Crisp Criticism - "Pete's Dragon", "Snowden", "Yoga Hosers"

by

Julien Faddoul

Pete’s Dragon ***

The adventures of an orphaned boy named Pete and his best friend Elliot, who just so happens to be a dragon.

Wistful, moving and utterly unpretentious family film/remake from Disney with a refreshing sense of bluntness and respect toward its target audience. It is less like the typical film from its studio (it resembles its previous incarnation very little) and owes much more to the films of Hayao Miyazaki.

d – David Lowry

w – David Lowry, Toby Halbrooks   (Based on the Screenplay by Malcolm Marmorstein)

ph – Bojan Bazelli

pd – Jade Healy

m – Daniel Hart

ed – Lisa Zeno Churgin

cos – Amanda Neale

p – James Whitaker

Cast: Oakes Fegley, Bryce Dallas Howard, Karl Urban, Robert Redford, Wes Bentley, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Oona Laurence

Snowden *

CIA employee Edward Snowden leaks thousands of classified documents to the press.

A typical project for its director to undertake whom unfortunately interprets his subject injudiciously. The inner moral conflict of Mr Snowden is trumped by his clear technical genius and personal tribulations and therefore is stagnated from achieving the level of shuddering gravitas seen in the 2014 Laura Poitras documentary. Oh well.

d – Oliver Stone

w – Oliver Stone, Kieran Fitzgerald   (Based on the Book by Anatoly Kucherena and the Book by Luke Harding)

ph – Anthony Dod Mantle

pd – Mark Tildesley

m – Craig Armstrong, Adam Peters

ed – Alex Marquez, Lee Percy

cos – Bina Daigeler

p – Moritz Borman, Eric Kopeloff, Philip Schulz-Deyle, Fernando Sulichin

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Scott Eastwood, Nicolas Cage, Timothy Olyphant, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Joely Richardson, Keith Stanfield, Melissa Leo, Rhys Ifans, Ben Schnetzer, Jaymes Butler

Yoga Hosers

Two teenage yoga enthusiasts team up with a legendary man-hunter to battle with an ancient evil presence that is threatening their major party plans.

A train-wreck by a director who could only be described as a free man: an artist completely liberated from what audiences and critics could possibly think of him or his work. His recent output is certainly interesting cinema for those reasons alone, if you’re willing to endure just how dumb and unfunny he can be. Good for him.

wd – Kevin Smith

ph – James Laxton

pd – Cabot McMullen

m – Christopher Drake

ed – Kevin Smith

cos – Carol Beadle

p – Elizabeth Destro, Jordan Monsanto, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith

Cast: Lily-Rose Depp, Harley Quinn Smith, Johnny Depp, Natasha Lyonne, Kevin Smith, Austin Butler, Adam Brody, Tyler Posey, Génesis Rodríguez, Haley Joel Osment, Justin Long, Stan Lee, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, Kevin Conroy, Jason Mewes, Tony Hale, Vanessa Paradis, James Parks, Ralph Garman, Harley Morenstein