Category: 2016

Movie Review – American Honey

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American Honey (2016)
Written & Directed by Andrea Arnold

american honey

Star lives in the sunburnt concrete dregs of Oklahoma, taking care of two children (not her own) while seeking something more from her life. She crosses paths with a crew of teenagers selling magazines door to door across the south and midwest and decides to join them. It’s not the job opportunity that lures Star rather her immediate attraction to Jake, one of the young men in the group. Star eventually meets Krystal, the slightly older woman in charge of the sales group. She pairs Star with Jake to learn the trade, and this affords the two an opportunity to develop their relationship further. However, Star finds this lifestyle increasingly empty and seeks another new path.

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Movie Review – Sea of Trees

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Sea of Trees (2016)
Written by Chris Sparling
Directed by Gus Van Sant

sea-of-trees

Arthur Brennan is a distraught man who books a one-way ticket to Japan and finds himself about to commit suicide in the beautiful and notorious Aokigahara or Sea of Trees. He is stopped in the middle of his act by Takumi, a Japanese man who stumbles through the forest, bruised and bloodied, saying he is trying to find a way out. Arthur can’t stomach letting this man wander until he dies and decides to lead him to the path before returning to his original intent in the woods. However, the track isn’t where Arthur remembers it, and he and Takumi get lost deeper and deeper into the Sea of Trees.

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Movie Review -Equals

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Equals (2016)
Written by Drake Doremus & Nathan Parker
Directed by Drake Doremus

equals

In a futuristic utopia, humans live with emotions suppressed and all illness cured. There are no deep relationships and no sexual ones. All reproduction is done through artificial insemination determined by random lottery draws. In this world there is one affliction, Switch on Syndrome, where the afflicted is hit with a rush of emotion. Those with SOS typically end committing suicide of their own accord or at the behest of the government. Silas is an illustrator who works for a propaganda outlet and notices his co-worker Nia is showing subtle signs of SOS. Not long after, Silas begins to experience nightmares and the bubbling up of emotions. These two will embark on a struggle to escape their world and task a risk to see what lies beyond the borders.

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Movie Review – The Adderall Diaries

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The Adderall Diaries (2016)
Written & Directed by Pamela Romanowsky

adderall-diaries

Stephen Elliott’s first book was a memoir on his mother’s death due to cancer and the subsequent emotional and physical abuse at his father’s hands which he cites as driving him to drugs. Stephen has gotten a new book deal and is checking out what he wants to write about next, finally setting on the murder trial of Hans Reiser, a software guru accused of killing his estranged wife. During a reading from his memoir, Stephen is interrupted by his father whom he has written had died years prior. This sudden revelation causes the writer to lose credibility among New York’s publishing scene and eventually strains his relationships. With little options, Stephen decides to directly confront his father and his misgivings about his memories of the past.

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Movie Review – Remember

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Remember (2016)
Written by Benjamin August
Directed by Atom Egoyan

remember

Zev Guttman wakes to find his wife Ruth is missing. Exiting his bedroom, he finds himself in the hallway of a nursing home where a kind nurse explains that Ruth passed away months ago. Zev is slipping further into dementia and losing track of memory from both the present and the deep past. His only friend is Max, a fellow resident of the nursing home who has a secret pact with Zev. One evening Max gives Zev a letter which sets the latter man on a journey across America, looking for a man named Rudy Kulander. This man has ties to both Max and Zev and their meeting will end in bloodshed.

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Movie Review – The Witch

The Witch (2016)
Written & Directed by Robert Eggers

the witch

In the 1630s, a man named William and his family are exiled from his Puritan plantation after he is found guilty of promoting an alternative view of accepted Christianity. After traveling through the wilderness, the family settles on a remote plot of land on the edge of the woods. While playing with the baby of the family, eldest daughter Thomasin suddenly loses him to an unseen force in those woods. She’s met with suspicion by her mother and William is driven further into desperation. The crops rot on the stalk, the goat is only giving blood, and there is a malevolent air about the land. The eldest son, Caleb strikes upon a plan to venture into the woods to gather rabbits from traps so that the family can sustain themselves with some bit of food, but this journey will damn his entire family.

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Comic Book Review – The Flash Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 1

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The Flash Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 1
Written by Joshua Williamson
Art by Carmine Di Giandomenico

flash rebirth book 1

Everything changed when the original Wally West returned, emerging from the timestream when his Uncle Barry Allen aka The Flash remembered him. Now the speedster hero of Central City recalled that there was a reality before this one and that some unseen force is manipulating the memories and realities of the people around him. He doesn’t have much time to dwell on this when a sudden speed force storm grants his powers to dozens of everyday people. This includes police detective August Heart and STAR Labs scientist Meena Dhawan. Is this the work of the criminal organization The Black Hole or the newly emerged speedster villain Godspeed?

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Comic Book Review – Wonder Woman Rebirth Volumes 1 & 2

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Wonder Woman Rebirth Volume 1: The Lies
Wonder Woman Rebirth Volume 2: Year One
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Liam Sharp (The Lies) and Nicola Scott (Year One)

wonder woman year one

Acclaimed writer Greg Rucka returned to the character he wrote back in the early, the mid-2000s. This time he was forced to work through the reboot of the New 52 era of DC Comics. Add to that the company-wide initiative to rework their continuity once again to find some sort of middle ground between old-school approaches to their characters and injecting modernity into them. To accomplish this Rucka decided to make his biweekly run alternate between the present day adventures of Princess Diana and her early years becoming the hero of legend she is today. This unique structure allowed Rucka to drop a reference to a past event in his present-day storyline only to follow up two weeks later with the detailed telling of that story in the past. It makes for some mind-boggling reading when jumping back and forth but reads smoother in individual collections.

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Movie Review – The Untamed

The Untamed (2016)
Written & Directed by Amat Escalante

the untamed

In a cabin in the woods, far from the city, live an old scientist and his wife. Inside their barn, they house something fantastic and terrific. But if that’s where you think the film will spend most of its time, then you are wrong. After a teasing opening sequence, shot with beautiful horror, we follow Veronica, a young woman enthralled with the thing in the barn. Veronica is injured after an encounter and meets nurse Fabian. She introduces Fabian to this same object of pleasure and revulsion. Fabian’s sister, Alejandra is married and dealing with the increasing drudgery of domestic life and the distance of her husband Angel. Angel is secretly having an affair with Fabian behind his wife’s back, but the latter breaks it off after feeling his devotion grow to the thing. It becomes very apparent that this story will only end tragically.

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Comic Book Review – Superman: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition Volume 1

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Superman: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition Volume 1 (2016)
Written by Peter Tomasi
Art by Patrick Gleason, Doug Mahnke, and Jorge Jimenez
Reprints Superman: Rebirth #1 and Superman v4 #1-13

superman rebirth

Superman is dead! Long live Superman! Ten years ago, the Superman and Lois Lane of a long dead universe came to the current DC Universe. They have lived in secret raising their son Jonathan who has inherited some of his father’s powers. The Superman of this reality had died in battle recently, and so this alternate reality Man of Steel has taken up the mantle to keep the dream alive. He has to balance this with the responsibility of helping Lois raise their son. Of course, villains get in the way. First the Eradicator, an ancient Kryptonian robot bent on recreating the dead planet shows up. Later, Superman and Son clash with Batman and Robin as well as the macabre Agent Frankenstein. For the Kent family, this is just life as usual.

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