I’ve been slacking on updating lately, busy with shooting my web series and otherwise writing/doing coverage. So to make up for lost time here’s a double pack of reviews.
Orphan, AKA Deliciously Evil
Orphan Review
Say what you will about Orphan and there’s plenty you could say, such as:
-It’s got one late game quease inducing scene in an exploitive way it’s pretty surprising was released mainstream
-It’s not helping out adoption agencies
-It’s got some plot holes
-It’s SILLY
-It’s ridiculous
Now to fully explain the first criticism you have to know the film’s ending, which is a pretty delicious twist I found ingenious and fun. Yes, it’s definitely queasy the scene that leads up to the reveal and we could debate the morality of it, but the actual twist is fun, in my book.
There are other moments where Esther is so evil (killing a nun! threatening adorable deaf sister into silence! pretending to be innocent and manipulating the family against each other!) that you are actually almost rooting for Vera Farmiga (playing her adopted mom) to slap her. It’s that kind of movie, you are meant to suspend your actual logical feelings and thoughts and just have fun. If you approach it that way, as an intelligent adult knowing you’re seeing an absurd movie, you’ll enjoy yourself.
Also odd career choice for Vera, who recently starred in an indie-r evil kid movie called Joshua, which actually was legitimately good.
And waste of Peter Sarsgaard, a great actor given a somewhat dull role as the too-trusting dad/husband.
500 Days of Summer
This is a great movie that is NOT a chick flick at all. Anyone can enjoy it. It’s not sappy and annoying and formulaic and manipulative AKA every other romantic comedy released mainstream.
There’s a random musical number, the chronology is shuffled, the ending is surprising (and in a lot of ways more romantic than the typical romantic comedy ending). This movie feels ALIVE, free to change and to be different but still totally relatable and even a little traditional at times.
And the shuffled chronology feels like a truer way to depict a romance, almost the way memories of a relationship would work.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an incredible actor, and he’s totally charming as the hopeless romantic (a male one!). Zooey Deschanel continues to play the alternative chick to end all alternative chicks, and as the emotionally distant one (a female one!) she frustrates and endears in equal measure, exactly as she should, really.
This movie is worth seeking out at your local indie theater.
-Dan Benamor