The Tree of Life gives you what you want to take out of it. Writer/director Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, The New World) creates an environment of compelling visual stimuli connected to the life of one man. It is…
Film
Film and movie criticism, news and views at Sketchy Details
Film Review: Beginners (2011)
by Robert • 20 December 2011 • 0 Comments
Beginners is a sweet tale of learning to pursue what makes you happy in life. Oliver Fields is our narrator, jumping through time over the past year to tell us the story of his dying father’s last months on Earth.…
Film Review: The Help (2011)
by Robert • 19 December 2011 • 0 Comments
The Help is a film designed to make people feel good about themselves. It takes a massive social issue–the Civil Rights Movement–and distills it down to a funny–almost cartoonish–and safe story of a young white woman encouraging hard working black…
Coming Soon: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
by Robert • 13 December 2011 • 0 Comments
Stop me if you heard this one before. A big movie studio takes a chance on a strange little horror screenplay from people who are really knowledgeable in sci-fi/fantasy/horror. The writers make the film and the studio doesn’t know what…
Art of the Trailer: Shame (2011) (Red Band)
by Robert • 5 December 2011 • 0 Comments
The goal of a good trailer is to entice the target audience to come see the film. It can focus on plot, character, stars, style, action, one scene, many scenes, everything, or nothing at all to get this job done.…
Film Review: My Week With Marilyn (2011)
by Robert • 1 December 2011 • 0 Comments
My Week with Marilyn is a very clever film. It masquerades as a biopic of Marilyn Monroe and a simple coming of age romance. The depth and joy of the film comes in the quiet commentary on the backroom manipulation…
Film Review: Exorcismus (2010)
by Robert • 30 November 2011 • 0 Comments
Emma is a home-schooled teenager. She believes her parents are being unfair when they don’t let her spend more time with her older cousins. The latest conflict is caused by a rock concert she’s not allowed to go to in…
Film Review: The Muppets (2011)
by Robert • 29 November 2011 • 1 Comment
The Muppets are back. The newest film in the long-standing franchise, The Muppets, is a loving tribute and a logical evolution for the beloved characters. There’s a meta-awareness about the franchise that allows the film to address the shift in…
Film Review: Super 8 (2011)
by Robert • 28 November 2011 • 0 Comments
I want to like Super 8 so much more than I do. It has its heart in the right place. As an homage to 1980s family-friendly science fiction films, it’s very good. As a film that stands on its own…
Film Review: The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011)
by Robert • 24 November 2011 • 0 Comments
Tom Six has a problem. The writer/director behind The Human Centipede series has set himself up for a career as a horror provocateur. He promises that each successive film will make the previous film look like a toy or children’s…
Where’d That Come From: Creepy Bed Gif Edition
by Robert • 23 November 2011 • 0 Comments
Sometimes, an artifact of pop culture becomes popular in an unexpected way. This could be a film being remembered for a single song used in a montage or a television show better known for one random gag than its actual…
Great Score: Susumu Hirasawa’s Paprika
by Robert • 22 November 2011 • 2 Comments
I love film scoring. I believe, under the right circumstances, that original music can make or break a film. It’s an element that people don’t always notice when it’s done right but know it’s wrong when it goes wrong. In…
Film Review: The Rum Diary (2011)
by Robert • 16 November 2011 • 1 Comment
If I had no standards, I could just write the following and be done with this review: This should not be a film. It’s not a particularly cinematic story and no amount of madcap slapstick thrown in will change that.…
Film Review: Like Crazy (2011)
by Robert • 15 November 2011 • 1 Comment
Anna is a British student studying creative writing in America. She falls in love with American student Jacob, a furniture design major. It’s love at first sight. The only catch–a huge one–is the strict immigration and travel visa issues that…