Film

Backstreet Boys: Show em’ What You’re Made of

Directed by Stephen Kijak

USA, 2015

At the height of their face The Backstreet Boys represented with their harmonious voices and cherub good looks a newfound idealism in the American landscape. Not without talent, their selling point as much their image as their sound: they were chosen to be branded. Offering context to the tumultuous early years and how their experienced shaped their identity and worth over the years, the new documentary Backstreet Boys: Show em’ What You’re Made of documents the production of a new album from the former boy group.

In the Mood For Love Written and Directed by Wong Kar-Wai Hong Kong, 2000 A film centered on the human desire for affection, Wong Kar-Wai utilizes his poetic filmmaking style to construct In the Mood For Love, a movie that follows two individuals in their struggling marriages. Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) and Mr. Chow (Tony …

Viral marketing for Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World has begun with a very cool new website that sheds a little light on some new elements in the world of Jurassic Park. It is a very in depth site for Masrani Global, a fictitious company that seems to be responsible for saving InGen and bringing the infamous park back to life. …

Breaking the fourth wall, or a character talking directly to the camera, and the audience as well, is a popular and powerful tool for filmmakers. It can either help empathize the character, or draw the fact that they are know they are fiction. Jacob T. Swinney has compiled a 5 minute supercut of characters breaking the …

As everyone knows, Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop is a science fiction classic, but after two terrible sequels and a middle-of-the-road reboot, the character hasn’t had much success outside the initial film. Thankfully things may be changing with BOOM! Studios’ new ongoing Robocop series by writer Joshua Williamson and artist Carlos Magno. Taking place directly after the …

This Friday will see the release of The Rock’s (None of this Dwayne Johnson nonsense, he’s The Rock) newest action tentpole Hercules, with him playing the historic hero. You’ve probably already made up your mind if you’re going to see this film or not, you’re not anxiously waiting on the fence. You probably haven’t given …

Not two weeks ago, famed auteur and Pacific Rim director Guillermo Del Toro set the internet ablaze when he announced the confirmation of a follow up to his 2013 robots vs. monsters film Pacific Rim and dated Pacific Rim 2 for April 7, 2017. The biggest surprise wasn’t the official announcement of the sequel though, …

As much credit as we give to the 80s for canonizing overkill in action films, we don’t give enough recognition to the 90s for producing some of the most out-and-out insane premises to action films that you can’t make today. In the center of it all was Nicolas Cage. Cage has made a career out …

1981 was a heck of a year for werewolf movies. Of course, this would still be true had the only one to be released that year been John Landis’ genre-defining classic, An American Werewolf in London. But mere months earlier, another tale of lynanthropic terror hit screens, one which has sadly fallen into obscurity: Michael Wadleigh’s Wolfen.

Michael Bay – excuse me, the proper title is 2-time Criterion Collection released Michael Bay – is like the Kenny Powers of directors. He favors excess and showboating over all forms of thoughtful nuance and subtlety, he isn’t afraid to sell himself out and abandon critical respectability for money and fame, and he doesn’t give …

A decade ago, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were unheard of in Hollywood. Their beloved but short lived cult classic animated series Clone High had been canceled a year earlier, and their next directing gig wouldn’t come until 2009’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Now, in 2014, they have become magicians of sorts, turning …

Believe it or not, it’s not easy being Tom Cruise. Over the weekend, Tom Cruise’s latest big-budget scifi-actioner Edge of Tomorrow opened. To be polite, the box office returns left this $178 million picture well over the edge of being a box-office bomb with just over $29 million domestically, coming in 3rd place. In the …

The Two Faces Of January Written and directed by Hossein Amini USA and UK, 2014 Anyone acquainted with Roman theology or a pub quiz will know that January is a Anglicisation of the Roman god Janus, the two-faced figurine  who stands at the cusp of the new year, simultaneously musing backward at recent lessons and …

Editor Jim Casey has parsed through the history of cinematic visual effects to create a short and sensory overloading video of it’s history. Beginning with photographer Eadweard Muybridge’s pre-cinamatic photography of a horse galloping up to the present day, the video is not only valuable as a fascinating document of evolving techniques but a representation …

FRONTIÈRES International Co-Production Market has announced it’s official selection for it’s return to this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival. Frontieres is the first and only co-production market to connect North America and Europe in an environment focused specifically on genre film production. The initiative began in 2012 with 14 projects selected including works by Aaron …

There’s something even more special about seeing the late Yoshifumi Kondo’s Whisper of the Heart on 35mm. In its intended format, the work is on full display, affording its concern with creativity a more visible metatextuality. The film is distinctly Japanese in two ways, in particular. First is its inclusion of breathing space between narrative …

Among the most sumptuous of Walt Disney’s films, Sleeping Beauty’s enduring legacy is largely due to its incredible art design and complete creative vision. In production for nearly 10 years, the film was very costly and represented the end of an era for Disney hand-drawn animation. Though collaboration is key in most Disney productions, Sleeping Beauty …

Treasure Planet should have been one of Disney’s heavy hitters. The modern-day twist on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island had a lot going for it. Pirate adventure in space filled with interstellar ships and mutinies? Check. Stunning visuals that combine traditional 2D and modern 3D animation? Check. A great cast of characters? Well, that depends on who you ask. Treasure Planet clearly wanted to teach its audience that there is greater value in self-discovery than a ship filled with treasure from a thousand worlds. However, when it came time to test the cut of its sails, Treasure Planet left audiences standing on the docks dreaming of what could have been, if only Jim had found a way to save the treasure.

Though the big-name film festivals may have finished for the year–with Sundance rearing its head in only six weeks or so–there are still festivals running around the country. Take, for example, the Filmstock Film Festival, now in its fifth year, and catering specifically to the Four Corners states–Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. The festival …

The reading of film articles can be both a great pleasure and an educational experience. With the wealth of film writing available at the touch of a key, it should be pointed out that there are a number of current trends in film article writing that are lowering the overall bar in terms of quality. …

Our Sunhi, the newest film from Hong Sang-Soo, is enamoured with interconnected romances and the mysteries of affection. A charming and patient comedy, the film excels at presenting the trials and tribulations of desire, offering a rewarding and funny take on the mysteries of love. Though there is nothing exceptional about the title character, Sunhi, she captures the elusive affections of three friends.

Tsai Ming-Liang has built a reputation for himself as one of the foremost artists of contemporary cinema. His work is often lauded for its challenging ideas, careful pacing, and incredible compositional sense. His newest film Stray Dogs (rumoured to be his last) is about an alcoholic father and his two children struggling to survive in Taipei. Blending stark realism with elements of fantasy and absurdity, there is little doubt that this is one of the most unique films of the year, offering a singular vision of the world.

Borne out of the current economic crisis, Bluebird is set in an obscure and isolated logging town in Maine. Coated in snow that seems to be barely ever cleared, there is a lingering fear that the mill will close and the town will fade even deeper into the past. Lost in the rituals of daily life, it is only through accidental tragedy that a true sense of malaise and hopelessness comes rising from below the surface.