The gap between what’s just a machine and what’s a genuine human experience is gradually shifting and closing. Every year technology is evolving to where it’s almost sentient, and while technology needs human input to process and obtain information, how long will it be before it can simply drop in to the internet and form its own thought patterns and make its own decisions? “Her” is an exploration of that mind set, except it examines the relationship between human and technology as something of a spiritual and very loving symbiosis. It’s not so much a cautionary tale, but a fantasy about what is living reality and what’s merely experiencing programming and binary.
Tag Archives: Drama
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) [3 Disc Blu-Ray/CD Combo]
What is it about Ruggero Deodato’s vicious masterpiece that continues to elude horror fans and film enthusiasts to this day? Surely, it’s a shocking film with immense gore, but “Cannibal Holocaust” is about so much more than splatter and bloodshed. It still holds a volatile resonance in a day and age where the world is obsessed with voyeurism. “Cannibal Holocaust” is still such an enormous master work from Ruggero Deodato whose own film has pretty much guaranteed to outlive its creator. As well, it’s inadvertently posed as the template for all of the found footage films currently storming the box office. It’s a film about the media exploiting and demoralizing a primitive culture for the purposes of entertainment. It’s a film about entitled young Americans intruding on a foreign soil to manipulate their civilization. It’s also movie about how humanity is often a destructive and vicious force of evil consuming one another for nefarious purposes without conscience.
The Temptations (1998)
One of the highlights of growing up with parents that loved classic soul and R&B, was listening to some of the greatest bands of all time. My favorite of them all was The Temptations, a wonderful group of singers with one of the more compelling back stories of all time. Though I’m usually not a fan of biography films about bands or musicians in general, “The Temptations” garners an immense cast of strong actors, all of whom help fuel what is a tale about fame, greed, and clashing egos. It’s just a shame that the movie breezes through some crucial details.
The Monkey’s Paw (2013) [Blu-Ray]
It definitely feels like someone took the original short story of the monkey’s paw, and stretched in to ninety minutes of melodrama. There’s so much padding and filler here, you could cut it down to fifty minutes without missing much. “The Monkey’s Paw” is one in dozens of variations of the dreaded monkey’s paw tale, created by W.W. Jacobs (about the perfect wish trinket with dire consequences). Except the monkey’s paw bears little to no relevance in a movie about an undead guy who just wants to take his young son fishing. He just wants to take him fishing, what’s a dead guy to do? Kill a lot of boring supporting characters to get his wish?
Deep in the Darkness (2014)
Plot holes, plot holes, and more plot holes! It’s just another title from the ever growing library of horror groaners from Chiller Films. Colin Theys’ “Deep in the Darkness” is an amalgam of “The Wicker Man,” “The Descent,” and a bit of “Rosemary’s Baby” for good measure. “Deep in the Darkness” is yet another horror movie that promises it’s building up to something, and then sputters out like a deflated balloon, forcing the audience to realize they’ve spent ninety minutes watching nothing. Nothing at all. What in the name of all that is sane did that final scene even mean?
Zugzwang (2015)
One of the bigger problems in “Zugzwang” is the intent behind the premise and concept. I was never sure if this short film was supposed to be a whimsically sweet tale of an underdog pursuing love, or a disturbing tale of a young boy out of touch with human dynamics who can’t take a hint. I found the ultimate resolution a bit uncomfortable and unsatisfying, but thankfully those caveats don’t bog down “Zugzwang,” completely. True it sounds like I’m down on the short film but despite its hazy intentions director Yolanda Centeno’s short film is charming and inventive.
The Normal Heart (2014)
Director Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of the acclaimed Larry Kramer stage play “The Normal Heart” is a stunning and often grueling drama that thankfully never sugarcoats the painful illness it touches upon. It’s a human drama about human beings stricken with a horrific disease that reached pandemic proportions in the 1980’s and was generally ignored by the media and the government for many years. “The Normal Heart” is a tough watch because it is also the first chapter in an ongoing war that continues to affect the world and is still generally ignored, and dismissed as hopeless by many to this day.