The Martian will be compared a lot to 2013’s Gravity. Mostly because both films focus on a single person fighting back against overwhelming odds in an environment that wants to destroy them (the vacuum of space in Gravity and the surface of Mars in The Martian), but the films have one major difference: The Martian […]
Film
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Sophomore Swagger
BendFilm 2015 takes it to the next level
Just as a band’s sophomore album tends to be among its best, so too is the second year of the BendFilm Festival under Director Todd Looby gearing up to be one of the fest’s best. From the quality and quantity of the films—we’re talking about hundreds more submissions than last year, and of exponentially greater […]
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Riding On Mustangs with Boys
Unbranded documents an incredible journey
Unbranded is a documentary with a lot on its mind. On the surface level, it is an adventure about a group of young cowboys who train some mustangs and then ride them from the Mexican to the Canadian border. While their journey is an intense and fascinating one, the film also wants to shed light […]
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Life of Crime
Black Mass almost makes it
Black Mass tells the true-life story of James “Whitey” Bulger as he transforms from a small-time crook to the crime kingpin of South Boston. It also tells the story of one of Bulger’s friends growing up, John Connolly, and his return to South Boston as a mid-level FBI agent. Their relationship makes up the bulk […]
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BendFilm Kickoff Party Goes Glam
Crisp autumn air in Bend means a number of things, but perhaps most exciting is the return of the BendFilm Festival. This year’s festival, which takes place October 8-11 and marks its 12th year, includes 15 narratives, 16 documentaries, and 50 shorts. For the second year in a row, G5 hosts the BendFilm Kickoff Party […]
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Back Into Thin Air
Everest aims high
Everest has a disaster picture vibe along the lines of the old Irwin Allen flicks like The Poseidon Adventure. The main difference is that the story being told in Everest is true and that the lives lost were gone forever, not just off of the call sheet for the rest of filming. The film plays […]
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Infinite Wallace
The End of the Tour quietly explodes
I picked up David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest because I was supposed to. Seventeen years old, a senior in high school and desperate to not look as uncool as I felt, I knew that this was the book I was supposed to carry around in order to look hip (or at least intelligent). I carried […]
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Transport To The $1 Bin
This Statham-less reboot flops
The Transporter Refueled is the Anti-Mad Max: Fury Road. Do you like car chases that thrill you to the point of exhaustion? Do you like strong female characters that don’t just behave like tough men? How about a story that draws you in and makes you care about everyone? Or maybe villains that you love […]
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Choose To Accept Him
Tom Cruise takes on another impossible mission
Some of y’all hate Tom Cruise. And that’s fine. People have actors they can’t stand, sometimes for perfectly sound reasons and sometimes there’s just something primal and instinctual about that hatred that defies all logic and reason. I hate Jon Voight. I think he is a horrible human and the reason he always plays bad […]
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Things That Go Hump in the Night
Dan Savage’s HUMP! Film Festival showcases porn for the people
Does the world really need more porn? Depending on whose statistics you trust, the internet is comprised of somewhere between 4 and 37 percent “adult” content. The problem, if you ask advice columnist Dan Savage, is that it’s all more or less the same, and rarely authentic. That’s why he started the HUMP! Film Festival, […]
