Independent - Cinema Crespodiso

Review: ‘Upstream Color’

This is going to be a rough ride, peoples. After several viewings of “Upstream Color,” I feel I have a grasp on the ins and outs of the story itself, but I’ll be honest and tell you that I am struggling with what this thing is actually about, know what I mean? So in the spirit of this film, which is a just a little experimental, I am going to try something new with this particular entry; we’re going to figure this thing out together.

First off, I’m going to need you to see “Upstream Color” for this to work. We need to be on the same wavelength. If you need a quick “review” before checking it out, I offer you this:

“Upstream Color” will surprise you. It will confuse you, and if you are paying attention and also allow it to wash over you, it will also reward you. To simply summarize the story and plot here before you see it would be a disservice, so instead I will say that this movie is about a woman meeting a man and together they help each other understand the world they live in and the forces effecting them, all subconsciously of course, and it all boils down to basic, simple human interaction, wordless even, thoughts conveyed through expressions, emotions reverberated and amplified with a look, all the things we know in our own lives, reflected in this movie that quite simply defies basic classification. Is it a romance? Science fiction? Horror? A mystery? An art film? A tone poem? A thriller?Continue Reading …

Review: ‘The Place Beyond The Pines’

“The Place Beyond The Pines” is the best kind of movie, the kind with a very strong, character-based story that goes to some unexpected places, populated with some great actors, backed by an excellent score, the whole time feeling like a real and lived-in time and place, and all told with the type of sure-handed direction that can’t be ignored or taken for granted. Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Spring Breakers’

Hey, do you like to oogle scantily clad young flesh whilst listening to Skrillex, all wrapped up in the confines of an arty indie movie trying to say something but in the end not really saying all that much at all but still looking cool doing it? Then buddy, do we have the perfect movie for you.

“Spring Breakers” is the story of four small town college girls who raise the funds to make it to Spring Break week in St. Petersburg, Florida (because everyone all over the world knows that the one place anyone associates spring break with is St. Pete, Florida), and once they get there, set out to be as debaucherous and wild as they possibly can, which means pretty much scene after scene of half naked and fully naked people drinking from beer funnels and jumping around in slow motion with their hands in the air and watching girls make out with each other and trashing their environment with reckless abandon, just moving around from setting to setting like beaches and hotel rooms and pools.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Sound of My Voice’

“Sound of My Voice” is a very low-budget psychological thriller from 2011, and much like “Another Earth,” it is an admirable attempt at a genre picture, featuring some interesting ideas, but ultimately hollow due to insistence on ambiguity for the sake of being ambiguous. A great premise is introduced, some character drama happens in the interim, and then BAM! an ambiguous and unsupported ending, used in an unfortunate attempt at profundity and lacking any real dramatic punch because really the movie refuses to come out and say anything.

The movie starts with Peter and Lorna infiltrating a very small but elaborate cult, based on all the bathing and sanitizing and secrecy, and apparently by the time the movie begins they have already made significant headway into the cult, established by the fact that they know some ridiculous and elaborate secret handshake that allows them ultimate access to the cult leader, Maggie, a young woman who claims to be a time-traveler from the year 2054, and who has come back to gather disciples to form sort of army for some future civil war or something like that. She’s all quietly charismatic and is introduced with an oxygen tank, showing she is ill, and she guides her news disciples through a series of exercises, and the whole while Peter and Lorna are there trying to suss her out and see what’s up.Continue Reading …