Since making consistent posts to this blog has proven rather difficult, I thought I would scale back my ambition and try micro-posts. Here's a quick list of what I've been watching for the month of July, with some brief thoughts on each:
Hellraiser: Revelations: The last step in my friends' and mine's quest to see all the Hellraiser films. It's been one hell of a ride, and the vast majority of the films are a level of bad that induces a pain that Pinhead would be most pleased with. This last installment, allegedly made so that those who owned the movie making rights to the franchise could keep hold of them for a reboot down the road, is particularly awful.
Obvious Child: The Jenny Slate staring romantic comedy has moments of brilliance and the filmmakers should be commended for the frankly brave choice of addressing abortion in a down to earth way. There's a bit of good chemistry between Slate and her love interest, played by Jake Lacy. Unfortunately none of the film's positive elements come together in a way as to make the emotional experiences of the story very endearing.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: My second favorite film of the year so far. Dawn continues the story from Rise and expands on the ideas set forth in the first film in every meaningful way. Caesar, freed at the end of the Dawn, leads his family of intelligent apes while the last members of humanity fight to survive. This is a summer movie with a soul. There are fights, explosions, and big speeches, but all of it is contextualized in a compelling world with characters that evoke complex ideas and themes.
Stardust: Adapted from the novel by Neil Gaiman, this is a fantasy film I was interested in but overlooked when it originally came out. This is a fun movie for the most part, if a little long. Think a slightly darker Princess Bride.
Cheap Thrills: A South By Southwest hit when it premiered, this is a low concept, low budget film that seeks to shock and disgust. While it succeeds on those levels it lacks any real emotional depth, though you could argue that the filmmaker's weren't really going for that. Ultimately I finished the movie feeling as though I just watched a poor man's Coen brother's film.
Jodoroswky's Dune: Surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky set out in the mid 1970's to adapt Frank Herbert's science fiction classic, Dune. This is a fantastic documentary about what that vision would have looked liked, and why it was never realized.
