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| EFC STATS |
| Movies Listed: |
26871 |
| Total Ratings: |
244876 |
| Total Reviews: |
26304 |
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| BUTTER ON THE LATCH |
"I did not want the main characters to be eaten by bears. That's something."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2014 FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: "Butter on the Latch" was listed in the program as playing before director Josephine Decker's prior film, "Thou Wast Mild and Lovely", as if it was a short film rather than a 63-minute feature. The programmers and projectionists mercifully flipped the order; I can only imagine how the audience might have revolted if this had played first. The properties that make it not a very good movie would have made it even more of an endurance test if the audience was sitting through the whole thing to get to the film whose name actually appears on the ticket." (more)
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| THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY |
"Sometimes the line between 'striking' and 'bizarre' is thin. Not this time."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2014 FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: Before Joesphine Decker's "Thou Wast Mild and Lovely" starts to be a weird, creepy sort of movie in a way that has real certainty and direction, it's got two scenes that kind of warn the audience what it's getting into. In the first, farmer Jeremiah (Robert Longstreet) and his daughter Sarah (Sophie Traub) are rolling around in the grass, throwing a headless chicken back and forth, getting blood all over their clothes. In the second, Sarah narrates, describing a strange, ethereal, perfect lover while the camera slowly zooms in on her increasingly agitated dog. Decker quickly moves on to other things, and maybe I'm reading things into that latter juxtaposition that aren't meant, but even if that's the case, what the hell is the deal with everything else?" (more)
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| BOYHOOD |
"A masterwork 12 years in the making."
Brett Gallman says... "I was 18 and on the verge of my high school graduation when Richard Linklater started production on “Boyhood,” which is coincidentally where the film leaves its subject, Mason (Ellar Coltrane). By that time, we’ve watched twelve years of his life unfold over the course of 160 minutes, and it’s not the profound changes that amaze so much as Linklater’s ability to capture the authenticity of this moment: the excitement, the anxiety, the sheer relief of having made it through childhood and adolescence relatively unscathed. All of this resonated within me even with the distance of the twelve years I experienced since 2002—perhaps, more than anything, “Boyhood” is a reminder that life is sometimes just about finding a place where you can simply be okay even after being presented evidence that things won’t always be okay." (more)
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| ZOMBEAVERS |
"Exactly what you want a zombie beaver movie to be."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2014 FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: "Zombeavers" gives the audience what they want from a movie with that title, pretty much the way they want it, and that way involves puppets. Puppets and blood." (more)
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| BOYHOOD |
"A Boy's Life"
Peter Sobczynski says... "Thanks to the constant stream of technological advances that Hollywood seems to put forth every few years--ranging from the early experiments with sound and color to the current state-of-the-art developments involving CGI effects and presenting a noticeably dingier and duller screen image while convincing moviegoers to pay an extra $3 a head for that "privilege"--it seems that there are precious few things out there that cannot be presented convincingly within the context of a feature film. Ironically, one of those things is something that all of us experience in our lives and that is the passage of time. Oh sure, films can recreate different time periods with an astonishing degree of detail and fidelity but when it comes to presenting the passage of a few years in the lives of the characters on display, they tend to come up short because while they may be getting older, the people playing them are not since the entire film, regardless of the storyline, is being shot within a relatively compressed timespan. As a result, the filmmakers are forced to rely on costumes, hair & makeup and music cues to signify to passing of time and if they aren't done with the upmost care (as was the case with the ghastly old-age makeup at the end of "Jersey Boys"), the results can be downright embarrassing." (more)
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| PURGE, THE: ANARCHY |
"Stupid Purge--Wish We Was Trick Or Treating!"
Peter Sobczynski says... "At least once a year, a low-budget horror film comes along that, thanks to the right combination of an ingenious premise or gimmick, a slick promotional campaign effective exploiting said premise or gimmick and the sometimes questionable taste of the moviegoing public, exceeds all expectations at the box office and inspires its producers to strike while the iron is hot by quickly churning out a sequel that will hit theaters maybe a year later in order to milk it for all that it is worth before the next big thing comes along. From a financial standpoint, these films are a pretty good idea as they are usually produced on the cheap as well but as entertainments, the results are often pretty dire, as anyone who sat through "Friday the 13th Part 2," "Nightmare on Elm St. Part 2: Freddy's Revenge," "Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows," "Saw 2," "Hostel 2," "Paranormal Activity 2" and many others can blearily attest." (more)
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| SEX TAPE |
"Turn It Off!!!"
