ANOMALISA [2015]

Never one to spoon-feed audiences, ambitious writer/director Charlie Kaufman (and co-director Duke Johnson) forces your jaw to the floor with the stop-motion animated masterpiece comical drama Anomalisa.
A depressed motivational speaker, who literally hears the same voice coming from everyone he meets, has a spark thrown into his life when he meets a woman who sounds completely different from the rest of the world.
The eerily realistic animated puppets are so engrossing you quite often forget it's not live-action, while you simultaneously get lost in it's tale of loneliness, depression, sex and a creepy Japanese automaton.  It's easy to admire the film from a technical standpoint, however at first it's a little difficult to enjoy the loathsome characters, until you know where it's leading you and it all becomes clear (sort of) as to why everything is the way it is.

4½ girls who wanna have fun out of 5

LATE PHASES [2014]

Here Comes The Devil director Adrián García Bogliano makes his English language debut with the burly little werewolf film Late Phases.
Nick Damici is fantastic as a crotchety old blind man that moves into an old folk's community that has the tendency to get a little bloody every full moon.  The use of good ol' fashioned practical effects is a joy to watch but doesn't always work, especially when you see the man in the furry rubber suit that looks like a rabid version of Donnie Darko's Frank.  The tone of the film is an utter mess and there doesn't seem to be any real direction it wants to take.  Fortunately actors Damici and Tom Noonan have a wonderful chemistry together as they make the best of what they have to work with.  Something great was buried deep within the film but sadly it's never really found.

2½ iron lungs out of 5

KNOCKAROUND GUYS [2001]

Brian Koppelman & David Levien co-write & direct Knockaround Guys, a run-of-the-mill crime-drama that seems to set out to have the same body count by it's last reel as Reservoir Dogs did.
A mobster's son and his second-rate criminal friends botch up an important job that finds them in some buttfuck nowhere middle American town, which ultimately leads to some heated intereactions.  It is interesting to see the many different levels of organized crime but that's where anything even remotely engaging ends.  The dialogue is laughably clichéd, the characters are wooden and the plot is a muddled mess that could only lead in one direction.  If not for the reasonably entertaining cast I might have turned this one off pretty quickly.

2 bar brawls 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

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK [2008]

Like a melding of a Proust and Kafka novel adapted into film by Fellini, writer Charlie Kaufman's  post-modern drama directorial debut Synecdoche, New York is a dizzying tale that saunters between depression, dementia, death and decay.
The late Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a dying theatre director that becomes so consumed by his work, his grasp on the difference between fiction and reality are heavily blurred.  The film explores so many themes and motifs in it's unconventional plot, it'd be a task to list them all off but with some dedication to the film, the viewer will find all sorts of thoughtful goodies on it's many puzzling street corners.  It's a difficult film to enjoy as entertainment but an enticing one from a film-making and creative writing standpoint.

3½ ends built into the beginnings out of 5

THE MONSTER SQUAD [1987]

Director Fred Dekker co-writes with the then unknown Shane Black, a wild ride of a horror/comedy for the kids called The Monster Squad.
Take the filthy mouthed kids of The Goonies, Stand By Me & The Lost Boys then toss in all the classic Universal Monsters and you have yourself a entertaining ride.  The editing is noticeably sloppy but it's so fast-paced you might not notice.  Stan Winston's creature effects are top-notch as always and Bruce Broughton's music fits the tone perfectly.  It's scary enough to engulf the little horror hound monsters and just enough to keep the older crowd entertained with it's tongue-in-cheek cliches and coincidences.
In short, it's all about fun, fun and more fun.

3½ wolf dorks out of 5

THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL [2009]

Director Ti West's homage to the horror films of the 70's & 80's, The House Of The Devil is a deliciously entertaining ride.

West utilizes filming techniques & equipment of the era to really give it that kitschy feel, which is wonderfully effective and boisterously campy.  It's nice to see a horror film go with the slow-burning effect rather than jump right into the bloody carnage, which makes for a delightfully evil pay-off when it finally does happen. I'm constantly finding West knows how a film should be shot & lit in the most interesting, yet non-distracting manners.  It's a bizarre, enjoyable film that is sure to please longtime horror film fans looking for one that is done right.

3½ lunar eclipses out of 5