Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Crisp Criticism - "Boyhood", "Magic in the Moonlight", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"

by
Julien Faddoul












Boyhood ***

12 years in the life of a Texas boy.
An affecting, at times overwhelming experience: A film about the process of the organic specimen shot over the course of 12 years. For 165 minutes, one is walking on a tightrope of humanity vs. menace both fictively and aesthetically. Not all of it works – Linklater’s narrative is so glib and generalized – but it certainly is a vital document.

wd – Richard Linklater
ph – Lee Daniel, Shane F. Kelly
pd – Rodney Becker, Gay Studebaker
ed – Sandra Adair
cos – Kari Perkins

p – Richard Linklater, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, Cathleen Sutherland

Cast: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater, Libby Villari, Marco Perella, Jamie Howard, Andrew Villarreal












Magic in the Moonlight *

A master magician begins to doubt his chronic skepticism when he meets a medium whom he believes is the real deal.
Another delightful film by the 78-year-old master done completely on autopilot, exploring themes he has covered countless times before.

wd – Woody Allen
ph – Darius Khondji
pd – Anne Seibel
ed – Alisa Lepselter
cos – Sonia Grande

p – Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Edward Walson

Cast: Emma Stone, Colin Firth, Hamish Linklater, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, Erica Leerhsen, Eileen Atkins, Simon McBurney












Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

A group of mutated warriors face off against an evil kingpin who wants to take over New York.
Atrocious, loud and brainless reboot of the children’s franchise with ugly images, incoherent action and poor performances.  

d – Jonathan Liebesman
w – Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Evan Daugherty   (Based on the Characters Created by Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman)
ph – Lula Carvalho
pd – Neil Spisak
m – Brian Tyler
ed – Joel Negron, Glen Scantlebury
cos – Sarah Edwards   

p – Michael Bay, Ian Bryce, Andrew Form, Bradley Fuller, Scott Mednick, Galen Walker

Cast: Megan Fox, Alan Ritchson, Jeremy Howard, Pete Ploszek, Noel Fisher, Will Arnett, Danny Woodburn, William Fichtner, Johnny Knoxville, Tony Shalhoub





No comments:

Post a Comment