Housebound (2014) Kylie is an angry, destructive, juvenile delinquent who gets sentenced to house arrest after a botched ATM robbery. She is forced to move back into her childhood home with her mother and stepfather, and to make matters worse the house might be haunted. Kylie is placed under house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet enforcing her confinement. This turns out to be every bit of a bad punishment for her mother and stepfather as it is for her….
The Little Death (streaming on Netflix) Taken from the french “La Petite Mort” which describes “the brief loss or weakening of consciousness” or for my American movie going audience “I’ll have what she’s having”. I’m glad I don’t have to try and pronounce the “La Petite Mort” because I sound stupid when I speak french correctly, and a complete idiot when I get it wrong, which is most of the time. And speaking of stupid, there is nothing that makes…
Wildlike (2014) Netflix Streaming While her mom is off-line in an in-patient treatment center Mackensie must move to Alaska and live with her uncle whom she hasn’t seen since she was little. Unfortunately living with her uncle is less than ideal and being a teenager she decides to forgo civilization and try roughing it in the Alaskan outback. Luckily for her she finds an older male hiker that she latches unto and forms an interesting relationship. This is a fun little…
I love time travel movies. They are fun, they can be great, and they can be silly. I believe they exist in their own genre, and not necessarily a subset of science-fiction, since many exist without any scientific rationale and or weird time traveling equipment. Many are built on the case of a single what-if. What if I could go back in time but only if I am naked like in The Terminator (1984) or what if I could travel back in…
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) A girl walks home alone, a boy searches for his stolen cat, a drug addict jones for a fix, and a drug dealer mistreat everyone he meets. Also a strange quiet girl might be a vampire. If this is your first foray into contemporary Iranian cinema you might be a little confused by this quiet/still/strange little black-and-white film, but stick with it and your time investment will be shortly repaid. This film…
The Babadook (2014) If Dr. Seuss and Edgar Allan Poe combined forces to publish a children’s book it would be The Babadook. A fiendishly clever pop-up book in all black and white that tells of a dark force called Mister Babadook that won’t leave after entering your house. This book appears among the stacks of bedtime books and is accidentaly read by the mother. The mother and son never make it through the first reading when little Samuel is scared half-to-death…
Boyhood (2014) The critics all loved Boyhood, and for once they’re not wrong. The director Richard Linklater took 12 years to make a movie that has the look and feel of a documentary, but is very much a work of fiction. It feels like non-fiction because it contains much drama, but very little plot. At almost three hours running time it was a little long, but worth the effort. Linklater’s experiment involved taking a six year old male actor and filming him…
Gone Girl (2014) Why would anyone want to get married? Love, right? Children, could be. Money, yes there are financial advantages. Sex, certainly. Fear, maybe. Fear of being alone? Balanced against the fear of loss of independence? The big question is this “Is this person really who they say they are?” After watching Gone Girl most married people will probably sleep with one eye open and one foot on the floor. If a couple is planning a wedding they might just…
Maleficent Bad guys wear black, are ugly, torture small animals, and are just downright mean, right? When someone’s name actually means evil, you should be able to count on them to be 100% despicable. But these days everything is complicated, without blacks and whites, just shades of gray. Good guys have bad habits, and bad guys are likable and have a backstory that explains, if not justifies, their evil ways. This new retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty shines the spotlight on…
The Lego Movie Without exaggeration The Lego Movie is the best fantasy film since Lord of the Rings and Star Wars combined. Now that I have your attention allow me to backpedal. The Lego Movie is funny, fast paced, and leaves you humming the “Everything is Awesome” song all the way home. The Lego universe is filled with amazing animation that will delight young and old. Kids like it, and adults like it more. Emmet is just an ordinary Joe trying to make his…