Review – Breaking Dawn Part 1

By
Steph
Published: November 18, 2011Posted in: UncategorizedTags:
Review – Breaking Dawn Part 1

Last night I attended a wedding. Two people from different backgrounds came together with their families to pledge their undying love for one another. It was a pretty standard wedding: bride in white, groom looking pale, drinking, dancing, and the whole shebang. This wedding went on for about 35 minutes, I paid $12.99 to attend and I had to sit through the entire thing, waiting for the payout that I had to believe was going to come later on. The story for Breaking Dawn Part 1 is as follows: Bella and Edward marry, they get pregnant on their first shot (he must have given her a couple extra pumps) and then over the next few weeks everyone camps out at the Cullen mansion trying to figure out if the baby-monstrosity-Immortal Child growing inside Bella is going to kill her before it manages to be born or whether the Wolves will show up and ruin everyone’s day by killing the child before it gets a chance to breath.

BD P1 is the film that promised to finally deliver the goods that were flitting around on the edges in parts 1,2 and 3. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) were finally going to break the vow of celibacy that Edward had placed upon them for the last 3 years and consummate the most animalistic part of their relationship. Bella and Edward were going to have sex. Or that’s what everyone in the theatre was waiting for anyway.

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Drive

By
Steph & Alana
Published: September 25, 2011Posted in: ReviewsTags: , , ,
Drive

Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive is an extremely satisfying and fun movie to watch. As Alana put it: “I was so happy with the intro. I couldn’t stop smiling over it.” At times 80s music video, at times operatic 2011 western, Drive delivers a well-paced, fun movie experience. The plot centres on Driver (Ryan Gosling), a Hollywood stunt driver by day and wheelman by night. He befriends his neighbour, Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son, Benicio (Kaden Leos), and when Irene’s husband returns home from prison and a gang threatens to rough up the family if they aren’t paid the money they are owed, Driver’s mild-by-day/dangerous-by-night life changes because he takes it upon himself to protect them. He quickly becomes entangled with the mob when the heist goes bad and, much like a fairy tale, he is required to become a hero when at first he seemed merely like a quiet man. What is particularly well done in this film is its subtlety.

With barely any dialogue, Refn has crafted a film that keeps the audience entertained and guessing. Much like with True Grit last year when I wanted to watch Rooster Cogburn ride around the Wild West endlessly, I wanted to keep watching Driver navigate his way around LA, driving getaway for heists. In deliberately not revealing too much about any one character, Refn leaves a lot open to interpretation. Ryan Gosling’s Driver is a compelling character in that you can infer what you believe he did, and what he was like, before he was suddenly caught up in a violent situation he didn’t have to take part in and multiple interpretations might make sense. Maybe he is a seasoned vet when it comes to violence and the scenario he is put in doesn’t bother him one bit, or maybe he completely new to this scene and is just trying to survive. Driver barely says anything to anyone in the film and he spends much of the time reacting to things that are provoking his reaction. You’re never sure why he is doing the things he is doing but you get a sense that for whatever reason he feels close to Irene and Benecio after knowing them only a short time and he will do anything he can to never let them down.

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Transformer 3: Dark of the Moon

By
Steph
Published: July 4, 2011Posted in: ReviewsTags: , , ,
Transformer 3: Dark of the Moon

There is absolutely no reason to write a 1000 word review on why Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon is simply not a good movie. I’d be wasting a whole heck of a lot of time and everyone who agrees with me would merely chuckle along as they read, nodding in agreement, while everyone who doesn’t agree with me on the basis of “It’s not supposed to be a thought-provoking film, it’s just supposed to be entertaining” would be upset that I called into light so very many flaws without even really trying. So instead I’m just going to highlight the top 2 things that really irked me in T3:DOTM and leave it at that.

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The Beaver – Review

By
Alana
Published: May 29, 2011Posted in: ReviewsTags: , ,
The Beaver – Review

Allow me to preface this review by mentioning that The Beaver got laughs. Uproarious, clapping, breathless laughter from a nearly packed theatre.  Eventually, as the movie drudged on, the laughter became subdued and the audience slipped into a state of tonal confusion – they no longer knew why they were laughing at themes of depression, suicide, and other emergences of mental illness. Normally, I’d be okay with this outcome. I enjoy when a film can shock me into a state of devastation and disbelief.

But The Beaver fails, and I’ll tell you why:

Walter Black (Mel Gibson) is depressed. We do not know why he is depressed, but we know that he is depressed.  After he is kicked out his home and separated from his wife (Jodie Foster) and two sons (Anton Yelchin & Riley Thomas Stewart) Walter hits rock-bottom and — in a very crowd-pleasing moment — he botches an alcohol induced suicide attempt. Think slapstick suicide.  He is roused awake the next morning by something that will soon be known as The Beaver: the battered and mangy hand-puppet he rescued from the dumpster the night before.  Naturally, the hand-puppet takes over Walter’s persona and becomes the redeeming force behind his newfound vigour and determination to win back the favour of his family.

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Oh Hi, Post: Steph and Alana and Tommy Wiseau

By
Steph
Published: May 24, 2011Posted in: FeaturesTags: , , , ,
Oh Hi, Post: Steph and Alana and Tommy Wiseau

I suspect that there is absolutely nothing that I can write about Tommy Wiseau and his seminal black comedy[i] The Room that hasn’t already been written about in more academic, witty or enlightening ways, however I’ve seen The Room 14 times, named this site as an homage to it and this past month finally had the opportunity to see Tommy himself, so I think it’s time I write about the film that inspired this website’s creation and has kept me laughing, and thinking, for the last 4 years.

My friend Mark introduced me to the film after seeing clips of it on The Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! downloading it, and watching it alone while messaging me over MSN about it as it unfolded before his eyes. A few days later a group of us gathered at his house to take in the experience that is The Room. We had all seen the YouTube clips available, over and over in most cases, but they really can’t prepare you for what the 99 minutes of film will bring.

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