13 Assassins (2010)
13 Assassins (2010) – If you say the name Takashi Miike, the people who know it likely associate him with the wildly disturbing scenes from movies like Audition and Ichi the Killer. He even had a cameo in the “torture porn” film Hostel, telling the main characters “if you’re not careful you could spend all your … Continue reading
The Killer Inside Me (2010)
The Killer Inside Me (2010) – Stanley Kubrick called Jim Thompson’s novel The Killer Inside Me one of the most disturbing portrayals of the psychopathic mind he had ever seen. I have not read that book, but now that I have seen Michael Winterbottom’s film adaptation, I cannot imagine that Stan was that far off. … Continue reading
The Illusionist (2010)
The Illusionist (2010) — SECOND REVIEW [On DVD] I love this movie. FIRST REVIEW [In Theaters] No one really makes silent films anymore and I think that’s a shame. Sure you could argue that the invention of synchronized sound rendered silent film obsolete, but you could make the same argument about the invention of color … Continue reading
Blue Valentine (2010)
Blue Valentine (2010) — This movie will crush your soul. That’s not a negative criticism but still… be warned. The movie is about a couple at the beginning and end of their relationship. We see the beginning of the end first before flashing back to te beginning. The two alternate from there on out. The … Continue reading
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) — So if you know nothing about street art (like me), this movie is still cool. It is a documentary about a man named Thierry Guetta who starts to document the rise of street art in the 2000s and eventually decides to become an artist himself. The results are… … Continue reading
The Social Network (2010)
The Social Network (2010) — SECOND REVIEW [Blu Ray] A lot has been made since this film’s initial release about what really happened and what was invented. Although I may sound like a broken record since I bring this up every single time such a “controversy” arises, who the hell cares? A good movie is … Continue reading
Winter’s Bone (2010)
Winter’s Bone (2010) — Well I don’t think I really needed a movie to tell me this, but after watching Winter’s Bone I know I definitely do not want to ever live in the Ozarks. Jennifer Lawrence plays Ree, a 17-year-old who pretty much raises her younger brother and sister as their mother is near-catatonic … Continue reading
True Grit (2010)
True Grit (2010) — Well it doesn’t happen often that a remake is better than the original film (though with The Maltese Falcon, The Wizard of Oz, & The Thing it is not unprecedented) but here we have it. That doesn’t diminish my love for Henry Hathaway’s film featuring the always-iconic John Wayne, but as … Continue reading
127 Hours (2010)
127 Hours (2010) — Wow… just wow. Not only is this the best movie you’ll ever see about a guy stuck in a hole, it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. As an actor, James Franco has kind of been at both ends of the spectrum. He’s been great in movies like … Continue reading
Black Swan (2010)
Black Swan (2010) — So this film has been compared to works of Roman Polanski and David Cronenberg (although my favorite reference was Ellen Fox from Rotten Tomatoes who said it was like “The Red Shoes meets The Red Shoe Diaries“). I can see all of those factor present in the movie but I think … Continue reading
Persistence of Vision 