REVIEW: Attack The Block

When the inevitable robot uprising/zombie apocalypse/alien invasion occurs, you better hope that they land/rise from the dead/become self-aware in the ghetto. If they land in the suburbs or more affluent areas of town, we are all fucked. The kids in Joe Cornish's Attack The Block are rough-and-tumble enough that when it comes down to it, they will not hesitate to bash in a head when needed.

In contrast to practically every other film of the genre, our protagonists are inner-city youths whose hobbies include video games, mugging, and smoking pot. They aren't some gang of pretty high schoolers; they're just a gang. It's daring really. Rather than wallowing in the darkness of slum life, Cornish revels in the mischievousness of youth. Make no doubt about it, these kids are punks and if they were on one side of the street you'd likely cross over to the next. However, their trouble making lifestyle sets them apart from your typical sci-fi/horror heroes in a key way: these kids are pro-active. They know there is no military rushing in. There's no scientists trying to figure out why the alien are here and what their weaknesses are. They don't over think it. You run, you hide, you grab a weapon, you fight back. Where they are from you don't ask for help, you help yourself.

It shocks me that Joe Cornish is a first time feature film director. Nothing on screen looks like it belongs in an £8 million film. He squeezed every bit out of each pence and schilling. Cornish is more than a man who knows how to use a small budget. The action is perfectly paced and well shot yet he handles character nuance and the more delicate moments with the same ease. To add to the degree of difficult, the entire gang of misfits are all first time actors! As if all that is not impressive enough, take a look at the particulars: the creature design is unique, the use of sound is incredibly effective, and the storytelling is bold. I am predicting it right now: Joe Cornish is going to be on the director short-list from just about every big budget film from comic book properties to crazy animated adventures.

Ninja swords, foul mouthed 9 1/2 year olds, teenage decapitation, and a whole new vernacular to use. It has it all and just as importantly, it has serious mass public appeal. It's like Goonies meets Kids meets Critters. In short, I fucking loved Attack The Block and it needs your support. Word of mouth, social media, do what you can.

REVIEW: Hanna

Though it's marketed as a thriller, a Bourne film with a teenage girl in the lead (which it certainly is), at center mass, Hanna is a film about identity.Hanna is young and knows as little about her own life as she knows of the outside world. Likewise, the viewer is given no information and is forced to jump in immediately. In short, prepare to run. Keep up.

Something that struck me early on in Hanna is how it was out of place and time. How often have we seen the spy movie cliche of text ticked across the screen giving us a location. Be it a snowy forest and ramshackle home or a desert devoid of any unique characteristics, we are in a setting, not a location. It is discombobulating.

REVIEW: Sucker Punch

“Do you have a thirty page screenplay, a spacious closet, and think feminism is best represented in I Spit On Your Grave? Well, then here is one hundred million dollars. What I am thinking is we'll market the movie as "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns." That sounds good, right? What's that? A thirty page script is at most forty minutes of screen-time? I know how to mae it work: Slo-Mo!” It was a meeting like the one just imagined that birthed this vapid, misogynistic bastard child of The Secret and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow known as Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch

Be aware, some SPOILERS below. Do yourself a favor. Read them so you don't have to see them.

REVIEW: King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

This is partly a review. I was asked, as part of my film class, to write about a documentary. King of Kong was the natural choice. So if you read on, be prepared for mild spoilers and, well, a read more like a class paper. Either way, thought it might interest someone.

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

On the surface, Seth Gordon’s The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters seems like a joke. It follows two men, both involved in the world of competitive classic arcade gaming. It has already alienated a good sample of the potential audience with that choice. However, upon viewing you realize there is so much more. It may be about nerdy adults and Donkey Kong, but it serves as a microcosm for some surprisingly universal ideas. Its themes are so much a part of the American experience that, regardless of bias, prejudice, and assumption about its subject matter, it is hard to not love.

REVIEW: I Saw the Devil

I am a seasoned moviegoer. I own nearly 3000, see about 150 in theaters a year, and watch just as many at home. Duration, subject matter, depravity. They may keep some away, but not me. However, then I saw I Saw the Devil. My feelings are still complicated. I find it equal part exploitation and genius. Yet I'm not comfortable to define it as both.

South Korea is producing some of the most unique, invigorating, and.... disturbing films in recent memory. There seems to be a penchant for revenge. Oldboy / Park Chan-wook's Vengeance trilogy, Memories of Murder, and Mother all honor and subvert the revenge genre. They are also beautiful films, both in message and aesthetic.. Their film eye is sharp, vibrant, and always unique. Thus my expectation of I Saw the Devil. Certainly intriguing visually, I still battle with the potential message. I struggle because I am not even sure there is one. I think I'm latching on to it but quickly wonder if I'm just imposing an idea on it to explain the horror I am seeing.

REVIEW: Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids is a film about conflict. May not seem that way, but essentially, it both extols the virtues of small town naiveté while also warning about the motives of its "real American" inhabitants. It would seem like a tricky idea, but they pull it off effortlessl.

