Category: Film Focus
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Cruise control
There’s nothing singularly new or original in Nicolas Winding Refn’s crime-drama Drive. Nevertheless, it is a gratifying alternative to the usual frenzied features that tear through mulitplexes every summer, or the tedious independent films that suggest great import but offer hollow trifles. I said something similar about The American last year and, while Drive doesn’t deliver… Read more
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Great Apes
I’ve spent more than my fair share of time railing against CGI, motion capture, and their combined and discrete misuse. In light of 20th Century Fox’s reboot of their classic Planet of the Apes series, I could not be more pleased to be proven wrong. Andy Serkis has solidified himself a place in film history… Read more
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Harry Potter and the Loose Ends
There’s little point in trying to review this last film objectively. Harry Potter episodes ceased the ability to stand on their own as individual films since Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. That movie was the series’ peak, appropriate enough considering it was nearly the midpoint. As such, there is much to nitpick… Read more
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‘Harry Potter’ and the End of an Era
Well, I guess that’s it. Shutter the windows. Draw the blinds. Put the chairs on the table, folks. After ten years the gargantuan motion picture soap opera that is Harry Potter has finally cast its last spell. Regardless of whether or not you are a fan of the books and/or the movies, you cannot deny… Read more
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Harry Potter and the oh my god I’m so tired…
I am NOT old. That’s what I keep telling myself. And I’m not. I’m only 41. That’s like 18 in giant tortoise years. Nevertheless, three solid nights of Harry Potter, going to bed late and waking up early to get to work early to leave work early to make it to the theatre by 6:00… Read more
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Harry Potter and the Angry Mob
I predict a riot. The scent of disgruntlement is already in the air. It appears the great deal that AMC Theatres offered for the Harry Potter marathon may have been a wee bit too good to be true. $40 for eight films seemed like a good deal, and it is. Especially when you consider that… Read more
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Harry Potter and the Long Haul
It’s been ten years running. It’s gone through six cinematographers, four directors, four composers, two writers, and only one major cast change. It has made more than six billion dollars worldwide and after this weekend will likely make a half-billion more. Harry Potter has become the juggernaut that rolled over the world in the first… Read more
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Inception: A Perfect Puzzle
As Sunday approaches and we all pretend to actually care about the Academy Awards, we at Rainestorm decided to highlight the film we feel most deserves to win Best Picture. No, not that Facebook movie. The one movie that managed to bridge the gap across all movie-going demographics without kow-towing to any one of them:… Read more
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Time and Time Again
One of the more interesting aspects of the way Christopher Nolan structures Inception is how he plays with the concept of time. Nowhere is this more telling than in that final act of four-deep nested dreams. With a combination of Nolan’s story-layering and Lee Smith’s fantastic editing, Inception manages to expand and compress time simultaneously… Read more
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Windows to the Dream World
Critics and bloggers have looked at Inception in many different ways. Comparisons are made to the moviemaking process, video games, psychology and the nature of consciousness. We’ll survey a few highlights and offer our take on it as well. Moviemaking “The idea of a team of people having to construct a narrative, much the way… Read more
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