Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
starring: Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, David Oyelowo, Macy Gray
written by: Lee Daniels and Pete Dexter
directed by: Lee Daniels
MPAA: Rated R for strong sexual content, violence and language
starring: Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Rebel Wilson, Skylar Astin, Adam DeVine, John Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Banks, John Benjamin Hickey
written by: Kay Cannon
directed by: Jason Moore
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sexual material, language and drug references
Please don’t read this post until you’ve already seen Rian Johnson’s excellent film, Looper. I’m about to spoil the heck out of it. There are some lingering questions about this movie (most of them crazy theories) that I want to discuss with someone, so I’m asking you, the Internet, to discuss it with me. If you click to read more, I’m going to assume you’ve seen it. Click below to reveal spoilers. Continue reading “Click to Reveal Spoilers: Questions About What Happened in Rian Johnson’s “Looper””
Looper, the ingenious new sci-fi drama from writer/director Rian Johnson (Brick), has one hell of a setup. The year is 2044, and time travel hasn’t been invented yet — but it will be. And when it is, it immediately becomes illegal. But in the bombed-out dystopian American future of Johnson’s imagining, time travel’s illegality just means powerful crime syndicates are the only ones with access to it. Due to implanted tracking devices, disposing of bodies in the future is impossible. So the mobsters dispatch their targets back to 2044, bound and hooded, where they are immediately shot and killed by assassins known as “loopers,” who then incinerate the remains. But a new crime boss known as The Rainmaker has risen to power, and he is determined to “close the loops” by finding the future versions of the assassins from 2044, sending them back in time and having them killed — by the younger versions of themselves. Got that? The loopers are understandably perturbed by this, and a moment’s hesitation can lead to the older version of themselves escaping and creating quite a time-space conundrum. Such is the case with Joe, played in 2044 by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and in the future by Bruce Willis.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interviews: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rian Johnson on “Looper””
End of Watch is unlike any cop movie we’ve seen before. Its distinguishing traits range from its texture — the film is shot and edited to resemble a pulse-poundingly visceral “found footage” documentary — to its thoroughly realized characterizations of LAPD officers Brian (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike (Michael Peña), thrill-chasing partners and best friends who have a tendency to run toward the action while others run away from it. The film plays out like a feature-length episode of COPS as written by Aaron Sorkin or David Mamet; its substance comes from the palpable bond between Brian and Mike, which plays out in a series of remarkably authentic-feeling conversations we watch them have as they drive around on patrol, waiting for that next call, never knowing if they’ll be getting a cat out of a tree or walking into gunfire. This naturalistic and wholly believable quality comes both from the direction and script of David Ayer (Harsh Times) and the committed performances of Gyllenhaal and Peña, with whom Ayer rehearsed for several months before shooting the film to get their chemistry just right. Anna Kendrick and Natalie Martinez are heartfelt and dynamic as the officers’ better halves.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Michael Peña and Natalie Martinez on “End of Watch””
starring: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Matthew Lillard, Robert Patrick
written by: Randy Brown
directed by: Robert Lorenz
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for language, sexual references, some thematic material and smoking
starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Jesse Plemons, Ambyr Childers, Rami Malek, Laura Dern, Patty McCormack
written and directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
MPAA: Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity and language
starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Bill Paxton, Gloria Stuart, Frances Fisher, Kathy Bates
written and directed by: James Cameron
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for disaster related peril and violence, nudity, sensuality and brief language
Ira Sachs’ Keep the Lights On is the luminously wrenching chronicle of a ten-year relationship between two men, Erik (Danish actor Thure Lindhardt) and Paul (Zachary Booth, best known as Glenn Close’s antagonistic son Michael on Damages). Erik is a sensitive and open-hearted documentary filmmaker, while the more reserved Paul has a successful job as a lawyer at a major publishing house. After meeting at random through a gay party line (remember those?), the two form an instant connection that long outlasts what could easily have ended as a one-night stand. There is, however, a problem: Paul is a drug addict. And not just any drug. Despite his lucrative white-collar Manhattan life, Paul is a crack addict. Another problem: Erik is in love with Paul, and doesn’t know how to respond to his addiction except by continuing to invest in their relationship. And so the stage is set for one of the most assured independent films of 2012, and arguably the most powerful American gay relationship drama since Brokeback Mountain.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Zachary Booth and Ira Sachs on “Keep the Lights On””
In For A Good Time, Call…, Ari Graynor and Lauren Anne Miller star as Katie and Lauren, sworn enemies forced to become roommates out of financial necessity. Fun-time Katie has been occupying her grandmother’s gorgeous rent-controlled Gramercy Park apartment since she semi-recently passed away, but the rent control is about to expire and her handful of odd jobs (including working for a phone sex line) won’t cover the new rent. Meanwhile, conservative Lauren finds herself unexpectedly homeless and in desperate need of housing. Their mutual gay best friend, Jesse (Justin Long), suggests they get over their long-standing feud and move into Katie’s apartment together, and the two begrudgingly agree. But when Lauren discovers that Katie has been doing freelance phone sex work, she has a business-minded brainstorm: wouldn’t it be much more profitable if they just started their own phone sex company?