Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List (2015)

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed “Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List”; it begins as an insufferable Diablo Cody hipster fest, but manages to redeem itself quite well by the second act. My initial draw to the film is Victoria Justice (who I’ll watch in anything), but through her basic name recognition is a pretty charming and complex tale about co-dependency and realizing that nothing is forever. Not even friendship. Naomi and Ely are best friends and neighbors inflicted with some rather immense and damaging psychoses and unresolved issues. After Ely came out of the closet as a young man, his mom also came out and married a woman. Naomi’s father happened to cheat on her mother with Ely’s mom, prompting a terrible conflict.

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Invisible Sister (2015)

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Rowan Blanchard and Paris Berelc are two of the most interesting Disney personalities to come around in a while. So it’s pretty disappointing when they’re teamed up to star in a DCOM that’s pretty limp from the get go. Aside from barely being about Halloween at all, the entire notion of the movie never plays out effectively. The movie struggles really hard to find stuff for characters to do, and when it’s failing at that, it somewhat concoct subtle religious commentary. When it’s not doing that, it creates a series of plot holes that just leave the movie feeling incomplete and incredibly far fetched even for a kids movie.

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Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996)

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Melissa Joan Hart is really good casting as Sabrina, the young witch who discovers that she has magical powers on her sixteenth birthday. Hart was always able to convey the girl next door charm and otherworldly beauty well, and she is able to transform Sabrina in to an admirable silver screen heroine. Much like the comics that spawned her, Joan Hart plays Sabrina a transfer student from Massachusetts who goes to live with her aunts at Riverdale. She’s fairly new to her school and dreams of becoming one of the senior elite. On the day of her sixteenth birthday, she discovers that she comes from a long line of witches and that her aunts are her witch mentors.

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Monsters University (2013)

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

With Pixar’s “Monsters University,” the company has its heart in the right place once again, except it’s in a different spot this time around. With their prequel, Pixar creates a respectable and fun companion piece to “Monsters, Inc.” Pixar’s dabbling in to the ever heinous prequel works as a part of the mythology of Sullie and Mike Wazowksi and how they became companions. If Mike isn’t a scarer why does he work at Monsters, Inc? And how did Sullivan become such a great scarer? It’s because of the bond that the pair share; and the prequel gives us a wider back story on the core characters of the monsters series.

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The Case of Hana & Alice (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Shunji Iwai’s “The Case of Hana & Alice” is apparently an animated prequel and adaptation of a much beloved indie titled “Hana and Alice.” The pair of women are almost like pop culture’s most iconic best friend in its home country, and this film chronicles how they met and became the best of pals. You really don’t have to see the original film, claims much of the press releases, but I’ll say that it might just help. Surely, there aren’t many references to the original film, but the original actresses return to voice their younger selves, and this might be exciting to folks that love the original film. For me, it was just a nice little bit of lip service and nothing more.

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Boyhood (2014)

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Director Richard Linklater is the kind of filmmaker I admire. He takes risks, and is still willing to experiment in a movie world where very few of his contemporaries are anymore. You can make the argument that “Boyhood” is gimmicky, but I prefer to think of it as ambititious and an absolutely excellent endeavor. Director Linklater followed his cast of four for twelve years, filming them through various stages of adolescnnce in order to completely fulfill his tale of growth and coming of age with a boy who blossoms in to adulthood.

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The Wonder Years: The Complete Series Set (DVD)

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

‘In memory, everything seems to happen to music.’ – Tennessee Williams

It’s the mark of a quality television series, when it’s set in a specific period of history and still has massive appeal to just about any audience. “The Wonder Years” wasn’t just a TV drama for adults in the eighties that still hadn’t gotten over the sixties. “The Wonder Years” surpassed simple nostalgia and approached its narrative from two angles. It was a family dramedy set in the sixties that took off from “A Christmas Story” chronicling the pitfalls and highs of growing up through a young boy. It also examined the decade that much of the eighties and early nineties were still trying to come to grips with.

This included the Vietnam War, Watergate, The Draft, The Civil Rights Movement, and just the general changing social climate that jarred many folks coming out of the great depression and World War II. “The Wonder Years” chronicles the youth of Kevin Arnold, a normal suburban boy who is watching the world around him change for the better and for the worse.

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