Red State

We all know what a Kevin Smith movie involves, right? A smattering of dick and fart jokes, paired with his dynamic duo Jay and Silent Bob. Well not this movie, not even close.

‘Red State’ is a story that follows a small group of boys, who look for a sexual encounter from an online stranger, and get kidnapped by a religiously fanatic group, resembling the Westboro Baptist Church. After the kidnapping, the church is placed under siege by the ATF.

Doesn’t sound like your average Smith film, right? That’s because it’s not. Smith really swung for the fences with this movie, and not only did he succeed in his drive for this movie, but also redefined what a ‘Kevin Smith Movie’ could be, which is important with a TV miniseries about hockey on the horizon for projects he is working on.

The story on this movie was great. It was original, and at times, downright unsettling. I have seen this movie multiple times, and I have only one real problem with it, and it is one that Smith has heard a lot, enough to even address in his podcasts. There is a monologue that carries on for what I feel is too long. Now that being said, the monologue is incredibly well written and acted wonderfully by Michael Parks, so my only wish is that there was something to break it up a bit.

The acting all around is wonderful, but the show really belongs to Michael Parks and John Goodman.  Parks plays the leader of the Five Points Church, who really delivers a character that believes his every action as ordained and justified by the Almighty. Goodman also put out a character of a tired ATF agent who is scared to disobey an order he might find morally offensive.

The look of the movie? Dirty, gritty, and real. This really differs from Smith’s other movies. Almost all of Smith’s other movies have David Klein as the Director of Photography and it definitely shows that they went out of their comfort zone to try to really ground the emotion of the film.

Final Judgement:

This was a brave attempt at trying something new and delivers. The plot is original, the acting is great. I think this is a great movie for Netflix, and worth spending a few hours in front of the TV. If you are looking for an uplifting movie or a comedy, you may want to wait on this movie.

Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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How To Be A Serial Killer

Definitely an interesting take on the serial killer phenomena, This movie I felt was a good watch, I would recommend it  to anyone who is swept up in the serial killer craze (fans of Dexter, Criminal Minds, etc.), but I felt that while an important part about the movie was about finding one's voice, this movie didn't really find itself a home.

'How To Be A Serial' killer is partly a narrative about veteran serial killer Mike (Dameon Clarke) taking a pupil (Matthew Gray Gubler) under his tutelage. There is also a 'camera confessional' aspect delving into characters' emotions, as well as a 'self help video' section detailing the rules one needs to follow to be a successful serial killer.

As for acting, there is essentially only two actors in the entire movie, Clarke and Gubler. Clarke I think did a great job, as did Gubler, but I never felt like the two were friends in the movie, it always seemed like they really didn't mesh together as a team. I did think it was interesting that Matthew Gray Gubler played a serial killer in training when his regular gig is playing a genius savant trained to capture serial killers.

Writing I thought was a key downfall. There were too many elements in the movie that distracted me. It wa part narrative, part self help/tutorial, part camera confession. I think if the camera confessional scenes were clipped altogether it would have worked better, especially since there was never anyone following the characters with a camera; those scenes just felt awkward and unnecessary. It also really struggled to find what it's main genre of movie was...there wasn't enough jokes for me to just say it was a comedy, I wasn't invested in the characters enough to find any particular moment suspenseful, and there isn't enough emotional turmoil to make me think of a drama. I labeled it as all three because it has moments that picked out of each category, like a sampler platter of a movie.

Cinematography was decent in the movie, the colors were very natural, and honestly the best lighting are the night scenes when they are driving, but nothing really stood out.

Final Judgement:

This movie is not going to knock your socks off. Like I said at the beginning, if you are into any of the current serial killer shows out there, it's definitely worth the watch and some of the tutorial sections might crop up in your head during those shows. Otherwise, it's not like society is going to notice is you skip this one.

Score: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

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Super

This movie surprised the hell out of me. Much better than I expected going into it. This was truly an impressive indie film.

