Author Archives: Hard in the City

Pigs & ‘Mud’: The Kick-Off To A Sundance Summer

Posted on by
Reply

upstream-color-pigs-mud

Summer is the season for blockbusters, of course, but there also must be a little counter-programming for those of us less inclined to see Fast & Furious 6 or Star Trek Into Darkness. Nearing the end of May I’ve yet to see a summer blockbuster, not because they’re totally unappealing but merely because they’re not that compelling. I already know just what I’ll get from Iron Man 3 or The Great Gatsby, and while I might mildly enjoy those things, I highly doubt they’ll inspire me.

But the indies? Now there’s a mixed bag of a different sort. For those of us blessed with theaters willing to play them, the independent titles being released this summer offer all kinds of diversity. If I have a pretty good idea what I’ll get if I walk into The Hangover III, I had no idea what the hell I was in for with Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color. That’s a good thing — for me, at least, if not the majority of the filmgoing public. (They tend to reject surprises.) While I can’t say there’s more than one or two major (potential) summer blockbusters that have caught my eye in 2013, there are a slew of smaller films I’m looking forward to. I guess you could say I’m looking forward to a quiet, moody summer.

Here are the first three.

Continue reading →

Mean Women: Is ‘Bachelorette’ A Sequel To ‘Mean Girls’?

Posted on by
Reply

mean-girls-bachelorette Remember Mean Girls?

Of course you do. You’ve been quoting it since 2004.

On Wednesdays, you say: “On Wednesdays we wear pink.” On October 3, you ask what day it is. If someone tries to make fetch happen, you snap: “Stop trying to make fetch happen! It’s not going to happen.” You will never eat toaster strudel without thinking of its inventor.

In other words, you’re too gay to function.

Continue reading →

The Year I Gave Up On The Oscars

Posted on by
Reply

jennifer-lawrence-trips(I know, it’s Thursday, and your tolerance for Oscar discussion was likely exhausted by Tuesday morning. But I’m still detoxing, so just let me get this out of my system.)

It used to be like Christmas, except it lasted even longer. From Thanksgiving or so all the way into late February, or even March, it was Oscar, Oscar, Oscar. Before there was internet, there were splashy articles in Entertainment Weekly. Interviews with the nominees, predictions of who would win… I was removed from it all. Just a spectator.

But every year I learn a little more about how it all really happens.

Continue reading →

Not-Oscars 2013: The Year’s Best Performances

Posted on by
Reply

(Originally published at JustinPlusSeven on January 10, 2013.)

best-performances-of-the-year-2012 You, dear reader, have the honor of reading this in the future, after the Oscar nominations have been announced.

But I am writing from this from the near past, before we know which five contenders are fighting it out in each category.

Of course, some are shoo-ins; there are only a very small handful of slots that are anybody’s guess at this point, including one in Best Supporting Actress that could really go to anybody and a bit of confusion in Best Supporting Actor as well. Best Actor and Actress, meanwhile, are mainly both six-person races that must be whittled down. Who will be sacrificed ― Bradley Cooper, John Hawkes, or Joaquin Phoenix? Emmanuelle Riva, Quvenzhane Wallis, or Marion Cotillard?

(You future readers are probably laughing at me, because instead, it was an unexpected sweep by the casts of What To Expect When You’re Expecting, Battleship, and The Odd Life of Timothy Green in all major categories.)

Continue reading →

The Tens: Best Of Film 2012

Posted on by
Reply

holy-motors-motion-captureIt’s Oscar time!

As usual, the Academy Awards are poised to make some very wrong decisions this year. So as usual, I am prematurely correcting them by releasing my Top Ten of the year.

That year is 2012, of course — real film critics release such lists at the end of December or beginning of January, but since I have numerous other obligations, you get it in late February, once I’ve had a chance to catch up with nearly all eligible films.

Continue reading →

Well Played, Netflix: ‘House Of Cards’ Chapters 1-3

Posted on by
Reply

(Originally posted on Justin + 7.)

HOUSE-OF-CARDSI figured I’d be writing something about the Oscars today, as I normally would do a few days before the big show, but since I have been covering them since the nominees were announced anyway — and particularly heavily this week — I have almost nothing left to say. (Plus, I’m still in denial about a few of the big winners.)

So let’s talk about TV. TV? Well, it’s sort of TV. Now movies are being released on VOD, meaning you watch them on television. And Netflix released House Of Cards Season One in its entirety all at once, like a movie. So what’s the difference between movies and TV anymore? Is there one? Or is House Of Cards just one long-ass movie?

Continue reading →

Flip ‘Side’: Soderbergh Turns Genre On Its Head Again

Posted on by
Reply

side-effects-pills Is Steven Soderbergh one of Hollywood’s least appreciated filmmakers?

On the one hand, the man has achieved his share of success. He won an Oscar for Traffic, he helmed the commercially successful Ocean’s Eleven trilogy, and several of his earlier works are adored by critics — Out Of Sight perhaps most of all. The man consistently puts out solid product, with only a couple of titles that have been adject artistic failures. (Ocean’s Twelve was particularly dismal.) Yet it seems we take him for granted. Maybe that’s because his movies tend to be more like genre exercises than passion projects; he executes them so expertly, and yet we rarely (if ever) feel his beating heart behind the story and characters. He always seems a tad removed from the films he’s made, whether or not that is actually the case.

Continue reading →

Reel Breakers: A Single Cinephile’s Recipe For A Blue Valentine

Posted on by
Reply

(Originally posted on Justin + 7.)
27-dresses-melancholiaHow important is cinematic compatibility in a relationship?

For most, it’s probably nowhere near the top of the list. Intelligence, looks, hygiene, values, spirituality… there are a whole lot of other compatibilities that take priority.

But not for me! I have a cinematic agenda. I don’t often watch a movie just to, you know, unwind. A lot of people put in a DVD to stop thinking, but that’s when I start. I can’t help it. I was a film major, and that means movies on dates is serious business. It’s like taking a lawyer to court on a first date and asking them to not have an opinion. Or inviting someone who went to med school to an open-heart surgery. Think that will be relaxing?

Continue reading →

‘Django’ Fuck Yourself: Oscar’s Also-Rans

Posted on by
Reply

django-unchained-blue-suit-whip-jamie-foxxWell, I finally saw Django Unchained, and where to begin? I avoided it for quite some time because it seemed most everyone had already seen it, and a Tarantino film is not a thing I like to embark on alone. For one, I’d heard about the over-the-top violence, which seemed like a thing best taken in with a friend or loved one; also, Tarantino films tend to prompt a good debate — I fondly remember a two-hour post-Kill Bill Vol. 2 discussion at a Brazilian restaurant with two compadres.

Django Unchained is no different. In fact, it’s hardly a departure for Tarantino, but rather nestled right at home between the nods toward blaxploitation of early works like Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, the genre mish-mash of the Kill Bill movies, and the revisionist history of Ingloruious Basterds. It’s maybe the most Tarantino movie of them all.

Continue reading →