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Falling Down (1993)
Dir. Joel Schumacher


Minor spoilers below.

Managed to not see this for a very long time. Late last night, I finally got a chance to watch it and I'm glad I did. As a writer myself, I'm constantly trying to find the science behind movies I love and why exactly I love them.

Falling Down proves how completely vital character introductions, memorable first scenes and relatability are to grabbing you by the collar of your shirt, telling you that you're going to sit through this entire thing and you're going to like it.

Instantly, we are thrown into a complete nightmare of a situation. Dead stop traffic. Sweltering heat. Sharing the road with a bunch of mouthbreathing morons. D-Fens (Michael Douglas) feels like the only sane person around and so do we. We are one with the main character. The hilarious move he pulls here to break out of this scene just further cements it. The hook has been set masterfully. You're in for a fun ride.

The second act of this movie definitely shines. Originally, I was going to point out that I found some of the common man frustrations to be a tad dated. But, the more I think about it, I realize that's just wrong. A lot of what our protagonist is fed up with still applies today. Everything's too damn expensive, you can't walk the streets of your own neighborhood without being accosted by some punks, etc. (Don't want to spoil too much). As we press on though, we begin to realize that maybe we wouldn't have taken the same routes to justice as our anti-hero has.

The film toes the line well here and manages to keep you on D-Fens's side despite some questionable actions. It's understandable. He's had a hell of a day. But soon, your patience is tested. Sure, we're having a fun romp throughout the inner city and disposing of those we think don't deserve to walk the streets anymore. But, these phone calls are getting strange. His recklessness is skyrocketing. Slowly but surely, he's transforming into a full blown sociopath.

Featuring a bizarrely funny performance by Robert Duvall as Prendergast, an old police department inside-man who just so happens to be retiring the day D-Fens decides to go nuts, this movie is an absolute classic. Falling Down is well known and well regarded for it's dark humor and self-aware tone. But I think the real victory here, is managing to slowly peel the layers back in a way that you can almost miss if you're caught just looking at the surface.

FINAL VERDICT: A classic in every way. My personal favorite of Joel Schumacher's. And maybe my favorite Michael Douglas movie as well.

My Favorite Movies List

Death Wish (1974)
Dir. Michael Winner


Minor spoilers below.

Jesus Christ, what a disappointment. This is a mess. Maybe it's because I was led to believe that this was going to be some kind of masterpiece or that it set the template for a lot of modern revenge movies. But even watching this with forgiving eyes, I see nothing but flaws. I'm not sure this is even B-movie level.

The first twenty minutes actually trick you into thinking that the rest of the film is going to be decent, or at the very least coherent. Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is a down-to-earth, bleeding heart liberal architect who gets a phone call one day informing him that his wife and daughter had been raped and assaulted by a group of thugs. There it is. Now Paul will go on a rampage ending in killing the pieces of trash that killed his wife. Right?

What follows is a confusing, meandering, nonsensical string of events so willingly stupid and free of logic that it makes me question the sanity of anyone who can honestly say they enjoy the flick and have watched it multiple times. Doing my best not to completely spoil anything, what the hell was going on in this?

Eventually, the core reason Kersey becomes an assassin of sorts just gets completely dropped. The action scenes are just in fact the same scene over and over again in different locations. There are a litany of scenes with no meaning and no conflict. No resolution. No satisfaction. Seemingly every criminal in the city comes equipped with only a knife while our protagonist appears to be a God considering he's the only one with an access to firearms.

You can only hear "give me the money" so many times before you stop thinking about the movie and just dial in on Bronson's 'stache.

FINAL VERDICT: Dog sh*t. Don't watch it.


Frank (2014)
Dir. Lenny Abrahamson


Minor spoilers below.

It's too often that low budget indies share the same core DNA. Long, hypnotizing shots. Kind of a semblance of a plot but not a fully fleshed out story. Sad existentialism. Non-endings. Blech. So, it's exciting when something so fresh and original comes around.

Frank is good. Really good. The film tells the story of a young, passionate keyboard player named Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) who wants nothing else but to play music despite being a tad mediocre and knowing it. After finding an ad in the paper looking for someone that plays the keys, Jon heads to this rehearsal of sorts to try out for the band.

There he meets a set of strange folk who don't even acknowledge his arrival and instead launch into some jam that sounds like a weird modern blend of Franz Ferdinand, Pink Floyd and Screamin' Jay Hawkins that fits so well and sounds so good that we can relate to the smile that washes over Jon's face as he realizes what he's gotten himself into. Even if the lead singer of the band, Frank (Michael Fassbender), wears a giant paper-mache head reminiscent of a character out of Morel Orel and never shows his real face to anyone.

