Writer-director Lee Kirk discusses his new film “Ordinary World,” the changes that come with having kids and turning 40, and working with Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong in the lead role. … More Lee Kirk on Directing ‘Ordinary World’
In the years following the widely praised Toy Story 3, the luster behind Pixar, the studio with the near perfect track record that was the envy of Hollywood, dissipated into the ether. It released its two worst films to date (Cars 2, Brave), a lightweight (albeit still fun) prequel (Monsters University), suffered major behind-the-scenes drama … More Inside Out
The Grand Budapest Hotel is unabashedly a Wes Anderson concoction that only he could create, as viewers of his previous seven films will quickly attest, and yet it’s a little bit different as well. The symmetrical compositions, color palette, detailed production design, meticulous camera shots, quirky antics and epic ensemble are all there, but this … More The Grand Budapest Hotel
The stories behind the at-risk youth in Short Term 12 may be fictional, but there is an element of truth contained within that unnervingly reverberates in an all too realistic fashion. It makes sense. Writer-director Destin Cretton spent two years working at a similar facility as seen in the film, helping him craft an environment … More Short Term 12
Revolution as change is never easy. It does not happen overnight. The societal foundation needs to be ripped apart so a new cornerstone can be set, an arduous and oftentimes extremely violent process. The most well known is America’s own Revolution, which lasted roughly 20 years and culminated in a bloody five-year war. But America’s … More The Square
The opening scene of The Past features a pair of characters in a busy airport terminal attempting to communicate through a glass partition. They’re not very successful, to no surprise, and it serves as a fitting thematic symbol for what The Past represents – the things in life that get in the way and make … More The Past
On paper, there’s absolutely no way Her should work as a dramatic film. A man falling in love with his operating system is a ludicrous, Pluto Nash-sized disaster-in-waiting at worst, a mildly entertaining, end-of-the-night SNL sketch at best. Yet, against all odds, the sheer creative genius of Spike Jonze pulls the concept together and makes … More Her
It’s been a long seven-year wait since Alfonso Cuarón’s last film, the masterful Children of Men. So needless to say, there is a lot of excitement for Gravity among the film community, especially considering Curaón spent the last four-plus years working tirelessly on it. However, the marketing of Gravity was a letdown, with the CG … More Gravity
Stephen Soderbergh has been contemplating early retirement for a few years and now, according to him, Side Effects will be his final theatrical release, at least for the time being. He has a film that will air on HBO later this year, and then after that, he’s moving on to the next phase of his … More Side Effects
Without a doubt, 2012’s most controversial film was Zero Dark Thirty, especially if you were a member of Congress. Torture has become one of the big moral issues of our time, one everybody has a strong opinion on, and therefore it was only logical something touching on it so directly would generate a heatedly split … More Zero Dark Thirty
Jonathan Bautts 