Change Your Image
jtncsmistad-82689
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Felony (2013)
"Felony": Australian Dramatic Thriller Delivers with Solid Performances
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
"Felony". A treatise on "What goes around, comes around". On doing what's right because, in the end, it's the only thing TO do. And on the age-old unwritten mandate that "Cops take care of their own."
That's a lot to bite off and chew, mate. The good news is that Director Matthew Saville and the stable of fine Australian acting talent at his behest more than pass muster here. Everyone steps up impressively to deliver a rock solid dramatic thriller with a constant current of conscience serving as it's foundation.
Namely, Tom Wilkinson is outstanding as ever, Joel Edgerton (so good in last year's "The Gift") is as dependable as fans like me have come to expect and Jai Courtney comports himself just fine, thank you. Wilkinson is the reason to watch "Felony". As great as he is, the veteran inveterate character actor continues to operate largely under the radar.
The time has long since passed that the damned radar zero in.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
The Revenant (2015)
"The Revenant": Exhausting and Exhilarating Odyssey of Revenge
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Academy Award winner Alejandro González Iñárritu ("Birdman") directed, co-wrote and co-produced "The Revenant" with the indisputable intent of transporting his audience back to the primitive and animalistic conditions inherent to the brutal and untamed North American wilderness of the early 19th Century. Having experienced this masterpiece in modern filmmaking now myself, I feel qualified to deliver the following declaration in the most resounding manner possible...MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
With each stunning scene of grim grandeur Iñárritu passed before my eyes, I was unwaveringly riveted, hurtled headlong, swept into every successive moment, captivated in a whirling dervish of surging vitality.
From ultra-violent Native (and non-indigenous) American ambushes, to excruciatingly crude cleansing of heinous bodily wounds, to a Grizzly Bear mauling that for all the world appears to be ACTUALLY happening, I was rendered at once exhausted and exhilarated in the wake of a furiously unrelenting assault on my emotions.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of his career as real-life frontier legend Hugh Glass, "The Revenant" is a ferociously ambitious epic, presented essentially in three distinct acts: Escape, Survival and Revenge. Tom Hardy's perfect performance as reprehensible antagonist and the reviled target of Glass's relentless scorn, John Fitzgerald, serves to further solidify the richly gifted actor, together with DiCaprio, among the genuine elite of their craft.
There is a deeply effecting, albeit brief, Epilogue to "The Revenant", as the nearly two and a half hours of full-force frenzy that has preceded it comes to a movingly quiet climax.
An unspeakably tortured soul has found peace. At the end of a long and agonizing odyssey, and at long last, enduring peace.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Knock Knock (2015)
"Knock Knock"...what a total pile of SCHLOCK!!
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
I thought I would give the Keanu Reeves vehicle "Knock Knock" a shot. So I did. I now wish to beat hell that I would have shot down this abundantly ill-advised notion the instant it germinated.
This purported thriller was silly, superfluous, banal and just plain BAD beyond all reason. There was but a solitary redeeming element in this entire merciless mess for me. And that pertains to the pair of young actresses who starred in the movie upon which this disaster was based, 1977's "Death Game", which I saw, liked and was shaken by for days. "Knock Knock" was Exec Produced by Sondra Locke and features a brief cameo from Colleen Camp, the two women who played the pair of deeply disturbed yet ravishingly beautiful home invaders of a well-to-do suburban family man left all by his lonesome nearly 40 years ago. Why they would tarnish the genuinely terrifying work they delivered then to be part of this trashy tripe is simply beyond me.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Thistle.
Thistle who?
Thistle be one of, if not THE, biggest pieces of crap I will EVER have the misfortune of suffering through.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Buried (2010)
Long on acting prowess...just too damn LONG!!
I am not the world's biggest fan boy of Ryan Reynolds. It's not that I vehemently dislike the guy or anything. Just not drinkin' the Kool-Aid he's serving up in general.
