DEAD PIGS is a Shanghai tale of converging ambitions and dreams
by Stacey Osbeck, Staff Writer
This dramedy deftly explores all the irony that comes with new possibilities and rudderless upward mobility.
MAKESHIFT documents our shared history
by Stacey Osbeck, Staff Writer
MakeSHIFT, a feature documentary from directors Casey Suchan and Tim Cawley, totes itself as the history of how new technology pushed advertisers to transform in the last 20+ years.
SENIOR MOMENT captures that California feeling
by Stacey Osbeck, Staff Writer
Senior Moment taps into a lot of deeply engrained Southern California ethos. To be old is to be irrelevant.
Cumberbatch delivers in understated spy yarn THE COURIER
by Stacey Osbeck, Staff Writer
If you’re ready to for a break from over the top stylized 007 or Jason Borne flicks, The Courier offers a refreshing change of pace
12 MONKEYS at 25: How movies change with us
by Stacey Osbeck
12 Monkeys was released 25 years ago in January of 1996. A simpler time when all this was still just the stuff of science fiction.
A Creepshow Holiday Special
Written by Greg Nicotero and J.A. Konrath
Directed by Greg Nicotero
Starring Anna Camp, Adam Pally
Running time: 44 minutes
by Stacey Osbeck
2020 has been one hell of a year. After all that’s happened, settling down with a movie of Christmas past seems, well, out of touch. If you want a story that meets you where you are now A Creepshow Holiday Special may be the perfect way to ring in the new year.
Read MoreDOC NYC 2020 - Part II
by Stacey Osbeck
This year's DOC NYC festival streams online so you can binge-watch the newest, most insightful films from the comfort of your own couch. Usually, documentaries explore a niche area that most people don't know about and often delve far deeper than the average news source. This is my final set of capsule writeups to convey a good sense of a flick without giving away the good stuff. I’ll be bringing a similar, follow-up piece for the remainder of the films I’ve seen. The 2020 DOC NYC festival runs from November 11-19.
Read MoreDOC NYC 2020
by Stacey Osbeck
This year's DOC NYC festival streams online so you can binge-watch the newest, most insightful films from the comfort of your own couch. Usually, documentaries explore a niche area that most people don't know about and often delve far deeper than the average news source. So far in the fest, I’ve come up with these capsule write ups to convey a good sense of a flick without giving away the good stuff. I’ll be bringing a similar, follow-up piece for the remainder of the films I’ve seen. The 2020 DOC NYC festival runs from November 11-19.
Read MoreBig
Written by Anne Speilberg and Gary Ross
Directed by Penny Marshall
Starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins and Robert Loggia
Running time 1 hour and 44 minutes
MPAA Rating fantasy, kids and family, comedy
by Stacey Osbeck
When 13 year old Josh Baskin (David Moscow) fails to meet the height requirement and is turned away from a carnival ride in front of his crush, he wanders off to a coin operated Zoltar machine, an animatronic fortune teller with a pointy beard and bejeweled turban. As the wind kicks up and organ grinder music rises, drowning out the din of the fair, Josh pops a quarter in and makes a wish to be big. The next morning Josh gets the shock of his life. Overnight, he’s transformed into a full grown man (Tom Hanks). Of all the body swap films that came out in the late ‘80s Big is easily the best. Big is also the only film I’ve ever seen as a kid and then again as an adult and had two totally different movie experiences.
Read MorePublic Trust
Directed by David Byars
Running time: 1 hour and 36 minutes
by Stacey Osbeck
The release timing of Public Trust, a documentary feature about America’s public lands, couldn’t be more fortuitous if they tried. An unprecedented number of Americans have been cooped up, staring at the same walls for months, yearning for the great outdoors.
Read MoreNow Presenting: Moviejawn's Summer 2020 Issue
by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy
Greetings movie friends! As I’m sure most of you know, in addition to our website which mostly covers new movie reviews, we also make a quarterly print zine. I thought it’d be fun to give everyone a quick glance at all the films that are covered in our most recent issue (which focuses on circuses, carnivals and fairs) and where you can find them. Step right up! to follow the links for the titles and it’ll take you to a listing of where it can be found (mostly powered by JustWatch.com).
Read MoreElla Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things
Directed by Leslie Woodhead
Featuring Sophie Okonedo, Ella Fitzgerald and Norma Miller
Running time: 1 hour and 29 minutes
by Stacey Osbeck
Ella Fitzgerald dreamed of being a dancer. She grew up in New York at a time when swing moves developed and evolved along with the jazz scene. On the street corners of Harlem, Ella danced for nickels. When the Apollo Theater picked the teenager to perform on Amateur Night, she saw a chance to show her fancy footwork on a real stage in front of a formidable audience. That same night the Edwards Sisters put on a phenomenally choreographed routine and brought the house down. After that, she said no way I’m going out there to dance. And as the story goes, the organizer said you’re here, well do something. So she figured she’d go out and sing a song. In that moment Ella Fitzgerald was born.
