You aren’t likely to read a review of The Black Water Vampire that doesn’t reference The Blair Witch Project, and there’s good reason: That 1999 smash’s fingerprints are all over this found-footage effort, to the point that I could show you select stills from both and you wouldn’t be able to tell which belongs to […]
film
Posted inArts & Culture
Freestyle flow
Vahid Farzaneh However, none of this would have come to pass if not for a class taken on a whim at the University of Oklahoma. “I initially wasn’t interested in filmmaking at all,” said Freestyle Productions owner Vahid Farzaneh. “I was kind of drifting around. I took an intro to film class for the credit […]
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The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box
The Midas Box of the title is an ancient object that turns anything it houses into gold. Hidden for centuries, it can be found only via the one map in existence that reveals its location. Naturally, a very bad man named Otto Luger (Sam Neill, Jurassic Park) has found the map, so it’s only a […]
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Cat People
Director Paul Schrader (The Canyons) bravely forged a new path in updating the 1942 RKO classic — evident from frame one with a gorgeous prologue, unfolding slowly with a dreamlike quality. Purposely abstract and erotic, it’s the kind of sequence the legendary Val Lewton never would have considered four decades earlier, even if the squeaky-clean […]
Posted inMusic
The Big Gundown
In fact, The Big Gundown has been floated in some circles as the genre’s best not coming from the genius of Sergio Leone, and Grindhouse Releasing’s superb, four-disc set is like a dare for you to argue otherwise. Clearly, as much love has gone into this package as it went into production of the movie […]
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August: Osage County
“Don’t get all Carson McCullers on us,” Julia Roberts’ character warns a relative, referring to the 20th-century author who specialized in stories of Southern tragicomedy. The film takes its own advice — its first and greatest misstep. With Tulsa-born Tracy Letts adapting his 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning play for the screen, August: Osage County should wear […]
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Her
To a degree, Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are) presents a vintage man vs. machine conflict, primarily in Theodore’s desire for connection, which is paired with and pitted against Samantha’s ability to emote and grow internally. What distinguishes their circumstance, however, is that it exists within the fragile confines of a relationship. Jonze illustrates this […]
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Lone Survivor
Based on a 2007 memoir by former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, Lone Survivor details the ill-fated Operation Red Wings. In that 2005 mission, Luttrell and three of his fellow SEALs were dispatched to assassinate a Taliban leader, Ahmad Shah, near Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush Mountains. After getting close to their target, the team was ambushed by […]
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The Best Films of 2013
10. Instructions Not Included Popular Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez made his directorial debut with this heartwarming — and heartbreaking — Spanish-language comedy that became one of the biggest cinematic successes of 2013. Derbez is the womanizing Valentín who, after a baby is abandoned on his doorstep, mostly reforms into a near-perfect dad. The setup is […]
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Cassadaga
Until then, the scope shifts to focus on Lily (Kelen Coleman, TV’s The Newsroom), a pretty music teacher who happens to be deaf. (You wouldn’t know it from Coleman’s performance; although the appealing actress uses sign language, she also speaks at a perfectly normal pitch and volume at all times.) Grieving her dead sister, Lily […]