chasewhale.com

Embargo is up. I can now say that I’ve seen Man of Steel -...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:13:12 -0700

Embargo is up. I can now say that I’ve seen Man of Steel - the Superman movie us Supernerds have all been hoping for. It’s raw, it’s gritty, and it’s one of the most realistic comic book films ever made.

Hey look - I’m quoted on THE KINGS OF SUMMER Facebook...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 04:18:00 -0700

Hey look - I’m quoted on THE KINGS OF SUMMER Facebook again! Honored, really.

Vulture.com literally has my name written all over it.

Thu, 30 May 2013 19:30:52 -0700

Vulture.com literally has my name written all over it.

Looks like a quote from my Sundance Film Festival Twitch review...

Wed, 29 May 2013 19:34:00 -0700

Looks like a quote from my Sundance Film Festival Twitch review made it into Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon trailer. NEAT.

Moderated the Q&A for the SAG Foundation screening of KINGS...

Sat, 25 May 2013 20:23:33 -0700

Moderated the Q&A for the SAG Foundation screening of KINGS OF SUMMER last night with director Jordan Vogt-Roberts. He’s a great guy who made a great film. See it when it releases in your area.

Another pull-quote from my Sundance review of THE KINGS OF...

Sat, 25 May 2013 20:18:00 -0700

Another pull-quote from my Sundance review of THE KINGS OF SUMMER used for an ad on Facebook.

Quoted in the red band trailer for THE KINGS OF SUMMER, opening...

Mon, 20 May 2013 04:30:00 -0700

Quoted in the red band trailer for THE KINGS OF SUMMER, opening May 31st. Watch and go see it! http://bit.ly/KoSRedBand

Here. We. Go.

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 06:25:38 -0700

Here. We. Go.

Dear friends: I start my new career at Cinedigm and Docurama...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:38:13 -0700

Dear friends: I start my new career at Cinedigm and Docurama tomorrow. How about you give them a Like and follow? Big things are happening.

Twitter: @Cinedigm, @Docuramafilms

Facebook: /Cinedigm, /DocuramaFilms

That'll Do, Whale: Saying Goodbye to Film Criticism

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:57:00 -0700

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 around silliness. It was a wild ride of awesome.

Four and a half years later, I shut down GordonandtheWhale.com (read about it here). It was a the hardest decision I ever had to make, and months after, I questioned if it was the right decision. It was weird seeing my writers, who became family, disband and fade away in my life. It definitely wasn’t easy, but I’ve learned that people come and go in our lives. Change is hard, but each and every person I’ve come across on this now six-year journey has influenced me in one way or another.

As soon as GATW shut down, the founder and editor of this very site, Todd Brown, asked me to write for Twitch. Being a fan of the site since I can remember, this was intimidating and terrifying and wonderful all at the same time, but everyone welcomed me with open arms. Twitch is a family that has each other’s backs when things get hairy (unpleasant pun for you). I learned a lot about my writing through Twitch and the site really molded the film critic I’ve become today. Gordon and the Whale gave me a voice, but it was Twitch that shaped how I wanted to be heard.

Today I get to announce something new and incredibly exciting in my life: I’m taking what I’ve learned as a film critic and putting my passion and heart into another side of the film industry: distribution. On Monday, I will be working for an wonderful company that champions independent film from all around the world, Cinedigm (New Video and Docurama). I’m incredibly honored and so grateful to be offered a position for this company. Growing up, my desire was never to make films, but to tell the world about them. Being a film critic gave me a voice. Now I get to apply everything I’ve learned over the years towards an innovative company who shares the same passion as me: movies, movies, movies. There, I’ll be doing what I know best: celebrating some of the best independent films from all over the globe.

As a film critic, I’ve been able to cover SXSW, Cannes, Sundance, TIFF, and various kinds of great festivals around the world. I became a member of the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Austin Film Critics Association, Rotten Tomatoes, and Criticwire. I was a speaker on a film criticism panel alongside greats David Denby and Kenneth Turan. I’ve met the best and brightest journalists, directors, actors, producers, film festival programmers, and people who love movies just as much as me, if not more. And, the Gordon and the Whale logo I co-created with my team in 2007 appeared in a major motion picture. How far I’ve come as a film critic starting from a little movie website from college is staggering. A little courage and a lot of determination can take us a long, long way.

So, my announcing that this will be my last post as a film critic should be read as a celebration. Film criticism was a large stepping stone for my future in the film industry. It’s been an incredible journey and I’ve learned so much. It took a lot of faith, courage, and understanding (and let’s be honest, a little therapy too) to stick with film criticism when it got tough - and boy it sure did at times. But my life wouldn’t be what it is without Gordon and the Whale, Twitch, my colleagues, and all the discoveries that came my way these last six years. I’m very, very grateful.

