Author Archives: Sarah

Reader, writer, cinephile. That about covers it, yeah?

The Descendants ruminates on guilt, grief and forgiveness in paradise

Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election) ends his seven-year absence from feature filmmaking with an adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings’ The Descendants, a dramedy that’s more drama than comedy. If you’re familiar with Payne’s work—and you should, at the very least, be familiar with Election—you know that the line between crying and laughing is where his movies live. Payne’s movies usually have some really funny bits but end up being kind of depressing in the end. The Descendants walks the same line and uses humor to leaven the heavy moments, but I found it to be more optimistic and hopeful than Payne usually is. Perhaps his worldview shifted sometime during his sabbatical.Continue reading “The Descendants ruminates on guilt, grief and forgiveness in paradise”

Let’s pretend like Tarsem Singh didn’t make Immortals

Because it’s kind of depressing that he did. Tarsem (I’m not being cheeky and over familiar, he’s referred to as “Tarsem”, not “Singh”) has directed two movies prior to Immortals—The Cell in 2000 and The Fall in 2006. The Fall is one of the most gloriously weird movies I’ve ever seen and I took an interest in Tarsem from that point on. I’m not one of his insane fanboys (who propelled the appalling Immortals to a $32 million opening weekend), but as a photographer his work appeals to me. His bright colors and surrealist imagery creates an incomparable palette for him to work from. However, Tarsem has never been what I would call a storyteller. He’s a visuals man, cobbling together stories from fantastical visions.Continue reading “Let’s pretend like Tarsem Singh didn’t make Immortals”

You don’t need to be in a hurry for In Time

I certainly wasn’t in a hurry to write this review. (Blame it on The Fassbender.)

I really loved Gattaca. Sci-fi is usually not my thing but I loved Gattaca because it was 1) visually stylish and 2) totally plausible (to me). It was all about genetic engineering and the quest to create perfect people and what would happen if not everyone was able to be perfect. To this day, I still love Gattaca a lot and recommend it frequently. This has bought its writer/director, Andrew Niccol, a lot of leeway with me, which he has nearly exhausted with S1m0ne and Lord of War. In Time bought him back some of my affection but not all that he once had.Continue reading “You don’t need to be in a hurry for In Time”

CIFF Triple Play: Coriolanus, Jeff Who Lives at Home and Sleeping Beauty

Time to hammer through the second half of my Chicago International Film Festival coverage with an arthouse triple feature.

Coriolanus

Shakespeare is hard. Even for professionals, Shakespeare is hard. This is the message I got from John Logan, the Tony-award winning playwright (for RED), and a two-time Oscar nominee (screenplays for Gladiator and The Aviator). Logan’s resume is impressive, so for him to admit that Coriolanus, was tough to bring to the big screen is no joke. It was a struggle at every level—adaptation, selling, filming, distributing. That this film exists at all is proof of Logan’s, and Ralph Fiennes’, devotion to the work.Continue reading “CIFF Triple Play: Coriolanus, Jeff Who Lives at Home and Sleeping Beauty”

CIFF 2011: Tyrannosaur

SPOILER ALERT

So some of you came out of the woodwork and yelled at me for spoiling The Ides of March in my review. My attitude toward spoilers is this: 1) no, I don’t care about them, 2) most of my reviews post after the movie comes out—you have 72 hours to see a movie unspoiled and then come Monday, we’re talking about it, and 3) my goal with these reviews is to help you decide how to spend your money at the movies. Entertainment is expensive—it costs a lot to go to movies, to maintain premium cable packages, VOD and streaming/rental services. I’m trying to provide enough information to help you spend your money wisely. Of course I’m going to tell you if a movie is good or bad, but mainly I want to write reviews and previews that help you not waste your money. If I get a little spoilery, it’s in the interest of letting you know what to expect when you go to the movies. Also, I read a couple advanced reviews of Ides that referenced the suicide so I didn’t realize it was going to be a big deal.Continue reading “CIFF 2011: Tyrannosaur”

CIFF 2011: Like Crazy

October 6-20 marks the 47th Annual Chicago International Film Festival. I’ve never done this festival before and decided to give it a whirl this year. Film festivals always sound better in my head than they actually are. I was reminded of this as I stood in line for Like Crazy, surrounded by college-aged hipster douchebag film students. Over the next couple weeks I’ll be posting reviews from the films I’m seeing. Unless I’m in jail for stabbing a college-aged hipster douchebag film student to death with my pencil.

Like Crazy was a big hit at Sundance and I can see why. It’s a charming, small film that’s a bit cute and quirky without descending into twee-ness (despite the rather poor trailer’s tendency toward the twee). The natural comparison here is (500) Days of Summer, but I found Like Crazy to be a lot less hipstery. Like Crazy is the story of Jacob and Anna, a couple of selfish assholes who ruin the lives of everyone around them. It’s a bittersweet love story.Continue reading “CIFF 2011: Like Crazy”