This said...MAN, did RR dominate in "Buried". Which only makes sense, as he was the only dude (or CHICK for that matter) in the whole damn movie-and in EXCEEDINGLY extreme close-up for the entire ride! His rendering of a civilian hostage buried alive in a wooden coffin beneath the war-ravaged Iraqi desert is viciously fearsome in it's raw brutality. Reynolds rages here, unleashing torrents of savage emotion in feral eruptions as threadbare as they are explosive.
It just didn't need to be milked for over an hour and a half . No knock on Reynolds, certainly, but that's even asking too much of such revered acting royalty as Laurence Olivier or Gregory Peck. And, hell, even MERYL STREEP for crissakes. Evidently, Director Rodrigo Cortés thought otherwise. And in so doing, he wound up shoveling sand on a resoundingly superior performance.
Lamb (2015)
"Lamb": Richly rewarding if you can work through the subject matter.
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
First things first. "Lamb" explores a liaison between a male and a female which is unequivocally inappropriate, unhealthy and unsettling. Not to mention illegal. One half of this couple is a 47-year-old man. The other, an 11-year-old girl. And while the bond forged between them never becomes a sexual one, it is a relationship that categorically made me feel consistently uncomfortable and squeamish.
With personal position firmly established and hardly exclusive, what "Lamb" is ultimately ABOUT is two helplessly lost people consumed in a desperate search for someone who cares. And someone to care for. I definitely can never condone the manner in which this compulsion is consummated here. However, I completely understand this fundamental need burning in us all. This is a film that tests in boldly serious and stark terms our limits of what defines such integral human connection.
Ross Partridge writes, directs and stars as David Lamb, a man so emotionally damaged that he sees a child as the savior of his severely scarred soul. Partridge's role is a massively difficult one to deliver upon effectively, constantly balancing precariously as he must upon the most sensitive of fine lines. His personification of David maintains the essential equilibrium demanded throughout, ultimately delivering as he does so an astonishing performance that is at once loathsome as it is emotionally cataclysmic.
Oona Laurence (Southpaw) is positively transcendent. Appearing to be even younger than she is supposed to be here, Laurence infuses her understandably deeply conflicted character of Tommie with an impressively mature perspective intertwined with a naive innocence. She owns the final moments of this movie. They are powerfully effecting. Expect that they will stay with you, as they surely have done with me.
Partridge vividly conveys the evolution of this peculiar pair's partnership through his wholesale contrast in setting. Beginning with a series of scenes from a dispiriting urban underbelly, the director deftly shifts the environment markedly, transporting us to and among the spectacular wide open spaces of the American western prairie. It is a sense of Shangri-La realized-a blissful place of near perfection for the curious couple. And it is a state of being we all know can not realistically be sustained.
"Lamb" will no doubt meet with controversial reception by audiences and critics alike. Be this as it may, Partridge has succeeded mightily in crafting a motion picture that I believe ascends well above the territory of simple shock value and exploitation. And should you choose to experience his story, and can somehow permit yourself, while certainly to not ignore, but rather interpret beyond the inherently troubling subject matter it examines so unflinchingly, you may find, as did I, that you have been uniquely and richly rewarded.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Alles wird gut (2015)
"Everything Will Be Okay". A Deeply Moving Examination of Desperation in the Wreckage of Divorce
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
The Oscar-shortlisted German Short "Everything Will Be Okay (Alles wird gut)" touched me in a particularly personal fashion. As a father, I found it wrenching to process this chronicle of a scheduled visit between a divorced dad and his young daughter as it rapidly disintegrates into a dark and ominous journey of utter desperation and debilitating sadness.
Though I am not divorced, I certainly identify with the overwhelming love that Michael (a searingly heartbreaking portrayal from Simon Schwarz) has for his baby girl, Lea (8-year-old Julia Pointner in a stunningly moving performance beyond her years). Without reservation I can not condone the extremes to which this deeply troubled man goes to secure his child for his very own. Still, I absolutely comprehend the all-consuming emotions invested in doing whatever a parent must to care for and protect those whom you love literally more than you love your own life.
