The Playlist

Review: Tender Is The Night In 'The Myth of the American Sleepover'

By Mark Zhuravsky
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July 21, 2011 5:01 AM
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0 Comments

When you’re a teenager, the last days of summer take on a kind of sanctified status – responsibilities loom ahead and the dog days are behind you. David Robert Mitchell’s tender, observant debut feature "The Myth Of The American Sleepover" follows several young souls in a listless suburban town that seems to stretch on for miles and miles of pale blue roads and identical picket fence houses. Over the course of a single night, a substantial (and almost uniformly Caucasian) cast of non-professional actors spills out across town to a host of sleepovers, hangouts by the lake and whatever soul searching they manage to salvage.

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Review: 'Captain America' Swells With Patriotic Pride & Delivers An Old School Superhero Adventure

By Drew Taylor
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July 20, 2011 4:42 AM
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7 Comments

Well-paced, classical in nature, and featuring a completely different setting -- the 1940s during WWII which makes it a big tonal departure from other Marvel Films -- "Captain America: The First Avenger," is a relatively muscular and sturdy super-hero tale which is sometimes facile, but effective enough to meet most of its goals and aims.

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Review: 'World On A Wire' Is A Long Lost Rainer Werner Fassbinder Oddity Worthy Of Reconsideration

By Drew Taylor
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July 19, 2011 5:39 AM
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4 Comments

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “World on a Wire,” a once-thought-lost, nearly-four-hour-long sci-fi epic about the nature of reality and the ways in which we lose ourselves in that potentially futile quest, was made way back in 1973 and for that reason alone, it’s hard not to goggle in awe at how ahead of its time it was, even when it very nearly bores you to death.

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Fantasia '11 Review: 'Retreat' Piles On The Twists, But Doesn't Deliver The Thrills

By Kevin Jagernauth
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July 19, 2011 2:05 AM
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Writer/director Carl Tibbetts certainly didn't spare himself any narrative hurdles for his debut feature "Retreat." In fact, one could argue that it's nothing but narrative hurdles. The single setting film tosses together a psychological thriller, marital discord, sexual tension, an airborne virus and someone who may just be totally insane into a hearty stew that is unfortunately still somewhat flavorless. Curiously both overstuffed yet still empty, "Retreat" tries to be too many things at once and ultimately winds up having very little to show for the effort.

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Fantasia '11 Review: 'Attack The Block' Is The Real Deal Bruv, Believe

By Kevin Jagernauth
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July 18, 2011 2:41 AM
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0 Comments

We're just over seven months into 2011, and we've already seen a staggering number of alien-oriented films, and for the most part, they haven't been friendly. In "Battle: Los Angeles" a ragged military crew squared off against the space invaders, while in the upcoming "Cowboys & Aliens" Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford will use old-timey western know-how to fight off the creatures from beyond. But there is another interesting trend developing even among this this little niche of films: kids are frequently the ones being called upon to save the day. In J.J. Abrams' "Super 8" best friends and junior high classmates outwit their parents and the military to save their town and the Earth, and later this year, "The Darkest Hour" will find Emile Hirsch and Olivia Thirlby helping a group of youths against another batch of extraterrestrials. But between those two films will be the hotly buzzed "Attack The Block," a film that shares with "Super 8" a plot about some very young kids who find some very vicious creatures in their midst, but in all other respects is completely, refreshingly and excitingly different.

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Review: 'Mann V. Ford' A One-Dimensional Tale Of Bittersweet Justice Served

By Kevin Jagernauth
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July 18, 2011 1:59 AM
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15 Comments

What kind of price tag do you put on justice after decades of being harassed, abused, ignored and victimized by big business and government alike, whose actions have devastated a community and a way of life that will never be the same again? Can justice ever truly be served and what shape will it take? Those are the central questions that co-directors Maro Chermayeff and Micah Fink endeavor to answer with "Mann v. Ford" a well-intentioned, but fundamentally flawed film that takes us elbow-deep into the shocking and heartbreaking titular case, which results when the Ramapough Mountain Indians -- longtime residents of Ringwood, N.J. -- find their people ravaged with cancer and other illnesses after it's discovered that Ford used their land as dumping ground for toxic waste in the late '60s and early '70s.

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NYAFF '11 Reviews: 'Vengeance Can Wait,' 'Love And Treachery' & 'Raw Force'

By Gabe Toro
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July 15, 2011 11:05 AM
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"Vengeance Can Wait"You may be fooled into thinking “Vengeance Can Wait” is another hardcore Korean revenge drama where the end features someone sobbing over another man’s corpse, both of them overcome with the loss of their souls. But no, thankfully, it’s a Japanese farce, where two roommates pretend to be brother and sister only to find themselves romantically entangled with an old school classmate, with the male roommate still nursing a crush.

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Fantasia '11 Review: 'The King Of Devil's Island' A Chilly & Compelling Nordic Drama

By Kevin Jagernauth
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July 15, 2011 3:31 AM
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0 Comments

Stop if you've heard this before: an overbearing headmaster gets his comeuppance from his students after he pushes them too far, causing a violent uprising and revolt to take place. In literature and in films, variations on this theme have cropped up time and again usually with the same types of characters and signifiers, with the story and pacing playing out to the beat of a very familiar drum. And while on paper, Marius Holst's "The King Of Devil's Island" may seem like a trip down an already well-worn path, the film is a refreshing surprise that offers up a character-driven take on the genre that throws familiar notions of how this kind of story should play right out the window.

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Review: 'Without' An Assured Dramatic Debut By Director Mark Jackson

By Erik McClanahan
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July 15, 2011 2:03 AM
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0 Comments

"Without" was screened last weekend as part of Outfest 2011 in Los Angeles and Sound Unseen International Duluth in June.

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Review: 'Salvation Boulevard' Spotlights A Murder In The Megachurch

By Gabe Toro
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July 14, 2011 2:59 AM
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0 Comments

Religion remains the one cinematic taboo. As it should be: developing belief systems to create order in a world that, to some, appears chaotic is as human as eating and breathing. To say it is the territory of the idle-minded is to neglect the healing power of a belief system, theistic or otherwise. But more often than not, it allows the eloquent and duplicitous an opportunity to capitalize on those that seek guidance.

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