A true character driven story pushed forward with fantastic performances by Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Fassbender and Scoot McNairy, this is an extremely intriguing, ultra original piece of work that outshines its low-budget contemporaries a hundred times over. Exploring serious thought-provoking themes in endearing ways and ending on a higher note than I thought was possible, I can't recommend Frank enough. It's on Netflix Instant. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

FINAL VERDICT: One of the most original films I've seen in quite some time. You'd be doing yourself an injustice by not checking this out. A contained, oddly beautiful little movie.


Starry Eyes (2014)
Dir. Kevin Kolsch, Dennis Widmyer


Minor spoilers below.

Like its main character, Starry Eyes is extremely ambitious. Is it as ambitious to a fault, though?

Alex Essoe delivers a heartbreaking performance as Sarah and carries this film as an aspiring actress that burns to be famous living in LA with a group of other aspiring creatives. Though unlike her friends, Sarah actually has a will and a drive to get to the top. She walks the walk. As opposed to the others who just spend their time talking about what they want to do while never really acting on anything.

With great character precision and a feeling of overall desperation, this is a horror film to be watched ASAP. As disturbing as it is interesting, I find Sarah's descent into a dark underworld controlling Hollywood to be extremely unnerving and creepy as all hell. A clear homage to the scary flicks of yesteryear (including its vintage title card), I'm reminded of the old drive-in double features of the 70's where this would've not only fit right in but would've probably had top billing.

Unfortunately though, like many of those back in the day, the story does fall off the tracks and go down a path that it didn't really have to resulting in a bit of a lesser film. There's so much potential here and I feel a more subtle execution of ideas and themes could've taken Starry Eyes to the next level. With silly decisions and cliche character and story elements, I'm left feeling less enthusiastic about this one than I really want to be as I love the first half of the film and want to be on its side. A more solid focus and grounded logic and this would've been my favorite horror movie of 2014.

FINAL VERDICT: Definitely worth a watch. Love its ambition. Love Alex Essoe's performance. But prepare to be disappointed when all is revealed and done so in an unsatisfying, deflating way.

They Came Together (2014)
Dir. David Wain


Minor spoilers below.

And I laughed alone. For like 30 minutes. Love the Stella guys going back to The State. From what I heard of this one, I was sure it was going to be hilarious and it ended up living up to that in the beginning. Then, it was just kind of okay. Then, it became torturous. Christ, could this movie be any more one-note?

The entire concept behind the flick satirically plays with the cliche and tried-and-true methods behind most romantic comedy movies. But, then forgets to do anything else with it. Ultimately resulting in "Remember when they did this in that one movie?", for 90 minutes. I hate to say it, but I think something like this would've best been formatted for digital content like YouTube or a short Web Series.

They Came Together tells the story of Joel (Paul Rudd) and Molly (Amy Poehler) recounting how they met and how similar the events are to that of a typical Romantic Comedy during a dinner outing with their friends Kyle (Bill Hader) and Karen (Ellie Kemper). Kicking off on somewhat of a high note, there are some genuine funny moments early on mainly provided by Bill Hader and Christopher Meloni in a surprisingly bizarre role. But no amount of meta-comedy, goofy faces or scenes intentionally allowed to go on five minutes after they should've ended can mask the fact that there really isn't much going on outside of, as I've said, playing that one note.

The second act just fizzles out and dies like a balloon that hasn't been tied off and by the time you get to the third act, who even cares? Scene after scene of the same thing. I'm reminded of the smug people on that San Francisco episode of South Park. Where they sniff their own sh*t and all speak with the same inflection. "Thaaaaanks." That's what this movie feels like after a while. I'm not defending the absolute trash heap full of romantic comedies that deserve to be ripped apart. I'm simply saying there are funnier ways to do so. Especially with such a great cast. Even Michael Ian Black's performance in this is weak.

It's a little low-budget comedy. I know. I wasn't expecting Othello here. But it sucks to feel like people who are so talented and creative like Michael Showalter and David Wain can just kind of crap one out without really presenting any new ideas or memorable moments. The joke just flat out wears thin and I think you have to be really enamored with the concept behind the movie, parodying romantic comedies, to find immense enjoyment or even satisfaction. A radical midpoint shake up or shift in tone could've saved this one from being forgettable.

Consisting of only a handful of true laugh out loud moments and relying on goofy cameos towards the end to hold your attention, They Came Together ends up being as lousy as the films it puts down.

FINAL VERDICT: Only worth a watch if you're a big fan of the Stella crew. Otherwise, pass.