Tag / sharon stone

by Jaime Rebanal

‘The Laundromat’ TIFF Review: Soderbergh’s Latest True Story Comedy is a Baffling Joke

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There came a point where Steven Soderbergh had announced an intention to retire from filmmaking yet it seemed all too clear that he couldn’t leave the medium. It was long-thought that his last theatrical feature film was going to be Side Effects, but he came back to the big screen with Logan Lucky four years later – which he soon followed with films that were shot entirely with the use of iPhones, Unsane and High Flying Bird. Knowing the sort of filmmaker that Soderbergh has established himself as over his prolific career, it’s only fitting that he made another film that takes down an entire system but even the results of what this could sound like turn out so much stranger than expected. As for whether or not the film is good, I’m still having trouble finding out the answer to that myself.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Total Recall – Review

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My first memories of Total Recall have gone on in the same way that my own for RoboCop had. I was thirteen years old and I saw both films back to back on television (where they were both uncensored, surprisingly) and although both had been helpful factors in allowing myself to accept the sight of graphic violence on the screen, I merely came out just liking them because all I saw was an action film. Growing older was a different story as I looked into these films and suddenly saw another layer of brilliance on Paul Verhoeven’s end, the loud satire it presents in your face. With a Philip K. Dick story and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead, he’s clearly at some of his most inviting. And with Total Recall, there comes Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best film yet.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Basic Instinct – Review

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In his Hollywood years, Paul Verhoeven has been able to make some of the smartest social satires of the period through science fiction but he comes back to a sense of what had defined him during his years making films in the Netherlands through Basic Instinct. With Basic Instinct he returns to a form that has defined him during his early years but even here his biting satire can still be felt in a most unexpected sense. If something were to stand out about Paul Verhoeven, there’s an incredible feeling of self-awareness lurking within his work that never feels afraid to lash out at one. If there were much to say about said power, it gives his own work a delicious taste and a certain exotic quality becomes all the more abundant there. At times I think I underestimate my love of Paul Verhoeven but I can never help it.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Casino – Review

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Scorsese’s Casino is an overwhelming one from him – but for how much it sprawls through in order to run the three hour running time it carries but never is it a bore. After Goodfellas it was only fitting that Martin Scorsese would come together with writer Nicholas Pileggi once again but this time for something much bigger and while it may not necessarily be the better film from their collaborations, what they have formed through Casino is indeed one of Scorsese’s finest achievements as of yet. In some ways it may be Scorsese’s answer to Francis Coppola’s The Godfather for it signifies a greatness calling back to such a work through the large scale of events.

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