V/H/S, or The Concept of a Woman

Hi, loves! Beau here, having just caught the new horror compilation V/H/S on VOD, and spent the night ruminating on a few different elements that the film(s) brought to light for me.

V/H/S is a horror film that for me, is a game changer. And not in a good way. Were you to pull a gun to my head and ask me what genre captures my heart and my imagination more than any other, I’d say horror. It’s my Achilles heel, bloody and severed. The pulse quickens and the imagination runs rampant. You’re not limited to set tonal shifts but atypical ones. You can go anywhere in horror. And what V/H/S left me with is the sense that if we’re willing to venture into this stylized vein of storytelling, why aren’t we taking more risks inside of it? Pandora’s box is a large one, loves. She likes it that way. A girl needs a big purse.

I’ll sum it up briefly

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The Seven Link Itch

LA Times Michael Clarke Duncan (Oscar nominated for The Green Mile) dies at 54.
Badass Digest Devin charts the evolution of the MPAA system and offers up an idea for a revamp
Gawker Russell Crowe in a spot of trouble kayaking is rescued by the Coast Guard. I feel like we need a Noah joke here but I can't think of one. 
First Showing plot details (read at your own risk) for the new Spike Jonze film Her. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a man who falls in love with a computer voice.

Salon interviews the hilarious Retta on her Parks & Recreation scene stealing "Treat Yo Self" and her popular TV crazy twitter feed 
Movie|Line George Clooney's 1986 Tiger Beat profile!
Movie|Line interviews For a Good Time, Call... director Jamie Travis. Had I known it was Jamie Travis I woulda been first in line to see that film! Love love love his short films. (You may remember I embarrassed myself geeking out on him at the Nashville Film Festival.) Did any of you see that comedy this weekend? Next Friday is quite the girlie risque weekend with this film expanding and Bachelorette and Hello, I Must Be Going all opening. I officially declare September 7th "Girls Gone Wild" day.

...however should we celebrate?

Finally... with Telluride wrapping up and Venice and Toronto hitting the ground, reactions are flying fast and furious when it comes to fall Oscar hopefuls. More on that once I've collected my thoughts and recorded tonight's podcast (you heard me)...

Review: "Compliance"

Compliance is the kind of film I always hope to love. Ambitious, confrontrational, and very well acted films that rely on theme and character and ideas are jawdroppers for me in a way that explosions, stunts, and visual effects innovations almost never are. But ambitions and soulful actors can only take you so far when fundamental flaws get in their way.

It's best to see Compliance cold (as I did) with no knowledge of its subject matter. Unfortunately it's almost impossible to talk or write about without giving its game away which is why it's a tough sell (it's made $111,000 in limited release) though it's gripping enough should you buy a ticket. So read on at your own risk...

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Happy Labor Day

If you're at work, please explain yourself! Wait, why am I at work blogging?

Review: "Lawless"

The article originally appeared in my column at Towleroad

A terrible performance... or a great one? You decide.

Special Deputy Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) doesn't believe the tall tales about the outlaw Bondurant Boys especially the ones about Forrest (Tom Hardy). Local Virginia legend has it that Forrest can't be killed, that he's immortal.  "Have you ever seen what a tommy gun does to 'immortal'?" Rakes sneers in a (successful) effort to terrorize the town's Forrest-fearing men into submission. Rakes then beats the youngest Bondurant brother Jack (Shia Labeouf) into a blubbering pulp. But, as it turns out, the Bondurant brothers are resilient enough to inspire tall tales. Forrest and his brothers make their living as moonshiners in this Depression-era Western and with Prohibition empowering organized crime, everyone is looking to be the top boss. The brothers value their autonomy but the guns are out and if an actual crime lord (Gary Oldman's "Floyd Banner") don't get them, then the even more crooked law enforcement (Pearce's Deputy) just might.

Such is the bloody conflict of John Hillcoat's Lawless, based on the historical novel "The Wettest County in the World" which was written by a grandson of the Bondurants (all childless during the movie) suggesting straightaway that at least one of them is going to make it out of the movie alive. Not that the film is shy about spoilers given its heavy handed foreshadowing and the past-tense narration. (You gotta Live to Tell).

MORE AFTER THE JUMP...

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