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‘Red Knot’ captures the stunning beauty of Antarctica

A peaceful marvel of a drama studying an unraveling marriage on the brink of fading before it even started, Scott Cohen’s Red Knot sets in motion stifling inner conflicts against a beautiful backdrop of Antarctic landscape. Olivia Thirlby and Vincent Kartheiser star in the picture that took home the Fipresci Grand Jury prize at the Seattle International Film Festival. Stunning and grand in scope, the film may be too simplified for big multiplexes yet demand the respect of art houses. Absolutely dazzling to look at, the derailing love story of Peter and Chloe is overshadowed by the impression set forth by the Antarctic. Surely in the wheelhouse of the art photographer, Red Knot will be remembered purely for its cinematography. Like pulling over the side of the road and soaking in a beautiful sight, the road trip itself is unadorned by the landscape it surrounds.

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‘Dredd’ is a refreshingly concise and thrilling genre exercise

Dredd Written by Alex Garland Directed by Pete Travis USA/UK/India, 2012 Excluding a much-maligned 1995 adaptation, one of the more notable influences 2000 AD’s Judge Dredd comic book series has had on the film world is informing Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop. Both have corrupt future city settings, helmeted law enforcer protagonists, and often absurd levels of …

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Top 5 Manic Pixie Dream Girls

On January 25, 2007, Onion A.V. Club critic Nathan Rabin inadvertently added a phrase to the movie lexicon. One that would eventually get it’s own Wikipedia page and it’s own NPR story. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. In his review of Elizabethtown, Rabin said the following of Kirstin Dunst’s character: “Dunst embodies a character type I like to call The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (see Natalie Portman in Garden State for another prime example). The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an all-or-nothing-proposition. Audiences either want to marry her instantly (despite The Manic Pixie Dream Girl being, you know, a fictional character) or they want to commit grievous bodily harm against them and their immediate family.”

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