And don’t you worry, you haven’t heard the last from me. I’ll still be the loud little man on Twitterand Facebook, discussing movies, my new career, life in New York, my wonderful niece Rylan, and all the things that make me smile from ear to ear. As clichéd as it sounds, dreams do come true. You just have to give them a little push.

Before I’m off, here’s a list of people I want to thank for encouraging me along my journey. Each and everyone has moved me in their own special way. Without these folks, this article would be non-existent.

In no particular order (except for my mom, of course - she kicks ass):
Mama Whale
Rusty Gordon
Sally Smolenski
Everyone at Moroch Entertainment
Cameron Sanderson
James Wallace
Everyone who’s ever written for GATW
Tim League
Todd Brown
Eric D. Snider
Kate Erbland
Drew McWeeny
Erik Davis
Peter Hall
Emily Hagins
Megan Hagins
Peter Martin
Ryland Aldrich
Twitch Family
XYZ Films
Josh Brunsting
Nash Edgerton
Alex Billington
Cecy Correa
Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Lauren Lester
Davis Guggenheim
Matt Goldberg
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Noah Segan
Rian Johnson
Peter Sciretta
James Oster
Hollie Gullion
Don R. Lewis
NextMovie.com
Film.com
FilmThreat.com
The Playlist
MovieWeb.com
Latino-Review.com
WeGotThisCovered.com
Mark Bell
Kellvin Chavez
Rodrigo Perez
Duncan Jones
Neil Miller
Amy McGee
Susan Clarke
Everyone at Levenson & Hill
Rubin Safaya
Boo Allen
Todd Jorgenson
Bobby Miller
Brea Grant
Ryan Ellis
The Fons PR
Adam and Andrew Conway
Don Simpson
AJ Meadows
Dave Campbell
Matthew Orwig
Cole Dabney
Austin Film Critics Association
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association
Rotten Tomatoes
Indiewire
SXSW
Sundance Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
Austin Film Festival
Focus Features
Yannina Diaz
Gianluca Lignola
Fox Searchlight
Warner Bros.
Betsy Abendroth
Dallas International Film Festival
Bobby Miller
Josh Radnor
Max Winkler
Farah White
Dallas Observer
Merritt Martin
Lawrence Wilczewski
Roderick Stoker
Jessica Martinez
Marianne Mitchell
Jennifer Bedwell
Karina Longworth
Al and Linda Lerner
Jo Ellen Brantferger
Tonya Polydoroff
Chet Whitmore
Lara Trail
Chris Laverde
Moisés Chiullan
Tania Khalaf
Charlotte Cook
Nathan Davis
Beth Miska
Sam Rockwell
David Gordon Green
Carolee Mitchell
Samm Levine
Scott Weinberg
Luke Mullen
Russ Fischer
Amber Arnold
Brandon Rohwer
Shiloh Fernandez
Eric Steele
Texas Theatre
Frank Mosley
Robert Longstreet
Clay Liford
Kelly Williams
Matt Reeves
Shane Carruth
Every movie studio that gave me a chance to see their films for review consideration
Morgan and Spencer Susser
Blue-Tongue Films
George Hardy
Michael Stephenson
Lindsay Stephenson
Nick Robinson
Jarod Neece
Janet Pierson
Rebecca Feferman
Harmony Korine
Drunk History dudes
Dutch Southern
Katey Rich
Nathan Rabin
James Rocchi
Josh Tyler
Brian Kelley
Drew Tinnin
Kevin Polowy
MTV
Ryan Gallagher
Weston Green
Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Cary Fukunaga
Alamo Drafthouse
Fantastic Fest
Zack Carlson
Sean Hackett
Mike Breiberg
David Gil
Lauren Wolkstein
SlashFilm.com
TheFilmStage.com
Jordan Raup
Raffi Asdourian
Scott Hutcheson
Jeremy Kirk
Brandon Peters
Jason Whyte
Melanie Marquez
Dor Dotson
Mike Sampson
JoBlo.com
Tamar Teifeld
Lindsay Turner
Roxanne Benjamin
Matt Singer
James M. Johnston
Ned Vizzini
Sabra Embury
Noah Lee
Silas Slesnick
C. Robert Cargill
Ethan Anderton
Jette Kernion
Erik Childress
Sam Strange
Eric Vespe
Brent Lang
Micah Prude
Edward Douglas
Scott Beggs
Addam Hardy
Jen Yamato
Katie Graham
Jenni Miller
Alexander Flores
Sean Byrne
NBC
Mike Mills
Hunter Hauk
Angelika FIlm Center
Jesse Averna
Vince Mancini (AKA Film Drunk)
Kacey Close
And everyone who supported Gordon and the Whale

To end, here’s the motto I live by, courtesy of my favorite Talking Heads song: “Feet on the ground, head in the sky.”