A by-product of the political polarization of the past decade has been the romanticization of the so-called "common man" and the "small-town." Infamously, Sarah Palin called this "the real America." Ed Helms's Tim Lippe is from there. Lippe is an amazingly sheltered young man who has been selling insurance since he was sixteen. After a bizarre accident, he gets called up to the “big” city, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the "big" insurance convention. As always, Ed Helms is oddly adorable. He is simple, but you'd never call him stupid. He is so innocent that you have to root for him. Though, there is evidence of the dangers of his lack of experience. He is so blissfully ignorant that he is untainted by common vices and by proxy living with integrity. Wholesome is his middle name. In many ways, he is an ideal of a life without meaningless distractions.

Project365, #27: Crawfish Shack Review

Last February, on Fat Tuesday, was the last time I had a crawfish boil. As anyone who has had one knows, a year is far too long between sucking on some heads. (Pause for "that's what she said") My friend Annie, a fellow lovers of all thing from the sea, had heard of Crawfish Shack. It was fairly new and featured on Scoutmob, which is quite an endorsement if you ask me. Busy schedules and such kept us from going in February, but the fateful day came. Oh yes it did.

There a few "truisms" I have found with good food. First, if it is in an unexpected place, it is going to be good. Sketchy looking buildings in the industrial part of town. The lone restaurant in a strip mall. Typically not a place one imagines to have good food, but that is wrong. The best chefs are often going out on a limb and cannot find the financial backers needed. So a locale that is cheap and/or off the beaten path will suffice. The second is simple: if there is Sriracha, better known as "cock sauce," on the table, start getting excited. As you can tell, Crawfish Shack fit both.

The four of us ordered: one pound of crawfish, a soft-shell crab po'boy, a fried oyster po'boy, and a combo order of catfish fillets and fried shrimp. Even better, all the prices were good. Even better better: the food was out of this world. I am a sucker for a po'boy. If it is on a menu chances are it will be my choice. The fried oysters were anything but gummy (as many can be when prepared poorly), the soft-shell crab made me want to eat spiders, and the crawfish were as tasty as they were pretty.

Anyhow, I'm not 100% but I think the place is BYOB. And be prepared, the line was steady the entire time and at typical peaks times I would prepare for quite a wait, both to order and to recieve your food. Such is the price for greatness.

You may notice that I only have a picture of the crawfish. The second I saw the po'boys there was no stopping me. The remoulade on them.... no words. I would drink it.

(4337 Buford Hwy, Suite 170 Atlanta, GA 30341)

REVIEW: Paul

The trio of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright has proven to be the triumph of nerdity. From Spaced to Shaun of the Dead to Hot Fuzz, their work has been reference heavy, both embracing and subverting genres and the fanboy identity as a whole, all the while reaching critical acclaim and financial success. With success they began to work separately, seeking their own path and perhaps attempting to establish an identity outside of their creative partners. It became clear to me that the largest talent lay with Edgar Wright. Perhaps it is just a matter of better choices, but his film, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World overshadows the multitude of mediocre and, frankly, identity-less projects Simon Pegg has done. He seemed to be the spark while Pegg/Frost were the timber. 

REVIEW: Rango

I have a hard time with animated films. I would not quite call it a prejudice, but outside of Pixar films, I am not likely to get excited about them. Animation is for the second decade of the 2000s what horror was for the first. Studios pump them out en masse because they make money and cost less. Generally speaking there is quantity without quality. Rango piqued my interest however. Gore Verbinski, director of the first two Pirates of the Caribbean films and the American remake of The Ring, helming a non-live action one was part of it. Ultimately though, it was the atmosphere. Not much of a fan of Johnny Depp, on the whole, however, seeing Rango wearing a shirt befitting of Raoul Duke caught me off guard and drew me to the theater.

Easily one of the biggest theatrical surprises in a long time. The character design was stupendous. I was fortunate to see it with sequential artists/cartoonists friends and for nearly the entire 107 minute runtime we were in awe. Within the first ten minutes, upon seeing a rundown armadillo, you know you are in for something more bizarre than the trailer would lead you to believe. Quirk rules as the odd vernacular and obtuse movements lead on. However, once you reach the town and are privy to the full scale of how much detail went into every single character, you see the master craftsmanship. A bar populated by characters that would rival Mos Eisley Cantina. A mid-air dogfight with exploding bats. A uniqueness to every animal in both look and personality. Something special was going on here.

Design aside....It is certainly a film that will go over many children's heads. It is essentially, without trying to hide it, Chinatown (complete with the Mayor dressed exactly like John Huston and with a plot about the control of a town's water supply) if made my Sergio Leone (complete with a "Clint Eastwood" cameo). The plot is thus very familiar. Which is okay. Plot is essential, but story is forward motion. The characters are fully realized and developed, so traipsing through familiar story-lines is okay when the world it happens in is foreign and intriguing.

I worry the film will not do well. It's a "hard-PG" and is lucky to get that. At times it is bizarre, which will alienate a good number of viewers, but for me was breath of fresh air. It is gorgeous to look at, completely charming, and its title character is "the only male on Earth with a maiden name." Truly a delight and I hope it gets its due.