Maybe it was a little too soon to proudly proclaim rock not dead- this year dragged its blue suede shoes pretty bad and left its electro shit all over the carpet. Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but even in the minor leagues it seems that interest has faded for guitar-lick based music and metal…
Dear Gentle Reader, So much has happened to us this year. Is God angry with us? He seems to be angry. But remember that, like beer, he provides millions of hours of stories to mollify us, to soothe us, and brush our hair out of our eyes. Perhaps a new fear tingles just behind your…
Sicario has one of those rare trailers that absolutely nail the the tone without giving anything in particular away. It communicates the lurking violence and confusion of the drug war by taking pieces from No Country for Old Men and Miss Bala, displaying a film that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border to illustrate people on either…
One of the most enduring mysteries of our time is whether Ridley Scott is any good. Often cited as a visionary director, he has pounded out classic after classic. On the other hand, he has shredded some of our monomyths into forgettable pulp, practically eliminating stories that had survived in the public imagination for eons…
Movie season is about to start in earnest, so here’s your last chance to call in sick and catch up with those streaming titles before you’ll be back out on the street again giving hj’s for matinee tickets. Start up the old Netflixbox and get to work! Here’s a smattering of films you can find…
One of the interesting side affects of the ongoing remake craze in Hollywood is the fact that purity has become a problem. After a few too many half hearted reboots the audience has gotten wise to the mercenary rebranding of blank scripts. The ongoing arms race has finally brought us round to digging in the…
Before the cerebral no win situations expertly constructed in The Past and A Separation, the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi first cut his teeth on the looser social thriller About Elly. Here you can see many of the ideas that fill his later films, like the nature of shifting perceptions and shifting culpability. Although it is…
Documentaries tend to have a rather staid approach: force a story via narration, dramatize it with talking heads, and then sprinkle the snippets of primary sources you’ve managed to collect. This is especially common when the subject matter is done and gone. HBO’s newest dredging of rock’s past explores the fascinating celebrity of the man…
Bit Reviews is a space for the review of pint sized games, the mobile cousins to our beloved sedentary blockbusters. Many of these have free or cheap versions, but are they worth your time? Is that a classic game in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? All games were played on…
Director – Damien Szifron 122 Minutes 2015 (originally titled Relatos Salvajes) Wild Tales is a collection of six parables that examine human behavior in modern society. Tellingly, the opening credits are set to stills of predators with steely gazes or about to pounce. The link between human aggression and animalistic tendencies is a common…
It Follows is a simple horror film that is also quite remarkable, because it commits so well to using its singular concept as an extrinsic totem for fears about sexuality. Using the same overpowering synth soundtrack and languid moments that made Drive so appealing, the film constructs horror around the specter of consequences rather than…
Ever heard of Qwikster? Qwikster died before it ever truly lived. It was an errant idea from Netflix, who in the throes of spring cleaning passion wanted to cleave off its aging DVD division and make a clean break into the streaming frontier. It was hugely unpopular, prompting mass cancellations and bombing Netflix’s stock. It…
