Weekly Mini-reviews: “The East,” “Moonstruck” & More

November 24-30, 2013

The East | Zal Batmanglij | 2013 | ★

After hearing so much about how she is the next big thing in cinema, I finally decided to give a Brit Marling-penned film a chance. I didn’t see Another Earth or Sound of My Voice because they just didn’t appeal to me. Well, from the trailers neither did this one but I just thought I’d give it a fair chance. If this film is any indication, then I did the right thing by skipping those other films because this was an excruciating viewing experience. I’m not going to put the blame entirely on Marling’s script as there are some interesting ideas in there about a spy working for a big company infiltrating a group or rebels but over time finding that they are the ones doing the right thing despite being labeled as “terrorists.” Even so, the script only touches on this briefly and with the exception of “Doc,” the characters aren’t more than what they are on the surface. With this, and the director’s attempt to stay 100% true to the script, the film just feels like it’s about a bunch of stereotypical hipsters with daddy issues and half-baked ideologies. In the last minute or so, the film starts taking a different approach to the subject of bringing down these companies that hurt the environment. I would much rather see a film based on those ideas.

October 2013- Best & Worst

Last October I set out to watch as many horror films as possible, for obvious reasons. But due to many things (binge-watching MTV’s Teen Wolf being one of them) not only did I only manage to watch two of them, but just nine films in total. This month I did much better, watching 21 films for the first time including 7 which can be considered horror. The best of these was easily Halloween, which I finally got around to see this year and it lived up to expectations despite being completely different than what I imagined.

As for the other films I watched, The Purple Rose of Cairo immediately jumped into my top 10 of all time. I also watched Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity two times in IMAX because it was an amazing experience that I knew I would never have again. It may not be quite my favorite film of the year, but it’s still among one of the best. And finally, films like The Best Little Whorewhouse in Texas, Enough Said, and Populaire reminded me that light and fluffy films can be just as powerful as any other.

And now, here’s my top 10 of the month, followed, as always by some awards and such.

Weekly Mini Reviews: “Byzantium,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo” & More

October 13-19, 2013

Byzantium | Neil Jordan | 2013 | ★★★

For about the first 40 minutes, Byzantium is kind of tedious as it just seems to be about a vampire going through an existential crisis. But it’s at that 40 minute mark when things start getting interesting and the mysteries behind the lives of Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) and Clara (Gemma Arterton) and the shadowy figures that follow them are unraveled. From then on it not only gets entretaining, but there are some intense scenes that make the whole thing worthwhile. Overall, it’s a somewhat refreshing take on the vampire myth (like how they kill, how they are converted and who is allowed to convert), but it doesn’t completely alter it. In the end, you could do worse than watching this, and it gave us that one beautiful poster and a great performance from Arterton.