The Martian‘s logline sounds like Castaway in space – a lone hero stranded in a remote location, cut off from civilization and desperate to find a way home. (more…)
Jessica Chastain
A Most Violent Year Review
A Most Violent Year (2014)
Dir: J.C. Chandor
What’s in a title? The slow-burning procedural A Most Violent Year is a misnomer on par with Naked Lunch (especially in light of some people’s literal interpretation), although it does evoke a particular unease that is sustained throughout. Writer-director J.C. Chandor’s third feature film takes place during the winter of the most violent year on record in New York City, 1981, and traces the Horatio Alger-like birth of The American Dream for one enterprising couple. (more…)
Interstellar Review
Interstellar (2014)
Dir: Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan’s latest opus is an imaginative science fiction yarn married to a familial narrative about fatherhood, human ambition, and the propagation of the species. Remarkable visual effects and breathtaking action brush up against groan-worthy dialogue to create a whiplash experience, where one moment a parent teacher conference devolves into a literal examination of The American Dream, followed by a thrilling representation of that bootstrapping spirit as a spaceship rockets into space to save all of mankind. Despite occasionally great turns of phrase (“Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.”), Nolan works best when he shows instead of tells. (more…)
Glen On Film 