Tag: Paramount

Blu-ray, by Sean Axmaker, Contributors, DVD, Film Reviews

Blu-ray / DVD: Oscar winner ‘The Big Short’ and Guy Maddin’s ‘Forbidden Room’

Written by Sean Axmaker March 16, 2016

The Big Short (Paramount, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD) – Adam McKay is not necessarily the guy you look to for dramatic outrage at the greed and failure behind the economic collapse of the last decade. He is, after all, the director who guided Will Ferrell through such comedies as Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys. Yet here he is, adapting Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book on the reasons behind the financial collapse and coming away with a hit movie, five Academy Award nominations, and an Oscar win for Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Charles Randolph).

The Big Short is serious and angry. It’s also very funny, which is its secret weapon. What’s a subprime mortgage? Here’s Margot Robbie in a bubble bath to explain it to you. Need to explain what a CBO is without driving audiences away? How about Selena Gomez at a casino?

In the hands of McKay and his co-conspirators, the financial fraud of the 2000s is nothing short of a criminal farce with dire consequences. For us, that is, not the folks who perpetrated the crisis out of greed, criminal neglect, and reckless abandon. In this company of thieves and accomplices, the heroes of this story are a few men who saw through the façade and proceeded to bet against the house. They are, of course, outliers with idiosyncrasies.

by Sean Axmaker, Contributors, Seattle Screens, Silent Cinema

Seattle Screens: Unearthing the ‘Lime Kiln Club’ and more

Written by Sean Axmaker February 19, 2016

Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913) is not quite a movie—it’s a reconstruction of an unfinished film undertaken without complete materials or documentation—and at the same time it is much, much more. Starring Bert Williams, a major singer and stage star of the era, and Odessa Warren Grey, it’s not just one of the rare black cast films of the silent era. This is a portrait of urban black society that defies the stereotypes that became standard in American films just a few years later, featuring a wide array of classes and character types. Apart from its entertainment value (and even unfinished it is fun), it is a significant piece of cinematic, cultural, and social archaeology.

It plays on Monday, February 22 at the Paramount in the “Silent Movie Mondays” series with a filmed introduction by Rob Magliozza from the Museum of Modern Art (which undertook the restoration of the discovery), the Bert Williams short film A Natural Born Gambler (1916), and a post-screening discussion. Showtime and programming details here and for more background on the film, read Nsenga Burton’s essay here.

Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights Trilogy, adapted from “One Thousand and One Nights” and updated to contemporary Portugal, plays at SIFF Film Center this week. Each film—The Restless One, The Desolate One, and The Enchanted One—is a separate admission and plays multiple times throughout the week. Details and showtimes at SIFF.net.

John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon turns 75 this year and Fathom Events brings it back to the big screen in select theaters across the country for two nights this week: Sunday, February 21 and Wednesday, February 24. You can find participating theaters in your area here.

Theeb, the Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film from Jordan, is back to play for one show only on Monday, February 22 at SIFF Cinema Uptown. Details here.

Visit the film review pages at The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, and The Stranger for more releases.

View complete screening schedules through IMDb, MSN, Yahoo, or Fandango, pick the interface of your choice.

Blu-ray, by Sean Axmaker, Contributors, DVD, Film Reviews, Science Fiction

Videophiled: Hard science and soft-headed people in ‘Interstellar’

Written by Sean Axmaker April 1, 2015

Interstellar (Paramount, Blu-ray, DVD) – Christopher Nolan used his clout as the director of the hugely successful Dark Knight trilogy and cerebral caper film Inception to get this big-budget science fiction epic made on a scale that otherwise would be out of reach. It’s set in a near future where overpopulation and global climate change has been catastrophic for the food supply and the culture has become hostile to science, as if it’s the cause of the problems rather than the only hope to solve them.

Matthew McConaughey is a widower father and former astronaut turned Midwest farmer who is essentially drafted into a covert project to send a ship across the galaxy to find a planet suitable for human habitation. That means abandoning his children, one of whom grows up into a physics genius (played by Jessica Chastain) who holds onto her grudge for decades. This is a film where complex concepts of quantum physics and powerful human emotions are inextricably intertwined and the ghost that haunts the farmhouse has both a scientific explanation and a sense of supernatural power.