At different moments in the film, little Lea is assured by first her father and later her mother that "Everything will be okay". Yet in the wake of the spirit-shattering final scene we have just witnessed, we are sure only of this: While it is a comfort well intentioned, for this conflicted child caught in the crossfire of scathingly contemptuous parental warfare, it is a promise that can never truly be honored.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Stutterer (2015)
"Stutterer" Short but Sweet Story of the Search for Love
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
The task of any Short Film is to seize the viewer's attention in literally a matter of seconds, at once inspiring and sustaining an emotional connection with the story and it's characters. It is a most formidable undertaking indeed. I'm here to declare that Writer/Director Benjamin Cleary's 2015 British production "Stutterer" succeeds in not only meeting, but surpassing, this genuinely daunting mandate.
In an instant I felt the helpless frustration that Greenwood projects as he struggles with all of his might to convert the ever flowing thoughts in his head to bear upon his tongue and lips. But he can't. I found it consistently gripping and, moreover, painful to behold this roundly riveting performance which Matthew Needham (The BBC's "Casualty") gifts to us in the title role of "Stutterer".
A couple of quibbles if you'll allow. I found it a bit difficult to understand how an adult man with at least one apparently caring parent could not have received at least a measure of effective therapy for his severe affliction at some point in his life. And as the movie drew to conclusion I had already anticipated how it was likely going to end, my hunch proving accurate.
Still, these amount to but minor distractions in an otherwise richly satisfying and touching story, one that is ultimately of a lonely soul's search for his kindred sweet spirit.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Ex Machina (2014)
Okay, but not epic, Sci-Fi Fantasy
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
"Ex Machina" (Latin for "god from the machine") met with mixed reviews upon it's release in April of 2015. And the Sci-Fi Fantasy Fable left me with decidedly mixed feelings after seeing it. I REALLY wanted to like this movie. I THOUGHT I was going to like this movie. As it turns out, I find myself certainly not hating the film, but not being entirely satisfied with it on the whole.
For after all the grandiose techno-jargon and psycho-socio babble between co-stars Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson as master and protégé computer coding nerds putting the finishing touches on an AI creation christened Ava (Alicia Vikander), what we are at last presented with is an age-old theme: "Be careful what you wish for, for you will surely GET it." Regrettably, in the case of this overblown story of machine rising up against man, we've gotten it all before.
The only wish is that there was more.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Ich seh, Ich seh (2014)
Not an easy watch, but you'll find it hard to turn away...
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
It is a conspicuously uneasy vibe established practically right from the start of the ultra-unsettling Austrian psychological thriller "Goodnight Mommy". And then from there all the way up to the haunting conclusion, Co-Directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz never take their feet off the pedal, unleashing an unrelenting and unnerving undercurrent of fear and dread.
Following what we come to learn was a horrific auto accident, a single mother also only recently separated from her husband returns to her country home and to her twin pre-adolescent sons. Severely damaged in the crash, her face is concealed in a grotesque guise of gauze and tape. She has been helplessly rendered to revealing to her children only a mummy-like mommy looking back at them with empty eyes, one who ceaselessly scolds them through pursed lips, often times as she is at once bodily abusing them. Mom's off-puttingly odd behavior leads one of the twins, Lukas, to suspect that this is not their mother at all. The other, Elias, is not so sure. At least initially, that is.
We watch, gripped with fascination, as these kids struggle mightily to uncover who, or WHAT, this curious creature is wandering about ominously in and around their house. Where in the world is she from? Or more alarmingly to consider, is she even OF this world? Is she actually an amnesiac, or is it all an act? And what of these urgent and seemingly random episodes of OCD spray bottle disinfecting of walls both inside and out? There are an abundance of plausible themes running throughout "Goodnight Mommy" from which to consider and to choose. Can a brutally battered and broken family be fixed? Can a distraught mother completely overwhelmed with pain both physical and spiritual ever fully return from the hell of a nervous breakdown? Or perhaps the ruthless reality that a post-traumatic existence is never endured alone, but is a shared suffering among all those infected in it's aftermath.
