Experimenter Written by Michael Almereyda Directed by Michael Almereyda USA, 2015 Not everyone may know of social psychologist Stanley Milgram, but his experiments revealed some very human actions that people experience everyday, as explored in the film Experimenter. Sure, the 60s provided some controversial experiments that were performed on college campuses, but one can’t help …
There is that old adage that states if one does not stand for something they very well could fall for anything. Well, this apt sentiment certainly applies in co-writer/director Kelly Reichardt’s simmering eco-terrorism thriller Night Moves. Methodical, moody and breezily reflective, Reichardt’s suspense piece has a slow-footed pacing but registers with quiet resonance in its message about lingering environmental indifference and the retaliation against the establishment that allows for such blatant negligence.
What separates life on the fringe of society from being outside of society entirely? It’s that line of demarcation that fascinates Kelly Reichardt, whose particularly American take on “slow cinema” collides with our own expectation of the requirements of the thriller genre in Night Moves, which cleverly cloaks its true thematic concerns in familiar story tropes.
The Killing, Season 3: Episode 6 – “Eminent Domain” Directed by Keith Gordon Written by David Wiener Airs Sunday nights at 9 on AMC As much as I found the first two seasons of The Killing interesting if just for how they tweaked with the first season of Forbrydelsen, I probably wouldn’t have found it a …
AMC’s current original lineup is incredibly diverse in tone. There’s the action-first approach of The Walking Dead and the slow, methodical movement of shows like Mad Men and The Killing (Hell on Wheels and Breaking Bad are somewhere between those two extremes, a little closer to The Walking Dead’s pace). When pace is purposeful and established, it’s hard to criticize it on any grounds other than personal taste. So, when people talk about The Killing being boring, I’m inclined to say they’re reacting based off their personal expectations as TV viewers and are not basing that criticism on anything substantial that has to do with the quality of the show itself. And to reiterate: The Killing is a quality show – one that doesn’t have aspirations higher than what it achieves.
The Killing, Season 3: Episodes 1 & 2 – “The Jungle” and “That You Fear the Most” Directed by Ed Bianchi (E1) and Lodge Kerrigan (E2) Written by Veena Sud (E1) and Dan Nowak (E2) Airs Sunday nights at 9 on AMC Even the reviews that have been cautiously optimistic of the The Killing‘s third …
Robot & Frank Directed by Jake Schreier Written by Christopher Ford USA, 2012 When writers play tricks with their audience, they have to be careful for two major reasons. First, they need to execute those tricks deftly, but more importantly, the stories they create can’t exist solely to pull a fast one on us. Robot …
Orphan Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra When you see a major studio’s logo in front of a horror film, you’re generally in for one of three things: neutered PG-13 dreck (The Uninvited); crass torture porn (Captivity); or an unspeakably generic slasher (the Friday the 13th reboot). Not only that, but all three forms are burdened by …