2nd Annual Jim Thorpe Film Festival - April 12-15, 2018
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
Hey old sport, are you looking for a fun film adventure to embark on this month? If so, your favorite film pals from Moviejawn have just the plan for you.
Read MoreDiversity in Film Criticism: Part 2 - Candice Frederick and Kristen Lopez
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
Rosalie Kicks continues her exploration of some of the awesome female film critics working and writing today. Read Part 1 here.
Read MoreDiversity in Film Criticism: Part 1 - April Wolfe and Alicia Malone
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
I’ve always been a writer in one way or another. However, it was in the eighth grade that I truly remember being shown how powerful writing can be. There was a teacher, a former journo, that made me realize the influence I could have with my words. She ran the school newspaper and I of course immediately joined with the determination to push my agenda. One of my first stories being about the negative impact heavy school bags could have on a teenager’s back causing students to resemble hunched turtles. The article was entitled, “Backpacks: A Weighty Issue”.
Read MoreRaiders of the Lost Dads
Directed by Roar Uthaug
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
Tomb Raider should be fun. Instead, it is two minutes shy of a two-hour long eye roll, filled with shoddy effects, a Lifetime-esque story line about dads, and a sprinkling of cheesy zingers. From the moment the projector casts that first frame on the screen, you will be posing the same question that is later professed by The Raider's papa: "What in the blazes are you doing here?"
Read MorePhantom Thread
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (2017)
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, Phantom Thread, for many, may be regarded as an eccentric or even downright weird love story. For me, it is a tale proving that love truly has no definition and certainly is not experienced the same by anyone. This is a story that portrays how the ones we choose to love us permit us to be the people we are and accept us for our true individual selves.
Read MoreThe Greatest Showman
Directed by Michael Gracey, 2017
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
Step right up! To witness one of the greatest mistakes ever put to film, a circus musical™, The Greatest Showman.
Read MoreThe Shape of Water
Directed by Guillermo del Toro (2017)
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
The Shape of Water may be perceived as a fairy tale to some. But for me, the story and themes in which it presents seem all too real for it to be considered one.
Read MoreJustice League
Directed by Zack Snyder (2017)
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
[Note: spoilers ahead!]
I think Aquaman (Jason Momoa) sums up this entire Zack Snyder Batverse Superverse movie thing when he says something along the lines of “Gotham is a shithole.”
Read MorePFF 2017: Weekend Round-Up
There’s still time to catch some great films at the Philadelphia Film Festival! MJ’s Best Boy and Old Sport have compiled a list of some flicks you don’t want to miss and a few that are on their radar for the weekend.
Read MoreMJ Salutes Ladies in Film: Samantha McIntyre
by Rosalie Kicks!, Old Sport
As a person who speaks to inanimate objects, sports purple hair and has a room in her home referred to as The Lab in which crafting experiments involving copious amounts of glitter are conducted while donning a laboratory coat, it really is not much of a stretch to believe that the movie, Unicorn Store was made especially for me.
Read MoreAmerican Made
Directed by Doug Liman (2017)
by Rosalie Kicks!, Old Sport
In Doug Liman’s latest somewhat true biopic, American Made, Tom Cruise plays Barry Seal in a story that attempts to turn a career criminal into a romanticized charismatic icon.
Making use of Tom Cruise’s winning smile reminiscent from his Risky Business days is probably about the only thing this movie got right for me. Tommy makes a despicable person seem endearing, which means he is doing his job. At the end of the day, I’m not questioning why this story was told. I am just left wondering why this version of the story was.
Read MoreMJ Salutes Ladies in Film: Meredith Borders
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
The best thing that happened after joining Twitter was that I found: Meredith Borders of BIRTH. MOVIES. DEATH. (BMD).
After many moons of avoiding this social media platform, I decided to stop being a little old lady and create a Twitter account in the name of Moviejawn. Quickly, I was immersed into the world of “@s” and stumbled upon many of my favorite lady film critics including: Amy Nicholson, Jen Yamato, and Alicia Malone…just to name a few. I discovered there was this entire film community out there. It was not until a shared tweet by Amy Nicholson that I stumbled upon Meredith Borders.
