It is hard not to wonder, while watching Don Jon, exactly how much Joseph Gordon-Levitt can’t stand the culture of which he is a part. His directorial debut (which he also wrote) is a deeply cynical portrait of what he must consider the shallowest elements of pop culture.
A Good Day to Die Hard Directed by John Moore Written by Skip Woods USA, 2013 Die Hard, 25 years after its initial release, is one of the best action films of all time not because of its jaw-dropping setpieces or titanic explosions, but because its hero is perfectly, proudly unspectacular. John McClane pulled off …
I hate being wrong. Really hate it. The only thing I hate more than being wrong is publicly admitting I’m wrong. And, man, when it comes to how 2012 played out at the movies matched up against what I’d predicted in my end-of-2011 box office wrap-up, I couldn’t have been more wrong. “Want a prediction …
Since I started writing for Sound on Sight during Fantasia 2011, 2012 was my first full year of writing for the site. I started the year by joining Josh on the Mousterpiece Cinema Podcast. During the year I attended Fantasia for the 15th time in 16 festivals and I attended RIDM (Québec’s only Documentary Film …
“Hey You Geeks!!” is all about the bread and butter of Geek Cinema; comic book films, science fiction, action, horror and fantasy. Because these genres overwhelmingly embody the money-earning side of film, they tend to exist on an uneven plain where weeding out the good from the bad is an often tedious task. Along this …
#10: The Cabin in the Woods (107 points) Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard Directed by Drew Goddard USA, 2012 Like Scream, it’s a self-aware slasher film, but where Scream was happy simply to turn the genre’s bloody glove inside out and examine the stitching, The Cabin in the Woods has more complicated ambitions. If Scream is …
25: The Dark Knight Rises Directed by Christopher Nolan Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan 2012, USA The Dark Knight Rises feels as if it was made up of two equal halves, with the most critical moment of the film breaking the movie in half, almost literally. While the second half may have …
2012 wasn’t a bad year for movies. It was actually a great year. The problem is, the movies we were most anticipating, specifically the Hollywood blockbusters like Prometheus and The Hobbit, didn’t live up to our expectations. With that said I still managed to make a list of 50 films I loved. Maybe I just …
I have to say that it’s been a particularly great year for film scores. Not only did we see the return of established staples such as John Williams, Danny Elfman, and Thomas Newman, but we were treated to some strong new talent like Dan Romer, Benh Zeitlin and Heather McIntosh. I had a difficult time …
30: Moonrise Kingdom – Beach Scene Director Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom has had mixed reviews here at Sound On Sight. But just about every one of us agrees that the goofy dance sequence to Francoise Hardy’s “Le Temps De L’amour” – which leads to an uncomfortable first kiss/first arousal, is by far the highlight of …
Director Rian Johnson has been slowly gaining acclaim in the film community for his unique feature films, which he also writes, the latest of which is the Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring time travel thriller Looper. Before a film can go into production, however, directors are expected to create a Pitch Reel that effectively …
Every thirty days, I like to post a list of my favorite films I’ve recently seen. Here are the best films I’ve seen throughout the month of September. This list is based on movies theatrically released here in Canada, and I do not include what I have seen at film festivals. **** 1: Tabu Directed …
Brick Written and directed by Rian Johnson. imdb USA 2005 Edgar Chaput’s Review The Brothers Bloom Written and directed by Rian Johnson. imdb USA 2008 Looper Written and directed by Rian Johnson. imdb USA 2012 Sound on Sight podcast about Looper. Simon Howell’s review. Josh Spiegel’s review. Edgar Chaput’s review. Josh Slater-William’s review. Modern Times Written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. …
Spring Breakers – Opening Sequence Having been at TIFF this month, attempting to select favorite scenes without going entirely overboard– well, it may not exactly be as drastic as Sophie’s choice, but that is the first label that comes to mind. Spring Breakers is one of many very strong showings from Toronto this year, and …
Fantastic Fest is over but that doesn’t mean we should stop promoting the incredible line-up of movies programmed. It has become a Sound on Sight tradition that once the event has finished, we post a festival wrap-up highlighting our favourite films. Here are the top three picks from four of our writers. You can check …
Looper Written and directed by Rian Johnson USA/China, 2012 Of its numerous strengths, one of Looper’s greatest is that, despite featuring narration by its lead character, it heavily relies on visual storytelling to successfully convey both information and emotion. The narration delivers as little exposition as necessary to begin understanding both of its dystopian worlds, …
Looper Directed by Rian Johnson Written by Rian Johnson USA, 2012 If there’s any justice in this world, we’ll look back on Looper in 10 or 20 years, and pinpoint it as the moment when Rian Johnson entered into the realm of stardom. Though he proved his directing savvy with Brick and The Brothers Bloom, …
Looper Directed by Rian Johnson Written by Rian Johnson U.S.A., 2012 It is tempting to write that it does not get any better than a new film from Rian Johnson starring seemingly everybody’s favourite actor of the past couple years, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as well as Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. However, last week saw the …
The Tumblr round-up is a compilation of images, links, posters, stories, videos and so on, taken from the Sound On Sight Tumblr account. We simply do not have the man power nor time to write articles on every interesting movie related goody we find, so this is our way of still promoting some of the …
Ever since I launched Sound On Sight back in 2008, I’ve seen an average of 150 new releases each year, and every year since, I’ve been able to easily draft up a list of my fifty favourite films. In fact, there were so many great movies released in 2011, I have a list of 75 …
Joseph Gordon-Levitt might only be 30 years old, but he has already distinguished himself as an actor with a wide range. Beginning in commercials as a young child, he made his film debut in 1992’s Beethoven, but it wasn’t until 1996 that he became a household name, co-starring in the television sitcom 3rd Rock from …
Writer-director Rian Johnson’s turned heads with his brilliant debut feature – the scandalous high-school-set neo-noir Brick – and ever since the director has been a player to keep an eye on. He became a seemingly overnight, fresh voice in independent film. In reality, after putting in a good eight years in the Hollywood trenches, Johnson …
Director Rian Johnson blasted into the scene with his hit 2005 neo-noir teen crime drama Brick, and followed it with his sophomore and much under-appreciated The Brothers Bloom. His latest film, the sci-fi time-travel thriller Looper is safely one of the most anticipated films for 2012. 2012 is far away but some very cool new …