10 minute read
Film
from Oct. 18, 2012
FOR RENO CITY COUNCIL
www.jennybrekhus.com Demon business
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Sinister
I enjoy watching Ethan Hawke getting the shit scared out of him. Sinister is a kooky stew of horror themes including the isolated writer, foundfootage deaths, haunted houses and scary children. They’re all presented in sporadically creepy fashion by director Scott Derrickson, with Mr. Hawke at the center of it all expertly hyperventilating. Hawke plays Ellison Oswalt, a true crime author 10 years removed from his last big hit and looking for inspiration. He moves his family into a house where another family was hung from a tree in the backyard. Derrickson actually starts his movie off with the image of said family being hanged, one of the film’s many haunting images. Oswalt finds a box of home movies on Super 8—along with a rather disgusting scorpion—in the attic, and sets about watching them. This is the first of many bad decisions he makes. Actually, it’s the second, when you consider Oswalt moving into this creepy house in the first place. The movies are snuff films compiled since the ’60s, and they totally suck to watch. One depicts a family being drowned in lounge chairs in their pool, another shows a different family having their throats slit, etc. Oswalt gets the notion that perhaps he should call the police, but fame beckons, and he concludes all of this will contribute to one helluva book. Oswalt, like many horror film protagonists, is a genuine idiot. As the horror factor ratchets up, Oswalt just sticks around the house. His young son crawls out of a box screeching, looking not unlike Linda Blair doing the spider walk thing in that cut scene from The Exorcist. He just puts the kid to bed and goes back to watching snuff films.
Alocal deputy (James Ransone) steps in to help Oswalt with some fact-finding. Turns out the murders are all connected in a way that should provide Oswalt with yet another reason for moving out. Nope, he stays. That same deputy connects Oswalt with a professor type (Vincent D’Onofrio) who informs him that symbols found at the murder sites are connected to an ancient monster called Bughuul that eats children’sby Bob Grimm souls. Upon hearing this, Oswalt has another cup of coffee and continues his research, bgrimm@ rather than bugging out with the fam. newsreview.com Derrickson, who also co-wrote the screenplay, has a gift for telegraphing his scares—and still making them scary. He’ll3 put Hawke’s head in a dark frame, letting you know damned well something else will soon appear. It appears—and it’s freaking scary. He’ll give you a moment of hesitation when you know a jolting sound will happen. That jolt eventually comes, and you knew it would come—and it’s still freaking scary. My face went cold many times watching this movie. People around me either got up and left or started crying. Hawke does terrified with the best of them. Think of his looks of horror when observing Denzel Washington breaking rules in Training Day, or that panicked expression on his face as things spun out of control in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. As Oswalt’s stressed out wife Tracy, Juliet Rylance drags on the movie with a poorly modulated performance. As the two kids with a dad who blows at picking houses, Michael Hall D’Addario and Clare Foley make up for some of Rylance’s slack. Foley is especially good at occupying the stereotypical “creepy daughter who talks to ghosts” role. We only see the monster Bughuul in a few quick moments, but boy, are those effective moments. There’s a sequence involving a swimming pool that had me walking with quicker strides to my car out in the dark parking lot after the movie. The folks who wrote Sinister are sick in the head. That’s an attribute that bothers me if the afflicted one is my next-door neighbor. When the guy making a horror movie is a little nuts, it’s a blessing. Ω
Reality bites ... like a soul-eating demon.
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4Argo Ben Affleck makes another meaty movie with this spellbinding recreation of the late ’70s/early ’80s Iran hostage crisis, and the strange CIA mission that helped to extricate six American citizens from Iran at a most inopportune time. Affleck directs and stars as Tony Mendez, who hatches an elaborate plan to pose as a Canadian film director scouting Iran for shooting locations, with the six Americans posing as his Canadian film crew. The whole scenario seems ridiculous, yet it actually happened. Having lived through this period of American history, I can tell you that Affleck does a terrific job of capturing the look and mood of the time. The late ’70s were sort of humiliating both in terms of our status overseas and the way folks were wearing their hair. Bryan Cranston, John Goodman and Alan Arkin are all superb in supporting roles. This one will be in the running for some Oscars.
4End of Watch Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña shine in this absorbing cop drama from writerdirector David Ayer (Harsh Times). They play Los Angeles police officers who go above and beyond the call of duty, and sometimes bend the rules just a little bit. Their willingness to put their necks on the line eventually leads to trouble with a drug cartel, and their lives are threatened. Gyllenhaal and Peña make for a great screen duo. The movie is often very funny simply because of the way they interact. Ayer uses the old “cops videotaping themselves on the job” gimmick a little bit, but it never becomes too distracting. He also fills his movie with great action and chase sequences. The movie is a shocker in many ways, and truly makes you think about what cops go through on a daily basis. Nice supporting performances from Anna Kendrick and America Ferrera.
