“The Big Short” is a gripping movie from start to finish, populated with fascinating characters. Christian Bale plays Michael Burry, a hedge fund manager who figures out the U.S. housing market is unstable. He realizes he can make a massive profit if he creates a credit default swap market (basically betting that the housing market […]
Film
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The Coldest Dish
The Revenant is Cinematic Brutality
There have already been thousands of words written about how difficult The Revenant was to make, whether from the point of view of the actors or the filmmakers. Leonardo DiCaprio reportedly almost drowned, froze and starved during filming and Tom Hardy apparently choked director Alejandro G. Iñárritu over the harsh set conditions. Multiple crew members […]
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Lost in the Woods
The Forest is Less Horror and more Bore-er
Horror movies are a bit of a conundrum when it comes to what makes one successful (as a piece of cinema, not financially) and what would relegate one to the dusty bins of failed grotesquerie. So many of those little things that add up to making a great horror movie can be mixed and matched […]
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Tarantino Rides Again
The Hateful Eight shines in glorious 70mm
Quentin Tarantino isn’t for everyone, obviously. Nor should he be, but his detractors are so furious in their disdain that it makes one wonder when he had the time to poop in their shoes. Everyone has their own reasons, but some of the more prevalent ones tend to be that his scripts are too wordy, […]
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The Women Behind The Men
Coaches’ Wives; a new look into an old subject
The saying, “Behind every great man is a great woman,” is a cliché for a reason. While in 2015 the paradigm of the man working while the little lady stays home and raises the kids is outdated and insulting, it is still a choice some women today make. Specifically, the wives of men with careers […]
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Top 10 Films of 2015
A big challenge with being a film critic in Central Oregon is that we don’t get to go to press screenings and Central Oregon doesn’t always get some of the more prestigous releases until closer to Oscar night. So, going into writing this list, there are still quite a few movies I haven’t seen that […]
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Worst Films of 2015
I tend to avoid films that look like they’re going to be terrible, but that isn’t always possible. Sometimes high expectations can take a movie that is only serviceable and make it utter garbage because of how great the marketing is. While these are certainly not the five worst movies of 2015, they are most […]
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A Grumpy Old Man Experiences a Star War
Or: How I got mad and wanted my damn money back
This is not the review you are looking for. I’ll spend some time talking about The Force Awakens itself further down, but it’s almost pointless since Star Wars is now and will always be a critic-proof franchise. It doesn’t really matter what any critic says about the newest film in the decades-spanning series, either you’re […]
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Something Fishy This Way Comes
There’s not much heart in this sea
There is quite a bit to like with Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea, but there is also a plethora of things that lie there, flopping like a fish on the deck of a boat. Sorry about that. No more fish puns. Maybe. First off, the film has a strange framing device that […]
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A Christmas Nightmare
Krampus knows you’ve been naughty
There is something inherently wonderful about adding a widely celebrated holiday to a horror film. While the Friday the 13th franchise didn’t necessarily take advantage of the holiday, the Halloween films, April Fool's Day, Gremlins, and many more delightfully exploit our ingrained feelings about specific days of the year. Adding horror to Christmas, though, is […]
