Reel Entropy

Krisha expertly crafted and powerful, not recommended

Posted on April 6, 2016 by reelentropy

Photos courtesy A24.

Last year’s SXSW Grand Jury and Audience Award winner has made its way to theaters. It’s a damn good movie, but not a particularly enjoyable one.

Krisha looks in on a family’s Thanksgiving afternoon and evening. The evening is made particularly special by the title character (Krisha Fairchild) returning to the family after a long absence. Krisha tries to connect with her son, Trey (Trey Edward Shults, who also writes and directs), whom her emotional and substance abuse problems drove her to abandon for her sister, Robyn (Robyn Fairchild) to raise and care for. The tension of Krisha’s past transgressions proves too much for her and the family.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #A24, #aspect ratio, #birdman, #citizen kane, #drive, #krisha, #sxsw, #the matrix, #the social network, #wolf of wall street | Leave a comment

On Darkseid and the actual value of Easter eggs in movies

Posted on April 3, 2016 by reelentropy

Dream sequences are the worst. Photos courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

There’s an idea that’s been developing for the past few years in comedy around reference humor or call-out humor. Comedians — or film or television — will, in place of a joke, simply call out a title and hope that’s enough to make viewers laugh. This is often confused with meta-humor because it exists on the same spectrum, but doesn’t go so far as to make an actual joke. The best recent example is Deadpool, which has several jokes on this spectrum, some of which work and some of which don’t. To familiarize yourself with the concept, you can watch it again with the question in mind, “Did that pop-culture reference actually say something about pop-culture, or just remind me that it exists?”

The Easter eggs in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice aren’t jokes, but they operate in much the same way. The movie references several iconic stories and teases future movie storylines, but doesn’t actually play those stories out.

Since Batman v Superman opened last weekend to several March box office records and critical derision, several articles have come out talking about all the Easter eggs in the movie indicating that Darkseid’s coming will be the primary crossover storyline of DC’s movie series.

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Posted in White Noise | Tagged #Batfleck, #Batman, #batman v superman, #Ben Affleck, #civil war, #dane cook, #darkseid, #Dawn of Justice, #DC, #deadpool, #ezra miller, #henry cavill, #jesse eisenberg, #lex luthor, #memes, #sad batman, #steppenwolf, #superman, #zack snyder, Captain America, Marvel | Leave a comment

UAV movie drones on, goes nowhere

Posted on March 30, 2016 by reelentropy

Photos courtesy Entertainment One.

Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul’s movie career goes on hold today, as his new series The Path, which he also produces, premiers on Hulu. For anyone wondering why such a charismatic, talented and popular actor has been pushed back to the small screen in three short years, the answer is his only starring roles have been Need for Speed and his new modern warfare dud, Eye in the Sky.

Paul plays Steve Watts, an Air Force pilot assigned to handle the unmanned aerial vehicle watching over an operation to capture two of the FBI’s most wanted, helmed by British intelligence officer Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren). The objective goes from capture to kill when on-the-ground surveillance discovers two suicide bombers suiting up. Powell and overseeing officer Frank Benson (Alan Rickman) want Watts to execute the terrorists with the UAV’s missiles before they can leave the compound, but there’s a little girl in the blast radius. Powell and Benson fight Watts over the ethical implications of killing her to save countless others.

For about five minutes. Most of the movie is them jumping through hoops to get legal clearance from government officials played by far lesser actors.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #aaron paul, #alan rickman, #Breaking Bad, #eye in the sky, #helen mirren, #hulu, #michael o'keefe, #need for speed, #poop jokes, #richard mccabe, #rip, #the hateful eight, #the hateful three, #the path, #usaf | Leave a comment

Experimental Terrence Malick trilogy ends with a bang

Posted on March 28, 2016 by reelentropy

Photo courtesy Broad Green Pictures.

“Oh, you think Affleck is playing ‘Sad Batman?‘ I’ll show you Sad Batman” — Christian Bale, probably.

The past few years, film legend Terrence Malick has been turning out a semi-autobiographical trilogy of experimental films, starting with Tree of Life in 2011 and To the Wonder in 2012. This string of movies concludes with Knight of Cups, a tarot card-themed exploration of existential boredom in Hollywood. It’s divided into chapters, almost all of which are named after one of the major arcana and represent a person or relationship in the life of main character Rick (Bale), the eponymous Knight of Cups. They are The Moon, Della (Imogen Poots), one of Rick’s girlfriends; The Hanged Man, his brother Barry (Wes Bentley) and father Joseph (Brian Dennehy); The Hermit, Tonio (Antonio Banderas), a philanderer who views women as different fruit flavors; Judgment, Nancy (Cate Blanchett), Rick’s ex-wife; The Tower, Helen (Freida Pinto), a model who encourages Rick to stop living in his dream world; The High Priestess, Karen (Teresa Palmer), a stripper who encourages Rick to remain in his dream world; Death, Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), a married woman with whom Rick has an affair and possibly impregnates; and Freedom, Isabel (Isabel Lucas), the last woman he’s with in the movie.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #antonio banderas, #Batfleck, #batman v superman, #Ben Affleck, #brian dennehy, #cate blanchett, #christian bale, #Dawn of Justice, #freida pinto, #imogen poots, #isabel lucas, #knight of cups, #natalie portman, #sad batman, #sad ben affleck, #tarot, #teresa palmer, #terrence malick, #the dark knight, #to the wonder, #tony danza, #tree of life, #wes bentley | 1 Comment

Dawn of Justice surprisingly not unwatchable, but an extremely hollow adaptation

Posted on March 25, 2016 by reelentropy

Photos courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

There seemed to be only two ways Batman v Superman: ~~Civil War~~ Dawn of Justice could go — completely awful and also incredibly sad and dull to the point that you couldn’t even laugh at it, or completely awful, but in a wonderfully over-the-top way that would see everybody have a decent time anyway. But miraculously, against all precedent, the backward creative conglomerate at DC has created a tolerable movie.

The film revolves around the discovery of kryptonite in the wreckage of the world engine, General Zod’s (Michael Shannon) terraforming device from Man of Steel. Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg — seriously, Jesse Eisenberg) first attempts to convince Senator June Finch (Holly Hunter) to legalize its import as insurance against Superman (Henry Cavill), then smuggles it into Gotham Harbor where Batman (Ben Affleck — no, seriously, Ben Affleck) steals it. Having seen the devastation in Man of Steel firsthand, Batman is similarly obsessed with killing Superman, but Superman has also taken notice of him for his turbulent resurgence in Gotham’s underworld.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #Batfleck, #Batman, #batman vs superman, #Ben Affleck, #civil war, #daredevil, #Dawn of Justice, #DC comics, #doomsday, #gal gadot, #green lantern, #harley quinn, #henry cavill, #holly hunter, #iron man, #jesse eisenberg, #lex luthor, #man of steel, #margot robbie, #michael shannon, #Netflix, #suicide squad, #superman, #the dark knight, #the dark knight returns, #the dark knight rises, #the killing joke, #the long halloween, #the matrix revolutions, #warner bros., #wonder woman, Captain America, Marvel | 2 Comments

Reel Entropy

On Darkseid and the actual value of Easter eggs in movies

UAV movie drones on, goes nowhere

Experimental Terrence Malick trilogy ends with a bang

Dawn of Justice surprisingly not unwatchable, but an extremely hollow adaptation

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