Many artists share their beauty with the world. They know what they want, they follow their hearts, and they proudly display their work for all to see. To call James Franco an artist is fairly appropriate. He has a unique style from his acting to his directing to his writing. The man definitely has a lot to say because it seems as though he’s somehow involved with every movie that gets released these days. His latest film Child of God (which he directed and co-stars in) is a dark and very disturbing look at a man living on the edge, and on the brink of absolute madness.
All posts by Unger the Radar
Happy Christmas
Just about every family has a black sheep, someone who goes against the grain and tends to annoy the heck out of his or her relatives. Though irritating and a burden, this individual can be full of life, piss and vinegar, making for a very colorful and downright entertaining character. This type of person has been brought to life on screen many times before but in the new dramedy Happy Christmas, we see a more realistic side to this controversial personality.
Honour
Honour is a film that addresses a topic that is far from honorable. Honor killings take place all over the world and take the lives of many people (mostly women) who have brought great shame and humiliation to their families. Many factors contribute to this form of murder: religion, marrying or having sex with a member of a different race, and so forth. Old fashioned thinkers believe it to be totally necessary to end the life of a loved one simply for going in a direction that is contrary to their family’s beliefs. This practice is atrocious and it is explored a bit in the lackluster Honour.
Boyhood
Richard Linklater is a filmmaker with one of the most impressive and eclectic resumes of any artist working today. From Slacker to Dazed and Confused to Waking Life to Before Sunrise and its sequels, the man certainly has a gift when it comes to making quality films. His latest work Boyhood continues this trend of supplying exemplary art on the movie screen and it is without a doubt, one of the best movies of 2014 thus far.
Life Itself
Remember when film criticism relied upon a simple “Thumbs up” or “Thumbs down”? This was an extraordinarily powerful way to gauge a movie’s quality and it was through this method that film critics and journalists ever since have adapted to their own ways of judging cinema. Roger Ebert was one of the pioneers of the “Thumbs up” approach and he was not just a talented writer and critic but a force for good in American pop culture. His intelligence and supreme wit have made him a cultural icon and the new documentary Life Itself beautifully sums up the man’s life.
They Came Together
In Hollywood’s endless endeavor to churn out likable romantic comedies, many of them fall through the cracks, landing into film obscurity. There are comedies, satires, and parodies. The new rom-com They Came Together seems to blend all of these descriptions together into one mixed bag of quirky, goofy fun. The film’s humor is unorthodox with narration that references the ridiculously predictable rom-com formula. The two headlining actors, whose chemistry is predictably on point, are Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler and with their cute flirty relationship and history making America laugh in the past, they definitely share the screen well.
Snowpiercer
The end of the world is a very common theme in science fiction films. Dystopian futures seem to breed colorful characters and gripping plots. Sometimes these type of films succeed in providing fictional fun but other times, they fail miserably. In the dreary, sometimes enjoyable Snowpiercer, a select group of people not only struggle to survive in a less than desirable situation but struggle to achieve balance in a very rigid and bizarre class system.
The Jungle
Since 1999, the found footage film category has grown to great heights. It is an entity which manages to take well-known film genres and put a spin on them by making them seem like riveting documentaries. The Blair Witch Project started it all and since then, numerous films have capitalized on this shaky, sometimes gripping film technique. The Jungle is the latest production in the found footage machine and it is a direct-to-DVD film which isn’t exactly great but then again, not completely terrible.
Third Person
Paul Haggis is a man of many talents. He is a prolific filmmaker who writes, directs, and produces. He has won Academy Awards for his work on Million Dollar Baby and Crash, both films which were released back to back (2004 and 2005 respectively). He is known for his raw human dramas and for interconnecting multiple storylines and characters. Crash is famous for this type of storytelling and so is his latest film Third Person, a psychological drama highlighting the very subtle nuances of human interaction, love, and trust.
Jersey Boys
American music history has had its fair share of notable moments. The 1950s and 1960s in particular, were an era in which catchy songs and talented performers reigned supreme. One such group was Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. These gifted young men were responsible for hit after hit including but not limited to “Sherry”, “Walk Like a Man”, and “Big Girls Don’t Cry”. A highly entertaining Tony Award-winning Broadway musical was created to detail the rise of The Four Seasons and it ran and continues to run, selling tickets to this day about a decade after its debut. It was only a matter of time until a big Hollywood film adaption would follow and it did. Helmed by veteran filmmaker Clint Eastwood, Jersey Boys is now in theaters and ready to transport you back to a time when music was not only highly enjoyable but extremely memorable.
Unger the Radar 