Owen (Spike Feam) is a bit of a sad sack romantic perpetually being dumped by his “true love”. With hearts still in his eyes and an ever hopeful view of love, he’s struck dumb by a woman at a club one night and after a heady time talking about nothing and flirting their hearts out, he got her phone number. He barely catches her first name (Emily of course) and that she goes to Manchester U as friends dragged her off into the night. He tried calling the next day, but the number was one digit short and so began the search for Emily. Desperate to find any clue to her identity after many failed attempts, he finds psychology major Emily (Angourie Rice) who is not the one he seeks but vows to help him none the less while hiding an agenda of her own.
With Tony, Matt Johnson brings Bourdain the man, the chef, the bildungsroman to the screen
Tony, a new biopic about the celebrated chef, author, and travel documentary auteur Anthony Bourdain, Matt Johnson gets almost all of the answers of how to make a good biopic just right. Eschewing the Walk Hard treatment and working from a screenplay from Seattleite Todd Bartels and co-writer Lou Howe, the movie considers a single summer on Cape Cod that shaped the course of Bourdain’s life and career.
Mutiny on the Cliché
The plot, for all its predictability, does have something going for it: efficiency. Mutiny is a brisk 95 minutes, and it asks nothing of the audience beyond being passive viewers while Jason Statham kicks ass.
The Magic Faraway Tree yearns to be your next family classic
The Magic Faraway Tree has an excellent cast, a cute premise, and is filled with nostalgia and the magic of childhood. It has the makings of a great family film, but it doesn’t quite hold up against other classics.
Teenage Sex & Death at Camp Miasma indulges Jane Schoenbrun’s sweet tooth
In Jane Schoenbrun’s latest film, an auteur and aging starlet are intertwined in a fantastical journey of self-discovery inspired by an imaginary 1980s slasher franchise about a psycho killer with a metal HVAC block for a head, a twin-tipped sea spear for a weapon, and the provocative nom de sangre The Little Death.
The End of Oak Street is trope-a-rama, but can the storyline stand on its own?
Imagine, if you will, if Jurassic Park, Land of the Lost, War of the Worlds (a la Tom Cruise), and a wholesome 80’s movie had a baby… you’d be close to getting the vibe of The End of Oak Street.
A perfect family hits Meltdown in a solid indie thriller
Former Redmond native Colton Van Til crafts a solid indie thriller that takes a ’50s family through a drug-induced ringer.
Brand New Day keeps Spider-Man in equilibrium
Has it really been five years since we’ve seen a new, proper live-action Spider-Man movie? After what I call the “Home Trilogy” (Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home) from director Jon Watts, Spidey is back with the same central cast.
In Every Sense of the Word, The Odyssey is Epic
Last time Christopher Nolan had a new feature in theaters, he was helping save blockbusters, movies, and even summer itself with a three-hour drama about a nuclear scientist. It ruled. Today, he is back in cinemas with his telling of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey and, frankly, epic is the only word that feels appropriate in my vocabulary.
So was it worth the fuss to create a live action Moana?
If you haven’t seen the animated version of the film, watching the live action remake wouldn’t be the worst way to introduce yourself to the story, but renting the animated version would probably get you about the same amount of joy. That being said, if this is your story, if they’re portraying your ancestors or if you feel connected to the people on the screen, then the live action film has a stronger sense of that simply because it uses human actors. You do feel more of a connection as a human to the story simply because of that fact.