May 2013
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April 2013
8 posts
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That'll Do, Whale: Saying Goodbye to Film...
My first film festival badge as press.
This is my last post as a film critic.
Seems like only yesterday two guys had a dream to make a fun movie website to belt out their affinity for all things cinema. Gordon and the Whale was born, and Rusty Gordon and I turned our passion into something great. We built a solid team and people started listened to our wit, charm, professionalism, and all...
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March 2013
3 posts
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THE KINGS OF SUMMER Teaser (With A Pull-Quote From...
THE KINGS OF SUMMER (formerly TOY’S HOUSE) just released a teaser, and you must watch it. It’s one of the best (and funniest) films to come out of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Also, that top quote is mine - if you squint really hard, you can see my name and TwitchFilm.com. #Neat
Watch the teaser here: http://youtu.be/rTJTKM04BoA
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SXSW 2013 Review: SPRING BREAKERS
Bikinis. Boobs. Bongs. Booze. Blasphemy. Bullets. Bloodshed. Bad bitches.
Welcome to Harmony Korine’s vision of that great week of brainless college self-indulgence, Spring Breakers. By now, you’ve seen some kind of viral marketing – Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Selena Gomez with Rachel Korine (Harmony’s wife) in neon-colored bikinis, holding guns or wearing pink masks with the great...
February 2013
3 posts
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Sundance 2013 Review: David Gordon Green's PRINCE...
Breathe easy everyone, King David Gordon Green has returned to making good movies again. It’s been four films since the former indie auteur has made a solid one, and three of those were not under studio restraints. After The Sitter shit on everything Green worked so hard for, I worried we’d never get back the man so many of us movie geeks once adored for his Sundance hits All the Real...
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Sundance 2013 Review: THE RAMBLER Wanders Into...
If David Lynch and David Cronenberg teamed up with Werner Herzog early in their careers and made a movie together, it would have been Calvin Reeder’s The Rambler. Wherever you stand with these three auteurs, that’s either a big, big compliment, or it’s quite the opposite. I proudly stand on the former side of the fence, so this review is going to say some flattering things...
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Sundance 2013 Review: AFTERNOON DELIGHT Captures...
Poor Rachel (Kathryn Hahn). Although she’s married to the man of her dreams, Jeff (Josh Radnor), leads a really nice lifestyle, and has a healthy son, she’s bored as hell as a stay-at-home housewife. Her friends are starting to suck, because they all have day jobs and/or do normal mom things. And Jeff never wants to have sex. They high five in passing more often than they copulate,...
January 2013
14 posts
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Film Independent Spirit Awards Voting Started....
Once again, the Spirit Awards has some powerful contenders this year - the mightiest being the Female Lead category and the most difficult to choose. Everything else was a pretty clear choice.
And as usual, because nitpicking comes with award nominees, there were a few snubs. But the only thing I can’t wrap my head around is how Stephen Chbosky’s THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER...
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Sundance 2013 Review: UPSTREAM COLOR
It’s been nine years since elusive filmmaker Shane Carruth blew everyone’s minds with his super-low budget time travel movie, Primer. He took home some awards at Sundance in 2004 and had Hollywood swinging from his nut sack on gold threads. But, Carruth somewhat vanished from the film scene and didn’t make another movie until now.
His sophomore feature is Upstream Color. I would tell you what...
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Sundance 2013 Review: THE NECESSARY DEATH OF...
The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman is perhaps the worst film I’ve seen in a very, very long time. It stars Shia LaBeouf as the possibly-doomed titular role. Charlie just watched his mother (Melissa George, in the most tragically underused role possible) die at the hospital. After taking some painkillers to deal with his anxiety of what he just witnessed, he has an imaginary...
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Sundance 2013 Review: C.O.G. Paints a Riveting...
Have you ever wanted to unplug from the world? I mean, really, really unplug. Not for a day, or a week, but for as long as you can possibly can. Or even better, what about giving life a change and doing something completely out of your comfort zone? I have this fantasy that one day I’ll disappear from the online world and years later you’ll find me working on a boat, gutting fish in...
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Sundance 2013 Review: THE WAY, WAY BACK Wants You...
Being the awkward kid is the worst. Making friends is hard; everyone thinks you’re one with the freaks, and contact with the opposite sex is pretty much non-existent. Since lack of confidence is always going to be an uphill battle and the Pretenders will not always be around to “…Stand By You,” something needs to happen to balance out the suck — a strange and...
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Sundance Interview: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julianne...
Porn. Masturbation. Scarlett Johansson acting sexier than ever. A pot-smoking Julianne Moore. Tony Fucking Danza. Sex. Sex. Sex. Everything you’ve always wanted in the directorial debut of Boy Wonder Joseph Gordon-Levitt is here, and it’s called “Don Jon’s Addiction.” The film tells the story of himbo Don Jon (Gordon-Levitt in the titular role), who only cares about a small number of...
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Sundance 2013 Review: THE SPECTACULAR NOW is an...
The late John Hughes was the man in Hollywood who understood teenagers and teen angst better than anyone else in the industry. He knew how to tell beautiful stories about how sometimes being young can be weird and confusing, and brought this to life on film flawlessly. The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles are timeless classics, not only because they’re good storytelling and star Molly...
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Sundance 2013 Review: DON JON'S ADDICTION Bulks Up...
