Shaky Knees Festival | 05.12-14.17
While some festivals have become watered down by trying to offer a little bit of each genre for every possible taste, Shaky Knees has succeeded by nailing its niche year after year.
Articles by Matthew Newlin
Serena (Magnolia Pictures, R)
Serena is an almost incomprehensible mess that feels as though multiple directors, with vastly differing visions, were working on it concurrently.
Kingsman: The Secret Service (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, R)
Vaughn pushes everything to eleven to make the point that the whole concept is just silly so we might as well enjoy it.
The Wedding Ringer (Screen Gems, R)
Garelick flirts with gross out humor in the vein of The Hangover, but never fully commits so the blend of comedic styles feels uneven.
Films | Matthew Newlin
This was a very good year for cinema, both for the films and the performances that made going to the theater more exciting than it has been in years.
Before I Go to Sleep (Clarius Entertainment, R)
Aside from a strong screenplay and very impressive directorial flourishes, the film boasts a terrific cast.
The Equalizer (Columbia Pictures, R)
The main character has no identity of his own, and so we as the audience never connect with him or care about what happens.
The Zero Theorem (Amplify, R)
The film is bursting with hyper-realistic color schemes that make every scene look as if it is taking place in the fever dream of a bedridden circus clown.
The Last of Robin Hood (Samuel Goldwyn Films, R)
The film attempts to capture the dichotomous nature of Errol Flynn’s very public personal life, but it fails miserably on all fronts.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (The Weinstein Company, R)
The film takes the vibrancy of the illustrated page and dulls it like a stone, the rough edges of which have been eroded away by thousands of years of ocean waves.