seen from Pakistan
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from China
seen from Kenya
seen from Iraq
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Yemen
seen from Netherlands
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from Australia
seen from United States
This looks intriguing and has the Ignatiy Vishnevetzky (from AV Club) seal of approval. So, why not? #31daysofhorror #31daysofhalloween #thealchemistcookbook #oscilloscopelaboratories https://www.instagram.com/p/B4LxDOfgrhL/?igshid=axh8l7pw4k2y
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two: White
Silver Streak #buzzardfilm #jackitansky #nike #davidspade #runner #oscilloscopelaboratories #dude
12 O'Clock Boys - Trailer
A Teacher
1 hour 15 minutes
Not Rated (but would get an R for aberrant sexuality and some nudity)
Directed by Hannah Fidell
Starring Lindsay Burdge, Will Brittain, and Jennifer Prediger
2.5 out of 4 stars
IN THEATERS AND ON DEMAND NOW.
I just had to watch A Teacher. If you have the time, go on YouTube and watch the trailer. It pins you to your seat. It's a similar story about a high school teacher who has an affair with a student, yet the trailer makes it look like the movie is going to dig deep into the characters' minds and explore WHY so many real-life teachers are caught having these affairs. By the end, however, A Teacher ends up feeling INCREDIBLY underwritten. The movie is only 75 minutes, for a start, and though a short running time may have worked writer/director Hannah Fidell (her first feature) fails to create a compelling character study. In Notes on a Scandal, another scandalous "teacher-sleeps-with-student" drama, we understand why Cate Blanchett's character sleeps with a 15 year old because she misses her wild hippie days (plus her husband is super older than her). The teacher in this movie is an enigma. She's very screwed up, but we never know why. There's no need for a backstory, but there's a need for some explanation.
Writing flaws aside, A Teacher is chilling and very well-acted. Perhaps it's the haunting score by Brian McOmber that fooled us into thinking we were going to watch a powerful sexual drama. Lindsay Burdge gives a nuanced yet confused performance as Diana Watts, a 30s-something English teacher at an Austin, Texas high school. She lives with her smiley friend, Sophia (Jennifer Prediger), but overall seems like a pretty lonely person. One night she meets up with her brother and he confesses that he and their mom are "worried" about her. Diana puts her head down, fidgets, and leaves her brother at the bar before glancing in the distance against a wall as the camera drifts backwards. Ok, so there's something psychologically wrong with her, but what is it, exactly? She's also been sleeping with one of her students, a cute jock named Eric (Will Brittain). We don't see how the affair started. When the movie starts off Diana and Eric have been together for a while.
As a viewer, we somewhat enjoy watching the two together. It's twisted, I know. A teacher shouldn't be sleeping with a high school student. Yet Diana and Eric are happy souls when they're in bed. It's creepy but it works. Diana even confesses that she hasn't been this happy in a while. Eric is sort of a douchebag (especially in the scene where he asks his teacher to go down on him while he's driving), but he's charming to be around. Of course, a happy ending for the two is out of the question. Diana's paranoia grows as their affair gets closer to being discovered. Even worse, she's falling for Eric. A part of her knows this is wrong but she can't stop herself. Her paranoia and undying lust for the jock creates a nervous breakdown. Unfortunately, Fidell never hints at the reasoning for Diana's desires. There are too many shots of the teacher jogging in her neighborhood while McOmber's eerie score blasts. A little less mood and a little more psychological explaining would help.
WHY WHY WHY can't Diana stop sleeping with Eric? Why is she acting like this? What forced her to begin this affair? Is she afraid of getting old and wants to rekindle her youth? That might be it. In one scene she and Diana go to a party and a guy tells her that she's "totally the teacher all the little dudes in high school wanted to bang." Diana forces a smile and walks off, obviously pissed. The ending of A Teacher is out of nowhere. It starts and you think "No. Please no. Don't end. No." When it cut to black I literally yelled "UGHHH NO!!! Why are you ending here?!?!?!" The movie tries to provoke but fails because the characters feel so flat. The same could be said of Eric. Why is he having this affair too? Is he just a perverted high schooler who likes getting action with a teacher? I couldn't figure out his thoughts and whether he's even trying to be the responsible one in the relationship. He's just there to look cute, really.
Visually Fidell is brilliant at creating dark, somber moods. There's an effective moment where Diana listens in on teachers talking about a nude photo going around school of a topless girl. It's a photo she texted to Eric. The camera slowly moves closer to Diana's face as she tries to hold her stoicism. The score and dark look of it all parallels the unhealthy relationship between the leads. That's all fine, there's just no character development. Then again, this is Fidell's first movie. She can get better!
