Directed by Brian De Palma Raising Cain is silly and extreme, a little deranged and certainly a lot of fun.  The best part of the film is the final ten minutes which on its own feels like an accomplishment since many movies struggle more as the story wears on and the intriguing premise wears thin. … Continue reading Raising Cain (1992)

Directed by Peter Berg Peter Berg's inclination is to make everything feel real.  There was an emphasis on doing so in his tv show, Friday Night Lights, and you can feel it again here in Patriot's Day.  Part of that intended realism is telling real stories.  Before this you had two other Mark Wahlberg/Peter Berg movies, Lone Survivor … Continue reading Patriot’s Day (2016)

Directed by Josh Trank I loved Chronicle when I first saw it back in 2012.  It's another found footage film, released at a time when such a genre wasn't quite played out, but now it feels quite limited and a little dull.  The concept, basically a superhero origin story told through found footage recordings, is an … Continue reading Chronicle (2012)

Directed by the Coen Brothers The Man Who Wasn't There is about Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton), but aside from an early, ill-advised plan to blackmail the man sleeping with his wife, Ed doesn't really do anything.  Ed's most defining characteristic is his silence, even towards his wife, and yet the film ends with a … Continue reading The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)

Directed by Frank Oz Death at a Funeral is a comedy about chaos and selfishness and finally family, because it's always nice to end on a positive.  The story centers around the funeral of a man who is mostly undefined, precisely because he's dead the whole time.  But somehow this man is enough of a … Continue reading Death at a Funeral (2007)

Directed by Sidney Lumet In The Verdict, Paul Newman plays Frank Galvin, a disgraced lawyer who determines his latest case to be his one shot at redemption.  The case comes from the sister of woman who has been in a vegetative state for years due to the administration of the wrong kind of anesthesia from a … Continue reading The Verdict (1982)

Directed by John Carney The title to Once could mean a variety of things, but within the movie it seems to me to imply the simple change from saying "no" to everything to saying "yes" to just one thing and getting out of your own way. As I write this I'm in Dublin for the first time, … Continue reading Once (2007)

Directed by John Lee Hancock The Founder is a run of the mill rags to riches story that places a familiar story arc onto something recognizable, in this case McDonald's.  A lot of movies are made in this fashion, telling more or less the same story but in a difference circumstance, using names or things … Continue reading The Founder (2016)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola Rumble Fish has really grown on me in the day or two since I've seen it.  It's one of those films that at first feels a little too slow, like the methodical storytelling isn't having the impact it's meant to, and instead you're just waiting for something underwhelming to happen. … Continue reading Rumble Fish (1983)

Directed by Brian De Palma Blow Out feels pulpy in the way I imagine much of De Palma’s early work does.  I can only compare it to The Wedding Party and Sisters, the former of which was a kind of experimental, slapstick, beautiful mess, and the latter of which was similarly pulpy, a little deranged, … Continue reading Blow Out (1981)