Not only are their roles exceedingly challenging emotionally, in addition these are physically punishing performances registered by all three principles in the film. The slapping, punching and eye-gouging inflicted by real-life twin brothers Lukas and Elias Schwarz along with actress Susanne Wuest upon each other never appear to be simulated. And while Wuest is certainly a stunningly beautiful woman to behold, the character she so strikingly inhabits is about as far from glamorous as can possibly be imagined.
The tables turn in terrifyingly twisted fashion mid-movie, as the persecuted become the exploiters. The hunter becomes the prey. What results is a starkly sordid demanding that love lost be replenished. And all at the will of unconscionable sadism. It is a genuinely disturbing disintegration to witness.
In the closing sequence of "Goodnight Mommy" we realize that we have returned back to the beginning of the story-the perfect picture of a mother and her children. Only we are abundantly aware that this is a final image which, while by nature eternal, has been reached at the end of a viciously cruel and merciless road paved with unspeakable grief and atrocity.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
El orfanato (2007)
Atypical Horror Fodder
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/ "The Orphanage" is not your run-of-the-mill horror movie. In fact, it's not really a horror flick at all. Not in traditional terms at any rate. And most certainly not in the common contemporary sense, either.
Spanish Director J.A. Bayona crafts a healthy share of scares and suspense for sure, but not at the expense of presenting a compelling chronicle skillfully infused with drama and genuine human emotion. At it's heart a narrative of a mother's love for her child and the ferocious and limitless power embodied in such, Bayona's film also gives us a ghost story, summoning as it does so spirits both conjured and broken.
Belén Rueda is a relentless dynamo of raw strength and dogged determination as a parent who refuses to believe that her lost child has lost his life. Her extraordinary performance is intensely demanding and grueling, one rarely witnessed from any actress regardless of the role. And the strikingly breathtaking cinematography by Óscar Faura consistently punctuates the overall impact of most every scene.
The recommendation is to go in to "The Orphanage" anticipating something far out of the ordinary. Or at the very least without the expectation that it will fall in line with what you've come to expect.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
La migliore offerta (2013)
Rush to check out Geoffrey in this one...
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Geoffrey...Rush...is...an...actor. Are we clear on this? Damn, is this guy good at his job. The veteran Aussie is THE reason to watch the exquisite mystery drama "The Best Offer".
Rush gives his all as he gives us Virgil Oldman, a lonely auction house owner and expert art appraiser/collector who operates both above and well below the line of legitimacy. His partner in chicanery, co-constituent of acting royalty Donald Sutherland, together trick and take at will from wealthy yet unwary bidders. And all the while Oldman continues adding to a personal treasure trove of "painted ladies" on private display in a secret room of his sprawling mansion.
The Italian filmmaking tandem of Director Giuseppe Tornatore and Music maestro Ennio Morricone uniquely unify to make each scene seem entirely essential. And with nearly every image, the raw and rousing sonic power of the extraordinary symphonic and choral soundtrack almost assumes the dimension of another character in this consistently captivating tale.
They say "You can't con a con man." That may well be. However, as we come to discover in "The Best Offer", toss love into the mix and all bets are off.
No matter how smooth the swindler.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
Furthering The Franchise along...
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/ With "3", I have now seen all installments of the "Paranormal Activity" franchise save for the final act, "The Ghost Dimension", which I look forward to reviewing soon.
In terms of this third iteration of ill-omened found footage from 2011, it's pretty much business as usual but for the fact that we learn the childhood origins of why the possessed Katie (Katie Featherston) behaves as balefully as she does in later years. So for that, and really only if you're a fellow fan whose followed along over these past eight years, it is worth the watch.
Oh, just one more thing. In critiquing the other chapters of the "PA" franchise, I have neglected to give well earned kudos to the creative legions of the respective sound editing teams. This consistently clever crew commands that one's attention remain resolutely riveted to the screen with their freakily foreboding noises even if nothing of consequence is going down.
Or IS it? For in the apparitional land of the paranormal, you're never REALLY sure.
