Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Crisp Criticism - "Palo Alto", "Draft Day", "Coherence", "The One I Love"

by
Julien Faddoul












Palo Alto **

Stories of lust and boredom that take place in a Palo Alto high school.
Encompassing, nomadic drama of Californian High School life that is not altogether unfamiliar given the last name of the director. Ironically, it falters not from being too nebulous, but from being too conspicuous.

wd – Gia Coppola   (Based on the Short Stories by James Franco)
ph – Autumn Durald
pd – Sara Beckum Jamieson  
ed – Leo Scott  
cos – Courtney Hoffman

p – Vince Jolivette, Miles Levy, Sebastian Pardo, Adriana Rotaru

Cast: Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, Nat Wolff, James Franco, Zoe Levin, Val Kilmer, Keegan Allen, Margaret Qualley, Chris Messina
















Draft Day

At the NFL Draft, a General Manager has the opportunity to rebuild his team when he trades for the number one pick.
Hopelessly false and stagey endeavor on the kind of sports movie that doesn’t exist anymore. It beckons a director who has become despairingly out-of-touch.

d – Ivan Reitman
w – Scott Rothman, Rajiv Joseph
ph – Eric Steelberg
pd – Stephen Altman
m – John Debney
ed – Dana E. Glauberman, Sheldon Kahn
cos – Frank L. Fleming

p – Ivan Reitman, Ali Bell, Joe Medjuck, Gigi Pritzker

Cast: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, Frank Langella, Tom Welling, Ellen Burstyn, Sam Elliott, Chadwick Boseman, Rosanna Arquette, Terry Crews, Arian Foster, Griffin Newman















Coherence ***

On the night of an astrological anomaly, eight friends at a dinner party experience a troubling chain of reality bending events.
Impeccably managed low-budget puzzle with pulsing direction and performances. It plays like a Bunuelian episode of The Twilight Zone. In the end, it is a film about never being able to escape form the decisions we've made in life.

d – James Ward Byrkit
w – James Ward Byrkit, Alex Manugian
ph – Nic Sadler
m – Kristin Øhrn Dyrud
ed – Lance Pereira

p – Lene Bausager

Cast: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, Elizabeth Gracen, Alex Manugian, Lauren Maher, Hugo Armstrong, Lorene Scafaria















The One I Love *

In a last ditch attempt to save their marriage, a couple go on a country retreat where they encounter clones of themselves.
An attempt to spice-up the "romantic two-hander" that, despite committed performances, fails due to a script carrying neither wit nor insight.

d – Charlie McDowell
w – Justin Lader
ph – Doug Emmett
pd – Theresa Guleserian
m – Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
ed – Jennifer Lilly
cos – Bree Daniel

p – Mel Eslyn

Cast: Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson








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