Crisp Criticism - "Independence Day: Resurgence", "Louder Than Bombs", "Everybody Wants Some", "Genius"

by

Julien Faddoul

Independence Day: Resurgence

Two decades after the first Independence Day invasion, Earth is faced with a new extra-Solar threat.

As atrocious as a blockbuster can get: A noisy, incoherent mess in which nothing on screen is even remotely believable, either thematically or aesthetically. It attempts to differentiate itself from the original while remaining in every instance completely derivative, with the most cynical of endings.

d – Roland Emmerich

w – Nicolas Wright, James A. Woods, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, James Vanderbilt   (Based on the Characters by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich)

ph – Markus Förderer

pd – Barry Chusid

m – Harald Kloser, Thomas Wanker

ed – Adam Wolfe

cos – Lisy Christl

p – Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser

Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick St. Esprit, Joey King, Jessie Usher, Chin Han, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Maika Monroe, William Fichtner, Vivica A. Fox, Sela Ward, Brent Spiner

Louder Than Bombs **

The fractious family of a father and his two sons confront their different feelings and memories of their deceased wife and mother, a famed war photographer.

Beautifully crafted family drama that utilizes a kaleidoscopic structure (typical of its director) to accentuate the melancholy of its characters. Many will find it hard to overlook the narrative itself, which suffers from intermittent instances of “theme-itis” and arid devices.

d – Joachim Trier

w – Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt

ph – Jakob Ihre

pd – Molly Hughes

m – Ola Fløttum

ed – Olivier Bugge Coutté

cos – Emma Potter

p – Joshua Astrachan, Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Alexandre Mallet-Guy, Thomas Robsahm, Marc Turtletaub

Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert, Jesse Eisenberg, Devin Druid, Amy Ryan, David Strathairn, Rachel Brosnahan, Ruby Jerins, Megan Ketch, Harry M. Ford, Venus Schultheis

Everybody Wants Some ***

The meandering shenanigans of a college baseball team in 1980 as they navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood.

Delightful and extremely truthful college frat boy comedy, deftly orchestrated with the anthropological finesse emblematic of its director, who’s own college experience the film is based on. Some may find the characters insufferable, but its authenticity with time, place and people could scarcely be better captured.

wd – Richard Linklater

ph – Shane F. Kelly

pd – Bruce Curtis

ed – Sandra Adair

cos – Kari Perkins

p – Richard Linklater, Megan Ellison, Ginger Sledge

Cast: Blake Jenner, Glen Powell, Wyatt Russell, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Zoey Deutch, Will Brittain, Forrest Vickery, Temple Baker, Tanner Kalina, Austin Amelio, Juston Street, Quinton Johnson

Genius

A chronicle of Max Perkins's time as the book editor at Scribner, where he oversaw works by Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.

Inept and extremely dull, falling into every clichéd biopic trap in the book.

d – Michael Grandage

w – John Logan   (Based on the Book by A. Scott Berg)

ph – Ben Davis

pd – Mark Digby

m – Adam Cork

ed – Chris Dickens

cos – Jane Petrie

p – James Bierman, Michael Grandage, John Logan

Cast: Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney, Guy Pearce, Dominic West, Vanessa Kirby