All Articles by Phil Brown

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF TIM Season Two DVD Review

Posted: January 9th, 2012 at 8:00 am

Rather quietly, Steve Dildarian’s The Life And Times Of Tim has become one of the subtlest, funniest, and crudest (in terms of the animation, but the writing team isn’t afraid of getting saucy) animated series on television. The show has built up a cult audience on HBO that should be much larger and might be were it part of the Adult Swim lineup. Dildarian’s talent lies in the comedy of the cringe, creating situations of excruciating embarrassment that provokes nervous giggles building to crippling bursts of laughter. Chances are it’s the funniest show on television that you’re not watching or if you’re one of the converted, it’s that show you keep trying to get your friends into. Regardless, the newly released second season DVD deserves to be watched by everyone who enjoys laughing and awkward conversation. Hit the jump for my review of the second season of The Life and Times of Tim on DVD.

THREE AMIGOS! Blu-ray Review

Posted: December 3rd, 2011 at 9:00 am

It’s been a long journey for Three Amigos to be considered a classic worthy of a 25^th anniversary Blu-ray release. The film hit screens to a resounding response of critical and audience indifference in 1986, but has gradually come to be regarded as something of a cult classic. It’s difficult to know why it failed. Maybe it was because it was a Western made past the genre’s expiry date, maybe the release date was ill timed, or maybe it’s just a strange comedy that was always destined to appeal to a small, but loyal fanbase. Regardless, the film now seems to have the reputation it deserves as one of John Landis and Steve Martin’s more beloved comedies and while the new Blu-ray isn’t exactly overflowing with nostalgic special features, it’s still a nice treat for fans. Hit the jump for my review of Three Amigos on Blu-ray.

THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS DVD Review

Posted: November 19th, 2011 at 5:16 am

With Star Wars Blu-rays sitting on everyone’s shelves that offer both an amazing presentation of a childhood classics and even more of the irritating changes that George Lucas insists improve the movies, the love/hate relationship between the flannel-loving fantasist and his fans has never been more intense. It’s kind of amazing how in the ten years since the release of The Phantom Menace, Star Wars has gone from one of the most beloved film franchises in existence to being simultaneously the most loved and despised. In an age where geeks run the world, Lucas seems to enjoy prodding and irritating the fanbase that made him a multibillionaire for reasons best known to himself. Fortunately, the ongoing obsession and frustration of Star Wars fans has been given a definitive documentary in The People Vs. George Lucas. Short of a confrontational interview with the man himself, the film covers every aspect of the Star Wars phenomena and controversies in a breezy, entertaining manner. The new DVD is an ideal companion piece to the best selling Blu-ray to examine how the Star Wars phenomena has awkwardly evolved over the last decade. Hit the jump for our review of The People vs. George Lucas on DVD.

SCROOGED Blu-ray Review

Posted: November 16th, 2011 at 6:00 am

Though it rarely gets slathered with as much nostalgic love as A Christmas Story or Christmas Vacation, Scrooged is easily one of the finest yuletide perennials to slip out of Hollywood in the 80s. An adaptation of A Christmas Carol (possibly the most adapted book in film history other than, you know, that Bible thing), the film features Bill Murray at his curmudgeonly best, playing a fictional television executive who would probably exchange notes on how to properly abuse his staff with Kevin Spacey’s character in Swimming With Sharks. It’s a genius stroke of modernization and stunt casting that works so well it probably qualifies as the only adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday tale in which you’ll actually wish that Scrooge stayed evil. Hit the jump for our review of Scrooged on Blu-ray.

THE INNKEEPERS Review

Posted: October 31st, 2011 at 2:45 pm

Two years ago writer/director Ti West established himself as one of the premiere voices in American horror with the tantalizing satanic tease of The House Of The Devil. Now he returns with another slowburn horror tale in the haunted hotel flick The Innkeepers. His latest effort incorporates quirky humor into his methodically paced style with mixed results. West is adept at writing subtly comedic characters and building tension, but something about the combination of the two techniques feels awkward in this outing. Tension is often killed by the comedy and the delicate mundane world of the characters clashes with the film’s supernatural shenanigans at times. It’s an undeniably flawed effort, but still an unconventional spin on the genre from a uniquely personal filmmaker that deserves to be seen, even if lowered expectations apply. Collider got an early peak at the film last week at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, so hit the jump for all the ghostly details.

