[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(1 Nov) Là où Atilla passe… (2015, Onur Karaman)58
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(1 Nov) Loin des hommes (2015, David Oehlhoffen)75
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(2 Nov) Les Démons (2015, Philippe Lesage)79
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(2 Nov) Saul fia (2015, László Nemes)92
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(3 Nov) Brooklyn (2015, John Crowley)91
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(6 Nov) Punisher: War Zone (2008, Lexi Alexander)90
[ Whenever you hear about how we need more female filmmakers, notably at the helm of action movies, the name of Lexi Alexander keeps popping up, almost as often as Kathryn Bigelow’s. I’d never seen any of her work, but I knew she was a badass from what I’ve seen of her in interviews and on Twitter. Plus even though the two previous adaptations were lame, the Punisher (soon to be rebooted once again on “Daredevil” Season Two) is a cool character, so I figured I oughta check out Alexander’s take on him. And boy, did it get my attention right away! Right from the first action scene, “Punisher: War Zone” is brutally violent and totally awesome. I mean, it’s a pure B-movie, so the plot, characters, dialogue and whatnot aren’t brilliant or anything (though there are some juicy lines, e.g. “With all due respect, Captain, that… is BULLSHIT! What if it had been your man lying there, in a pool of his own blood? You Krispy Kreme motherfuckers would be beating down every door in this city.”). But Ray Stevenson kicks ass in the title role and Lexi kicks even more ass behind the camera, giving everything a gritty comic book feel, with lots of colorful lighting, and she makes all the fights, stabbings and shoot-outs really pop, with countless gory gags. I also dug Dominic West a lot as supervillain Jigsaw. Oh, one more thing: it was shot in and around Montreal, which is always fun. So do we need more female filmmakers at the helm of action movies, particularly Lexi Alexander? Hell yeah! Seriously, this is one of the best superhero movies ever made. ]
(7 Nov) Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987, Bruce Pittman)66
[ Now, this is an odd one! It’s more or less “Carrie” meets “A Nightmare On Elm Street” meets “The Exorcist”, but cheap, cheesy and Canadian! Still, I liked the 1957 opening with Lisa Schrage as slutty bitch Mary Lou and, after a so-so first half, it grows increasingly fucked up, with not only supernatural murders, but also full frontal nudity, incest and other rather sexually disturbing stuff, which almost makes this feel like a Cronenberg film or whatnot. It even stars Michael Ironside! Well worth checking out. ]
(9 Nov) Les Êtres chers (2015, Anne Émond)91
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(10 Nov) Chorus (2015, François Delisle)64
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(12 Nov) Inside Out (2015, Pete Docter) [ review ] 94
(13 Nov) One Direction: This Is Us (2013, Morgan Spurlock)
[ I loved such recent pop star documentaries/concert films as “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never”, “Katy Perry: Part of Me” and “Backstreet Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of”, but I’m actually a fan of those artists, whereas I could care less about 1D. It’s interesting to see how they started (as individual X-Factor contestants who were randomly grouped by Simon Cowell) and to witness the quasi-Beatlemania surrounding them, but they come off like twats and most of their songs are boring. As for Morgan Spurlock, his main achievement is a lot of flashy visuals during the performance sequences, which must have really been something in 3D. ]
(14 Nov) Rocky IV (1985, Sylvester Stallone) [ review ] 100!
(16 Nov) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015, Francis Lawrence)56
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(18 Nov) Spotlight (2015, Tom McCarthy)82
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(20 Nov – …) Jessica Jones – Season 1 (2015, SJ Clarkson, David Petrarca, Stephen Surjik, Simon Cellan Jones, John Dahl, Rosemary Rodriguez, Uta Briesewitz, Billy Gierhart, Michael Rymer)
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(25 Nov) Creed (2015, Ryan Coogler)91
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]
(28 Nov) Star Wars (1977, George Lucas)93
[ Reviewed on Extra Beurre ]