STRANGE MAGIC [2015]

Sound designer Gary Rydstrom makes his feature length directorial debut with George Lucas' CGI animated Strange Magic.
It's the story of a fairy princess who finds herself in the middle of a forest battle of goblings, elves, imps and various other strange creatures over a very powerful love potion.  It's basically A Midsummer Night's Dream given the Glee/American Idol make-over with it's attack of poorly reconstructed pop songs from all over the musical map.  The character designs are sloppily uninspired, the story is an uneven mess of boredom and the whole affair is just really really annoying.
It's perfectly acceptable to feel sorry for oneself should they find themselves having to sit through it from beginning to end.

1 petal out of 5

The Wrestler (2008)

Mickey Rourke gives the performance of his life as ageing wrestler Randy the Ram, twenty years past his prime. Randy grapples with the realities of a world that has moved on the only way he knows how.
Aronofsky’s direction is mostly vérité; it’s simplistic, but the depth of character and enormous sense of integrity he captures is astounding, even during shots that are little more than the back of Randy’s head.
Marisa Tomei burns bright as the love interest with problems of her own.
It’s a heart-wrenching journey that’s relevant to anyone who’s ever faced hardship or loneliness, regardless of your feelings about wrestling.

5 Ram Jams out of 5

CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN [2013]

Fredrik Bond's feature length directorial debut comes in the form of the stylish crime drama Charlie Countryman which seems to channel Nicolas Winding Refn and Danny Boyle.
...in other words, it's kind of crazy.
Toss in a heavy dose of twisted rom-com elements and you have yourself the type of film that is visually dazzling, well-acted and unpredictable with a great soundtrack to boot.  A wave of melancholy is washed over the tension, humour, debauchery, insanity and brutal violence to give it a sense of warmth in the center.  It's simple enough to scare away the snooty film nerds but a bit too weird to attract the average movie-goer and in the end probably won't find much of a home in many viewer's hearts with the exception of the odd-bird scattered around the world.

4 tuba players out of 5