Category: Elizasummerlin

Foxcatcher

26/11/2014

Foxcatcher is a smartly paced film that interrogates the anxieties of American masculinity and the desire for power, fame, and glory. Like David Fincher’s Gone Girl, tension permeates the plot from the opening sequence. Viewers can feel the violence coming from a million miles away, but the twists still horrify. Also like Fincher, director Bennett Miller’s best work derives from adaptation (Moneyball, Capote). Foxcatcher tells the true story of the Schultz brothers, Olympic Gold medal-winning wrestlers, who are seduced by a wealthy benefactor who invites them to his estate in Pennsylvania to train for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Uptown Theatre

Director: Bennett Miller
Producers: Anthony Bregman, Megan Ellison, John Kilik, Bennett Miller
Writers: E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman
Cinematographer: Greig Fraser
Editors: Jay Cassidy, Stuart Levy, Conor O’Neill
Music: Rob Simonsen
Cast: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Venessa Redgrave, Anthony Michael Hall, Guy Boyd, Brett Rice

Runtime: 134m.
Genre: Drama/Biography
Country: USA
Premiere: May 19, 2014 - Cannes Film Festival
US Theatrical Release: November 14, 2014
US Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

21/11/2014

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by Eliza Summerlin

Takeaways from Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1: Jennifer Lawrence has truly mastered the art of crying on command, the CGI masterminds are really good at making Peeta’s neck look scary skinny, today’s youth might be preoccupied with image, that one girl looks really badass with an undercut, and adaptations of novels should never ever be split into two parts. This iteration of the Hunger Games was largely a disappointment. The film half-heartedly pursued a few tired themes without fully hitting home its message with any of them. Perhaps this was a result of breaking the last book in the series in two. The first half ultimately suffers as it serves only as build up for the finale. The one redeeming quality of Mockingjay is its (intentional?) reflection of itself. The culture and hype surrounding the film are part of the very same pressures experienced by its characters. Unlike similarly successful enterprises (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Twilight), The Hunger Games feels especially specific to the cultural moment in which it exists. The anxieties about love, image, responsibility, and courage are marked with a 21st century meta-awareness. It is this self-consciousness that partially redeems what is otherwise two hours of filler narrative that transports the plot from the quarter quell (the Capital’s unprecedented call for another Hunger Games that featured a battle between the surviving tributes) to full-fledged civil war in Panem, the post-apocalyptic, highly regulated world where the games take place.

Area Theaters

Director: Francis Lawrence
Producers: Suzanne Collins, Jan Foster, Nina Jacobson, Jon Kilik, Michael Paswornek
Writers: Peter Craig, Danny Strong, Suzanne Collins
Cinematographer: Jo Willems
Editors: Alan Edward Bell, Mark Yoshikawa
Music: James Newton Howard
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore

Runtime: 123m.
Genre: Adventure/Sci-Fi
Country: USA
US Theatrical Release: November 21, 2014
US Distributor: Lionsgate

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Whiplash

24/10/2014

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by Eliza Summerlin

Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash asks its audience a timeless question: How far will you go to achieve success? What sacrifices will you make to become great? The film pushes this tired inquiry to its breaking point, and then some. J.K. Simmons plays Fletcher, a cutthroat jazz conductor at one of America’s most competitive music conservatories. Not only does he challenge his students to perform at their best, but his motivational tactics could easily be described as abuse. His cracks attack his students’ sexualities, weight, upbringing, and intellect. He tells one male student, “that note is not your boyfriend’s dick, don’t come early.” Enter Andrew (played by Miles Teller): a hopeful and dedicated first year drummer looking for an opportunity to prove his chops. Fletcher hears him play all of two measures before deciding to give him a chance in his prestigious studio band. Thus begins a manipulative relationship between teacher and student. One man has all the power and the other grovels, sweats, and bleeds to earn his approval. Though Whiplash has some truly extraordinary moments, the hermetic space of the film is so steeped in white, male masculinity that viewers begin to wonder if the film does not condone this as the very definition of success. Whiplash interrogates what it means to succeed and at what cost but does not offer a clear morality of its own. Leaving the question open ended allows the audience to conclude that mistreatment is a viable method to achieve virtuosity.

Uptown Theatre

Director: Damien Chazelle
Producers: Jason Blum, Helen Estabrook, David Lancaster, Michel Litvak
Writer: Damien Chazelle
Cinematographer: Sharone Meir
Editor: Tom Cross
Music: Justin Hurwitz
Cast: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser, Melissa Benoist, Austin Stowell, Nate Lang, Chris Mulkey, Damon Gupton

Runtime: 106m.
Genre: Drama/Music
Country: USA
Premiere: January 16, 2014 – Sundance Film Festival
US Theatrical Release: October 10, 2014
US Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

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The Skeleton Twins

12/9/2014

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by Eliza Summerlin

"I also want it for myself. I always have: those highs and lows of feeling, everything turned superlative."
–Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams

The Skeleton Twins tells the story of estranged twins, Maggie and Milo, who reconnect in the hospital after Milo attempts suicide. Milo (Bill Hader), is a two-bit actor working a shitty restaurant job in Hollywood and heartbroken over failed relationships. Maggie (Kristen Wiig) still lives in their hometown in New York and is married to a well intentioned but clueless dope named Lance (Luke Wilson). They are allegedly trying to have a child, but Maggie is secretly still on birth control and sleeping with other men. As fate would have it, Maggie receives the call from the hospital about Milo’s suicide attempt just as she is about to swallow a handful of pills herself. So begins the twins’ rocky reunion.

Uptown Theatre

Director: Craig Johnson
Producers: Stephanie Langhoff, Jennifer Lee, Jacob Pechenik
Writers: Mark Heyman, Craig Johnson
Cinematographer: Reed Morano
Editor: Jennifer Lee
Music: Nathan Larson
Cast: Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Boyd Holbrook, Ty Burrell, Luke Wilson, Kathleen Rose Perkins

Runtime: 93m
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Premiere: January 18, 2014 – Sundance
US Theatrical Release: September 12, 2014
US Distributor: Roadside Attractions

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