Tom Cruise’s Drone Policy

by Ryan Syrek

Oblivion

If you conceived a child back when Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch, it would now be old enough to tell you to move on. Despite welcoming back rapists and murderers when they win a Super Bowl, modern society seems intent on grudge-holding against a guy who, at worst, is a weird idiot. Oblivion is still being written into a “comeback narrative” that those with a brain stopped furthering after...

All the President’s Meh

by Ryan Syrek

The Company You Keep

Although he may still be a panty dropper to the baby boomer set, Robert Redford looks like he needs a good nap. The bags under his eyes are scene-stealing uncredited supporting actors in The Company You Keep, a 70s-style thriller about investigative journalism that is neither thrilling nor investigatory. It can’t even sustain the indignation it clearly wants to unleash on the modern...

Chainsaws + Comedy = Cult Classic

by Amanda Perrin Stoffel

Evil Dead

Chainsaws + Comedy = Cult Classic
Evil Dead is alive…again…
Amanda Perrin Stoffel

The plot is familiar.

The cast is not.

For Evil Dead (not to be confused with The Evil Dead, its 1981 predecessor), the formula is perfect. Although the film boasts the tagline of “The most terrifying film you will ever experience,” those wary of “terror” should have no fear; there’s enough camp here to...

Retro Review: Life Before Test Screenings

by Ryan Syrek

“And then the big Native American smothers him to death with a pillow after he sees that he’s been lobotomized! Wait, Mr. Producer! Where are you going?”

Pitching One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in an era of careful demographic selection and test audience input on filmmaking would ensure somebody would be going to an asylum. There’s no arguing that the ending, if not the whole film, would be...

Pew! Pew! Pew! ‘Merica!!

by Ryan Syrek

GI Joe: Retaliation

GI Joe: Retaliation’s script is so horrible, it should be in MoMA. Just like some people can’t stop staring at the world’s ugliest dog, this screenplay is fascinatingly hideous blather. It’s entirely possible the whole script was verbs: “shoot, explode, stab, scream.” Nobody expects Sorkin-esque dialogue from a franchise whose most popular character is a mute ninja, but it would be nice if it...

Cookies Tossed, Paradise Lost

by Ryan Syrek

Spring Breakers

Until now, writer/director Harmony Korine’s brand of artistic weirdness has been completely useless. Intentionally obtuse to the point of sloppy goofiness, his work has differed from student films solely because he wasn’t enrolled.

So how the H-E-double-hockey-sticks is Spring Breakers the most compelling, disorienting and sublime film of this young year?

If Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive got...

Sex Bomb

by Ryan Syrek

Ginger & Rosa

To come of age when the modern world was doing the same had to feel profound. Children of the 1960s could turn teenage rage against causes of substance, like blossoming nuclear culture. The teenagers of today celebrate their sexual and intellectual emergence with angry tweets about Instagrammed food. But hey, it’s not like there’s some unjust war or nebulous ongoing foreign conflict to channel...