June 2016

The Neon Demon

  • Title: The Neon Demon
  • IMDb: link

“Beauty isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

The Neon DemonIn what is likely going to be one of the more divisive films of 2016, the latest from writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) casts Elle Fanning as a naive 16 year-old girl just breaking into the model business in Los Angeles. Blessed with an ineffable quality no one can quite explain, Jesse (Fanning) soon becomes the hot new girl, much to the dismay of a pair of models (Bella Heathcote and Abbey Lee) seeing their careers flash before their eyes.

Jesse’s journey will lead her into contact with a wide variety of people including her creepy apartment manager (Keanu Reeves), jealous models, designers, photographers (Desmond Harrington and Karl Glusman), and a makeup artist (Jena Malone) all of whom want something from the young woman.

Refn’s film is a metaphor for how the modeling industry celebrates physical beauty in the absence of any other quality while slowly devouring the very objects of their devotion. The film takes the metaphor one step too far in the final act leaving the film with an ending that satisfies the movie’s message but not necessarily the audience.

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The 5th Wave

  • Title: The 5th Wave
  • IMDb: link

The 5th WaveBased on the young adult novel of the same name, The 5th Wave feels like a mashup of Zombieland (minus the humor) and I Am Number Four. Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, the movie centers around high school student Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) whose world is turned upside down when aliens show up to attack the planet with a series of waves, each more devastating than the last. Through an extended flashback, we learn of the previous four waves (including environmental and biological warfare).

A little too much young adult drama and too little science fiction, the script is mainly an excuse for Moretz to look frightened. With a set-up more appropriate to a television movie, the script includes an extended B-story concerning the remaining human children (including Cassie’s baby brother) being turned into a child army by the United States Army. There’s also the age-appropriate fashion model (Alex Roe) who saves Cassie’s life, while harboring a big secret, and a late twist that’s fairly easy to see coming.

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Samurai Jack – Episode IV

  • Title: Samurai Jack – Episode IV: Jack, the Woolies, and the Chritchellites
  • wiki: link

Samurai Jack - Episode IV

An initial error in judgement by Samurai Jack (Phil LaMarr) is put right in “Episode IV.” Witnessing a runaway Woolie burst through the forest, Jack wrangles the animal and returns it to the mounted Chritchellites who were perusing it on other Woolies. Invited to their village, a starving Jack accepts despite having serious objections to how the the strangers are treating the Woolies. Learning that the Woolies, tortured for the Chritchellites amusement, can speak, Jack decides something must be done about the situation. A dream leads Jack on the proper course of action. Freeing the Woolie he helped capture, Jack and the creature help break the Chritchellites’ dominance of the Woolies, freeing the creatures and sending the aliens back into the spaceships to flee.

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