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

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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

Crisp Criticism - "The Hundred-Foot Journey", "A Most Wanted Man", "And So It Goes", "The Expendables 3", "The Maid's Room"

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Julien Faddoul

The Hundred-Foot Journey

An Indian family clashes with a proprietress of a celebrated French restaurant after they open their own nearby eatery.

Another piece of manipulative creamy soup from Hallstrom with characters that are more stale than usual.

d – Lasse Hallstrom

w – Steven Knight   (Based on the Book by Richard C. Morais)

ph – Linus Sandgren

pd – David Gropman

m – A.R. Rahman

ed – Andrew Mondshein

cos – Pierre-Yves Gayraud

p – Juliet Blake, Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey

Cast: Helen Mirran, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon, Amit Shah, Farzana Dua Elahe

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014/US)

by

Julien Faddoul

** (2 stars)

d – James Gunn

w – James Gunn, Nicole Perlman   (Based on the Comic Book by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning)

ph – Ben Davis

pd – Charles Wood

m – Tyler Bates

ed – Fred Raskin, Hughes Winborne, Craig Wood

cos – Alexandra Byrne

p – Kevin Feige

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldahna, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro, Laura Haddock, Sean Gunn, Peter Serafinowicz

  

With the exception of The Avengers, I have found every film from Marvel Studios to be a toiling experience. A sweaty one, thrown into the pressure of knowing all the answers and acquiring every allusion or feeling bad if I don’t. Devotees either can’t believe anyone wouldn’t consider these the pinnacle of cinematic paragons or gripe with what isn’t there instead of griping with what is.

Lucy (2014/US/France)

by

Julien Faddoul

** (2 Stars)

wd – Luc Besson

m – Eric Serra

ph – Thierry Arbogast

pd – Hugues Tissandier

cos – Olivier Bériot

p – Virginie Silla-Besson

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi, Amr Waked, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Pilou Asbæk, Analeigh Tipton, Nicolas Phongpheth

Lucy is not the kind of movie that should be examined lightly. Even if it has a premise as ludicrous and over-calculated as this one. By which I mean, one can detect the pulpiness of the material and organize their mind accordingly. I would accept the response of anyone who disliked the film on those grounds alone, but there's something quite brilliant about Luc Besson’s latest film that paradoxically can only exist adjacent to the silliness.

Crisp Criticism - "Hercules", "Sex Tape", "The Purge: Anarchy", "Persecuted"

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Julien Faddoul

Hercules

1400 years ago, a tormented soul walked the earth that was neither man nor god.

A vehicle for its star that takes a gritty approach to the Hercules legend. It provides intermittent pleasures, but is mostly dull and unattractive.

d – Brett Ratner

w – Ryan Condal, Evan Spiliotopoulos   (Based on the Comic Book by Jack Kirby)

ph – Dante Spinotti

pd – Jean-Vincent Puzos

m – Fernando Valezpuez

ed – Mark Helfrich, Julia Wong

cos – Jany Temime

p – Sarah Aubrey, Beau Flynn, Barry Levine, Brett Ratner

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Rufus Sewell, Aksel Hennie, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Reece Ritchie, Joseph Fiennes, Tobias Santelmann, Peter Mullan, Rebecca Ferguson

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014/US)

by

Julien Faddoul

* (1 star)

d – Matt Reeves

w – Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Mark Bomback   (Based on the Novel by Pierre Boulle)   

ph – Michael Seresin
pd – James Chinlund

m – Michael Giacchino
ed – William Hoy, Stan Salfas

cos – Melissa Bruning

p – Peter Chernin, Dylan Clark, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver

Cast: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Toby Kebbell, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirk Acevedo, Nick Thurston, Judy Greer, Terry Notary, Karin Konoval

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes takes place 10 years after the previous incarnation. In the wake of the enormous ape discharge from the Gen-Sys Labs and their rampage through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County, the infectious Simian Virus has now exterminated the majority of Earth’s human populace and left the rest desperate to survive in a dystopian world.

Crisp Criticism - "They Came Together", "Locke", "Calvary", "Deliver Us from Evil"

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Julien Faddoul

They Came Together *

A small business owner is about to lose her shop to a major corporate development. An arch parody of romantic comedies that is only occasionally funny. More often than not, it’s merely insipid.

d – David Wain

w – Michael Showalter, David Wain

ph – Tom Houghton

pd – Mark White

m – Matt Novack, Craig Wedren

ed – Jamie Gross

cos – Dana Covarrubias

p – Michael Showalter

Cast: Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Cobie Smulders, Christopher Meloni, Max Greenfield, Bill Hader, Ellie Kemper, Jason Mantzoukas, Melanie Lynskey, Ed Helms, Michael Ian Black, Michael Murphy, Kenan Thompson, Jack McBrayer, Ken Marino

Crisp Criticism - "Jersey Boys", "Begin Again", "Frank"

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Julien Faddoul

Jersey Boys

A musical biography on Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Miserable, dreary adaptation of the Broadway hit peppered with its director’s characteristic glibness. What was jaunty and clever on the stage is here, on film, quite the opposite.

d – Clint Eastwood

w – Marshall Brickman, Rick Ellice   (Based on the Musical by Marshall Brickman, Rick Ellice)

ph – Tom Stern

pd – James J. Murakami

ed – Joel Cox, Gary D. Roach

cos – Deborah Hopper

p – Clint Eastwood, Tim Headington, Graham King, Robert Lorenz

Cast: John Lloyd Young, Erich Bergen, Michael Lomenda, Vincent Piazza, Christopher Walken, Mike Doyle

Crisp Criticism - "Transformers: Age of Extinction", "Snowpiercer", "22 Jump Street", "Yves Saint Laurent"

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Julien Faddoul

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Optimus Prime calls for all Autobots while hiding in repair within the garage of a Texas inventor.

It is astounding how, in the last 20 years of making movies, Bay has not gained a single ounce of intelligence. This time, he seems to be working in the vain of a denunciation of Republicans, surrounded by his usual dreadful tropes including haphazard fight scenes, unintelligible and/or risible dialogue, demeaning female imagery and illogical plot details (like the casting of Wahlberg as a Texan inventor). At least this time we are spared from Shia Labeouf’s screeching.

d – Michael Bay

w – Ehren Kruger

ph – Amir Mokri

pd – Jeffrey Beecroft

m – Steve Jablonsky

ed – Roger Barton, William Goldenberg, Paul Rubell

p – Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Ian Bryce, Tom DeSanto, Don Murphy

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, Titus Welliver, Sophia Myles, Bingbing Li, T.J. Miller, James Bachman, Peter Cullen, Frank Walker, John Goodman, Ken Watanabe, Robert Foxworth, John DiMaggio, Mark Ryan, Reno Wilson

Crisp Criticism - "The Two Faces of January", "Ilo Ilo", "Borgman", "Mistaken for Strangers"

by

Julien Faddoul

The Two Faces of January *

A rich conman and his wife are assisted by an American tour guide to flee from Greece after a murder is committed.

Tame adaptation of Highsmith’s novel that is elegant enough but sluggishly handled and, by the end, comatose.

wd – Houssein Amini   (Based on the Novel by Patricia Highsmith)

ph – Marcel Zyskind

pd – Michael Carlin

m – Alberto Iglesias

ed – Nicolas Chaudeurge

cos – Steven Noble

p – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo, Tom Sternberg

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Isaac, Daisy Bevan