Reviews

With only a handful of cast members and three scene locations, director Brian Scott Hunt had to be creative for his film A Savior Red.  Thankfully his cast and crew were filled with highly talented individuals who all rose to the occasion and carried a strong story that will have genre fans biting at the bits as they look on and await the final verdict.

It was kind of funny. It was kind of boring. It was kind of unique. It was kind of blah.Zonad was kind of a mismatch of scenes and plot that made for one mediocre film.

For me, this film really flew in under the radar. I didn’t pay much attention to it until I read the featured synopsis and realized exactly what it was about: the Jack Abramoff scandal.  Featured as one of the largest political corruption events that ever hit Washington, DC, the scandal makes for the perfect plotline for an intoxicating picture, a feat that director George Hickenlooper pulled off brilliantly!

You’ve likely never heard of actor/director Adam Bowers, but I expect that to change in the coming years. The lanky 25 year-old filmmaker has created something very special with New Low: a no-budget slacker romance that actually manages to be entertaining and heartfelt. New Low tells the story of Wendell, a cynical loafer with two love interests and no real concern for anyone but himself. Bowers’ performance here absolutely makes the film; he has the quick wit of Johnny Galecki packed into the scrawny frame of Jim Parsons.

DMT is an unusual hallucinogen found naturally in the bodies of every living thing… but why?  What is its purpose?  Starting in the 1960s, scientists began trying to answer that very question, but ethic concerns and demonization of hallucinogens resulted in a halting of new research until the 1990s.  Psychiatrist Rick Strassman decided to take up the slack and renew research on DMT and its effects.  His qualitative results are presented in The Spirit Molecule—a PBS-esque documentary that seeks to reconcile the spiritual world with modern science through the stimulating effects of DMT.

I really wanted to enjoy this film, and I think that’s what made the truth tough to swallow. The story had so much potential and it seemed as though there weren’t many opportunities for it to fail.  In reality, Conviction made a number of mistakes, all of which worked together to prevent it from being anything near great.

Based on a true story.  It is a marketing term that is used quite freely when it comes to film.  Sometimes a filmmaker can take a story and strip it of its core and reconstruct their own version of what happened; others will follow the details exactly in an effort to create a truly accurate representation of what really happened.  In reference to Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, I have absolutely no idea how accurate the film is; however, at the moment, I don’t really care.

Cindy and Dean are married with one child. To say they have martial problems is a gross understatement. Blue Valentine examines the creation and disintegration of a relationship that was never meant to be.

While the film is about that relationship, the one that doesn’t work, the one you learn from, Blue Valentine focuses in on the risks of love.  The couple met when they where young and short sighted, their development into adults causes a rift in their romantic chemistry, thus setting the stage for a deep and mind provoking story.