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| EFC STATS |
| Movies Listed: |
32636 |
| Total Ratings: |
249906 |
| Total Reviews: |
28571 |
![[194142776 Hits]](/cgi-bin/gd.cgi?194142776)
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| SECRET, THE: DARE TO DREAM |
"BS On The Bayou"
Peter Sobczynski says... "For those of you who had either forgotten about it or have until now remained blissfully unaware of its existence, “The Secret” was a self-help book by Rhonda Byrne that managed to spawn an entire cottage industry back in the mid-2000s after Oprah Winfrey publicly endorsed it. The popularity certainly wasn’t the result of its underlying thesis, which was little more than reheated Norman Vincent Peale-style piffle about how if you really desire something in life and think really hard about how much you want it, the universe will snap into ask-and-ye-shall-receive mode. After a few years, the craze died down and I had assumed that it vanished to the grand metaphorical closet where all the pop cultural embarrassments of that period are tossed away and quickly forgotten. And yet, for reasons that I am at a loss to explain, along comes “The Secret: Dare to Dream,” a film that takes its inspiration, for lack of a better word, from the book’s teachings, for lack of a better word, and jams them together into a film that also seems like a refugee from about 15 years ago and not just because that was around the last time that one might normally have seen the likes of Katie Holmes and Josh Lucas scoring top billing in a film." (more)
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| SHE DIES TOMORROW |
"The Sun Will Not Come Out. . ."
Peter Sobczynski says... "Amy Seimetz’s “She Dies Tomorrow” is a low-fi horror movie that seems to have everything going for it—a simple but undeniably gripping premise, strong performances across the board, a screenplay that resists succumbing to the usual gene cliches at every turn and a quietly haunting visual style that adds just the right touch of understated dread to the proceedings. And yet, while I admire it for all of those reasons, I found myself unable to really get involved with what was going on as I was watching it. The whole thing is more like an intellectual exercise and while it does work on that particular level, the end result simply left me cold and too far removed from the proceedings." (more)
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| YES, GOD, YES |
"Are You There, AOL? It's Me, Alce. . ."
Peter Sobczynski says... "My guess is that if you are female, Catholic (current or otherwise) or spent your adolescent years during those bygone years when AOL was all the rage, many aspects of “Yes, God, Yes” will resonate with you with pinpoint clarity. However, even if you do not happen to fall into any of these categories, there is still much to enjoy about the film." (more)
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| RENTAL, THE |
"BnB BS"
Peter Sobczynski says... "Marking the directorial debut of Dave Franco, “The Rental” is a film that starts off as a low-fi relationship drama in the vein of the work of Joe Swanberg (which makes sense since he co-wrote it with Franco), ends as a gory horror film and fails to impress at either end of the occasion." (more)
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| CARMILLA |
"Blood Red Is The Warmest Color"
Peter Sobczynski says... "Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella “Carmilla” is arguably the most famous vampire-related tale not named “Dracula” (it actually predates Bram Stoker’s creation by 26 years) and over the years has inspired, directly or otherwise, any number of screen versions, including “Vampyr” (1932), “Dracula’s Daughter” (1936) and “The Vampire Lovers” (1972), to name just a few. The reason for its long-running popularity and influence is not especially difficult to divine—the story of a young and innocent maiden being pursued by a more worldly woman who turns out to be a vampire provided filmmakers with a gateway to delve into lesbian-related themes under the guise of being a horror film and, perhaps more importantly, allowed them to mix those two most exploitable of ingredients—sex and violence—into one package. Of course, things have changes and it is no longer necessary to bring in the supernatural as an excuse to explore a Sapphic-themed narrative. In response to that, writer-director Emily Harris has now presented us with an adaptation of “Carmilla” that has essentially eliminated all of the supernatural elements in order to present a more straightforward take on the material. The result is a film that is conceptually interesting and undeniably stylish but which, ironically, has now been rendered bloodless, like a grad school paper on the original story brought only nominally to life." (more)
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| OLD GUARD, THE |
"Very Old Adult"
Peter Sobczynski says... "The presence of Charlize Theron in any movie is, of course, an undeniably good thing but when she turns up in an action-oriented project, her combination of genuine dramatic gifts and equally convincing physical abilities can help make an otherwise iffy film into something worth checking out (“Atomic Blonde”) and an already great film into the thing of legends (“Mad Max: Fury Road”). And yet, not even her considerable presence is enough to help save “The Old Guard,” a disappointing banal action extravaganza that takes a potentially interesting premise and then never gets around to doing much of anything with it." (more)
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| GREYHOUND |
"Extremely Loud And Incredibly Distant"
Peter Sobczynski says... "If you were to sit down and try to come up with the quintessential Tom Hanks movie—one that perfectly encapsulated the themes, ideas and attitudes that he has explored over and again in a career that has made him one of the most beloved cultural figures of our time—there is an excellent chance that it might wind up looking a lot like his latest effort, “Greyhound.” As with a number of his past efforts, it looks back at a particular moment in recent American history—World War II, a favorite subject of his, in this case—and tells a story that celebrate such quintessential American values as duty, honor and overcoming doubt and adversity in order to stand up and fight for the greater good and finds him playing a modest and low-key character who would never go so far as to describe himself as a hero but who nevertheless proves to be capable of heroic acts. And yet, despite all of the obvious sincerity on display, the resulting film is kind of a dead bulb that is ultimately as dull as it is noble and boy howdy, is it ever noble." (more)
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| GUEST OF HONOUR |
"Years Of The Lepus"
Peter Sobczynski says... "There was once a period of time—historians may one day refer to it as “the 1990s”—when Canadian-Armenian Atom Egoyan was considered to be one of the most exciting filmmakers on the planet thanks to a series of formally and narratively inventive works that were cerebral and emotional in equal measure and filled with a number of extraordinary performances to boot. If I was to sit down and make a list of the most powerful moviegoing experiences that I had during that time, his back-to-back triumphs “Exotica” (1994) and “The Sweet Hereafter” (1997) would rank very high among them. And yet, following the release of “Felicia’s Journey” in 1999, his career undertook such an immediate dip in quality that even the most dedicated of auteurists would be hard-pressed to justify misfires like “Chloe” (2009), “Devil’s Knot” (2013) and “Remember” (2015), a film that somehow contrived to bring together modern-day Nazi hunting and Alzheimer’s into one jaw-dropping saga. And yet, even those cinematic misdeed pale in comparison to his latest, loopiest and least effort to date, “Guest of Honor.” Here is a film that in the opening scenes offers us the sight of Luke Wilson as the pastor of a Canadian church and it is not the hardest thing to swallow in it and I am not even talking about the deep-fried rabbit ears that inexplicably prove to be a key element." (more)
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FILMS I NEGLECTED TO REVIEW: KINKS AND CLINKS
by Peter Sobczynski |
| "Please enjoy short reviews of "Amulet," "Fisherman's Friends," "The Great Unified Theory of Howard Bloom," "Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful," "Most Wanted" and "Radioactive."" (more) |
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FILMS I NEGLECTED TO REVIEW: THE DISPLACED PERSONS
by Peter Sobczynski |
| "Please enjoy short reviews of "Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets," "Flannery," "The Painted Bird," "Showbiz Kids" and "Waiting for the Barbarians" and a look at the new Criterion Blu-Ray release of the 1953 classic "War of the Worlds."" (more) |
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'I WANTED A MISSION, AND FOR MY SINS, THEY GAVE ME ONE.'
- Captain Willard, Apocalypse Now
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