Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild from director Benh Zeitlin is a highly visceral film in many regards. From its characters, their questionable actions, the evocative score, and the worthy direction – the movie is vibrant with passion and pronouncement without being pretentious or manipulative. The atmosphere created is akin to that of a fantastic poem, punctuated by the harsh realities that its characters try to avoid, but nonetheless prepare for. The world of the Southern Wild is both rife with magic and tragedy.

Side Effects

Sitting down to watch Side Effects, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting into. Based off of the premise I had a vague idea of what to expect, and in some ways, my expectations were fulfilled. However, there is more to the film than what it initially gives off, and after the ball begins rolling, I was kept on the edge of my seat constantly attempting to pinpoint where the movie was taking me, and how we would get there. The path taken was a tight one, albeit bumpy.

The Master

The long-awaited sixth film from director Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master is a movie that I’ve been meaning to get around to viewing for months, and was only able to do so only recently. Much to my pleasure, it was well worth the wait.

Warm Bodies

When Warm Bodies was announced (adapted from Isaac Marion’s novel of the same name) I originally thought it was supposed to be some kind of Twilight rip-off, except, you know, replacing vampires with zombies. Genius. However, as time went by, it turned out to be some kind of romantic-comedy. This didn’t sound any better to me, and so it really fell off my radar for a while. I had no intention of seeing it, but boredom is a dangerous thing, and so I reconsidered, and with absolutely zero preconceptions saved for the bare minimum of information on its premise I’d learned months ago, I went to see it. And I was pleasantly surprised, as Warm Bodies turned out to be a zombie movie with quite a bit of heart.