Sacramento (2024)

A couple of man babies go on a road trip under the pretense of scattering their dad's ashes. This is like A Real Pain if all the characters were completely insufferable and irredeemable. It's like mumblecore without any of the charm.

1 loose crib out of 5

THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT [2015]

Based on real events, director Kyle Alvarez's The Stanford Prison Experiment, recollects a disturbing university behavioral experiment set in the '70's by psychology professor Philip Lombardo.
A mock prison is set-up where 24 students are randomly selected to play prisoners & guards as a psychological study of imprisonment, however it begins taking a life of it's own and the abusive tactics become very questionable as the subjects being losing a grip on reality.
The subject matter fires all sorts of questions of ethics and reasoning at the audience which will probably result in a wide variety of reactions to the film.  No matter how you feel about it, one can't deny Alvarez's wondefully effective use of the camera, colors and ever-building tension to keep the uneasiness constantly in the foreground.   Without a single weak link in the ensemble cast, everything is craftily glued together in such a way that it all holds together tight enough when it easily could have been a silly and/or boring disaster.

3½ sausages out of 5

SNOW ANGELS [2007]

With the dramatic thriller Snow Angels, director David Gordon Green steps a little further away from his usual arsty surreal tones and sways a little closer into the standard mainstream.
Even though he's heavily scaled back on the dreamy thoughtful moments and sullen voice-overs, Green is still sternly focused on bringing realistic characters to the screen and that's what carries the film.  Sam Rockwell is great as always but it's Kate Beckinsale that surprises.  I haven't seen her in much but I just sort of figured she was just another pretty "action" star.  Here she displays all sorts of emotions and characteristics that turn what could have easily been a repulsive character into something sympathetic.
It's a grim, grim story that you know is going to end in tragedy by the opening 2 minutes but with so many layers and interesting characters it keeps you gripped onto exactly how it's going to end.

4 forgotten bunnies out of 5

THE ENGLISH TEACHER [2013]

TV director Craig Zisk dips into the theatrical world with the comedy/drama The English Teacher.
Julianne Moore leads the cast and does a wonderful job as always, allowing the viewer to easily care for her character.  Greg Kinnear, Nathan Lane, Lilly Collins and Michael Angarano all play their parts with charming charisma.  Each character is given believable life with their strengths and weaknesses, all of which are never fully resolved giving them more of a three dimensional heart than most light-hearted comedies like this.  However the film falls short with a resounding thud in the comedy department.  Apart from a few chuckles it wasn't particularly funny.  If not for the well-rounded cast I might have wandered out of the room looking for laughs elsewhere.

3 pepper sprays to the face out of 5

GENTLEMEN BRONCOS [2009]

After the mainstream disaster that was Nacho Libre, Jared Hess (writer & director of Napoleon Dynamite) returns to what he does best.  Quirky indie-comedies that really aren't for everybody.

Serving as a twisted homage to terrible sci-fi pulp fiction, Gentlemen Broncos is weird, weird, weird.  It manages to be consistently funny and is never afraid to get too absurd.  As awkwardly hilarious as the film is, it does suffer a bit in character development.  We get to know everybody in the first 20 minutes and that's it.  They never really push forward after that, but can be forgiven as it dares to be different.

3 assault deers out of 5