3Frankenweenie Tim Burton directs this enjoyable blackand-white stop-motion animated movie based on his own short film about a family dog being resurrected … Frankensteinstyle! Burton made the short film 28 years ago. While the story isn’t an especially electric one, the art direction is superb, and there are enough good laughs to make it worthwhile. Also worth noting: Winona Ryder voices a young girl character that looks suspiciously like Lydia, her character in Burton’s Beetlejuice. Other voices include Burton alumni such as Catherine O’Hara and Martin Landau, once again using his Bela Lugosi voice from Ed Wood. A finale sequence involving a giant, Gamera-like turtle and rabid sea monkeys gives the film a nice retro-horror feel. It’s a little sleepy in spots, but too impressive in other ways to completely overlook.
2Hotel Transylvania This animated take on Dracula (Adam Sandler) and other big monsters like Frankenstein’s monster (Kevin James) and the Werewolf (Steve Buscemi) has a fun setup and some great gags. But its overall feeling is that of total mania in that it barely slows down long enough for you to take it in. It’s often unnecessarily spastic in telling the tale of a nervous Dracula dealing with his daughter on her 118th birthday—young in vampire years). A human (Andy Samberg) shows up at the title place, a building Dracula created to keep dangerous humans away, and his daughter (Selena Gomez) falls for him. The overall story is hard to digest, but there are some great moments, such as every time the vampires turn into bats (cute) and a werewolf baby knowing what plane flight somebody is taking by smelling his shirt (unbelievably cute). Even with the cute moments, there were too many times when I just wanted to look away because the animation was far too frantic. 5Looper Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a loner living in 2042 who has actually been sent back from the year 2072 to kill people that organized crime wishes to dispose of. He stands in a field with his gun aimed at a tarp, waiting for his hooded victim to zap back from the future and receive a very rude greeting. Very bad, and very entertaining, things happen when the man sent back to be executed is actually Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis). Willis is great here as a tired and scared old criminal hell bent on fixing his future. Gordon-Levitt is even better as an embittered, callous young man looking to preserve his future and get his older self out of the picture. Gordon-Levitt, made up to look like a younger Willis, does a nice job of capturing the Willis stare and growl. Emily Blunt is on hand as a mother trying to protect her child, and Paul Dano lights up the screen with a pivotal supporting role. This is one of the year’s most ingenious films, and one of the best time travel yarns you’re going to see.
3The Master Joaquin Phoenix plays Freddie, a troubled World War II vet who returns from a stint with the Navy a little messed up in the head. He’s having trouble finding his place in the world, and he’s constantly swigging lethal alcohol drinks made of anything he can find in the medicine cabinet or tool shed. He’s prone to major mood swings and violence. His relationships and jobs aren’t working out, and his drinking is getting him into a lot of trouble. He winds up a stowaway on a luxury yacht where he meets Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), leader of The Cause, a cult-like movement with more than a few similarities to Scientology. The two wind up strangely dependent on one another as they both battle different demons. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood) the film features great performances, but also has a vibe of been there, done that. It’s worth seeing for the Phoenix-Hoffman fireworks, but not one of Anderson’s best.
4The Perks of Being a Wallflower Writer Stephen Chbosky makes an impressive directing debut with this adaptation of his semi-autobiographical novel about high school kids in the early ’90s. Logan Lerman plays Charlie, a shy freshman looking to make friends who eventually winds up hanging out with a fringe group of students including Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson). The new friends help Charlie come out of his shell, and he ultimately realizes things about himself that need to be examined. Lerman is especially good here as the film’s anchor, while Miller continues to exhibit the great talents he showed in We Need to Talk About Kevin. Watson gets to step away from her Hermione role, and she does so successfully, making Sam a complex, real kid. One of the better films about high school to come along in quite some time.
5Seven Psychopaths This is a wildly engaging movie from Martin McDonagh, the man who brought us the brilliant In Bruges, my pick for the year’s best movie in 2008. Like Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson, McDonagh creates movies that transcend genres. Colin Farrell stars as Martin, a character modeled after the director. Martin is trying to write a screenplay called Seven Psychopaths, and he’s wracking his brain for seven characters with distinctive killing methods. The way these characters appear to him is part of this film’s unending fun. Sam Rockwell plays Billy, Martin’s best bud, a struggling actor who makes money on the side kidnapping dogs with Hans (a scene-stealing Christopher Walken). When they kidnap the beloved dog of a psychopath (Woody Harrelson) very funny and violent things happen. Martin is trying for depth and beauty with his screenplay, while Billy screams for shootouts. Both characters get their wishes.
Century Park Lane 16, 210 Plumb Lane: 824-3300 Century Riverside 12, 11 N. Sierra St.: 786-1743 Century Summit Sierra 13965 S. Virginia St.: 851-4347 www.centurytheaters.com Grand Sierra Cinema 2500 E. Second St.: 323-1100 Nevada Museum of Art, 160 W. Liberty St.: 329-3333 Sparks Carson City
Galaxy Fandango, 4000 S. Curry St.: 885-7469 Tahoe
Horizon Stadium Cinemas, Stateline: (775) 589-6000
