Film Tag

Spoiler Alert: This article contains plot details of Orange is the New Black seasons 1 and 2.   This past Friday, the entire second season of the critically acclaimed show, Orange is the New Black, was released on Netflix. In some of cases, you binged all thirteen episodes in a long, but enticing thirteen hour marathon. However, this season includes more astute, yet subtle connections. I decided to watch the season over the course of a week, and as I sigh in astonishment as Rosa races the van off the screen,Read More

…Or, well at the least the first 14 years of it…or is it technically 15?  No matter.  I have painstakingly rummaged through the Oscar Wikipedia page to arbitrarily rank the Top Ten Movies of the 21st Century however the fudge I want!  So if you disagree.  Die in a fire.  I hate you.  🙂 Now without further delay.  Drum-roll please…   10) Argo I went to this puppy the day it came out.  Premiere tickets were sure to get me some action, I thought. But alas, the only action IRead More

On June 6th, just less than a week away, The Fault in Our Stars film, based on the New York Times Bestselling novel by John Green,will be in theaters nationwide. Self-proclaimed ‘Fault-Fanatics’ are on the edge of their seats as the premiere draws closer, and director Green along with the cast have only contributed to the torturous, unceasing anticipation. Quite regularly, new trailers, promotional videos, and music videos from the soundtrack are released—only to remind us of how much we will sob once the movie hits screens. The trailer:  Read More

So like usual I’m thinking about how terrible this Batman/Superman movie is going to be, and something hit me just now that made it even more depressing. Young people that watch this as their first Batman or Superman movie are going to walk away with their perspectives of these characters forever cemented in their minds. There will be children who in 15-20 years will say “Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman is the only true Batman”. It’s like we have a chance to stop young Hitler, and we’re just sitting hereRead More

In yet another shocking, yet not-at-all-surprising move, our good ol’ pal and perfectly sane Führer, Vladimir Putin, has decided to take his totalitarian deathgrip on the Russian subcontinent one large squeeze further. Mulling it over for a solid couple minutes and passing it to a vote in the Russian Congress, if you can even call it that, made up of Czar Putin I, His Highness Putin, Vlad The Putin, and Vladimir Putin, Putin decided that the whole gay hate thing was simply not enough for him – hatred unless theyRead More

EnterViews is Hilary’s weekly series with emerging artists via various forms of digital communication.   You might have noticed Jessie Kahnweiler around the internet or even on the streets of LA. Or maybe you recognize this title—I Made a Short Film About My Rape and Now I Can’t Get Laid. Last January in Park City I met Jessie in the offices of the Treasure Mountain Inn after having just seen her film and feeling overwhelmed by the collision of comedy and drama. She wore a fur coat while passing out red stickersRead More

The trailer for The Final Member begins benignly enough.  The scene is set at the world’s only Phallological Museum, where curator Sigurður “Siggi” Hjartarson fauns over his extensive collection of – well, I probably don’t have to spell it out for you. The Reykjavik Museum is home to the peckers of all Icelandic mammals with the exception of one – our own.  “Why is it so difficult do you think to get a human penis for your museum?” asks an interviewer.  I think the answer should be fairly obvious.  WeRead More

I divide the world into two very distinct groups:  The ones who have seen “The Big Lebowski” and the ones who have not.  If you are in the latter group, please immediately stop reading this story and go die in a fire, you are dead to me.  This story is for those special people that view the world through the musings of the greatest human being to ever walk the Earth, “The Dude.”  The big question for these intellectual heavyweights has always been should they do a sequel? In recentRead More

Another week, another thing I argue in favor of and think you should see. Last week I suggested Over the Top—a movie about truckers, arm wrestling, and family values. I hope you watched this film, and also hope that you’ve taken the high road and put aside whatever resentments you have for me post-viewing.  Dear reader, you give me a reason to continue, and much like Sylvester Stallone’s character in Over the Top, I need a second chance. It would thrill me to be able to say I could suggestRead More

Val Kilmer is awesome and these are his most memorable roles. One role that just missed my top five is him as Bruce Wayne in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and that is only because I had to include a single episode TV role he took on that is hilarious. There is something about Val Kilmer that makes him fun to watch. It doesn’t even matter if the movie is good or not. All that matters is that he is beyond entertaining on the big screen. Let the list begin..   5Read More

Happy Rex Manning Day! If you know what that phrase means, wonderful! You deserve a cookie and as soon as I find you, I will give you one! If you’re confused, don’t worry: most of America would be. I’m quoting one of my favorite movies of all time. Empire Records is a cult classic, and if you have a chance I highly recommend you see it, immediately. It has some of the best quotes and music the 90s had to offer. It was released in 1995. It actually has quiteRead More

Oh, Facebook.  Thank God I have you to tell me what I want.  Think of all the things I’d miss out on if I just stuck to Netflix reruns of Archer. When I logged on the other day, I found the typical slew of game and app suggestions accompanied by the usual “10 of your friends like this” tagline.  I was just about to download Siege of Legends (or Legend of the Siege, I can’t remember which), when I stumbled upon an ad quite different from the cutesy FlappyBird ripoffs. Read More

A little over a week ago, Deadline Hollywood announced that The Last of Us, a popular video game published in 2013, had been greenlighted to become a feature film. The Internet exploded with simultaneous cries of joy and pain, with more pain than joy coming from the diehard gamers, and even more “meh” coming from people who have no idea why they should care.  Now that the proverbial storm has passed, I’d like to take a moment to examine what’s going on here. Content gets adapted to the silver screenRead More

It’s a strange and exciting time to be a comic book fan. It used to be that only A-grade characters like Superman and Batman could be afforded the big screen treatment, but that’s clearly no longer the case, ever since the X-men and Spider-man films helped the genre to explode in the early 2000s. The fact that my mother knows who Hawkeye is goes to show just how deep these movies have penetrated our culture, and as far as anybody can tell, they show no signs of slowing down.  MovieRead More

The LEGO Movie just might be the best commercial ever made. By the time the credits start rolling, there’s a good chance you’ll feel the nagging urge to head to your parents’ house, dust off that old box of mismatched LEGO sets, and relive your childhood by making something weird and wonderful.  Kids leaving the theater will be inspired to create their own brick-based adventure, which naturally requires buying more LEGO products. Their parents, charmed by the film’s messages of collaboration and creativity as well as their own reawakened nostalgia-Read More