'Super' follows Frank (Rainn Wilson), an average guy who is a cook at a diner, who has led a remarkably boring life. This changes when his wife (Liv Tyler) runs off with the drug dealer 'Jock' (Kevin Bacon) without a note or a reason why. After the police turn a deaf ear to his plea for assistance, Frank takes the law into his own hands and becomes the vigilante The Crimson Bolt. Over the movie we see this everyday crime fighter go from a truly awkward spectacle to behold to a truly fearsome agent of wrath.

The story was both what made this movie work, but what also more than likely what made this movie a mainly underground success. The movie opened a scant two months after Kick-Ass, which follows a similar plot, but had a budget over ten times the size of Super with major studio support. The story was pretty decent, there were a few parts I didn't agree with and thought should have been rewritten or removed completely from the movie.

The acting was not only impressive, but who they were able to hire was impressive. Being able to hire Kevin Bacon, Liv Tyler, Ellen Page, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion and Rainn Wilson and still have enough from your 2.5 million dollar budget to make a full length, well shot movie is a feat, and definitely tells us that some of these actors definitely lowered their rates because they just wanted to be involved in the project. Rainn Wilson was great in the movie, he had a rough start for me, but by the end I was totally sold with his performance. I also found it kind of hilarious that this was Nathan Fillion's second role as a kind of lame super hero, the first being Captain Hammer in "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog".

The look and feel of the movie was a lot grittier than I was expecting Lots of muted and earthy colors, which really makes the few times that there is a cartoon-y special effect really stand out. The special effects were done old school. Blood pumps and the like instead of the growing use of digital blood. I liked the style that the effects were used, but there were a few time I think they were just over-used and distracting.

Final Judgement:

'Super' delivers a good story, but some of the special effectsmight be argued that either held it back or added to its charm. The characters develop nicely and the story moves fluidly at a good pace. This movie is on Netflix and is definitely worth finding a home in your queue.

Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

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The Skin I Live In

A foreign movie whose original title is: 'La Piel Que Habito'. This movie debuted a couple years ago, but had a pretty soft opening. It fell through the cracks I think and it is a tragedy.

'The Skin I Live In' is a suspenseful story about a plastic surgeon who, after tragedy strikes his family and his wife is horribly burned, becomes obsessed with developing a highly experimental form of skin graft. After years of work, he begins testing on another woman. This woman is moved to his estate during the treatment, and is regarded as a prisoner in solitary confinement due to the severity of her condition and the surgery she undergoes.

'The Skin I Live In' is a masterpiece. The screenplay is incredibly clever, moving, and haunting. The story, which I will not spoil, is such an intense mind-fuck, you will forget that you are reading subtitles. The non-linear plot flows so smoothly and the story is excellently crafted, you really feel for the characters.

As far as acting goes, I just have one question. "Where the hell has this Antonio Banderas been?!" I had been thinking Banderas had retired from being in adult oriented movies and traded over to kids movies, and I would never again see a bad ass Banderas. But this movie let shine a strong ray of hope that he will still be in grown up movies. Since there aren't many characters in this movie, that makes every role that much more important. Not only does Banderas shine, but his opposite, Elena Anaya, delivers a brilliant performance as well.

The cinematography is great as well. The entire color of the film is very muted and dour, a dark feeling matched by the subject matter. The lighting changes from dreary and disparaging to sterile and emotionless.

Final Judgement:

This movie is fantastic, and you will not be disappointed. I will warn you against seeing this movie if you are looking for a light, happy feeling flick, because this will not be that movie. This movie is disturbing, suspenseful, and at points, emotionally draining. This wasn't nominated for an Oscar, was nominated for a Golden Globe, but lost, and that is a catastrophe. This has to be one of the best Spanish movies I have ever seen, up there with 'Pan's Labyrinth' and 'The Orphanage'. This movie, at least for DirecTV users, is available On Demand for those who have Starz. It's not on Netflix at the moment, and only available to purchase on Amazon instant video.

Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

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