Veteran director and screenwriter Edgar Wright takes an unconventional approach to the typical heist film with "Baby Driver," yet fails to deliver much beyond high-powered car chases and a stellar soundtrack. The eponymous protagonist Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a getaway driver with a heart of gold, reluctantly working for crime kingpin Doc (Kevin Spacey) to pay off an old debt. A childhood car crash took his parentsâ lives and left him with tinnitus, so Baby drowns out the ringing in his ears ...
âI, Daniel Blakeâ is a moving look at the quagmire that is the welfare system, breaking through the callousness of glib terms like âwelfare queen.â There is no crown or glory in battling an amorphic bureaucracy for something as basic as oneâs right to exist and live. British comedian Dave Johns stars as Daniel Blake, a 59-year-old carpenter from Newcastle, UK, who is seeking public assistance while recovering from a major heart attack. He must navigate a byzantine system of two hour ...
After a series of poorly reviewed movies for the DC Extended Universe, largely helmed by director Zach Snyder, actress and soon-to-be mega-star Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins pick up the slack with âWonder Woman.âAlthough Gadotâs Wonder Woman appeared in Snyderâs âBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,â and is set to appear in this fallâs âJustice Leagueâ film, this is the first stand-alone film for the beloved comic character. The film tells the origin story of the Amazonian ...
By Elisabeth Holmes
Last updated: 05/05/17 10:00am
âThe Dinnerâ tells the tale of two couples who meet over dinner to discuss what to do about their sons who are cousins and commit a serious crime. The conversation deepens and more information is shown and discussed as each new dinner course arrives. While the plot is an interesting idea, âThe Dinnerâ ultimately loses the viewer and fails to entertain. This mystery/drama is shown through the perspective of Paul Lohman (played by Steve Coogan), who is a mentally-ill retired history teacher. ...
Matt Tyrnauerâs new documentary âCitizen Jane: Battle for the Cityâ is a story about Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. Jacobs's focus on organic growth clashes with Moses's goal of redeveloping New York City from the ground up during the 1950s and 60s. The film delves into these two contrasting visions of the city's future.Moses, a developer with authority from city government, is seen as someone who has become corrupted over time and is solely focused on making money. His focus on rebuilding ...
âAngkor Awakens: A Portrait of Cambodia,â is a documentary focusing on the Cambodian genocide led by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and its effect on present day Cambodia. The documentary focuses on the loss of culture and the Cambodian people coming to terms with their own history. Director Robert H. Lieberman portrays how the Khmer Rouge continues to affect everyday life in Cambodia.The issues I have with âAngkor Awakensâ mostly surrounds my dislike of documentaries. The directors did not create ...
Journalismâs worst kept secret is the fact that print newspapers are a dying business. Something that has been somewhat of a secret is the directly-correlated dying obituary section.Vanessa Gouldâs âObitâ dives into this world of obituary writing; what many would, undoubtedly, perceive as a dour subject. Gouldâs documentary, however, never feels sad or down; instead, it is lively and celebratory of obit writing as a whole.This documentary focuses in on the team of obit writers at The New ...
Director Ben Wheatleyâs attempt at a B-movie shoot âem up comedy is almost a complete, for lack of a better phrase, misfire, that is is as unoriginal as it is repetitive. Set in Boston in 1978, âFree Fireâ is comprised of essentially one long scene at a warehouse where an illegal gun deal unsurprisingly goes awry. Despite an interesting cast that includes the always excellent Brie Larson and Cillian Murphy and the charming and funny Armie Hammer, occasionally artful cinematography, and a ...
âThe Lost City of Z,â director James Grayâs latest film, based on the 2009 non-fiction bestseller of the same name by author David Grann, follows British explorer Percy Fawcett at the dawn of the 20th century as he manages family, duty to country and his wanderlust for a mysterious Amazonian city. As a soldier in the British Army, Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) is unexpectedly whisked away by the Royal Geographic Society to Bolivia in order to chart a new map to prevent a war with neighboring Brazil. ...
Take one of the most up and coming culinary hubs in the world with bright, ethnic flavors and colors and put it in front of the backdrop of a major political hot topic, and you get âIn Search of Israeli Cuisine.â This modern food documentary follows James Beard award winning chef Michael Solomonov to answer the one question he has always pondered; what is Israeli cuisine? But what the audience really walks away with is a new perspective on the infamous Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the possibility ...