SARAH PALIN: YOU BETCHA! Review

Posted: September 28th, 2011 at 3:30 pm

It was inevitable that someone would make a none-too-flattering documentary about Sarah Palin before disgraced governor and her beauty pageant-winning smile even attempted to run for president in the next election. However, the fact that it ended up being confrontational British filmmaker Nick Broomfield who fulfilled that public service was a pleasant surprise. Broomfield is known for taking on controversial topics involving cultural icons in films like Kurt And Courtney, Biggie And Tupac, and Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam. Generally speaking, he heads out to create his films armed only with a camera, a microphone, a fascination with a topic, and a willingness to burn bridges, approach strangers, and embarrass himself to get the footage he needs. So how did the displaced Brit fair on the snow and controversy covered plains of Wasilla, Alaska? Hit the jump to find out.

TIFF 2011: Another Take On GOD BLESS AMERICA

Posted: September 19th, 2011 at 9:39 pm

Film criticism is a tricky beast. One man’s Citizen Kane is another man’s Glen Or Glenda and it’s impossible to discredit either opinion. During TIFF my esteemed college Matt Goldberg and I disagreed pretty wildly on Bobcat Goldthwait’s vicious pop culture satire God Bless America. While I can’t pretend the film is a flawless masterpiece, I was rather fond of Goldthwait’s psychotically satirical take on the material. Perhaps it says more about my pop culture stained brain than anything else, but I do feel that Goldthwait’s message and approach are valid, if admittedly twisted and a little f-ed up. I guess I’m just fond of the twisted and the f-ed up. That’s me, what are you gonna do? In the interest of debate (and inevitably, message board bashing), I thought I’d present an alternate take on this fairly divisive movie. I’m not saying I’m necessarily right, I just want this opinion of the movie out there. Hit the jump for more and make of it what you will.

TIFF 2011: PAUL WILLIAMS: STILL ALIVE Review

Posted: September 19th, 2011 at 10:07 am

Paul Williams: Still Alive is certainly unlike any documentary I’ve ever seen. The project started as director Stephen Kessler’s (Vegas Vacation, The Independent) attempt to make a fairly benign documentary profile about prolific songwriter and longtime television personality Paul Williams, but it mutated into something more. Williams clearly felt somewhat awkward about being a documentary subject and the movie transformed into being as much about the loving and uneasy relationship formed between the film’s director and subject as it is about Williams himself. The result is a very funny, sweet, and revealing movie far more interesting than a more straightforward profile ever could have been. Hit the jump for more.

TIFF 2011: KILL LIST Review

Posted: September 18th, 2011 at 7:30 am

There are horror movies that jump out at you from the first scene and grab you by the short and curlies before the title even hits the screen. Then there are the horror movies that sneak up to you, deliberately lulling you into a false sense of security before pulling the rug out from under you, so that while the overall scare count is lower, the big moments cut deeper (think Audition or the original version of The Wicker Man). Kill List falls into the latter category and the blood thirsty viewers at The Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness program are sure to find themselves coddled and devastating, leaving the theater feeling like they’ve been chatted up and punched in the face. It’s a good flick, one that should find itself a healthy cult audience upon theatrical release. Hit the jump for the review.

TIFF 2011: INTRUDERS Review

Posted: September 16th, 2011 at 11:54 am

I feel pretty conflicted about Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s Intruders. On the one hand I recognize that the director is trying to play with the horror genre a bit and take a more psychological and intellectual approach to what starts off as a fairly conventional ghost story. The thing is that I’m not entirely convinced that the experiment works, but I am entirely convinced that it’s not scary. I admire the attempt to create something different, but no matter how hard I tried and could never fully enjoy the movie. I guess you could call it a failed experiment and that’s a shame because it’s only the third film in Frenadillo’s 10 year career (after Intacto and 28 Weeks Later) and I desperately hoped that Intruders would build on the promise of his previous movies. Instead, I got a noble failure and will probably now have to wait another four years or so until he releases another movie and hopefully sets things right. Sigh…whatcha gonna do? Hit the jump for all the disappointing details.

Exclusive: Directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury Talk LIVID and Their Abandoned HELLRAISER Remake

Posted: September 15th, 2011 at 6:14 pm

After decades of being known as the country that reveres film as a serious art form that they call “cinema” (usually while chain-smoking, wearing sunglasses, and speeding off on a moped), France has unexpectedly become the premiere country for hardcore horror movies. Titles like Haute Tension, Martyrs, and Le Sheitan have giving the French filmmaking community a reputation for creating some of the most intense horror movies in the world these days. Anyone who saw the untraviolent and claustrophobic 2007 pregnancy horror flick Inside will know that co-directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo are absolute masters of this particular blood-soaked form. I’ll never forget seeing the film at a early morning TIFF press screening in 2007 with a group of cynical and exhausted critics who viscerally hooted and screamed along with the movie like a collection of drunken horror loving teenagers.

