critic

Review – Rushmore (1998)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Armando Vanegas

With Bottle Rocket being a critical hit, it only made sense for another studio like Touchstone Pictures to come calling and give Wes Anderson the skills to become the filmmaker that he is today. Due to its larger budget and higher profile, it’s no doubt that Rushmore is truly a Wes Anderson movie. I remember it being the movie that introduced me to Wes Anderson. Because of his unique style, no movie was like it at the time to me. Not to mention that it stood out from many other high school movies of its time such as Can’t Hardly Wait or American Pie. He knows how to use his style to create an immersive world that’s so meticulously detailed that he’s able to flesh out the characters and the story in a more convenient and subtle way than other filmmakers would probably do. Watching it now was somewhat unexpected. While I don’t think I can tout it as the masterpiece I once did, it was still an entertaining movie.

Continue reading →

Review – Bottle Rocket (1996)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Armando Vanegas

Sometimes, I get bored reviewing new movies so for some reason, I wanted to go through all the Wes Anderson movies in chronological order in the meantime. It’s just something that gives me a challenge to do and maybe there will be unexpected feelings and unique thoughts I never saw coming. So, without further delay, let’s begin with his 1996 debut, Bottle Rocket. I remember this being a movie that got a lot of play on Comedy Central back in the day and it was always the kind of movie that I never felt compelled to watch when it’s on. Honestly, I was never impressed with the bits I’d seen, but there were always interesting sequences that made the rest of the movie worth it. So, in subsequent years, I would watch bits and pieces because there was sometimes nothing to watch on cable. When I last watched this movie, I rated this movie rather highly back when I was more of a snob when it came to movies. But as anyone who has read my Phantom Thread review, I’ve decided to just to watch movies as their own individual self, judge them as their own thing no matter who’s involved in terms of the directors, the writers, or the actors. Watching this again was interesting. As a movie directed by someone who would be later become one of the most idiosyncratic and quirky filmmakers of our time, younger middle school me who watched this on cable was right. Outside of a few well directed sequences, it’s fine.

Continue reading →

Review – Phantom Thread (2017)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Armando Vanegas

The 90’s independent film boom was quite a ride as there were so many unique voices that would be hard to replicate. Not only that, a lot of these filmmakers and their works just carried so much swagger to them that you had to impressed by how confident they came across. Many of them seemed to stay with made them work, but Paul Thomas Anderson seems to always want to challenge himself in a way that sets him apart from the pack as he seems to have a tendency to get out of his comfort zone. While I wasn’t crazy about his last movie Inherent Vice, it was still one of those movies that you had to admire for its weirdness even if it doesn’t totally come together. This was in some ways a return to form for him in some ways even if this isn’t a movie I can say that I totally could embrace. When I first saw this in the theater earlier this year, I remember being really impressed by how well made it was, but that’s to be expected from Anderson. This is still apparent on a second viewing. It’s also different and unpredictable in some ways so it had that going for it in addition to excellent performances from Daniel-Day Lewis and Vicky Krieps.

Continue reading →

Review – KIN (2018)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

Logan Myerz reviews the sci-fi/action flick KIN now available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital HD.

#Kin #KinMovie #MovieReview #Bluray

“Chased by a vengeful criminal, the feds and a gang of otherworldly soldiers, a recently released ex-con, and his adopted teenage brother are forced to go on the run with a weapon of mysterious origin as their only protection.”

Review – A Star is Born (2018)

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

by Kevin Muller

The word, remake, has become a dirty word in Hollywood. Whenever one is announced, people roll their eyes, and either totally ignore it or hand over their money in some type of curious shame. The new film, A Star is Born, is the third cinematic iteration of the popular story about a musician, in his decline, that finds both talent and hope in a young female aspiring singer. The pair this time are Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, who not only stars as the male lead, but directed, co-wrote, and produced this epic love story.

Continue reading →

Review – Macabre aka Rumah Dara (2009) **31 Days of Horror**

/ cinephellas / Leave a comment

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Comes to Indonesia

by Nile Fortner

A young group of naïve kids pick up a hitchhiking stranger and their kindness will lead to suffering and gore. We’ve seen this horror formula again-and-again in films. The 2009 Indonesian horror film Macabre does follow this similar formula and the usual clichés. However, Macabre is worth sinking your teeth into and delivers on the cannibal carnage.

Continue reading →