Your friendly neighborhood movie lover,
Chase Whale

“Upstream Color is a very rich and layered movie, but...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:36:41 -0700

“Upstream Color is a very rich and layered movie, but it’s also rich and beautiful.” - Quoted on the new poster with many of my favorite colleagues for Shane Carruth’s UPSTREAM COLOR.

Apple released the new trailer for THE KINGS OF SUMMER. For the...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:12:00 -0700

Apple released the new trailer for THE KINGS OF SUMMER. For the first time in my career as a film critic, my name and quote made the front page for a film there. I’m also quoted in the trailer (same quote), which is still awesome. I love this film a whole, whole lot.

Watch: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/thekingsofsummer/

A quote from my SPRING BREAKERS review is used twice in the...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:45:15 -0700

A quote from my SPRING BREAKERS review is used twice in the latest Dallas Observer print magazine. SPRANG BREAK 4EVA!

Finally. A pull-quote from one of my reviews has made it to the...

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 16:35:25 -0700

Finally. A pull-quote from one of my reviews has made it to the big screen. Very happy that it’s for THE KINGS OF SUMMER.

Quoted on the festival poster for THE KINGS OF SUMMER. Humbly...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:14:00 -0700

Quoted on the festival poster for THE KINGS OF SUMMER. Humbly honored - this movie is one of my favorites of the year.

Can’t wait for you to see this film. Go...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 16:10:00 -0700

Can’t wait for you to see this film. Go here: http://thekingsofsummermovie.com/

THE KINGS OF SUMMER Teaser (With A Pull-Quote From My Sundance Review)

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:19:00 -0700

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

SXSW 2013 Review: SPRING BREAKERS

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 18:53:00 -0700

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 tagline, “A coming-of-rage story.” Disney girls gone wild and batshit crazy, with a little help from mysterious James Franco and weirdo auteur filmmaker Korine. This group’s camaraderie is intoxicating.

Here’s the setup: Faith (Gomez), Brit (Benson), Candy (Hudgens), and Cotty (Korine) are in college, bored as hell, and ready to take off for a soberless week of fun in the sun – SPRING BREAAAAK. But here lies a big, big problem: they’re four very broke college girls. To get to the place where inebriated dreams come to true, they need a lot of cash.

Like any desperate college kids in the movies who need a lot of cash and quick, they steal a professor’s car and rob a diner. The girls are now off for a week of debauchery, madness, and more chaos than they could ever imagine. After a few days of raging, the girls land in jail, only to be quickly bailed out by Alien (James Franco), who sees potential in these four misfits aching for chaos. They’d be good help for his business. He’s in the robbing clueless-college-bros-on-spring-break-vacation business and, dear reader, business is booming.

When going into a Harmony Korine movie, one should know this is one of the most unconventional filmmakers of our time. At 19, he wrote a very controversial feature called Kids, surrounding skateboarders and the AIDS epidemic. He followed that up with his directorial debut centered on a bunch of white trash kids (starring Chloë Sevigny) doing white trash things called Gummo. And before Spring Breakers, he released a shot-on-VHS movie called Trash Humpers, about a group of misfits that, yep, hump trash, break in and destroy homes, and wreak havoc in their town. Korine doesn’t live by Hollywood rules. He smashes the shit out of them and makes the films he wants to make. He’s not weird for the sake of being weird. He’s just fucking weird. Take it or leave it. This man knows exactly what he’s doing.

I’ve been saving the best part for last – James Franco as the dreadlocked, tattooed up, silver grill-wearing rapper-gangster, Alien. Let’s get this out of the way – Franco’s Alien isn’t based on the popular real life rapper Riff Raff. According to Franco himself, he’s based off an underground rapper named Dangeruss, who does look like Riff Raff. (But if us girls are going to get real for a minute, we can all agree the best white gangster with dreads is Gary Oldman’s Drexl Spivey from True Romance.) This what I love about Franco – his brain is a mountain of curiosity. That’s why you see him in so many diverse roles: “General Hospital,” playing a scientist in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a stoner in Pineapple Express, and all of the other odd roles you’ve seen him in. The dude really wants to challenge himself and take on projects and roles that are not something he’d normally do. It’s beautiful.

