Cutting Room for May 17

by Ryan Syrek

• Even the movie news this time of year is all block-blustery: Avengers 2 in peril? With reports of Robert Downey Jr. making a play for more pay (not just for him, but for his co-stars too), people are freaking out! They are failing to realize that, come hell or high water, a film that makes $1.5 billion gets a sequel. No matter what, it looks like Jeremy Renner is out as Hawkeye, as he’s been...

Kobayashi Magoo

by Ryan Syrek

Star Trek Into Darkness

If modern nerd culture has a “patient zero,” it was Mr. Trekkie (or Miss Trekker, if you’re nasty). Their legendary attention to detail is exceeded only by their willingness to speak Klingon in the most intimate of settings. And they’re really, really going to hate Star Trek Into Darkness.

Director JJ Abram’s 2009 reboot got a surprising free pass from the community despite a...

No Bull! Shh…

by Ryan Syrek

Blancanieves

A silent film reimagining Snow White shot in black and white and set in Spain, in which the heroine is a bullfighter, is not an easy sell. Who knows what lengths writer/director Pablo Berger had to go through to secure financing for this gothic reworking of a famous fairy tale, set in 1920s Seville. But whatever he did was worth it. Blancanieves is what The Artist wants to be when The Artist...

Twisty Pig Tale

by Ryan Syrek

Upstream Color

Writer/director Shane Carruth’s 2004 film, Primer, isn’t just a great time-travel movie; it’s one of the best science fiction films in the history of ever. But, hey, no pressure on the follow-up or anything, Shane. For nearly a decade, cinemaphiles waited for omni-hyphenated actor-editor-musician-producer to create something else, anything else. And just when all hope seemed lost, here comes...

Movieha! Your Favorite Movie Podcast

by Ryan Syrek

On Your Radar: The Kill List

Netflix Roulette: Ticked-off Trannies with Knives

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Cutting Room for May 10

by Ryan Syrek

• On the cutting edge of a new genre we’ll call “Mom-rotica,” Fifty Shades of Grey is the bestseller that challenges adaptation. Oh, not because the story is too dense, but because an accurate depiction is basically porn. Enter Joe Wright, who has the credentials for directing an S&M movie after making Anna Karenina (painful) and Pride and Prejudice (has a conjunction in it). Clearly the move...

Puttin’ on the Fitz’

by Ryan Syrek

The Great Gatsby

If “director Baz Luhrmann” and “restraint” have ever appeared in the same sentence together, they were the word-bread creating a sandwich around the phrase “has absolutely no.” Considering that the gaudy Jay Gatsby is basically Luhrmann’s spirit animal, the union made sense, even if the alleged $200 million budget for a 3D version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel set to music selected by...