Life Itself
All Things Once and Forever Review written by Robert D. Patrick It’s the most labored, arduous, sometimes portentous profession. Bereft of pity – “you watch movies? that cant be hard” – and pockmarked with confusion. The film critic is irascible and snooty; a divisive force with cloven hooves. A film critic, to the public’s eye, is often times an affluent, pear-shaped Magoo. They exist to be pelted...
Interview with TV Girl
‘I’m fascinated by beautiful women & not in a (strictly) prurient sense’ TV Girl’s hushed, ethereal hymns aren’t as docile or playful as they may seem. Flecked with emotional carnage and fanged observations, the Los Angeles based band has carved out a living making heart-masticating songs that deal with the pangs of acceptance. Brad Petering, the figurehead behind TV Girl’s hazy malaise, has...
We Are the Best!
Minor Threat Starring: Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne Review written by Robert D. Patrick It’s partly fiction, of course, but Klara and Bobo, best friends and protagonists of Lukas Moodysson’s We Are the Best!, would absolutely loathe the notion that their story would open against the riotous frenzy that is the World Cup. After all, the teenage girls’ sneers and shouts derive from the fact that they abhor...
Palo Alto
The Fury of The Ellipsis Starring: Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer Review written by Robert D. Patrick When examining the jacket of Palo Alto, one might think it’s a Hollywood vanity project. Inspired by a book written by an empirically pleasing A-lister, directed by a member of Coppola clan, and starring the brood of Tinseltown’s very own, Palo Alto seems like an exercise in banal narcissism – but it’s not. Gia...
The Double
Birds of a Feather Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska Review written by Robert D. Patrick James Simon (Jesse Eisenberg) is working in a cubicle the size of a kennel. Those around him, decrepit and methodical, type away endlessly. Plumes of wild, uncombed hair envelope their ears. They have been in this office a long, long time. And, from the looks of things, these cubicles will be their tombs. James has been at this company for...
Godzilla
Pacific Commotion Starring: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson Review written by Tom Bevis In the last sixty years, Godzilla has become a cultural phenomenon widely cherished by fans worldwide. Following the release of Gojira in 1954, the King of Monsters has spun off into dozen of films, television shows, video games, and comic books (including a series of Marvel cross-overs) and has perhaps become the most recognizable of all...
God’s Pocket
Of Suds and Squalor Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christina Hendricks Review written by Robert D. Patrick In the booze collared, working man’s neighborhood of God’s Pocket, the mechanics wear grease like warpaint and barflies speak in a Morse code of glass clacking. Everyone is a regular Joe with a hot temper or a finger-wagging opinion, but they have all grown up together and treat each other with respect. John...
The Railway Man
A Train Called War Starring: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman Review written by Tom Bevis “I have a small problem,” Eric Lomax (Colin Firth) tells his veteran cohorts in the crisp shade of a Veteran’s Club, “which I suspect this small gathering might find interesting.” Thus are the first spoken words of The Railway Man and many of its trailers. But the film has misled you. The Railway Man has led you to believe it will be a war-themed...
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
Talk Dupe Starring: Steve Coogan, Colm Meaney Review written by Robert D. Patrick Steve Coogan’s dry, acerbic humor gnashes down on everything in director Declan Lowney’s rabid, unbound Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. Starring as the title character, Coogan, whose tongue is given free range to lash at whatever it wants, gives his most inspired film performance since 2002’s 24 Hour Party People. Since then, it’s...
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Red, White and Bruise Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson Review written by Tom Bevis At this point, the films coming out of Marvel Studios need no introduction. Thanks to the irresistible and insatiable curiosity of the masses and the infinitely long reach of this wonderfully infamous machine we call the Internet, it seems all details of the films are readily available weeks prior to the actual opening. To those who have been...