Read MorePhoenix, Oregon
Written and directed by Gary Lundgren
Starring James LeGros, Jesse Borrego and Lisa Edelstein
Running time: 1 hour and 48 minutes
MPAA rating: R for language
by Stacey Osbeck
Bobby’s (James LeGros) already not so great life is headed downhill. The Italian restaurant where he bartends shows all signs of going out of business. He still lives in a silver Airstream trailer, despite his mother leaving him a chunk of change upon her passing. And he wants to finally finish the graphic novel about his life, but just can’t get around to it. This rut of midlife is where writer-director-editor Gary Lundgren begins his independent feature Phoenix, Oregon.
Read MoreTuscaloosa
Written and directed by Philip Harder based on the novel by Glasgow Phillips
Starring Natalia Dyer, Tate Donovan and Devon Bostick
Running time: 1 hour and 41 minutes
by Stacey Osbeck
Billy (Devon Bostick) lives in his father’s house on the grounds of the Mental Institution in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Proximity, Billy’s easy going nature and a clear lack of fencing seem to act as a welcome mat to the idle patients. They wander across his yard, up on his porch and even swing by to just say hi- like the cute blonde Virginia (Natalia Dyer of Stranger Things) he catches strolling through his flower bed.
Read MoreMommie Dearest
by Stacey Osbeck
In the 80s, if a TV station acquired a film they showed it endlessly. So if you’d seen it once, you’d probably seen it a hundred times. This amount of repetition helped movies that already had memorable scenes and original lines to become utterly seared into the minds of the American public. Mommie Dearest (1981), in all its melodramatic glory, was one of the films to benefit from this.
Cold Case Hammarskjöld
Written and directed by Mads Brügger
Starring Mads Brügger, Göran Björkdahl and Dag Hammarskjöld
Running time: 2 hours and 8 minutes
by Stacey Osbeck
I consider myself well read, a bit of a history buff, and, given my Swedish heritage from my father’s side, more knowledgeable about Swedish affairs and Swedes in general. Taking all that into account, I must admit that before viewing Mads Brϋgger’s feature documentary, Cold Case Hammarskjöld, I had never heard of Dag Hammarskjöld.
Read MoreMovin' Right Along
by Stacey Osbeck
Forty years ago, on June 22, 1979, The Muppet Movie was released in the U.S. Before that, no other feature length film had incorporated puppets and people with the puppets as the main attraction. It explored the origin stories of already beloved characters and tied them all together in a road movie headed for Hollywood. “Rainbow Connection” received an Oscar nomination and would in time become Kermit’s signature song, the carefree musings of a frog with a banjo in the swamp he called home.
Read MoreThe Third Wife
Written and directed by Ash Mayfair
Starring Le Vu Long, Tran Nu Yen Khe, Nguyen Thanh Tam and Mai Thu Huong Maya
MPAA rating: R for sexual content
Running time: 1 hour and 36 minutes
by Stacey Osbeck
Deep in the rural mountains of 19th century Vietnam, May (Nguyen Phuong Tra My), at only fourteen, meets her wealthy husband, Hung (Le Vu Long), on the day of their wedding. May is his third wife, not a replacement for wives long past, but a third meaning in addition to. The first wife, Ha (Tran Nu Yen Khe), bore Hung a male heir, Son (Nguyen Thanh Tam), who is now a young man. No others boys have been born since Son, which is why May is here. The second wife, Xuan (Mai Thu Huong Maya), has only produced daughters and cannot yet be considered truly part of the clan. This family dynamic acts as the foundation on which writer-director Ash Mayfair builds her feature debut, The Third Wife.
Read MoreThe Sudden Death and Surprising Resurgence of Jonathan Brandis
by Stacey Osbeck
Greg and Mary Brandis, seeing potential in their blue-eyed cherub-faced son, began his modeling career at the tender age of two. Commercials followed and eventually in 1982, at six years old, little Jonathan Brandis landed a recurring role on the daytime soap One Life to Live.
Read MoreArada
Written and directed by Mu Tunc
Starring Burak Deniz, Büsra Develi and Ceren Moray
Running time: 1 hour and 28 minutes
by Stacey Osbeck
In Arada, Mu Tunc’s debut feature film, it’s the 90s and punk music isn’t confined to the angst filled youth of New York and London. Istanbul has its own scene rising. The story takes place over the course of Ozan’s (Burak Deniz) birthday. Before breakfast, his father spews out what appears to be an ongoing lecture. Turkey is still so volatile, you need to be prepared when the tanks and guns come, get into business and, probably most biting of all, your music is not right for this country. On this day though, the argument reaches a point of finality. If you’re not going to listen, get out, leave the keys and don’t come back. Without packing, Ozan turns and walks out the door.
Read More