"Whoa. Did I just SEE that?!" For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
The Village (2004)
And so M. Night fades away quietly into the night...
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/ This is the one that did it. Having finally seen 2004's "The Village" I can now endow confirmation. THIS is the abomination that killed M. Night Shyamalan's career.
Never in the history of recorded time has any movie been more massively marketed to the masses. And never has any film been more of a miserable disappointment. A thriller devoid of even a mild buzz. A mystery with a dreadfully dumb and barely comprehensible solution. The waste of a cast so impressive the hope is that they were all paid handsomely for their parts in such an appallingly hopeless cause.
The only possible point to be extracted from this wretched wreck could conceivably be, in the words of that classic comic strip philosopher Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us." But even THAT is stretching it.
Even the ending blows. Chunks. MNS would have been better served (but not by much) to have stuck with the original ending. Google it. And then, if you've seen this feces fest, see if you agree.
Oh, well. At least we'll always have "The Sixth Sense", won't we? Talk about your one-hit wonders.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
The Gift (2015)
Oh, you shouldn't have...really. Like, REALLY really!
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
The sins of the past return, demanding ruthless retribution in the dark thriller "The Gift". Multi-gifted Aussie Joel Edgerton writes, directs and stars as a sad sack loser who will not let go of the atrocities done unto him decades ago in high school. And the upwardly mobile yet troubled couple played by Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall are set square in his vengeful crosshairs.
Edgerton is masterful as he infuses virtually every single scene in his extraordinary film with urgent potency, while consistently propelling the story along at a vigorously unnerving pace. See if you agree that it puts one in the mind of another ominously harrowing flick with which you may be familiar, the 1987 domestic terror classic "Fatal Attraction". Granted, Edgerton's character may not be as frantically psychotic as the whacked out woman scorned whom the great Glenn Close tormented us (and poor Michael Douglas) with in that one.
But he is every bit as frightening.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Upstream Color (2013)
You're gonna have to use your noodle, people...
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
Shane Carruth is a distinctively imaginative voice who is never gonna tell you precisely what's going on in, nor cue you how he wants you to feel about, the unusually compelling films he makes. And when we say he makes films, he really makes 'em. Like damn near the whole thing virtually on his own. Never is this more profoundly evidenced than in "Upstream Color", a peculiar project (about inhuman evil eventually succumbing to good, in the form of human love and unity...that's a decent stab at it anyhow) in which Carruth invests his multi-talents as Director, Writer, Co-Star, Co-Producer, Cinematographer, Co-Film Editor and Co-Camera Operator...deep breath...as well as providing the movie's eerily idiosyncratic musical score. Oh, and as if that's not enough, rumor has it that he baked homemade pies and personally provided daily back massages for the entire cast and crew on top of it all (though the latter has not be substantiated).
What is for certain, however, is that what you see in a Carruth creation, and how you process whatever it is you determine is being presented, is entirely up to you. Yes, for one is actually going to have pay attention. To interpret. Lo, to...gasp...THINK. And not everyone particularly wants to do that. Truth be told, not everybody can do that. At least not to the degree that Carruth demands of his audience. Experiencing one of his productions is to be continually confounded, confused, frustrated and relentlessly fascinated.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
TalhotBlond (2012)
Not bad for the Boob Tube
From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
"talhotblond" is a passable made for television docudrama account of a tragic and bizarre 2005 case of fabricated internet identities and murderous jealousy.
Courteney Cox does an adequate job of directing the mostly uninspired(ing) cast (the former "Friends" star also co-produced and appears in her film, which Cox reportedly shot over just 16 days), with Garret Dillahunt (Fox TV's "Raising Hope") emerging as the most commendable of the bunch. Dillahunt is suitably creepy as a mild-mannered middle-aged Midwest husband and father who comes completely unhinged with obsession over an online persona he knows only as "talhotblond", whom he believes to be a teenage girl.
Really, can anything good possibly come of this?
Yeah, it could have been better. But if you've seen any measure of flicks fully fashioned for the tube, then you have almost undoubtedly seen way worse.
For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/