Love & Mercy (2015)

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Music bio pics are rarely masterpieces, and while “Love & Mercy” is itself a fine movie, it’s not the entry in to the long library in the sub-genre that’s changed my mind about music bio pics just yet. Much like previous films about musical geniuses, the film gets lost in a miasma of pit falls, including the inability to balance the story of the musician and the story of the man himself. So we’re thrust back and forth in to what ends as a flawed, but above average tale about mental illness, and the creation of art. “Love & Mercy” takes the concept of the bio pic above the norm, focusing on Brian Wilson, the founder of the Beach Boys through two stages of his life. One as a young man, and through his perils as a middle aged man. In both stages he’s enduring the horrors of mental illness and is systematically being victimized by someone in his life that he finds incapable of escaping.

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Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Adapted from the novel that made bored housewives across the world dream of being tortured by the most boring man in the world, “Fifty Shades of Grey” lives up to its reputation. It’s cheap, misogynist, Z grade exploitation masquerading as the romance of a woman trying to tame the ultimate man, who by all accounts should be alone left to his own demented fantasies. It began its life as fan fiction and reads like the cheap fantasies of a bored sexually repressed woman. “Fifty Shades of Grey” is about boring people doing stupid things to one another, and cardboard characters trying to create some sense of tension and conflict that never amounts to anything interesting. “Fifty Shades of Grey” is the film that essentially romanticizes abuse and misogyny as something that’s admirable in a man and can potentially be snuffed out with the right woman by his side.

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The Final Girls (2015)

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Todd Strauss-Schulson‘s “The Final Girls” is probably the best coming of age film of the year. Hiding beneath the veneer of a slasher horror comedy beats a touching and heartbreaking dramedy about letting go, and accepting that sometimes nature has to take its course. Taissa Farmiga is wonderful as young Max, the daughter of Amanda, a once popular actress who has unfortunately been typecast for her role as Nancy in a famous slasher movie named “Camp Bloodbath.” Max keeps the hope in her mom alive, despite Amanda completely losing faith in herself, and in the hope of becoming a popular actress once again. Tragically the pair gets in to a horrible car crash killing Amanda and leaving Max orphaned. Three years later, Max is still clinging to memories, and is convinced by friend Duncan to attend a double screening of mom Amanda’s “Camp Bloodbath” movies, in hopes of indulging hardcore fans of the movie series.

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Ex Machina (2015)

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Alex Garland’s “Ex Machina” is a brilliant often mesmerizing amalgam of “2001” and “Frankenstein” in where man has once again reached the ability to create life, albeit artificial. Garland chronicles the ever enduring battle of artificial intelligence and human intellect and how the lines can sometimes be blurred by the geniuses seeking to create actual life. “Ex Machina” is a consistently enigmatic and stunning science fiction tale of humanity, and the god complex that entrenches us in a deep and very bleak mystery as well as introducing us to a slew of characters, all of whom may not particularly be devious at first glance.

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Paper Towns (2015)

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

One thing I loved about “Paper Towns” is that it’s not your typical romance. Deep down it’s about a man chasing the love of his life, but it’s more so about the brevity of life, and how we can often lose our paths chasing something that might not be there. While “Paper Towns” is no masterpiece of the sub-genre of young adult adaptations, it is still a very pleasant and complex coming of age drama that packs a universal message that could be absorbed by pretty much anyone reaching a big change in their lives. In the midst of all the ballyhoo about co-star Cara Delevingne, “Paper Towns” went sadly unnoticed through all the gossip which is a shame since it’s a drama that deserves to be appreciated if only for its subtly and quiet charm.

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The Visit (2015)

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

After a considerable slump with “The Last Airbender,” and “After Earth,” Shyamalan gives us yet another humanistic, demented, mystery that is filled with his trademark themes about life and coming of age. In this case, it’s young Becca and Tyler, both of whom are still healing from a broken marriage that saw their father leave them years before we meet them. Cut like a mock documentary, Shyamalan tailors the film to give us more of a personal view in to the dilemma Becca and Tyler find themselves in, and what it ultimately means in their development as adults.

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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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