Author Archive
Film Review – Black Mass
Eighteen years ago, Johnny Depp starred in the gangster picture Donnie Brasco (1997). In that film, he played a young up and coming FBI agent who falls deep undercover with the Italian mafia, even coming to identify – to a certain degree – their principles…
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Film Review – Sleeping With Other People
Sex is such a simple thing, but it can sure make matters complicated. It’s an act that we all (hopefully) get an opportunity to experience sometime in our lives, but it can make people do and say some really silly things. Prime example: the main…
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Film Review – Learning to Drive
Learning to Drive (2014) is a perfectly acceptable, albeit bland comedy/drama. It’s unobtrusive and safe, with a good-natured theme of self-improvement. This is one of those instances were the plight of the characters are easily resolved and no matter what kind of hardships they go…
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Film Review – The Lake on Clinton Road
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. A group of young people, drunk on sex and alcohol, make their way to a remote cabin in the middle of the woods. What was supposed to be a fun party quickly turns deadly when a mysterious…
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An Appreciation – The Phantom Carriage
It is said that every New Year’s Eve the last person to pass away – if they were a sinner – will become the driver of Death’s carriage. For the next full year, this poor soul will travel the world collecting the souls of the…
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Film Review – Hitman: Agent 47
One of the great joys of being a cineaste is discovering something that truly moves you. Sometimes, you come across a film that strikes such an emotional chord that it borders on a religious experience. It opens your mind to different people and cultures, transporting…
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Film Review – Straight Outta Compton
Young talent, dreams of stardom, accelerated rise to fame, sex, drugs, a fall from grace, a saving redemption. The steps of a musical biopic are a tried and true formula, as we’ve witnessed in Walk the Line (2005) and Ray (2004). In that way, F.…
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Film Review – The Gift
Whoa. Joel Edgerton’s debut feature The Gift (2015) is good. Actually, it’s really good. Really really good. This might be one of the finest first efforts of an actor turned writer/director since Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone (2007). Edgerton has made a tense psychological drama…
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