Elysian Air
Bio: Film is an art form, and although I critique under a very harsh standard, I also intend on evaluating a film on its merit as well, even if it's only in the context of its basic motivations. The numerical rating system is inadequate and it is only meant to serve as an approximation. The mini-reviews also only reflect a fraction of what can be said, but I think this limitation is what makes writing them so fun and challenging. The appraisal of art isn't an entirely logical affair, and oftentimes there's a certain madness in personal subjectivity. The beauty is that within this chaotic realm of labyrinthine tastes and predilections there is a passion for intellectual satisfaction.
Recent Ratings
Check out Elysian Air's...
| 90 71% | True Grit (2010) - Rated 23 Dec 2012
"It's a classical Western in many respects, but with the Coens at the helm it's by no means a standard Western even if it's the closest to genre purity they've gone. The craftsmanship at display is incredible, it's almost as if we are genuinely transported to the times depicted, like all good period films should aspire to achieve. It's also quite funny, but it never seems like some tawdry comedy. The narrative is much simpler than the Coen's previous Western masterpiece but doubly enjoyable."
|
| 90 71% | The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - Rated 23 Dec 2012
"I don't think that a musical has ever been as potent as this stop-motion fugue on holidays. Jack Skellington's boredom with his Halloween crown, discovery and obsession with Christmas, then eventual usurpation of Santa Claus's throne is done so adroitly through the use of song and intricate animation that it's difficult to overstate the genius at display here. It has all the makings of a modern fable that has always existed as part of the history of our holidays."
|
| 92 78% | Southland Tales (2007) - Rated 23 Dec 2012
"There are so many relevant themes in this film that it threatens to contort itself into at once a chaotic paean to the military-industrial-complex to a complete indictment of conservative ideology, then back again entangled into the absurdist, indifferent, black comedy of social satire. At times menacingly dystopian and relentlessly eccentric, Southland Tales refuses to settle into the familiar in its attempt to be everything and nothing at once. An incredibly beautiful incoherent film."
|
| 71 34% | Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) - Rated 23 Dec 2012
"A rather simplistic comedy in the coming-of-age vein that runs by the numbers, never taking any substantial risks. It's most salient feature is the Abramowitz's conscious attempt to assimilate into a higher class, to taste some of the finer things, but also sacrifice certain comforts in order to benefit the family as a whole. Class never takes center stage however; the main theme seems to be the importance of familial relationships, bonding the nuclear family unit into an inseparable whole."
|
| 32 8% | After Porn Ends (2010) - Rated 23 Dec 2012
"The more interesting segments of this documentary are cut far too short whereas the least interesting interviews extend the furthest. It would have served better if Wagoner hadn't taken such a pseudo-objective approach of the subject and actually dived viciously into the true motivations that these girls feel they need to enter the pornography industry. Some of this is actually touched upon by a few of the girls but there's no connective tissue or wider context."
|
| 75 43% | Bernie (2012) - Rated 23 Dec 2012
"A delicious black comedy that toys with real events in order to foster a quasi-documentary quality that blends seamlessly into the catalog of Southern personalities. It's also something of a character study in many respects. Accolades must be given to Jack Black who delivered a flawless performance of such a wonderfully eccentric character. And there's much to be said about the actual events that inspired this film: it's quintessential small town Americana in all its darkness and perversity."
|
| 65 25% | The Grey (2012) - Rated 23 Dec 2012
"There's an absence in American cinema of the theme of hopelessness. And while this film plays a part in remedying this situation it's not the particularly savage tonic that the cinematic terrain needs before it's mercilessly torn apart. Aside from a few philosophical diversions (invoking the Christian God for help only to be met with silence) The Grey isn't much of an intelligent film. Although perhaps it's the start of a trend where escapism crashes into its own icy demise."
|
| 60 17% | The Night of the Hunted (1980) - Rated 23 Dec 2012
"Whenever the plot fades from the conservatively opaque into overwrought sentimentality it has the feel of a mystery torn apart at the seams. There's a whole landscape ripe with the ideas of memory loss, agency, emotional legitimacy, etc --
and while this film made use of a few of these in moderate quantities there's definitely a feel that the coarse aesthetics could have positively made use of the more creative aspects without degrading the fantastique cerebral experience."
|
| 74 42% | The King's Speech (2010) - Rated 12 Dec 2012
"I have very little sympathy for monarchism, but I certainly enjoy this film as a historical drama since it universalizes the King's plight into a lovely fable of overcoming a potentially fatal impediment. In order to strike all the relevant notes the film has to culminate into a powerful finale, a neat resolution that comes full circle with the failed speech in the introduction. And fortunately with the aid of the regal allegretto of Beethoven's 7th symphony this scene is especially poignant."
|
| 73 39% | Whip It (2009) - Rated 08 Dec 2012
"A somewhat feminist account of the melodramatic sports comedy. Barrymore makes roller derby seem intriguing with an underground grittiness and charm, perhaps even more exciting than it really is with its indie chic aesthetic. Page plays a refreshing reversal of her usual roles with Bliss Cavendar, an innocent teenage girl that yearns for some excitement in the form of a marginally cool sport that she excels at. I don't particularly care for the genre but I'll watch anything with Page in it."
|
