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Reviews
Sundance Review || "James White"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 29 January 2015 01:05
- Written by Matt Oakes
James White is a revealing ailment drama fastened by excellent performances and as smothered in bathos as cafeteria nachos are in fluorescent cheese. Marking the writing/directing debut for longtime Borderline Films producer Josh Mond, this nuclear family implosion bespeaks a turning point for the genre-leaning studio. In the wake of such cerebral thriller vibes of Martha Marcy May Marlene and Simon Killer, James White is the product of hawkish realism - an blemished, brave story that squares its audience in the midst of an emotional tornado.
Sundance Review || "The Strongest Man"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 29 January 2015 01:04
- Written by Matt Oakes
Socially awkward black comedy with occasionally explosive moments of understated humor, The Strongest Man is Kenny Riches' follow-up to Must Come Down and his first big festival debut. His surgically shrewd examination of two nobodies stewing in the melting pot of Miami presents a deep and thoughtful metaphysical exploration of life as alien experience with the stonerish tendencies of Jared Hess and the outlandish atmospheres of a dedicated daydreamer.
Sundance Review || "Sleeping With Other People"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 29 January 2015 01:03
- Written by Matt Oakes
Leslye Headland arrived on the cinematic scene in a roundabout kind of way. Her debut film Bachelorette divided audiences -Reelview's James Berardinelli gave it zero stars and labeled it "the worst movie of 2012" (we gave it a soaring review) though it's gone on to achieve a quiet cult status. Originally written as a screenplay then adapted for the stage, her raunchy theatrical production was discovered, altered back into movie form and green lit with an inspired cast (Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson.) The outcome was a lewd female Hangover bursting with genuine laughs. In 2013, Headland got back on the horse for a new project, one that she just described as "When Harry Met Sally with assholes." And so came Sleeping With Other People, a satirically formulaic though gravely side-splitting whooper.
Sundance Review || "99 Homes"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 29 January 2015 01:03
- Written by Matt Oakes
Success and honesty have become diametrically opposed forces in 99 Homes, a one-percenter housing thriller that pits a wolf of real estate in the form of an e-cigarette munching Michael Shannon against a hardworking everyman day laborer (Andrew Garfield). Money though is a powerful drug. Opulence, an even purer form of intoxicant. And as Dennis Nash's (Garfield) desperate catches the sweet whiff of greenback wafting from the depths of Rick Carver's (Shannon) pockets, he becomes willing to trade in his common man status for the spade suit of an iniquitous property mogul.
