a blog about a lot of things

Project Gutenberg The thing about Hong Kong crime movies that are filled with action is that I have a hard time being objective about them. Like many people who are in their thirties now (and even older), I grew up watching a steady diet of Hong Kong cinema. For much of my childhood I was convinced Hong Kong was one of the most dangerous places in the world (mostly the fault of Johnnie To and John Woo’s films). I have never tired of the Hong Kong gangster film, much as I have never tired of the Western. And the fairly recent resurgence of quality crime movies coming out of Hong Kong has been something I didn’t even realized I missed until the revival and so I’m even inclined to let a few bad movies slide. However, Project Gutenberg isn’t one of the movies that needs to get a bye since it’s a thoroughly enjoyable two hour ride into the world of counterfeit money creation. With a cast frontline of Chow Yun Fat and Aaron Kwok, the film already comes with classic actors of ...

Sing Street: A Review It’s hard to resist comparisons to Once with John Carney’s new film. They’re both set in Dublin and have romance and creating music as central themes. But really that’s where the similarities stop. Once is a film with a limited focus telling a story of two people over a few days. It’s an excellent film because of this limited scope which is then aided by the low budget, home style camera work. Sing Street is much broader in focus. The central story is pretty simple: boy creates band to impress a girl. But there’s a lot more going on in this film. Set against a backdrop of his parent’s crumbling marriage the film also touches on sibling comradery, difficulty with changing schools, the transformative power of music and the limits of possibility in a small city. The film itself is halfway between a gritty kitchen-sink drama and a fantasy story where dreams come true. It doesn’t sound like there should even be a possible middle ground between those realms...

Sausage Party: A Review Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have now collaborated on Superbad, Pineapple Express and This is the End . Every single one of these films can be a strong contender for one of the best films of the year they were released in and Sausage Party keeps this tradition going (only The Interview, while still decent, doesn’t hit the high level of the other films they’ve written). At some point if this output and quality continues, critics are going to mark this duo as a new wave of comedy. Comedy films are underrated to the point where it’s become a stereotype of awards ceremonies that the comedy role won’t win any awards. In Sausage Party (and Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising, the other film the duo wrote this year) there’s been a secondary theme of addressing more serious issues. This can have the potential to derail all the fun of the film, as in Sausage Party, the serious theme being addressed is religion but the writers never allow the film to get away fr...

Richard Linklater’s films always make the viewer conscious of time, whether it’s the years represented in Boyhood or the hours that go by in Before Sunrise. Everybody Wants Some details the weekend before the start of semester for a group of college baseball players. Linklater has stated that he considers the film to be the spiritual sequel to Boyhood but in tone and style it definitely reminds one of Linklater’s 1993 comedic masterpiece Dazed and Confused. The film is quite light on plot but overall follows freshman pitcher Jake as he interacts with his teammates and navigates his first college weekend. It’s extremely heavy on the conversation and as expected for the director (possibly the best writer of dialogue in current cinema?) the characters go over ideas of varying magnitude which seem to be relevant on a universal level. Sure, the characters aren’t discussing the biggest ideas in the world but the philosophies somehow seem to be profound. There’s no real story...