Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2004
Synopsis
In 1932, in Carson County, West Virginia (or, as the name appears on the screen, “WestVirGINA”), a farmer kills his wife and hangs her up as a scarecrow. Cut to the present, and adistant descendant inherits the cursed property. He and the usual gaggle of teenaged friends headout for the farm, after some wandering around and skinning dipping, are set upon by a demonicscarecrow with glowing eyes.
The film follows the stereotypical slasher plot in perfect lock-step, wi...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 27th, 2004
Synopsis
Justin Urich is a disaffected high school student. He is unable to stomach dissection inbiology class (despite his love of horror movies), and he is perpetually tormented by the martinetgym instructor (Thomas Haden Church). When, in a counselling course, he declares that hewants to be a serial killer, he attracts the attention of goth chick Lisa Loeb. She will help himlearn what he needs to know to become a serial killer, on the condition that she be his firstvictim. Urich’...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Gina Gershon, leader of the Clam Dandys, is about to turn 40, and still hasn’t had her bigrock & roll break. She is insecure about aging, and can’t maintain a relationship with either menor women. Also in her band are Lori Petty (guitar teacher by day), Petty’s lover Shelly Cole (thevery young drummer), and the drug-and-booze-and-loser-boyfriend addled Drea De Matteo (thebass player). Then two things happen: there is the possibility that the band might finally get itsbreak,...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 18th, 2004
Synopsis
Brigitte (Emily Perkins), having dispatched her werewolf sister in Ginger Snaps, isnow living with the fact that the wolfsbane antidote concocted in the previous film is not a curefor lycanthropy. It can merely hold the transformation painfully at bay. Mistaken for an addictto more traditional drugs, Brigitte is picked up and placed in combination drug rehab centre andburn ward (don’t ask). She needs to escape, as she is being stalked by a werewolf who seeks amate. B...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 14th, 2004
Synopsis
Scarlett Johansson plays Griet, a young girl who enters into service in the home of painterJohannes Vermeer (Colin Firth). She catches his eye, partly because of her beauty, but even morebecause she has an intuitive understanding of art, and he takes her under his wing, much to thegrowing suspicions and jealousies of his wife. Ultimately, she becomes the model for theeponymous painting.
This is a film of looks and silences. In many ways, the story is constructed bet...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 9th, 2004
Synopsis
William H. Macy, he of the hang-dog eyes, is perfectly cast as Bernie Lootz. A terminal sadsack, Macy is a man whose luck is so bad it’s contagious. He works off a massive debt owed tocasino-manager Alec Baldwin by spreading his bad luck. He has almost finished his term ofservitude when he meets Maria Bello, and everything changes, including his luck. This luck isstill contagious, however, much to Baldwin’s displeasure.
The premise is presposterous, of course, but m...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 26th, 2004
Hayden Christensen is the very incarnation of smarm as Stephen Glass, hot-shot writer for The New Republic. His stories are all fabulous, seemingly too good to be true. Which is, in fact, the problem. His tissue of lies begins to unravel when Steve Zahn, reporter for Forbes Digital, tries to follow up one of Christensen’s articles, and can’t find a single legitimate fact. Peter Sarsgaard is Chuck Lane, Christensen’s editor, and he begins to smell a very big rat.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 23rd, 2004
Synopsis
Andrew Howard is Jon, brutally effective hit man for The Tattooed Man (David Calder). Hehates himself, but loves father-figure Calder, and so he goes about his murderous business,seeking refuge in drug-induced oblivion after work. Then he runs into a old friend from school,is welcomed into his family, is tempted by the sheer normality that he sees there, and begins tofall in love with his old pal’s wife (Geraldine O’Rawe). Hit man and Tattooed Man are soon ona deadly collis...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 27th, 2004
Synopsis
A young married couple (Nathan Fillion and Chandra West) move to a cabin in thewilderness. This is not a happy getaway. They have lost their daughter, they are broke, theirmarriage is hanging by a thread, and the wife is suicidal. As if they didn’t have enough on theirhands, Fillion comes across a bad scene in the woods: the sheriff about to murder a youngwoman with a rock. Fillion kills the sheriff, rescues the woman, and then the problems reallybegin as nothing is what it...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on February 27th, 2004
If you’re passing through the video store and see a movie on a shelf that looks like the cover of Motley Crue’s album “Too Fast for Love”…you’ll be disappointed…or relieved (depending on how you feel about the Crue). The movie is James Cox’s Wonderland. Wonderland is a film about the porn star John C. Holmes (Val Kilmer) at the end of his tether. Towards the end of his life, Holmes, famously, got involved in a series of crimes known as the Wonderland Murders, which are dramatized in this movie. I wo...
