Songs can be like time capsules, messages from the past that conjure powerful images and emotions, transporting us back to milestones in our lives with a signature sound. For the heroine at the heart of “Press Play,” the curated collection of songs on a very special mixtape are a literal transportive device, a time warp that rewinds back to when the love of her life was alive and well. Like the songs that fill its soundtrack, Greg Björkman’s directorial debut has a catchy hook and atmospheric pull — yet the material leaves far too much underdeveloped, unrealized and incohesive to connect with viewers’ heads and hearts.
Laura (Clara Rugaard) spends her days on the beaches of Oahu, capturing the spirit of the island with her paintbrush in the hope of turning her artistic talent into a viable career. She’s so focused on this goal that it takes a whiny...
Laura (Clara Rugaard) spends her days on the beaches of Oahu, capturing the spirit of the island with her paintbrush in the hope of turning her artistic talent into a viable career. She’s so focused on this goal that it takes a whiny...
- 6/23/2022
- by Courtney Howard
- Variety Film + TV
Before I start this review, I feel that I should go ahead and admit this right off the bat: I know very little about just what exactly “creepypastas” are, or how the mythos of Slender Man inspired the real-life tragedy involving a pair of young girls in Wisconsin who brutally stabbed their friend to satisfy the fictional character. All I can really speak to here is the film itself, directed by Sylvain White, which is what I will be focusing on. So, keeping that in mind, I will say that I ended up liking Slender Man a lot more than I thought I would, due to some solid casting and haunting visuals that do a great job bringing this Internet urban legend to life.
Slender Man follows four high schoolers in Windsor, Massachusetts—Hallie (Julia Goldani Telles), Wren (Joey King from last year’s Wish Upon), Chloe and Katie—who...
Slender Man follows four high schoolers in Windsor, Massachusetts—Hallie (Julia Goldani Telles), Wren (Joey King from last year’s Wish Upon), Chloe and Katie—who...
- 8/10/2018
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
If you've had the privilege to see a film lensed by D.P Adam J. Minnick, you'd have recognized an eye disciplined by the story it's telling rather than by personal inclinations or some sybaritic style that steals from the story. Buzzard, was shot super raw and cold on a 5D, The Alchemist Cookbook was shot formally composed with a warm palllete on an Alexa, and Actor Martinez (Us Premiering this April at Tribeca) was shot with Altman inspired slow zooms on a Red Epic Dragon. The aesthetic decisions and stories speak for his adaptability and understanding of the form. And, his latest release, The Alchemist Cookbook, which hit SXSW hard when it world premiered, has audiences, critics, and filmmakers predominately sitting on the 'loved it' side of its divisive disposition.
We were fortunate to talk with the cinematographer on how the hell the team pulled it off.
Could you...
We were fortunate to talk with the cinematographer on how the hell the team pulled it off.
Could you...
- 3/26/2016
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Aaron Hunt)
- Cinelinx
Could you give us a general overview of your working relationship with Joel?
Joel and I are first and foremost friends...he's always been one of my closest. We've been making music, watching films and making little movies together starting in high school. He and I were really the only two buddies in our tight group that pursued visual arts of any sort through college and beyond, so it made sense that one day we could ultimately work together on a professional level, too. There's a trust that I can't really put into words, but we know that it's there. The Alchemist Cookbook was a new endeavor into a different filmmaking experience for both of us, and his trust in me as an image maker was very clear from the beginning. As far as collaborative art goes, I've never been more aligned with anyone, so I consider myself very fortunate...
Joel and I are first and foremost friends...he's always been one of my closest. We've been making music, watching films and making little movies together starting in high school. He and I were really the only two buddies in our tight group that pursued visual arts of any sort through college and beyond, so it made sense that one day we could ultimately work together on a professional level, too. There's a trust that I can't really put into words, but we know that it's there. The Alchemist Cookbook was a new endeavor into a different filmmaking experience for both of us, and his trust in me as an image maker was very clear from the beginning. As far as collaborative art goes, I've never been more aligned with anyone, so I consider myself very fortunate...
- 3/25/2016
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Aaron Hunt)
- Cinelinx
Eager Yet Flawed: Indie Darling is Safe-Guarded and Traditional
Brian Reisberg‘s debut feature has many of the usual markings of an indie sleeper hit but like an overzealous student whose hand is always first in the air, the rule-abiding road movie delivers all the correct answers, too determined to please. Relying heavily on both the traditional, and the familiar, the premise behind Big Significant Things does hold plenty of promise, and when boiled down, the protagonist, conflict, and plot points all recall rather than reinvent (think Garden State).
Twenty-something Craig Harrison (Harry Lloyd of Manhattan and The Theory of Everything), who fits neatly within the mold of a typical White male with early-onset ennui, attempts to temper his quarter-life crisis through a solo road trip across the South. Fleeing from the looming decision of purchasing a home in San Francisco (perhaps the most unrealistic part of the film) with...
Brian Reisberg‘s debut feature has many of the usual markings of an indie sleeper hit but like an overzealous student whose hand is always first in the air, the rule-abiding road movie delivers all the correct answers, too determined to please. Relying heavily on both the traditional, and the familiar, the premise behind Big Significant Things does hold plenty of promise, and when boiled down, the protagonist, conflict, and plot points all recall rather than reinvent (think Garden State).
Twenty-something Craig Harrison (Harry Lloyd of Manhattan and The Theory of Everything), who fits neatly within the mold of a typical White male with early-onset ennui, attempts to temper his quarter-life crisis through a solo road trip across the South. Fleeing from the looming decision of purchasing a home in San Francisco (perhaps the most unrealistic part of the film) with...
- 7/24/2015
- by Amanda Yam
- IONCINEMA.com
Big Significant Things
Written & Directed by Bryan Reisberg
USA, 2014
Few cinematic genres offer the kind of broad palette for creating tales of self-discovery as the American road trip movie. Easy Rider, Little Miss Sunshine, and the upcoming Vacation are wildly varying styles of films, all firmly ensconcing themselves between dramatic and comedic in the road trip movie pantheon. Director Bryan Reisberg’s, Big Significant Things, is a quirky film that sits betwixt Little Miss Sunshine and Vacation in terms of tone. Big Significant Things never reaches the comedic highs or packs the dramatic punch to distinguish itself as a comedy or drama, relegating this movie to a murky tonal middle ground that is as nondescript as the lonely interstate highways and dusty back roads that road trip movies are famous for.
Game of Thrones alumnus (and former Targaryen tyrant) Harry Lloyd plays the role of Craig, a young-ish twenty-something taking...
Written & Directed by Bryan Reisberg
USA, 2014
Few cinematic genres offer the kind of broad palette for creating tales of self-discovery as the American road trip movie. Easy Rider, Little Miss Sunshine, and the upcoming Vacation are wildly varying styles of films, all firmly ensconcing themselves between dramatic and comedic in the road trip movie pantheon. Director Bryan Reisberg’s, Big Significant Things, is a quirky film that sits betwixt Little Miss Sunshine and Vacation in terms of tone. Big Significant Things never reaches the comedic highs or packs the dramatic punch to distinguish itself as a comedy or drama, relegating this movie to a murky tonal middle ground that is as nondescript as the lonely interstate highways and dusty back roads that road trip movies are famous for.
Game of Thrones alumnus (and former Targaryen tyrant) Harry Lloyd plays the role of Craig, a young-ish twenty-something taking...
- 7/22/2015
- by Victor Stiff
- SoundOnSight
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