Edge of Tomorrow (Review)

This summer is shaping up to be pretty satisfying as far as action-thrillers go, and “Edge of Tomorrow” is part of the reason why. Directed by Doug Liman, the visionary behind the Bourne series, this big budget project is an exciting, futuristic thriller that embraces two colossal issues- human extinction and time travel (time travel, […]

Read the full Review- http://maglomaniac.com/review-edge-tomorrow/

The Last Season (Review)

For a venue, the Grange is difficult to locate. An actual functioning farm located on the eleventh floor of a looming building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, it takes some searching to find, but it is worth it. Moviegoers are greeted with spectacular views of lower Manhattan and surrounding Brooklyn while navigating their way through rows of local produce, until they take their seats, surrounded by vistas.  It would be nearly impossible to find a more specular setting in which to screen films. This is where I saw the Last Season.

The crew of The Last Season, a film by Sara Dosa, began shooting without a distinct purpose. Shot in the summer of 2011 in Chemult, Oregon (population 135), we see the small community balloon as a troupe of outsiders are drawn for the annual mushroom hunting season; the matsutake is the prey. The crew began documenting the lives and stories of more than twelve different groups of people, but then as the large picture fell away, what remained was the film’s main topic of investigation- [...]

http://stagebuddy.com/film-tv/the-last-season-sara-dosa/

Moon (Review)

Despite having an entire channel dedicated to it, access to a large section on Netflix, and even having the internet’s near infinite capacity, good sci-fi is hard to find. This difficulty begs the question -what does it take to be a real sci-fi fan? To the layperson, it has always seemed like there was a […]

Read the full Review- http://maglomaniac.com/moon-searching-good-sci-fi/

Do Great Performances Justify “Gayface”? (Essay)

White actor Jim Sturgess played an Asian character amidst criticism in “Cloud Atlas,” this role generated nothing near the media circus that “Dancing with the Stars’” Julianne Hough created with her blackfaced, “Orange is the New Black” Halloween costume. As Hough’s get-up was disrespectful, Sturgess’s performance was not. Could it [...]

Read full article at : http://stagebuddy.com/film-tv/great-performances-justify-gayface/

X-Men: Days of Future Past (Review)

If a film truly works, fills in its own gaps and answers its own questions before we can think twice, the viewer gets the rare pleasure of regarding the film as a whole. Despite the actuality of film making, the logistics of semi-trailers hauling lights and sets, crews building facades to […]

Read full review at: http://maglomaniac.com/x-men-days-future-past/

What's the Deal Huh??- My New Format

Loyal Followers,

I though I'd write something original here so that all seven of you know what I'm up to. After a semester of trudging through the almost-end of grad school, I'm now back on track writing about film. All the new posts will be going up on two different New York based websites, http://maglomaniac.com/  and, http://stagebuddy.com/

The links I post here will lead directly to my reviews on these sites. I'm hoping to get a bit more traffic, not that I don't appreciate the two dozen hits I've already received here in 2014, but I'm hoping with the help of the websites, my readership might break triple digits by the end of the year. I'm trying to aim high, what can I say.

Thanks to StageBuddy.com I've been able prepare two pieces of actual analytical criticism, taking the writing in the direction that I have wanted to take it since I started this blog. I will be writing reviews for both, but for the thrillers and sci-fi stuff, that mostly be posted on maglomaniac.com 

And so, it continues...

Destruction in Film: Blowing Up What Really Matters (Essay)

It’s no secret that action and explosions sell movie tickets, but on the one hand there is a significant difference between heroically crashing $250,000 Nissan Skylines in drag races and police chases, fictional shootouts inside the Matrix, and secret agents destroying evidence with exploding pens, and on the other hand, the complete and utter destruction of midtown Manhattan and all its residents. It does not seem that filmmakers, or audiences, are really considering this difference seriously. [...]

Click here to read full review:

http://stagebuddy.com/film-tv/destroying-cities-in-movies/ 

Mystic River (Review)

Revisiting Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River in 2014 is more than just revisiting a film that sustains itself as one of the most memorable suspense films in recent history, it is also a reminder of a year in Hollywood that produced an entire line up of films worth remembering. Up for best picture in 2004 along with Mystic […]

To read full review please click here

http://maglomaniac.com/mystic-river-revisited/