Peter Sobczynski says... "The idea of a married couple whose attempt to spice up their floundering sex life by making their own homemade porn video backfires when it falls into the hands of others is one of those notions that sounds so good at first blush that you can hardly imagine how a film utilizing it could possibly miss. And yet, "Sex Tape" not only misses, it does so in spectacular fashion. This is a grotesquely misfired farce that isn't particularly funny, is certainly never sexy and which gives viewers the dubious pleasure of watching a couple of normally likable actors stumble around like idiots for 90-odd minutes until the whole enterprise finally crashes around them. Not even a couple of amusing supporting star turns can save this from being yet another entry in this summer's parade of sorry studio comedies." (more)
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| DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES |
"They're starting to blow it up!"
Daniel Kelly says... "There weren’t many level-headed insiders rooting for “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” in 2011. A prequel to a now flagging sci-fi series, the film boasted a first-time director, wearisome production troubles and an unenviable August release date. For Twentieth Century Fox “Rise” represented an instance where limiting losses usurped turning a profit in their list of priorities. The rest is history. The movie opened to strong critical notices and healthy box-office, luring audiences in with the promise of quality over gimmicky pyrotechnics. As a result, its sequel, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” opens with a very different set of expectations; Fox hoping the project will round out the year as one of the studio’s bigger hits. Based on the standard of the final product they’re probably in luck. “Rise” surpassed its runtish pedigree through audience engagement and word of mouth - cinephiles were eager to share the delight of a surprise package with their kin - and the same should apply here. “Dawn” equals its predecessor across the board, building a fabulous apocalypse atop the dystopian promise of the last movie’s finale. The attention to character and theme has also been preserved, incoming director Matt Reeves (replacing the jettisoned Rupert Wyatt) continuing to evolve the art of performance capture with remarkable thespian contributions and visual wizardry." (more)
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CAPSULE REVIEWS: JERSEY BOYS, BAD WORDS & THE FAULT IN OUR STARS
by Daniel Kelly |
| "Jersey Boys (Clint Eastwood, Warner Bros., 2014)
Clint Eastwood’s musical gets off to a vivacious and energetic start, mixing warmth and wit with surprising aplomb, but goes off the deep-end somewhere around the halfway mark. The film’s characters weave in and out of the action satisfactorily, Eastwood using a potentially hackneyed but oddly effective “fourth wall” smashing address to keep audiences engaged. It’s as if he read Walter Benjamin’s “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, moving to maintain some of the theatre’s “aura” through a means of faux-immediacy and soul, allowing his characters to bust the screen and intrude on a space they shouldn’t be aware of. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but the concept works, especially when combined with the enigmatic likes of Vincent Piazza’s roguish Tommy, the most memorable of the film’s assortment of young dreamers. The ease and grace of the opening doesn’t carry much further though, Eastwood’s stiff direction of the musical numbers and a selection of ham-fisted subplots slacking the pace and sobering the buzz. When the end credits roll, we get a sense of what might have been, Eastwood unleashing a fearsomely executed encore, replete with fantastic energy and pageantry. It’s a pity that the hour leading up to that point should dither so aimlessly, and fill itself so distractingly with diversions aborted before they conjure up sufficient nuance. A curiosity peppered with worthy highlights, but hardly a certifiable return to form for Clint.
Grade - C" (more) |
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INTERVIEW: RICHARDLINKLATER ON "BOYHOOD"
by Peter Sobczynski |
| "The director of such cult favorites as "Slacker," "Dazed and Confused," "Waking Life" and the "Before Sunrise" trilogy talks about his latest masterpiece, the intimate epic "Boyhood," and its unusual journey to the screen." (more) |
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CRITICWATCH - THE NOT-SO-PERFECT DATE MOVIE
by Erik Childress |
| ""The next person to call a movie "the perfect date movie" must punch themselves in the face, stomach, crotch and both eyes until they fall down and agree to never did it again." I wrote that early in 2013 when the latest attempt to sell such a thing to prospective couples aroused my ire like most things involving junky junket press. Surely such a thing does exist. Say Anything back in the day certainly qualifies. Maybe a more sprawling epic like Love Actually covers all the bases necessary to get guys off of home plate. A perfect date movie to critics should be as recognizable as porno to Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart. You know it when you see it. So why is it so difficult to attach the phrase to the right movies? Oh right, because it is a phrase terminally used by the average quote whore and the latest example is as questionable as ever." (more) |
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'WHEN I HEAR THE WORD CULTURE, I TAKE OUT MY CHECKBOOK.'
- Film Producer, Contempt
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