If this review hasn’t sold you yet, here are five more important reasons why you need to see Spring Breakers: it comes with an adrenaline-fueled soundtrack by Skrillex and Cliff Martinez (the brilliant mind behind Drive’s score), there’s a hypnotic scene of Britney Spears’ “Everytime” performed by Alien and the girls, real life gangster rapper Gucci Mane stars as the film’s villain, and there’s as much balls to the wall madness as one can really, honestly, truly expect to see on spring break. And a lot of boobs. I’m going to write the first nine words of this review again, and in bold, to really drive it home: Bikinis. Boobs. Bongs. Booze. Blasphemy. Bullets. Bloodshed. Bad bitches. Spring Breakers is the rawest (and perhaps greatest) movie about spring break ever.

James Wallace and I spoke to film students about Gordon and the...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:21:25 -0800

James Wallace and I spoke to film students about Gordon and the Whale and film criticism at our alma mater yesterday, the University of North Texas. We managed to only put 99% to sleep.

Sundance 2013 Review: David Gordon Green's PRINCE AVALANCHE

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 12:21:00 -0800

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 Girls and Snow Angels, and the dystopian future we read about in the Bible was on its way.

Since science or logic will never be able to comprehend or understand what was going through Green’s mind when he made Your Highness and The Sitter, and he’ll probably never explain or defend these films, we’re going to pretend they never, ever happened. Pineapple Express was a wacky and humorous attempt at mixing comedians with hard violence and drugs, and though sub-par, it was at least enjoyable.

Perhaps The Sitter dropping a bomb at the box office was a wake up call. Or maybe it was the broken hearts of Green admirers from all over. But Prince Avalanche, a remake of the Icelandic film Either Way, marks Green’s triumphant return to compelling independent film storytelling.

Prince Avalanche stars Paul Rudd as Alvin and Emile Hirsch as Lance. They work together in the middle of a wooded nowhere as highway road workers after a 1987 disaster. Their job is to rebuild what the fire destroyed. They spend their days spraying yellow lines on the street and hammering-in posts. They dress in the same blue jean overalls Kurt Russell wears in Big Trouble in Little China, except they don’t look nearly as awesome or fit as him. After work is done, they fix up a tent, cook their food, and diddle daddle until it’s time for sleep. For the adventurous, it sounds like an awesome gig. But the problem here is, well, Alvin hates Lance. A whole lot. Like the road they’re fixing, their friendship is a one way street. They constantly fight, bicker, and throw tools at each other.

But why does Alvin hate Lance so much? For starters, Lance has no sense of decorum. All he wants to do is talk about sex (“man-squeezed” is what he proudly coins it) and blast rock music on the boombox. Alvin’s favorite pastime is listening to Rosetta Stone-esque cassette tapes that teach him how to speak German. Before he brought on Lance, this construction job offered him something of immeasurable value: solitude. But Lance is Alvin’s girlfriend’s little brother, so he sucked it up, and gave this ding dong a summer job with him. Alvin sacrificed his sanity and much wanted detachment from the real world for love. Oof.

No matter if it’s comedy or drama, Paul Rudd can crank the charm in every role he does. He’s proven time and time again that he’s a very funny guy, but when the role needs it, he can project maturity and sincerity. This is what makes Rudd one of today’s most in-demand actors. Green uses Rudd’s charisma as a tool to give this story a face. Green shows us the more righteous side of Rudd. Smart move for both Green and Rudd too, because this performance is outstanding.

“How did Emile Hirsch keep up with the charismatic Paul Rudd?” you probably want to know. The simple answer is this: playing dumb. Hirsch broke from the teenage movie career phase, focused on more serious leading roles (Into the Wild being the most notable), and took a sharp left turn into Supporting Character Goontown with his last two films. The result? Utter brilliance. In Killer Joe, he plays an ignorant redneck with his eye on the prize: money. The results end very bad for him. In Prince Avalanche, he’s a stubborn hillbilly who refuses to grow up. To quote Alvin, Lance “quite realistically cannot amount to anything.” Playing a goon comes natural to Hirsch, which only means he’s good at convincing people. He’s a real actor.

There are plenty of laughs in Prince Avalanche, especially when Alvin and Lance are screaming obscenities at each other, but this story goes deeper than the conventional story of an unlikely friendship. Even though they see the world through different perspectives, there’s no denying these two have a level of intimacy between them. What makes this a compelling film is how these characters grow together, while being one another’s only source of companionship.

I applaud Green so much for leaving the studio system to make a film on his own merit and terms. Prince Avalanche was made in secret and nobody knew a thing about it until after production wrapped. Small stories with a heart is what Green is good at telling, and that’s exactly what Prince Avalanche is – a little story with a big beating heart. Welcome back, dude.