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by Jaime Rebanal

‘The Dead Don’t Die’ Review: Jarmusch’s Zombie Comedy is Dead on Arrival

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Jim Jarmusch is one among the most unique American filmmakers working today, for his deadpan sense of humour and otherwise outwardly visual style makes him stand out from many others. But even being too involved with that sense of being so distinctive can take a director like Jim Jarmusch somewhere, and in the case with The Dead Don’t Die it seems to have gotten the better of him. If anything, this almost feels like an actively lazy effort from Jarmusch which isn’t something that I would have expected from him, and even as a longtime fan of the filmmaker I was hoping that even for as messy as the results would have been, The Dead Don’t Die would at least be something I can find enjoyment from. And the joys are definitely present within the film after all, but there’s a point to which you also find yourself getting quite weary because Jarmusch isn’t really doing terribly much here that wouldn’t already feel as if it came out from a feature-length effort of an overeager student filmmaker. Which I suppose is the point, but it didn’t work at all for me.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Big Lebowski: The Dude Abides Twenty Years Later

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It’s hard to pinpoint where the brilliance of the films of the Coen brothers can ever find itself limited because even their weaker films still carry enough of a bite to prevent the experience from being wholly unrewarding. But in these early films they seem to be developing their cynicism all the more and how exactly does it manage to add up to create an endlessly rewatchable ride? First off, you only need The Dude, a soiled rug, and bowling to create the perfect template for a drug-induced neo-noir that only provides more laughs the longer it goes on. It takes only as much as an attitude to make The Big Lebowski one of the Coen brothers’ most distinctive features but at the same time it also proves itself to be their most entertaining movie with such ease. It’s their most entertaining movie because of how well it manages to stick inside of your memory, because it keeps to the attitude and never lets go for as it did say in its own words, “The Dude abides.”

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by Jaime Rebanal

Ghost World – Review

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I knew far too many teenage girls like Enid. They were always closeted about their own interests because what we saw on the outside was the fact that they were always so cold and bitter about their place in life. They come from the supposed “ghost world,” and to everyone else they’re just invisible. I read Daniel Clowes’s comic during my own early high school years and something about Enid’s personality struck me as something that rang a tad too familiar. My own high school years have oftentimes left me within a state of disconnect from everything else that was happening around me, because I was always seen as the introverted freak who took no interest in most of what other teens seemed to like. It’s a particularly disturbing feeling that Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff found themselves capturing with such ease it’s uncanny.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Monsters, Inc. – Review

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One can owe a ton of credit on Pixar’s behalf for keeping childhood happy especially for those born around my time. No matter which of their films it may be, going from the Toy Story series to Finding Nemo or The Incredibles, a part of our childhood comes right out from these films. Yet even for adult viewers their films still carry their appeal, whether it be their inventiveness or their mannerisms of approaching more emotional beats. Although Monsters, Inc. is not my favourite work from the studio (I’m partial to Toy Story 1 and 2) it always remained so dear to my own heart for not only is it a cute-appearing one from the outside but it also carries what truly are some of their most resonant beats to date. I’ve noted already in my review of Who Framed Roger Rabbit that when we still recognize what sort of impact our childhood favourites have had even when watching now, something to treasure is left and Monsters, Inc. is yet another film I owe a lot to.

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