by Haley GoetzBrazil is widely and rightly considered to be a faithful homage to George Orwell’s seminal novel, 1984. The film, like the novel, tells the story of a lowly clerk in a large firm that is dedicated to the deletion of certain disruptive people in society. It speaks of oppression in an off-handed manner, … Continue reading
by Haley GoetzIra Sachs’s Little Men runs like a visual play. It’s comparable to Roman Polanski’s 2011 film Carnage, which is a look into the loves of coddling urban parents. In Little Men, however, we see the flipside of that. The film examines the lives of coddled urban children — in particular, two young men: … Continue reading
by Justin MadoreHarry Potter’s been out of the cultural zeitgeist for awhile now. The last film in the franchise was released more than five years ago, and since then, the wizarding world has been largely empty of content, with no new books or sequels to speak of. Nothing as popular as Harry Potter ever goes … Continue reading
by Justin MadoreI’m going to be honest: I was really dreading watching this. 2016 has been, at least for me, one of the most disappointing years for mainstream cinema. It feels like nearly all of the blockbusters and big-budget movies released this year have been severely underwhelming. The overall dependency of movie studios on franchises … Continue reading
by Erica NoboaJapan’s most notorious horror figures creep their way back onto the big screen, only this time, they’ll have to compete to decide who’s the scariest ghoul of them all. Sadako is the demonic young woman who terrorizes unsuspecting bystanders in Hideo Nakata’s 1998 film, Ring. Anyone who views her haunted VHS tape will … Continue reading
by David FriedfertigMarvel’s resident wizard has made his cinematic debut in Doctor Strange, the 14th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some of the franchise’s biggest critics would argue that each film in the MCU is not its own complete story and is just teasing future events. So far, it would seem that the movies … Continue reading
by Stephanie ArisWhat if while you were living your average, boring life you found out your super-attractive, overachieving new neighbors were actually spies? This is the question that Greg Mottola’s new action-comedy, Keeping Up with the Joneses (sponsored by Mercedes Benz!) aims to answer. And although the presence of the Mercedes-Benz logo is consistent, the … Continue reading
by Byron Bixler Part of our coverage of the 2016 Ithaca Fantastik Film FestivalWhen it comes to director Park Chan-wook, one must expect the unexpected. Of course, you can always count on his distinctive dark humor and creatively brutal brand of violence, but Park’s way of weaving these elements into a larger story is never … Continue reading
by Haley GoetzWhite Girl is a film about agency. It is about power, race, class and sexuality. Most of all, however, it is a strong critique on white privilege and gentrification. Elizabeth Wood, in her first feature-length foray, presents a New York City that many filmmakers know about but choose to overlook. Told through the … Continue reading
by Jake TriolaMascots, Christopher Guest’s latest installment of mockumentary magic, follows a group of mascots who compete for first prize in an annual competition. Like most of Guest’s characters, the people in this film are oddballs of a different breed and losers trapped in their own world. The story follows the typical “Guestian” formula, but … Continue reading
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