Wuthering Heights
2 hours 9 minutes
Not Rated (but would get an R for language, violent content, an aberrant sex scene and some graphic nudity)
Directed by Andrea Arnold
Starring Kaya Scodelario, James Howson, Solomon Glave, Shannon Beer, Steve Evets, Oliver Milburn, Paul Hilton, Simone Jackson, Lee Shaw, James Northcote, Amy Wren, and Nichola Burley
4 out of 4 stars
IN THEATERS NOW.
Love is pain. Be forewarned: Wuthering Heights is no Pride and Prejudice. Andrea Arnold has taken the famed book by Emily Bronte and transformed it into a harsh but utterly powerful drama about two people who are meant to be together but can't. You have to know what you're getting yourself into when you enter a theater that's going to show a movie by Arnold. She won an Oscar for a short movie she did called Wasp about a single mother of four who brings them to a bar so she can meet up with a guy. What's the most disturbing scene? Probably the one where a wasp crawls inside a sleeping toddler's mouth. She also made Fish Tank, an equally intense drama with Katie Jarvis and Michael Fassbender. Most disturbing scene? The one where a little girl is thrown into a freezing cold river. Nothing, however, compares to a scene in Wuthering Heights where a dog is picked up and hung by its neck on a fence. The camera doesn't cut from the dog's panicking face. We see it all. We see the pain he's feeling. Arnold is challenging us for a reason. I haven't seen her first feature, Red Road, and I'm too afraid to do so.
There have been many adaptations of the book, the most famous one being the 1939 tearjerker with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. This isn't an ordinary adaptation. Arnold has kept the story and setting but made it more realistic, darker, and philosophical. She cares less about trying to make a tearjerking romance and more about visualizing the darkness of the human condition. I loved every minute of it. In fact this might be my favorite movie of the year. Arnold is like a female Terrence Malick, using little dialogue in exchange for more of an emphasis on nature. It's up to the viewer to interpret what he's seeing. The romance of Heathcliff and Cathy is, above all, as tempestuous as nature can get. I haven't read the book, but according to some reviews I've read the director has tweaked quite a bit of the story. Set in the vastness of the Yorkshire Moors, the movie begins with Mr. Earnshaw (Paul Hilton), a strict Christian father and husband, bringing in a homeless black boy, Heathcliff (Solomon Glave), he found wandering around Liverpool.
Mr. Earnshaw has two kids, Hindley (Lee Shaw) and his younger sister Cathy (Shannon Beer). Hindley dislikes Heathcliff out of jealousy and racism. Cathy, on the other hand, is curious about the boy. She peeks from a doorway and watches him change out of his wet clothes in one scene. Heathcliff is also interested in Cathy. Take for instance the scene where the two go riding off into the Moors. He subtly sniffs the back of her hair, the way an animal does when it's curious about something. This isn't a happy/sappy romance. This is in some ways a sadomasochistic one. Heathcliff is animalistic and doesn't just love Cathy but WANTS her. In one scene they throw mud at one another and then he pushes her to the ground and sits on her arms so she can't move. Yet Cathy isn't afraid. She stares into his eyes and shows him that she's attracted to his dominant control. Don't interpret this as child porn. This is a relationship characterized by pure lust.
Heathcliff's rage increases when the Earnshaw family is introduced to their new neighbors, the rich Linton family. Cathy and Edgar (Jonny Powell), the son of the family, grow closer. It's obvious that Cathy deep down loves Heathcliff but she believes she can't be with him because of his poor status. Edgar proposes to her and she accepts. A heartbroken Heathcliff leaves the property and returns a few years later (now played by James Howson) to take Cathy (now played by Kaya Scodelario) away from her husband. This isn't just a painful story because these two people can't end up together. What's agonizing is the pain they inflict on one another. Heathcliff overhears Cathy explaining to someone that she doesn't love him and only wants Edgar in her life. When they're older, Heathcliff starts to become infatuated with Isabella (Nichola Burley), Edgar's sister, to make Cathy jealous. Hasn't Cathy been through enough? Hasn't she had to deal with the heartbreak of Heathcliff running away when they were kids? This is a story about the pessimistic reality of love. Heathcliff and Cathy can't have it so they become cruel to one another.
