Films – Page 70 – Spinning Platters

Film Review: Oblivion

Oblivion is this year’s first “summer blockbuster”, a term coined for Jaws back in 1975 that gets attached to any commercially successful tentpole action-adventure film released by a major studio between the months of April and August. Oblivion fits nicely into the blockbuster mold; it features action, romance, a great soundtrack and a PG-13 rating. It also showcases an eye for a unique visual style that writer/director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) continues to demonstrate in his work. Although it doesn’t break any new ground, Oblivion has just enough complexity within its mash-up of original content and popular sci-fi references to be a thoroughly entertaining sci-fi adventure. Yet it’s the film’s abundance of visual artistry that is most memorable.

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Film Review: Blancanieves (Thoughts on the Continuing Potency of Silent Films)

Blancanieves

Imagine you enter a snow globe just after the spinning blizzard has settled. You discover you’ve been transported to a silent, starkly black and white Spain, sometime in the 1920’s. Welcome to this imaginative retelling of the classic Brothers Grimm folktale, Snow White—or known here as Blancanieves. Continue reading “Film Review: Blancanieves (Thoughts on the Continuing Potency of Silent Films)”

Film Review: 42

Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson in 42.

In 1947, the baseball world was introduced to the first black Major League player, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson. This momentous occasion in the history of our national pastime (and the world, quite arguably), was met with mixed feelings from all points of the sociopolitical spectrum. 42 aims to capture the tension and excitement that surrounded the breaking of the baseball color barrier, but a hokey script forces the emotion in this disappointing and awkward historical re-enactment.

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Film Review: Disconnect

: Hope Davis, Jason Bateman, and Haley Ramm in Disconnect

In the vein of Crash, Grand Canyon, and Babel, Disconnect, director Henry-Alex Rubin’s riveting drama that opens today, introduces us to seemingly disparate characters whose stories intersect as the film progresses. Each of the story arcs is a provocative variation on the theme of yes, disconnectedness – both physical and emotional – in today’s increasingly wired, technology-saturated, online world.

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Midnight Music Movies at The New Parkway: R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet Singalong

For our third installment of Spinning Platters “Midnght” Music Movies (this one starts at 10:30) at The New Parkway, we are thrilled to be able to present to you the first 22 chapters of R Kelly’s magnum opus Trapped In The Closet. Tickets are moving awfully fast (not just marketing speak), and you should buy them right away!

For those of you aren’t in the know, here’s a little background on Trapped: Continue reading “Midnight Music Movies at The New Parkway: R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet Singalong”