Tag / armie hammer

by Jaime Rebanal

Sorry to Bother You, But You Should See ‘Sorry to Bother You’

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I had zero idea what I was going to expect from the way in which Sorry to Bother You was marketed but walking in with somewhat of a basic idea of what the film was about definitely did not prepare me for what I was about to experience. The directorial debut of rapper Boots Riley of The Coup already has a weird enough premise with an idea based around African-American telemarketers mastering a “white voice” in order to win customers over but somehow it only turned out to be the least crazy of many things that Boots Riley showed us in Sorry to Bother You. But to talk about what goes on in Sorry to Bother You would be spoiling the film, and the film is best experienced walking in completely blind – because what you’ll see in Sorry to Bother You simply isn’t something that can be repeated again so quickly. But even trying to talk about it would be challenging enough because it’s just so off-the-walls in a way that would never be expected to work, yet it does.

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by Jaime Rebanal

General Thoughts: The 90th Academy Awards

One knows already how predictable the Academy Awards can become after the route of the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards among many more, but in the 90 years that we have seen them moving onward, what they had managed to turn forth was not only one of the strongest lineups in a while but also one of the most pleasantly surprising, knowing where their own habits lie. If there was anything else to be said about what the Academy Awards have in store for us this year, then it only makes this year’s ceremony – unlike the past few at least, worth looking forward to.

Bold indicates my vote for said category.
Underline indicates who I think will win.

To read more about the picks this year in the major categories, click “read more.” Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

Call Me by Your Name – Review

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How do you describe that feeling of being in love for the first time? When we’re young, we discover that emotion rushes through us and it’s something that roots itself inside of our head for as long as we keep it there. And in the film’s closing lines, Call Me by Your Name sums up how we like to keep that experience in our hearts, “I remember everything.” But i also think it’s worth noting that Call Me by Your Name isn’t exactly a love story in the traditional sense – it’s about what happens as that feeling of experiencing love strikes you for the first time. So how exactly does Luca Guadagnino manage to make a film that resonates with the experience? The best thing to feel as you watch Call Me by Your Name comes forth when you recognize it coming back to you like a memory.

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by Jaime Rebanal

2017: A Year in Review

Another year is complete, but not without having talked about the wonderful experiences we’ve had at the cinemas. Together with the not-so-wonderful films. But alas, this has been an extraordinary year for films for the highlights still managed to stick their landing inside of our minds – and the inevitable “what about such and such?” will come but I will remind you that it would have been outright impossible for me to have been able to catch virtually every movie that had come out the previous year to make sure I wouldn’t forget other highlights that may not have made it.
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by Jaime Rebanal

Cars 3 – Review

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Despite my own love for Pixar’s work, the Cars films have always stood out to me as their least interesting films for I have never particularly been a big fan of the first and I also outright hate the second film (the only Pixar film I’ve held in such a strongly negative light). Now that they’ve come out with a third film, I’d only wonder how much more merchandise would they have wanted to produce from an elaborate universe that also manages to be one of the least imaginative that I’ve seen Pixar sink themselves down to. But at the very least it’s nice that in Cars 3 they didn’t go too far-fetched like they did with the second, yet it still reaffirms how I’ve always felt about the world of Cars from the first day. This doesn’t feel like the Pixar that I’ve loved on a consistent streak, it’s just them doing what’s typical of an animated film for the family out there, and I can’t find myself buying into it.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Free Fire – Review

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Ben Wheatley has always been a complicated case for myself and Free Fire shows another side to him that may prove itself more accessible put next to the rest of his films. I went into Free Fire wondering what this new route would have done for Wheatley then I got a mixed bag of results. On one hand, the idea that is being presented here is something to which I have great admiration for, but on another hand, I’m not exactly sure that I got enough of it presented here and I wonder how much it would benefit either from trimming or extension. This was something that has always run through my head when I watch Wheatley’s films, they have ideas that don’t always come fully realized but he’s a director I admire on the count that he tries to reach out for more through the unorthodox.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Nocturnal Animals – Review

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It’s frustrating enough when one of the films you anticipate most turns out to be an underwhelming treat. Fashion designer Tom Ford’s sophomore feature takes a different route from his brilliant debut, A Single Man, and now in a means of broadening his stroke he takes Austin Wright’s novel Tony and Susan and adapts it to the screen as Nocturnal Animals. I really hate being that person again but even though I know this has captured nothing but great admiration from fans of Ford’s previous effort but I ended up finding this to be such a disappointing follow-up. With so much that could so easily catch admiration even on my own end, it’s shocking how so little feels delivered.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Social Network – Review

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Aaron Sorkin’s scripts, for how much cleverness they incorporate through their wording, can also carry a flair of being too in love with the pen. With the right filmmaker, however, something more arises in order to really show how clever they actually can be and the furthest that they have ever managed to reach was in 2010 when David Fincher released The Social Network, a film recounting the events that led to the creation of one of the most used websites in recent history (arguably the most used and most common social media website in that regard). In spite of some obvious contrivances with actuality, the film’s relevance has only managed to grow.

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