Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
The 46th Mill Valley Film Festival is now underway! For a full view of special awards, spotlights, and centerpiece films, check out the complete festival guide. Tickets can be purchased here.
Below is our third preview of the Festival, featuring brief looks at four more films (If you missed our other preview posts, you can find them here and here):
Continue reading “Film Feature: Preview #3 of the 46th Mill Valley Film Festival”
The word “serviceable’ gets bandied about quite a bit in director Marc Webb’s new film about a young writer, which is ironic, since The Only Living Boy in New York is anything but. In fact, serviceable is actually far too kind a word for this hackneyed, derivative embarrassment.
Continue reading “Film Review: The Only Living Boy in New York“
Pierce Brosnan attempts a return to the spy game in Roger Donaldson’s spy thriller, The November Man. The film is based on the novel There Are No Spies by Bill Granger. And, wouldn’t you know it, the spies in this film don’t resemble spies at all. They run through public streets with guns blazing, have no issues killing off members of any agency (even their own), and are incredibly oblivious to the most blatant clues and plot twists right in front of them. This is also the first action spy film I’ve ever seen that has no police presence. No matter how destructive and time consuming the shootouts and chases, there are no basic security or police squad personnel to be seen. Not even a siren! Maybe I just missed it and need to rewatch it to notice (I’m not going to rewatch it). Ultimately, The November Man is a scattered mess, trying to tackle too many plot lines whilst relying on nearly every spy film cliché to move the story forward. If it weren’t for Brosnan’s charisma, The November Man would be a complete dud.