51st Annual James Loutzenhiser Awards

/ / Announcements

awards-manchester

Manchester by the Sea was chosen as the Best Film of 2016 by the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, the second oldest critics group in the country. The winners were announced today during a ceremony for the 51st Annual James Loutzenhiser Awards at the Alamo Drafthouse Mainstreet Theatre in Kansas City.

In addition to winning Best Picture, Manchester by the Sea’s Casey Affleck won Best Actor, and Kenneth Lonergan won the Robert Altman Award for Best Director. Hell or High Water received two wins, for Jeff Bridges in Supporting Actor and Taylor Sheridan’s original screenplay. Arrival won the adapted screenplay award, as well as the Vince Koehler Award for Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Film.

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La La Land

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: La La Land
  • IMDb: link

La La Land movie reviewI enjoyed La La Land; it’s fun, light-weight entertainment with likable stars and straightforward (largely predictable) storyline. It doesn’t ask much of the audience other than to enjoy the ride. During the award season release of heavy dramas, the film works well as a palate cleanser. However, I object to the growing consensus that it’s one of the year’s best films.

Writer/director Damien Chazelle‘s film is a nostalgic throwback to the golden age of the Hollywood musical, with a decidedly post-modernist slant. As a love story to Hollywood the film works well enough, as a musical the film runs into a few issues beginning with the choice to cast its stars based on their acting, rather than singing, ability.

In pretty much the most cliched set-up possible, we’re introduced to barista and aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) and promising Jazz musician Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) who meet cute, dislike each other, and eventually fall in love. Along the way there will be singing, dancing, the inevitable rough patch, and a questionable ending (not unlike Woody Allen’s Café Society) which ends the movie on a sour note.

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
  • IMDb: link

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story movie reviewThe first of the standalone Star Wars movies, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set just prior to the events of the original Star Wars as a struggling Rebellion learns about the newest Imperial weapon capable of destroying an entire planet. Just as memorable for what it keeps from the Star Wars template as what it chooses to change about the formula, Rogue One offers no opening crawl, no screen wipes, and the unnecessary need to name every planet shown on screen in subtitles (something George Lucas’ original films allowed the dialogue itself to deal with).

For as much as it leaves behind, however, Rogue One recycles plenty of Star Wars ideas including an orphaned hero (Felicity Jones) reluctantly called into the service of the Rebellion, a soldier of questionable character (Diego Luna) and his lumbering sidekick, a funny robot (Alan Tudyk), an impossible mission, strange aliens, and a Rebellion (albeit a less united one than fans will remember from the previous films) focused on taking down the Galactic Empire. Along with new planets such as Jedha, Wobani, and Scarif, there’s plenty of familiar sights including Yavin 4 and, of course, the Death Star.

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LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures – Season One

/ / Home Video
  • Title: LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures – Season One
  • wiki: link

LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures - Season One Blu-ray reviewSet between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the animated LEGO Star Wars series follows the misadventures of a family of mechanics whose youngest member discovers a connection to the Force and accepts the responsibility of keeping the fragments of a powerful weapon out of the hands of the Emperor (Trevor Devall).

Most of the series focuses on the trouble young Rowan (Nicolas Cantu) gets his older siblings Zander (Eugene Byrd) and Kordi (Vanessa Lengies) into while helping a Jedi (who is secretly a Sith) find and collect the fragments of the Kyber Saber.

Collected on DVD and Blu-ray, extras include two short featurettes on the Freemakers and their salvage business. Highlights of the season include the Freemakers on Hoth, a trip to the Imperial Museum on Naboo, and getting dragged into a Wookiee rescue mission.

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