Big Miracle is a surprisingly honest and political tale of community that has a bunch of good performances in a compelling story of survival. [Read more...]
Best Songs of Summer 2011
09/13/2011 by Leave a Comment
The Fall is coming up on us soon, and with a new season comes great new music (Jacks Mannequin, Common, Drake, and Coldplay just to name a few). But until Autumn gets here, and in celebration of this past summer, we decided to put some of our favorite songs into one giant post. Just a note here: some of these songs are not from 2011, but still was enjoyable to listen throughout the blistering heat of this summer. Please feel free to post some of your favorite songs below, we’d love to get some feedback. 
Hope you enjoy the list, and check out these songs before the years up!
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Review: Going the Distance
09/03/2010 by Leave a Comment
Going the Distance is dirty R-rated romantic comedy that has a grounded and believable couple surrounded by a top notch supporting cast equals a funny and entertaining flick.
The film follows Erin and Garrett a new couple that meets over a game of Centipede and when they fall harder than expected they decided to keep the relationship going when Erin has to move back across the country. What follows is a realistic struggle as they cope with the distance, try to keep things alive, and deal with burdens of being 3000+ miles apart. Friends and family give advice as each end of the couple struggles with the sexual frustrations, loneliness, and communication problems of being three time zones a part. The struggle feels hard and is done very real and I can’t comment enough on how authentic they made the film feel.
Now Playing Review – Going the Distance
09/03/2010 by 1 Comment
Following the recent release of The Switch, it seems as if we have made yet another step in the right direction of the realistic romantic comedy with Going the Distance. Maybe not quite to the same extent as the former, but way better than that heightened, cookie cutter, romanticized nonsense, none-the-less.
When it comes to long distance relationships everyone always thinks that their love is stronger than the lack of proximity to their significant other, and Erin and Garrett are no exception. From the first day they knew that things couldn’t last because Erin would be moving back to California in six weeks, but quickly things escalate from “keeping it light.” Now they are stuck on opposite ends of the country with only texting, phone calls, and hope to keep them warm at night, wishing that eventually they will finally be able to live in the same city within the next year.
While together Drew Barrymore and Justin Long provide a great matching for this couple, working well off of each other (insert gossip about their on-again-off-again off-screen relationship here). Yet obviously relationships like this and the plans people have for them don’t always go according to plan. [Read more...]
Review: Everybody's Fine
12/04/2009 by Leave a Comment
Everybody’s Fine is an interesting look at family life for a widower but lacks any real plot or enlightening meaning to really make us admire it beyond its performances.
Kirk Jones’ film is a remake of an Italian film of the same name and stars Robert De Niro as said widower, Frank, who decides to spontaneously visit his children who are now spread all around the country after he fails to get them all to visit. As he heads out on to the road we learn that one of his sons, David, is in some sort of trouble in Mexico and his other children shuffle him along to one another keeping the issue a secret from him. David was the first child he visited, who obviously wasn’t home, and then he moves on to Amy, Robert, and Rosie in succession. And that is about the crux of the whole story and nothing much happens along the way leading to a rather dull plot, if you could call it that, to follow.
The most interesting and eventful stop is with his son Robert, who is played by Sam Rockwell, in which Frank gets a cold hard punch of truth when he finds that his son is not the aspiring conductor he was lead to believe by both his wife and Robert. It is hear it really begins to hit home with Frank and us that his kids aren’t entirely truthful and have a fairly poor connection with him. [Read more...]
Review: Whip It
10/02/2009 by Leave a Comment
Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut is a fun, humorous, and uplifting tale that appeals to all audiences with its themes about being yourself and not bashing anyone along the way and it is about as fun as a movie can get when it is firing on all cylinders.
Bliss Cavendar is a seventeen year old girl living under the tutelage of her mother in the world of beauty pageants and is quickly growing disinterested with the whole thing. Growing more and more into her own, Bliss is looking for something more up her ally. Not full of her self and never trying to set a trend, she is a quiet and gentle outsider when it comes to school but while visiting Austin she sees a group of roller derby girls promoting an event and quickly takes an interest to the sport. With her best friend Pash, the two head out for the big city to catch the event and Bliss becomes an enthralled by the event that unfolds. Upon discovering there are open tryouts for the league in a few weeks time, Bliss decides to bust out her old skates and start training to hopefully make a team. After a rough try out, her speed finds her a spot on the The Hurl Scouts with teammate like Maggie Mayhem, Smashley Simpson, Rosa Sparks, and Bloody Holly. Having to keep this world secret from her mom she leads a second life as a roller derby girl and even finds romance in a fan of the sport that helps her further discover herself. [Read more...]
Review: He's Just Not That Into You
02/17/2009 by Leave a Comment
This dramedy that is being sold as some silly romantic comedy is actually pretty serious and interesting look at relationships that works for the most part, outside vindicating the failures of some its characters in the end and warping young girl’s minds.
The film follows an ensemble of intertwining characters and couples, for instance Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, and Ginnifer Goodwin (yes three “jen”ifers) all work together and they gossip about their love life’s, Connelly and Aniston both are married or in a long term relationship, while Goodwin is the example of exactly how a girl should not act if she is trying to pursue a man, which connects us to a Kevin Connolly as they open the film on a date though he is already infatuated with Scarlett Johansson who has a chance encounter with Bradley Cooper who is Ben Affleck’s friend who is in a long time relationship with Jenifer Aniston to bring things full circle. Now the interconnections between these people come into play for an occasional twist here or there, but where the film works the best is in the examination of relationships and the courting process of males and females today. [Read more...]
