Bad times at this hotel make for good times at the cinema
A disparate trio of guests (from l., Jon Hamm, Jeff Bridges, and Cynthia Ervio) wait to check in to Lake Tahoe’s El Royale hotel.
Mad Men fans still mourning the end of that show have reason to rejoice: Jon Hamm revisits the late ‘60s in Bad Times at the El Royale, a period noir mystery that has stylistic echoes of Matthew Weiner’s acclaimed series. Imagine if Don Draper were a southern appliance salesman (still with a deep secret, of course) instead of a New York ad man, and you’ve got a sense of Hamm’s role here. But Hamm’s return to a 1969 persona is just one small reason to see this well-crafted and well-acted thriller, which has retro style and clever twists to spare.
Let your honesty shine, shine, shine… Except when it doesn’t, like in this phony, affected picture
Thomas (Callum Turner) confronts Johanna (Kate Beckinsale), his father’s mistress.
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“
It’s the week between Pride Weekend and the Fourth of July Weekend. A chance to catch your breath.
Speaking of catching things, let’s talk about what you can catch in this week’s shows. What we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area includes: ogres, lifers, (sc)avengers, The DudeandThe Iguana.
So, we’re going to do the preview now. Doing the preview now. Preview is go and now we go do the preview now. Previewwww.
Spinning Platters film critics present their top 10 films of 2016
Spinning Platters film critics Carrie Kahn and Chad Liffmann each share their ten favorite films of 2016. Here is Carrie’s list, presented, unlike last year’s alphabetized list, in descending rank order. And you can check out Chad’s list here to see which one of us you agree with more!
10.) Nocturnal Animals
Tony (Jake Gyllenhaal, middle) arrives at a possible crime scene with lawman Bobby Andes (Michael Shannon, r.).
Sometimes the story-within-the-story convention can be confusing or feel gimmicky, but in this visually stunning picture from fashion designer turned filmmaker Tom Ford, the technique works to terrific effect. Amy Adams, as a woman haunted by a decision she made years ago, reads a manuscript sent to her by her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal), and that story comes alive on screen in the form of family man Tony (Gyllenhaal again) and his confrontation with some dangerous, deranged miscreants. Ford’s keen aesthetic vision and sharp performances by Adams, Gyllenhaal, and Michael Shannon as a tenacious lawman combine to make this brutally poetic but utterly captivating film one of the year’s most definitively unusual. (You can also read my full-length review here.)
Brothers Tanner (Ben Foster, l.) and Toby (Chris Pine) come up with a plan to save their family’s West Texas farm.
Actor turned screenwriter Taylor Sheridan proved he had a knack for conveying the rhythms and feeling of the American southwest with his award-nominated debut feature screenplay for last year’s gritty drug smuggling crime drama Sicario. The success of that debut was no fluke, as we see here in Hell or High Water, Sheridan’s new, follow up screenplay. A similarly southwest-set blend of western and crime drama, the picture rivals the Coen Brothers’ Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men as a modern day, quintessentially American morality tale. Continue reading “Film Review: Hell or High Water“
Looked good on the drawing board; looks terrible up on the screen.
“Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!” – Jeff Bridges in Seventh Son
When a movie is supposed to be released in February, you worry a bit about the quality. The best movies don’t usually come out in the dumping grounds of January and February. When a movie is supposed to come out in February of 2013, but is finally released in February of 2015, that’s a big worry. The best movies usually don’t sit on the shelf for two years. But anyone seeing the trailer or the story of Seventh Son isn’t expecting much more than some tight world building, clever and maybe funny dialog, and some cool special effects set pieces. On those counts, how does Seventh Son deliver?
No, the F-Line isn’t supposed to be this close to the MUNI bus.
Post-Election Day we have a panoply of excellent concerts coming to The Bay Area this week. Shows of all kinds. We have shows that are avenging! And dance-y! Secretive! And lemony! Metal! And even including the magic of public transportation.
It’s wonderful that there are so many kinds of shows ’round here and so many buses to take you to them.
R.I.P.D. is a good reminder of how similar movies used to be better.
Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds are ready for all the terrible CG creatures coming their way.
– What do you call an undead police force? – The R.I.P.D. The Rest In Peace Department. – Ha! – They would be like the Men in Black. – Yeah. Except instead of aliens, they’d be fighting hell’s escapees.
(…to be continued)
Although R.I.P.D. is based on a comic book series of the same name, first published in 1999 (after Men in Black), I can easily imagine the concept for this movie arising in the above fashion. I haven’t read the source material, and therefore can’t speak to it, but it’s a bit too easy to find the parallels between R.I.P.D. and MIB; every character, plot turn, and joke from the former has a close equivalent in the latter. It’s surprising that we don’t see the MIB writers getting credited for the R.I.P.D. story or screenplay. Perhaps I’m being too harsh. But for the sake of argument, perhaps extra time should’ve been spent polishing what ends up being a cheap clone of a concept already executed to a much more satisfying degree. The characters in R.I.P.D. aren’t well developed, the special effects look gummy at best, and the plot doesn’t take any unexpected turns.
I’m a fan of the original 1982 movie TRON, even though I’m aware it’s kinda crappy. So I’ve been following the TRON: Legacy hype pretty closely for the last few years. And when I was sent Daft Punk’s TRON: Legacy Original Soundtrack for review, I immediately emailed our lead film reviewer, Jason LeRoy, and called dibs when he got his tickets for a preview screening. Then I began listening to Daft Punk’s film score to get myself psyched. And it worked. I was psyched. Continue reading “Album Review (with bonus movie talk): Daft Punk — TRON: Legacy Original Soundtrack”
