review: Much Ado About Nothing

My gif collection is way, way larger than it by all rights should be. And so, to give some purpose to the hours I've spent building and organizing that collection (don't look at me), here's my review of Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing… in gifs....

Review: Meh of Steel

I didn't expect greatness from Man of Steel. I generally go into summer blockbusters hoping for a good, entertaining movie that will hold my interest and not bug me too much. Hell, Fast & Furious 6 has been one of my favorite movies so far this summer. I don't require The Dark Knight-level quality. I think my expectations are pretty reasonable. Unfortunately, Man of Steel failed to meet them...

Now You See Me Review: All Flash, No Substance

Early on in Now You See Me Daniel Atlas, a smug, jerk-ish magician played by Jesse Eisenberg, tells the viewers "The closer you look, the less you see." I would modify that line and apply it to the whole movie: "You can look as closely as you want, there's just not much there." Now You See Me is an entertaining movie filled with good actors and characters that are interesting, if a bit flat. You don't really get to know any of them all that well....

4 Reasons Fast & Furious 6 Is Better Than Star Trek Into Darkness

I write this as an inveterate nerd who on the whole actually really liked Star Trek Into Darkness. But Fast & Furious 6 is better. Much better. I know, I know. But hear me out. 1) With Fast & Furious 6, what you see is what you get. I'm not going to try to convince you to see it if you have no interest in popcorn-y action movies. The trailer makes the movie look ridiculous for the pure and simple reason that it is. There's a character...

Haiku Review: Blancanieves

Blancanieves (2012) Director: Pablo Berger Starring: Rating: 4.5/5 Review: Maribel Verdú, Macarena García, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Sergio Dorado Black and white, silent, Snow White as a matador What's there not to lo...

Tribeca Film Festival Review: Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist

In Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the fundamentalist of the title is Changez (Riz Ahmed), a young Pakistani man who moves to the U.S. to study business at Princeton. He eventually realizes the American dream—a Wall Street job, money, an attractive girlfriend (Kate Hudson)—but a variety of factors, among them America's prejudicial attitudes toward the Middle East post-9/11 and his feelings of responsibility to his family and home country,...

Tribeca Film Festival Review: Lil Bub & Friendz

Lil Bub & Friendz is a movie by, about, and for people who love cat videos. That's it. It's that simple. Alongside snippets of Grumpy Cat, Henri the existentialist cat, and, of course, Lil Bub, the movie shows the owners of Internet famous felines talking about merchandise, cat video enthusiasts following Bub around at the Internet Cat Video Film Festival, and (no joke) a "meme manager." Yes, that's an actual job that someone has...

Tribeca Film Festival Review: The Rocket

Audiences love an underdog story. But at times it seems like every variation of it has been told before. It's rare that a movie comes along that not only makes it feel effortless, but also new. The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt is one of those movies. The movie takes place in Laos, where in the first scene a young woman, Mali (Alice Keohavong), gives birth to twins, one of whom is stillborn. In Mali's culture it is believed that one twin holds...

Haiku Review: Trance

Trance (2013) Director: Danny Boyle Starring: James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson Rating: 4/5 Review: Messy, but still fun Relax and enjoy it—Try Not to think too mu...