Warning: the words “cock,” “cum,” and “masturbation” are used in this review. With that out of the way, let’s get filthy.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is constantly on the move, making new projects with his online art collaboration company, HitRECord.org, and working as an A-list actor with some of Hollywood’s most prolific directors. The Boy Wonder has...
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Five Films the Universe Will Not Stop Me From...
The most rewarding part of a film festival is going into movie completely blind and walking out slack-jawed. This happened to me last year at Sundance with two films: Beasts of the Southern Wild and Smashed. If you follow me on Twitter, then you already know how loud I’ve been about both films. These two floored me and I’ve championed them since first rushing out of the theater to tweet my first...
My Pull-Quotes from Wrong's Poster and Trailer
Check out the trailer for Quentin Dupieux latest mindfuck, WRONG. The first pull-quote (pictured above) in the trailer is from my Twitch review. Trailer, poster, and the scoop: http://bit.ly/TwitchWrong
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New Year's Resolution, Reality Bites, and Guns N'...
What a wonderful, horrible ride the last two years have been. On New Year’s 2011 and 2012, I promised myself to breathe and not worry so much. Let’s go back 730 days ago — I had what my family doctor called “a serious mental breakdown.” My girlfriend at the time dumped me (and for good reasons, too) and it crushed my soul and world. Instead of immediately seeing a therapist and getting on proper...
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LOOPER Giveaway Winners!
Circling back: on December 13th, I posted a LOOPER giveaway, giving readers a chance at winning a Blu-ray copy of the film and a slick pocket watch that Joseph Gordon-Levitt wears in it. To mirror the JGL/Bruce Willis relationship in LOOPER, contestants had to find a young photo of themselves and take a new one, echoing that old photo as much as they could. There were a lot of solid ones, but I...
December 2012
10 posts
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VIDEO: LOOPER Interactive Live Chat with...
Here’s the video of the LOOPER interactive live chat with writer/director Rian Johnson that I moderated last night at the Sony lot. This method was very new for me since it was all online and I’m used to doing this in front of a live audience. I’m quite neurotic and kept thinking I would crash and burn with so many of his fans in the chatroom at the same time, ready to fire...
My Picks for Indiewire's Best of 2012 Poll
Best Films: http://www.indiewire.com/survey/indiewire-2012-year-end-critics-poll/best-film/chase-whale
Best Director: http://www.indiewire.com/survey/indiewire-2012-year-end-critics-poll/best-director/chase-whale
Best Performances: http://www.indiewire.com/survey/indiewire-2012-year-end-critics-poll/best-performance/chase-whale
Best Supporting Performances:...
The Best International Films of 2012
2012 was a great year for movies. We’ve been treated with some of the best comic book adaptations, blockbuster popcorn flicks, and the return of some big, bad Hollywood directors, along with some of the most prolific independent films made in years.
One other collection that has made this a great year for cinema is the large number of unmistakably wondrous foreign films that have moved and shaken...
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Live Chat with 'Looper' Director Rian Johnson →
“Looper writer/director Rian Johnson and film critic Chase Whale, of TwitchFilm.com, will be live on Spreecast.com, Monday December 17th at 8PM ET/5PM PT.
Join Johnson and Whale as they discuss the making of “Looper,” a dark mystery featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and answer your fan questions!
RSVP now for this special event!”
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Win a Pocket Watch and Blu-ray of Rian Johnson's...
UPDATE: Writer/Director Rian Johnson is going to help me hand pick the two winners for the giveaway. Only a few days left to enter!
Time travel has not yet been invented, but Blu-rays of LOOPER have. So has that really slick pocket watch Joseph Gordon-Levitt wears in the film. Since this is one of my favorite films of the year and Christmas is coming up, I’ve teamed up with Sony Pictures...
November 2012
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Top 10 (Now 11) Films of 2012
It’s that time of year again where all your favorite movie websites, cinephile friends, and film journalists start posting their flashy year-end lists. After narrowing it down from 13 titles, below are my 10 Favorite Films of 2012. I know it’s early and there are a few big films that haven’t been released yet. And I’m certain at least one is going to be unchained and awesome, but these are the...
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Review: DEADFALL Flaunts Eric Bana's Badassery,...
Deadfall really hits the ground running. Addison (Eric Bana) and his sister Liza (Olivia Wilde) are celebrating her first casino heist. En route to the Canadian border, freedom is temporarily put on hold when their vehicle hits a deer, sending it high into the air, where it learns all about the laws of gravity and slow motion in a display that would make Zack Snyder very proud.
The two survive,...
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Review: PRICE CHECK With Parker Posey Is A Snoozy...
You can usually count on Parker Posey. Her untiring comedy and witty improv helped her gain notoriety in the 90s, starring (at a young age) alongside older generation comedic vets in Christopher Guest films. This Party Girl was hailed as the original queen of independent cinema. She’s one of the rarities in Hollywood who could have easily shot to superstardom with her credentials, but chose...
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Gordon and the Whale: One Year Later
Time flies when you’re havin’ a time. It’s been a little more than a year since GATW shut down. A wild, weird, and wonderful year. Someone up there likes us, because everyone seems to have moved on to bigger (and perhaps better) things.
I reached out to the editors of GATW and asked them to update the good folks of the Internet on what they are up to these days (great news: nobody is...
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Mention in The Huffington Post
Whoa. The Huffington Post mentioned me in this article about harsh film criticism - slide 6.
Read here: http://huff.to/Zj70Xt Direct link to slide: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/09/ne-yo-red-skyfall-aerosmith-reviews_n_2104701.html#slide=1739882
