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Hmm… AQUAMAN, a decent C-rating superhero spectacle full of pizazz and explosions yet lacks a refined story where predictability hovers over it’s spirit like a shadow attached to it’s person. Forgive me, I’m not a fan of the superhero franchise so this will be an abhorring review. My ignorance may even botch my thoughts as I sit here trying to remember what were the redeeming qualities of this movie. It’s a Hollywood blockbuster raking in the millions on entertaining and luring in the masses with it’s CGI splendor and hoards of merchandise and of course Jason Momoa in his tight jeans,…
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With today’s onslaught of viewing options from Netflix to digital rentals, and downloadable purchases of media, it makes me stop and miss the once fashionable art of walking into a video rental store exploring the plethora of options. It’s great we have the internet and all but the simple act of holding an actual dvd in hand or going to the actual movies among an audience will always feel more gratifying. As a culture, society has adopted the notion of movie going as a universal language that will never die out because we love being entertained. I believe in some…
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It’s a dawning in the new age of the final girl in a genre that never dies. Everyone has something to be afraid of. Everyone has to face fear at some point, but in the mean time we can be gratifyingly satisfied by the suspense it creates in tormenting our psyches into somber submission. I must say watching a unique horror film is its own kind of adrenaline rush. As Edgar Allan Poe once wrote, “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” And when that reality infiltrates wickedness, ritualistic power, conveyed in…
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John Carpenter’s 1978 HALLOWEEN is like a fine flavorful, aged wine that always pairs well especially in October. It’s the godfather of slasher films along with the classic, iconic final girl trope that’s written in most, if not all horror films especially with today’s caliber of societal problems. So where does that lead us with the latest HALLOWEEN thrill of a film? A hunter and its prey? Evil vs innocence? Survival and instinct? All of the above. David Gordon Green’s 2018 HALLOWEEN is like one of those random nosebleeds a person may have; surprising at first, then it just clears…
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I once read on the side of a building the phrase, “Create art not monotony” which I find problematic because one can also find art in monotony. Such is the case in Chantal Akerman’s, Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. I’ve never been so transfixed by someone methodically preparing veal before viewing Jeanne Dielman. Its hypnotic, mind blowing, life changing and kind of cryptic, yet I’m stubbornly at odds with it. On the surface, this is an art film where nothing appears to happen and this probably pissed off mainstream moviegoers back in its day while others praised…
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I love the story of Frankenstein and while applying the loose skeletal structure of that story into Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY well, let’s just say I can feel your eyebrows rise in a curious fashion accompanied with a contorted expression across your face. Stay with me! Stanley’s probably rolling around in his grave. First off, I’d like to admit, I’ve never seen 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, that is until last Saturday afternoon. It was unique because I got to witness the magnum opus, of Kubrick’s hefty career on the big screen in 70mm print! It was so pretty. I…
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In the family of horror genre, HEREDITARY is like that long, lost cousin you never knew you had and then one day while eating a chocolate bar with an impassive, deadpan stare watching grandma seemingly sleep peacefully in her casket, you realize something is amiss. Sorrow, pain, tears, perhaps, an uncontrollable, emotional outburst? Why are you not sad? And yet somehow, grief is very much the catalyst that drives the unraveling of this fragile family to great dismay. Such as it is, miniature houses, clucking noises, and Toni Collete will never be the same to me EVER again. It also…
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I initially set out to write a post on Woody Allen’s MANHATTAN from 1979 when HBO’s latest release of FAHRENHEIT 451 caught my curious attention. Such as it is, being a moth drawn to the flame which happens quite often. The bright, shiny, new things of 2018 are hard to resist and yet sometimes so fundamentally flawed, shallow, and simply disappointing, I still couldn’t resist this blunder. With that said this will not be a pretty, kiss the Pope’s ring, happy-go-lucky kind of review. You’ve been warned. If you haven’t read Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 from 1953, do yourself a…
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THE LAST FAMILY is a Polish film that was released in 2016, directed by Jan P. Matuszynski and evidently, there’s an annual Polish Film Festival that takes place for a week in Los Angeles which is really awesome. I was lucky enough to catch this at the Armer Theater. I’ve mentioned this to a few people, but this film and I quote, “Bewitched me. Mind, body, and soul.” Needless to say, I don’t say this about many films, but this one hooked me good, so much so the gentleman who was sitting next to me during the screening, gently nudged…
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What I thoroughly enjoy about well executed horror films, is on one hand their meant to make you feel fear and in the process of that journey, it often times can result in this sense of empowerment. Perhaps, it’s the notion of running along side the protagonist, because they’re trying to survive something they’re not meant to survive. John Krasinski co-wrote, directed, and starred alongside his wife, Emily Blunt in this classic, refreshing, American horror film, A QUIET PLACE. It has a gripping amount of intensity, where every scene while pushing the story forward has its exhilarating twists and turns…
[Film Reviews from a Female Brain]
MARISSA THE CINEPHILE 