This says a lot about the dark side of human nature. Love isn't always beautiful. It can be a curse! When this happens, when the love we can't have takes hold of our lives, we become vicious creatures of the world. Howson doesn't portray Heathcliff as the conventional brooding character. He's angry here, a man who's had enough of this torturous life. Arnold is brutally honest in showing this. In one scene Heathcliff is told by Hindley that he doesn't want him near Cathy. So what does Heathcliff do? He gets his frustration out by slicing open a sheep's neck. Nature plays an important role here in that it reflects him and Cathy's relationship. There's never a sunny, calm day in the Moors. The clouds are dark and menacing and the wind is loud and the complete opposite of serene. Yet nature can't compete with Heathcliff and Cathy's love, the stormiest force of all. All of this is captured beautifully by cinematographer Robbie Ryan. Arnold is an extraordinary visual poet and captures the language from the book through the camera. Every part of nature serves a purpose. The birds, for example, represent the life the lovers want. If only they could just fly away and escape this hell.
Perhaps the biggest change in this adaptation is the race of Heathcliff. There's no political statement here about how black people should be portrayed in classic works of literature more. Arnold is simply shifting the love story to a more modern standard. Heathcliff can't be with Cathy because he's poor, but NOW in this adaptation he also can't be with her because he's black. I love this not just because I love interracial couples but because it's different! This whole adaptation is different! It's certainly a hit or miss movie for fans of the book and has already divided critics. I think it's a monumental achievement. Depressing and disturbing as hell, yes, but monumental. Arnold has dived into the psychology of the love of Heathcliff and Cathy and exposed its dark, tragic side.
Hello I Must Be Going
1 hour 35 minutes
Rated R (Language and Sexual Content)
Directed by Todd Louiso
Starring Melanie Lynskey, Blythe Danner, Christopher Abbott, John Rubinstein, Dan Futterman, and Julie White
3 out of 4 stars
IN THEATERS NOW.
Amy (Melanie Lynskey) is in her 30s and living at home with her parents (Blythe Danner and John Rubinstein) in Connecticut. She's just gotten divorced and is jobless. She's got no kids and believes there's no purpose in her life. She majored in photography in college and now is starting to realize that there's nothing to do with that. One day her dad, Stan, says that he's trying to get friendlier with some work people of his so he can close a deal with them. The deal will allow him to retire so that he and his wife, Ruth, can go on an adventure exploring the world. He invites them over for dinner. Here we're introduced to Gwen (Julie White, Shia LaBeouf's hilarious mom from the Transformers movies), a therapist and the wife of one of Stan's workers, and her 19 year old son, Jeremy (Christoper Abbot from HBO's Girls). Jeremy looks miserable and barely looks up from the table. He's an actor but hates acting. His mother thinks he's gay. He sees Amy look just as miserable and instantly feels a love for her. Amy leaves the table and goes into another room. Jeremy comes in and kisses her. Amy's surprised, but then kisses him back.
So I think you know what happens next. Amy and Jeremy start seeing each other behind their parents' backs. Amy doesn't know what she's doing. She obviously enjoys the sex because it makes her forget about the last few months she's had. Yet she's also having a really bad existential crisis. What is there to do with her life? She obviously can't carry on with a 19 year old forever, but could a fling like this awaken her eyes to a planned future? Hello I Must Be Going's story, written by Sarah Koskoff, feels a little too simple, but there's something about it that sticks with you. I saw the ending coming but it feels different in a way; it's quirky and sweet. It's that type of movie about the wake up call each of us has to the world. In this case, it's Amy's affair with a younger man. People might not understand why Jeremy is so attracted to Amy because though Amy is pretty she's not a supermodel. Well, Jeremy isn't a supermodel either (which is why he fits in so well on Girls) so right away you can see why he's attracted to her.
The movie is also funny and oftentimes tragic. The real charm of the movie comes from Lynskey's performance. The New Zealand actress first starred as the lead in Peter Jackson's cult classic Heavenly Creatures, alongside Kate Winslet (in her first movie role). That movie and this are the only ones where she plays the lead. She's always cast as the adjunct characters in movies like Up in the Air, Ever After, and the show Two and a Half Men. Why is she never cast as the lead anymore? I have no idea. Hollywood is just really blind to her naturally incredible acting. Let's pray to God that her performance awakens Hollywood's eyes more. I really liked Abbott here as well because he's so perfect at acting like a naive youth falling for a woman he knows he can't have. Danner may not look like Amy's mother but she does a great job of acting like it.
Hello I Must Be Going certainly got me scared about the possibility of having a life like Amy in the future. I'm only 21 and am already freaking out about what my future life will be like. Good God I hope this doesn't happen to me when I'm in my 30s. The story here isn't the most inventive, but Lynskey is reason alone to see the movie.
On the year anniversary of their final show, LCD Soundsystem's (great) documentary "Shut Up and Play The Hits" will hit theaters throughout the U.S. this summer. Thanks to Oscilloscope Laboratories the production and distribution company founded by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. Which has acquired North American rights to the film. The film will be shown as "special one-night-only engagements."
