Michel Gondry’s The We and the I is a high-concept, low-budget portrait of the selfishness of teenagers. Aside from its introduction and a few anecdotal excursions, the entirety of the film takes place on a school bus. The setting ensures the film maintains a singular focus on teenage social dynamics; it’s an appropriate metaphor for…
Robert Redford gets lost in a dense sea of symbolism in All is Lost. My review of this impressive, if monotonous, film can be found at Cheated Hearts. 300: Rise of an Empire is more interested in 3D sprays of blood and conflicts – between fleets of ships and Eva Green/Sullivan Stapleton alike. My review…
In my interview with Tracks director John Curran, he emphasised the importance of the interior journey of Robyn Davidson (Mia Wasikowska), the young Australian girl who completed a solo trek across thousands of miles of Australian desert. That interior journey is a large part of what makes Tracks such an excellent film; the way Robyn…
I don’t like to read books before watching their cinematic adaptations, because I tend to come down more harshly on the film due to the baggage of expectations. Such is the case with Sam Mendes’ interpretation of Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road. The strength of novel is that its critique of fifties suburbia is elevated by…
I’m not really that interested in getting too caught up in the Oscars fol-de-rol that consumes the critical community around this time of year. I read a lot about the Academy Awards because, well, it’s people getting passionate about film! People arguing emphatically about which film is better and the industry, about who will win…
“Airplanes are beautiful dreams. Cursed dreams, waiting for the sky to swallow them up.” It’s hard to separate The Wind Rises from its creator, Hayao Miyazaki, iconic anime director and co-founder of Studio Ghibli. Barring a Jay Z-esque change of heart, The Wind Rises represents his last feature length film, and with this in mind…
Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan) is a corporeal work of fiction, a creation of writer Calvin (Paul Dano) somehow magicked into existence. She’s a free spirit. A flash of red hair and purple stockings. She’s deeply in love with her creator (though unaware of her origins). Their relationship is portrayed with weird tonal shifts; a whimsical…
ccpopculture 