Tag / mark duplass

by Jaime Rebanal

Tully Review: A Tender Film About the Challenges of an Idealized Motherhood

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I think I’m starting to find myself appreciating Diablo Cody’s writing far more than I initially would have thought I did, because her writing style seems to have grown far more beautifully within time. Although the rather blunt self-awareness can still be annoying (I still think that this is the case with Juno), there’s already been a clear sense of growth in her partnership with Jason Reitman for I’m only finding myself impressed by what the two of them bring to the screen together. After two misses for director Jason Reitman, it’s nice to see that he’s finding himself coming back onto the right track with Tully – something that I’d been waiting for after how dreadful his previous two films were. For not only is this Jason Reitman’s best film since Up in the Air but for another collaboration between Reitman and Diablo Cody, this feels like the perfect follow-up for Young Adult.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Safety Not Guaranteed – Review

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Colin Trevorrow’s debut film Safety Not Guaranteed was a film I remember having enjoyed upon my first sighting of it, when I was going out of my way to seek out quirky independent films as a means of passing time. Coming back to it now after seeing what more had Colin Trevorrow become after the abysmal nostalgia-sucking experience of Jurassic World didn’t help any better, for what I’ve once seen in Safety Not Guaranteed now comes off as a stereotypical indie film just the way I see everything coming about. The quirky characters and equally quirky premise, starring actors who’ve already made names for themselves in other smaller films – this easily could be great. But after a long period of time having gone without seeing Safety Not Guaranteed only ever showed an incomplete film to my very own eyes, in the sense that it seems to build up to become so much more – and then suddenly everything just stops.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Lazarus Effect – Review

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Another one of those films that can taint the image for modern horror – just as one can already expect. Yet that’s not the most pitiful aspect about The Lazarus Effect. Instead, it goes down to the talent of the people whom it has behind it, from both the actors and the director, and wastes them all so terribly. An idea like this indeed may have had much potential, but it seems as if the film had just decided to only take the very worst pathways which it possibly could and what is churned out is something so boring and predictable. Having gained a greater sense of appreciation towards the horror genre in recent years, there was a part of me that was at least hoping for something good to come out of even some of the worst offerings from the genre, which The Lazarus Effect evidently lacked. Continue reading →