Author: Solani Verma
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‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ (2012) Movie Review
This is a drama that weighs on you like a ton of bricks as generations are affected by those before them — the things they know; the things they don’t know and what they’ll soon learn. Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance exhibits his talent to tackle a sweeping narrative that runs all of two hours and 20 minutes, and…
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Happy Feet (2006)
SYNOPSIS: Happy Feet is a comedy adventure set in the land of the Emperor Penguins in the heart of Antarctica. These penguins sing, each needing their own special song to attract a soul mate. Unfortunately, our hero Mumble (Elijah Wood), son of Memphis (Hugh Jackman) and Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman), is the worst singer in the world……
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Check Out This ‘Black Swan’ Visual Effects Reel
Black Swan was not nominated for a Visual Effects Oscar on Tuesday morning. It didn’t even make the Oscar shortlist. Actually, it wasn’t even listed on the Academy’s shortlist of 15. Black Swan did earn an effects nomination from the Visual Effects Society for Supporting Visual Effects, which may explain why it wasn’t considered for an Oscar if the…
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EXCL: The M. Night Shyamalan Interview You Want to Read
This weekend M. Night Shyamalan returns to theaters with the paranoid thriller The Happening starring Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo. It is his first film since 2006’s Lady in the Water, which didn’t connect with critics or audience members. As the director of The Sixth Sense his star rose high and in 2002 it seemed he couldn’t be stopped with…
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FROZEN RIVER
“Frozen River” is the story of Ray Eddy, an upstate New York trailer mom who is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling when she meets a Mohawk girl who lives on a reservation that straddles the US-Canadian border. Broke after her husband takes off with the down payment for their new doublewide, Ray…
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‘Twilight’ Sequels – ‘New Moon’ and ‘Eclipse’ – Get the Green
The Hollywood Reporter seems to know something no one else knew as they report the sequels to Twilight (11/21) are a go as Summit Entertainment has brought on scribe Melissa Rosenberg to pen scripts based on “New Moon” and “Eclipse,” the second and third books in the franchise, respectively. The story of Twilight centers on the relationship between an average teenage…
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‘Watchmen’ Already Upsetting the Media Masses
Yesterday Matt Selman, a writer and exec producer on “The Simpsons”, wrote up a review of Watchmen on Time.com’s Nerdworld blog. I haven’t read the review but based on descriptions from others I understand it to be HIGHLY positive. Jeff Wells at Hollywood-Elsewhere refers to Sellman saying he is “a completely prejudiced and unreliable shill. He’s an invested pre-believer, a suck-up,…
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Video Essays: Quentin Tarantino and Jonathan Demme’s Use of Close-Ups
Jacob T. Swinney, who brought us that fascinating side-by-side video essay recently, is back with a pair of videos examining the close-up work of Quentin Tarantino and Jonathan Demme. He opens his examination of Demme’s work in an accompanying written essay at indieWire writing, “The close-up may be one of the most beautiful and conventional shots in cinema. The shot is used…
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Watch: Tarantino Profiles to the Beat of ‘Whiplash’
Rishi Kaneria has put together this excellent 44-second video that simply takes profile shots from Quentin Tarantino‘s movies, sticks ’em in a circle and sets the beat to the tune of “Snare Liftoff” from Whiplash. Kaneria notes that “certain shots have been scaled, rotated or mirrored from their original format to create the effect seen in this video”,…
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HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc Come to RopeofSilicon!
If you have been building that DVD collection and you can look over at your wall and admire the stacks and stacks of plastic cases don’t get too happy yet. The world of High Definition is preparing to take over, will you become a follower? If so, which government will you form your allegiance with?…