The Film Print

What if  Birdman .....but with Instagram celebs! But really,  Ingrid Goes West  is nowhere near as smart or profound as it seems to think it is. It's a very been there, done that, yeah-no-shit experience. It's pretty obvious what this film has to say from the first 10 minutes and then it just keeps going and going and it doesn't really do anything that great or new. Aubrey Plaza and O'Shea Jackson Jr. are pretty great and I found Dan as a character to be far more interesting and worth more time than anyone else in the movie but all we get is one small character moment for him. I'm an avid lover of dark comedy and this made me laugh from time to time but none of it stuck with me. For something so hyped up and loved, I am surprised at how banal I found this to be. I coasted at a positive score for the majority of the movie but then the ending hit and I went sour.  (5.75/10)

I can't believe I ever thought Adam Wingard was a good director. This honestly feels like it was directed by a 13-year-old tumblr edge lord. It's all gothic style with shit attempts at dark humor but it's lacking in any sense of thematic weight other than what is blatantly stated by its repulsively annoying mouth-piece characters. Wingard has insisted that this is not a direct adaptation but rather a reinterpretation a la Scorsese's  The Departed . But it's hard to accept it as such when it seems like the film is constantly trying to be the like the anime. Now, I don't know a ton about the anime, I really only have a surface-level knowledge but I definitely know that the characters are better than they are here. With every progressing scene, the characters only seemed to become more stupid and I failed to understand anything they did. At times it seems  Death Note   is trying to be goofy gory B-movie schlock and then the next it seems like it wants to dig into

Good Time  is Ferrara, Lumet, Mann, and Scorsese all rolled up into one lean, mean, and highly potent joint. (If that doesn't convince you to see it then nothing will) The Safdie Brothers (who I've been quite a huge fan of for quite some time) evoke the best of the underground crime dramas of the 70's and 80's. It's tight, concise and filled to the brim with so much emotional strength. Each and every performance packs a punch, Robert Pattinson, and Buddy Duress give two of the very best performances of the year. The score resurrects the magic of Tangerine Dream. And the cinematography hurdles the viewer into the thick of every frenetic and nightmarish situation our lead character faces. It's a real trip that firmly cements you in your seat to endure the utter madness. As the film moves along you feel it closing in on you, suffocating you and making you feel each and every gut-wrenching emotion it wants you to. Constantine Nikas is one of the most interest

Steven Soderbergh is one of my favorite American filmmakers and his magnum opus  Ocean’s Eleven  is in my top ten favorite films of all-time so it’s basically a given that I’d be very excited for his inevitable return after a four-and-a-half year-long hiatus. And with his return, Soderbergh decides to spice up the hits, and unleash  Logan Lucky , a Southern-fried redux of his trilogy of coolness.  Logan Lucky  boasts an amazing all-star cast and a release at the back end of an underwhelming summer when we’re all in need of good ole harmless entertainment at the cinema. I for one, can safely that I have never had as good a time at all this year as I’ve had with this film. Steven Soderbergh’s films always have an explosive amount of personality to them, and he has a knack for exploring culture in a very fair and well-balanced manner. Those abilities of his are on complete display at peak performance here. Soderbergh paints his characters in a comedic yet completely empathetic light.

I've not been feeling like writing for basically the entire week and this film really does not seem like it deserves a ton of time dedicated to writing but I like to review most new releases.  The Glass Castle  is one of the more misguided films that I've seen in 2017. It's tonally very confused, unsure of whether it's trying to be cute and whimsical or depressing. What's presented on screen most of the time is quite harrowing but everything seems to be lacking in any impact. Harrelson and Watts are good but their characters are very difficult to care for and the film begs you to be sympathetic with them just to shove more of their despicable behavior in your face. It doesn't work and after a while, I was completely checked out. The real big problem that this film faces is how clean it feels. It's a very Hollywood-ized take on a very rough story. It's all very simplified surface level stuff that I never felt once even tried to challenge the audience

The Dark Tower  is bland, boring, and far too quick to try to build a franchise yet somehow also lacking in any ambition towards lore or world-building. Arcel and co. clearly, show no sense of understanding in the original source material. In a meager 95 minutes, this film manages to accomplish absolutely nothing of merit. Elba and McConaughey are fine but they’re entirely unable to bring any sense of style, fun, richness, or urgency to a movie that really could’ve benefitted from that. Weirdly enough, I do not think  The Dark Tower  is really a catastrophe of a film or even offensive in any way, it's just a stale brand of studio-stapled nothingness. Sony took a groundbreaking and thrillingly original novel franchise and turned it into...well…..a Sony product. Aside from a metric ass-ton of references to King’s other works, there's not much of semblance towards his unique vision. Mediocre in all of the ways a film possibly could be. There isn't a single moment in this fil

I've had a really difficult week recently and while I won't go into the particulars of what made this week so shitty, I will say that it has left me in desperate need of a relaxing and light-hearted time. And along came  Landline , the latest summer surprise from the crew that brought the hilarious and honest  Obvious Child  in 2014. I've always viewed a good amount of Sundance dramedies as the purest kind of comfort food cinema and I can't possibly think of a more fitting example than that of  Landline . Taking place in the mid-1990’s and following a Manhattan family as they navigate their way through a very difficult and painful time in their lives. Each and every character in this film feels so real and even when I didn't agree with or respect their choices in the film, I always completely empathized with them. And even when the film feels a bit like a primetime sitcom, it never seemed to lose its charm or weight. The cast is absolutely out of this world, (Q