There’s a wonderfully poignant scene in Pride where Imelda Staunton’s character, Hefina, sits with one of the elder statesmen of their small mining village buttering sandwiches. As they go about this mundane task facing the static, Ozu-esque camera, discussing their new found solidarity with gay pride, the man makes the bold admission he himself is […]
Search Results for: pride
Hoopleheads: Episode 6 “Plague”
“Plague” foretells chaos in Deadwood. As small pox breaks out, local business leaders (and religious figures) step in to keep order. Meanwhile, Jane (Robin Weigert) reenters camp and looks into the girl she helped save. Alma (Molly Parker) continues to wrestle with addiction; Trixie (Paula Malcomson) offers support at risk to her own life. Out in the frontier, Bullock […]
Deadpool with J and Søren
Podcast Review J and Søren sit down to discuss Fox’s Deadpool in this dueling review. Below that you’ll find both of their written opinions for a more detailed look at their perspectives. As always, you can subscribe to our podcast feed using iTunes or by copying this link into your RSS reader. Alternatively, you can check out the episode online or […]
The Good Dinosaur
While I prefer to judge a film on its own merit, nothing exists in a vacuum. An artist’s work is always weighed against their past efforts or, in the case of Pixar, against the reputation of the studio. And indeed, no review of The Good Dinosaur will print without comparing it to Inside Out. Nor […]
Søren and J’s Oscarcast 2015
2015 was a year of meager expectations when it came to the Oscars. While controversy surrounded the nomination process, we generally knew who’d take home the major awards. No one gasped in amazement when Birdman took Best Cinematography, or when Patricia Arquette was named Best Supporting Actress for Boyhood. Yet sometimes there is intrigue to be found […]
Dear White People
I have a paradoxical love for Dear White People. On one hand, I wish writer/director Justin Simien had tackled such serious subject matter further along in his carer. On the other, I wonder if a more established director would have taken so many risks. A world post-Spike Lee – a man more concerned with strangely esoteric commentary and Korean […]
The Riot Club
“I’m sick to death of poor people!” the repugnant Alistair Ryle (Sam Claflin) roars to his comrades atop the opulent dinner table, sloshing his wine carelessly out of its vessel in the process. This loaded, incendiary harangue epitomises the deplorable attitude of The Riot Club. The film’s vulgar band of toffs are some of the most […]
300: Rise of an Empire
Zack Snyder’s 300 moved me. The film has fallen prey to biting parody in recent years, but I knew then that 300 was one of the era’s great cinematic experiences. Movies like that demand to be seen on the big screen. Like both The Matrix and Gravity, 300 was a masterpiece of visual splendor. And it was […]
Abstraction in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc
For this essay, my professor asked us perform a formal analysis of how Carl Theodor Dreyer uses the ideas of “simplification” and “abstraction” in his film, The Passion of Joan of Arc. Vicarious emotion is key to the power of The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Director Carl Theodor Dreyer was committed to the aesthetic […]
Austenland
Austenland is sort of the latest adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I say “sort of” because it’s actually based on Shannon Hale’s novel Austenland, which was inspired by the 1995 film version of Pride and Prejudice, which was itself adapted from Austen’s actual novel. After being dragged through a book, a movie, another book, […]
Frequently Asked Questions
Welcome to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section of Movie Fail! Here you’ll find answers to many of the inquiries we’ve received over the years, including FAQs about guest writing for the site. General FAQs You’re called “Movie Fail” – does that mean you only review movies you hate? Do you just look for things to […]
Is Story Still King? An Examination of Pixar’s Future
Among the fabled Pixar legends, which include the “Black Friday” Toy Story reel, the cancelled Newt project, and the reason why Cars 2 exists, there is the story of one quietly life-changing lunch. In 1994, a year before Toy Story came out and birthed the digital animation craze, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and […]
Quartet
Quartet is a quiet drama-comedy that tells the story of four older men and women living at Beecham House, a home for retired musicians, and their struggle to maintain their identities as they reach old age. Well-known as a prolific and successful actor, Dustin Hoffman decided to step behind the camera for Quartet, his first […]
Promised Land
When I saw the first TV spots for Promised Land back in late November, I mostly ignored the actual content of the advertisement in favor of the text that ran right after the title. It looked like this: That list of names got me all hot and bothered. Notoriously hit-or-miss director Gus Van Sant (Good […]
