8 years ago
All posts by Jake Mulligan
“Coherence” A Heady, Ambitious, Not Entirely Successful Low-Budget Genre Picture
Coherence is a heady, ambitious mind-fuck of an American independent feature, and not in the druggy stoned-out sort of way that most "mind-fuck movies" are, either. It’s low-budget and high-concept: eight friends gather in a room, a comet passes overhead, and ...
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“Jersey Boys” A Jukebox Musical That Revels in Kitsch Instead Of Music
KITSCH, noun. /kiCH/. 1. art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way.
That’s what Clint Eastwood’s films are becoming. Kitsch. Jersey Boys - ...
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“22 Jump Street” Is Madcap Art And Product At The Same Time
We don’t know why Edgar Wright was dismissed from Marvel’s Ant-Man, despite all the clicks that newswire writers have churned out of it, but one generalized explanation seems undeniable: whatever Mr. Wright was interested in making wasn’t enough of a sellable ...
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“We Are The Best!” A Lived-In, Punk-Rock Delight
Three girls start a band in We are the Best!, but that’s not really what the movie is about. Set in Stockholm in 1982, most of the action does indeed focus on punk-music-obsessed pre-teens engaging in indiscriminate cymbal-slamming and bass-strumming - yet the...
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“Only Lovers Left Alive”
The main character in Only Lovers Left Alive is literally a romantic. Adam (Tom Hiddleston) is a centuries-old vampire, and according to his lover Eve (Tilda Swinton,) his personality was shaped by Romantic-era “assholes” like Shelley and Byron. Now he resides...
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“Nymphomaniac Vol. II” Gives Us The Whole Story And Much More
The problem with the release of Nymphomaniac isn't that it was split into two volumes – it’s that those volumes were released on different days. The idea of splitting a film into multiple volumes, in of itself, is actually an extremely exciting one. Can you im...
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“Under the Skin”: Extraterrestrial Earth
J. Hoberman said of Eraserhead: “[It’s] not a movie I’d drop acid for, although I would consider it a revolutionary act if someone dropped a reel of it into the middle of Star Wars.” Those comments could just as easily apply to Under the Skin. Jonathan Glazer’...
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“3 Days To Kill”: Not Suitable for Sober Viewers
Amber Heard stands under a bordello red spotlight on an otherwise empty set, her leg propped up suggestively, as if she were posing for a lurid portrait. But there's also a cell phone to her ear, no one's watching her, and she's alone. Kevin Costner's characte...
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“Alphaville”: Visions of Modernity
Blinding neon signs. A flashing spotlight. Cars whizzing by, rendered as a series of whooshes and blurs. The ominous beep-beep-beep of electronic displays. Jean-Luc Godard built his "Alphaville" out of these snatches and signifiers of then-contemporary life, a...
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