Read MoreThe Hitman's Bodyguard
Directed by Patrick Hughes (2017)
by Benjamin Leonard and Rosalie Kicks
Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy: Going in, you figure Patrick Hughes' The Hitman's Bodyguard is gonna be an over-the-top, nonsensical shit-show. That's why you're there. You wanna see Samuel L and Ryan Reynolds just get goofy as all hell and shoot the ever-loving shit outta everything.
Read MoreLogan Lucky
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
by Rosalie Kicks!, Old Sport
Logan Lucky is your typical heist movie but with charisma.
As the story unfolded on screen, it was like I had seen it all before. Overall, I find heist flicks tend to be formulaic and typically go something like this: After being wronged in some way, Guy gets an idea for a heist. Guy assembles a crew of misfits. Guy reviews the plan with said crew with the help of dioramas and diagrams. Guy and team enact the plan. After the plan is completed, everything is then regurgitated back to us and thoroughly explained. Oh wait! Can’t forget about that monkey wrench though. There is always a trick up the guy’s sleeve that no one knew about or that unexpected surprise that could cause the entire scheme to go wrong. Miraculously the heist is completed and if there is a girl to be gotten, the guy gets her. The end.
Read MoreBrigsby Bear
Directed by Dave McCary (2017)
by Rosalie Kicks, OLD SPORT
If you do not like Brigsby Bear, you most likely have no soul. Not enjoying the film Brigsby Bear probably means as a child you were the Biff Tannen of your school and totally deserve to be smothered in manure.
Read MoreThe Mummy
Directed by Alex Kurtzman (2017)
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
The Tommy, I mean The Mummy, is an exhaustive mistake.
It seems that Hollywood is unable to just make a movie. Everything must be part of something bigger. Something grander. It must be part of a ginormous UNIVERSE that has only one objective: money. Instead of concentrating on the movie that is right in front of them, the studio is too worried about the “universe." Their mind is off thinking about all those future movies they will slap together and hurl onto the screen. It’s all about the future, the now is meaningless.
Read MoreBaywatch
Directed by Seth Gordon (2017)
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
Baywatch should not have happened.
One really has to wonder the type of market research that was conducted and ended with the conclusion: the world really needs a Baywatch movie. A movie based on a mediocre TV show from over a decade ago, that nobody ever really cared about in the first place and was one of the most unattractive things put to film about attractive people. People did not tune in to this show each week because of the impressive cinematic feats or the superb acting performances. No. It was for the “beautiful” bods. Nobody really watched Baywatch. It was that thing you would pass by on a hungover Sunday, when you were channel surfing. You would catch a Baywatch episode halfway through and well, it wasn’t in commercial and that slow motion running is so just so damn mesmerizing… f’ it, why not spend an afternoon with The Hoff.
Read MoreMy Favorite Liars
by Rosalie Kicks!, Old Sport
Some of my favorite movie characters are liars. Let’s face it, the truth is a snore. Fabrications are so much more fun. Embellishing makes the mundane interesting. Liars tend to live dangerously and have exciting thrilling adventures that involve car chases! Movie characters whose pants are on fire often are mysterious, suave, and sophisticated. This is probably one of the main reasons that I love them so much. They are the characters that keep you on the edge of your seat in the theater. They are the characters that stay with us and the ones that we tell all our friends about. They are the characters that we live vicariously through and secretly wish we had the confidence to pull off half the schemes they do.
Here’s a round-up of some of my favorite liars in film.
Read MoreThe Meaning of Life
Directed by Daniel Espinosa (2017)
by Benjamin Leonard, Francis Friel, and Rosalie Kicks
Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy: Guys. Life is shit.
I guess we can call this a science-fiction movie because there's not a shred of science fact. I'm all for the suspension of disbelief, but there's just not enough clothes-pins to go around. This is supposed to be an elite team of science professionals from around the world and it takes them two-thirds of the movie to figure out that if you stop giving air, food and water to a carbon-based life form it'll die?!? Come THE FUCK on!!!
Read MoreAnother Kong Movie That Nobody Wanted
Kong: Skull Island
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts (2017)
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport
“You are more beautiful than a hot dog and a beer at Wrigley Field on opening day.”
-Hank Marlow, played by John C. Reilly in Kong: Skull Island
When a film opens with a Samuel L. Jackson marketing promo in which he instructs: “trust me you’re going to love my movie," you know the road ahead is going to be bumpy. This guy has been in a lot of movies…a lot of bad movies. The word “trust” doesn’t seem to quite work in this situation.
Read More