Now four years, later the filmmakers have returned to The Toronto Film Festival with their sophomore effort Livid, a deeply bizarre tale of struggling teens who decide to rob an old woman’s house only to learn that they wandered into a supernatural death trap. The directors employ a surreal dreamlike logic that is reminiscent of vintage Italian horror movies without sacrificing any the gooey red stuff. The film is one of the wildest rides to appear in TIFF’s midnight movie lineup this year and confirms the co-directors as major figures in the genre. Collider got a chance to chat with Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo about their influences, working methods and an their abandoned Hellraiser remake.

TIFF 2011: PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY Review

Posted: September 15th, 2011 at 9:38 am

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is a tricky movie to review. Documentary filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky have been following the unjust arrest and conviction of the West Memphis Three since the initial high profile trial and their films have undeniably played a major role in the three men’s release from prison in August (after spending half of their lives behind bars for a crime they didn’t commit). This third film in the series brings everything up to date with one rather big exception: the sudden release occurred three days after Berlinger and Sinofsky completed work on their film. Apparently the directors are already working on a coda that will be added to the film for the New York Film Festival and fall release, so the version of the movie screening at the Toronto Film Festival is incomplete. It might not be time to judge the movie entirely just yet, but what exists at the moment is certainly a compelling continuation of the disturbing ongoing saga. Hit the jump for more.

Director Todd Solondz Interview DARK HORSE

Posted: September 14th, 2011 at 12:16 pm

If you like your comedies dark or your characters deeply eccentric and emotionally fraught, then chances are you’ve stumbled onto the work of writer/director Todd Solondz. The filmmaker found himself a success straight out of NYU, landing a three-picture deal with 20^th Century Fox off of the strength of his student films. However, the lack of control and immense disappointment saddled on Solondz during his first feature Fear, Anxiety, And Depression (a potential subtitle for any of his movies) was enough to send him fleeing from the film industry for six years. He returned with the independently financed high school humiliation comedy Welcome To The Dollhouse, which promptly won awards at Berlin and Sundance. He then achieved infamy with his multi-character masterwork Happiness (which notoriously brought a compassionately and frighteningly written pedophile into his harsh comedy world). The self-conscious Storytelling and experimental semi-sequels Palindromes and Life During Wartime followed, inevitably garnering controversy, critical acclaim, and cult appreciation.

Few comedy directors are as fearless or divisive. Solondz has a special knack for latching onto outcasts and discovering the pain and sorrow of their existence through laughs designed to stick in his audience’s throat. Solondz returned to the Toronto International Film Festival this year with his latest movie Dark Horse, his version of the regressed manchild comedies made popular by the Apatow crowd starring Jordan Gelber, Selma Blair (reprising her role from Storytelling), Mia Farrow, and Christopher Walken. Collider got a chance to sit down with the Solondz during his stay in Toronto to discuss his latest feature, his unique sense of humor, his interest in revisiting former characters, and how his movies can so often be misunderstood. Hit the jump for all the Solondzian goodness.

Exclusive: Director William Friedkin Talks KILLER JOE, Alternate Version of THE EXORCIST, His Career and More

Posted: September 13th, 2011 at 1:26 pm

If William Friedkin had retired in 1973, he’d still be remembered today for creating two of the most successful and influential films of that revered film decade with The French Connection and The Exorcist. Yet, while he may never have reached those incredible heights of success again (and really, most filmmakers are lucky to even do it once), the man can be counted on for expertly crafted thrillers like Sorcerer or To Live And Die In LA. In recent years, Friedkin has dedicated his talents to an unexpected late career shift as an opera director. Though his filmmaking focus is always entertainment, it’s very much for an adult audience and not necessarily Hollywood’s current demographic of choice. Fortunately, that hasn’t mean that the director is entirely absent from filmmaking these days.

Friedkin has made two films in the last five years that are intense and insane colorations with Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tracy Letts. Together they adapted Letts’ gripping insect infestation/paranoid delusion play Bug in 2006 and this year they have returned with Killer Joe. The film premiered at The Toronto Film Festival and is a Southern Gothic comic thriller about blackmail, murder, and fried chicken forced entry starring Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon, Juno Temple, and a psychotic Matthew McConaughey. Though not for the squeamish, this tale of insurance fraud and infidelity is one of the most batshit insane and pleasant surprises of the festival. Collider got the chance to chat with the legendary director about his latest film and dig out a few thoughts on his long career. Hit the jump for all the details.

TIFF 2011: DARK HORSE Review

Posted: September 12th, 2011 at 11:51 am

Following his surreal and reflective Happiness sort-of-sequel Life During Wartime, dark comedy specialist Todd Solondz returns with Dark Horse, a film that only initially appears to be his most mainstream outing to date. As a filmmaker who revels in the world of societal outcasts, it was inevitable that the writer/director would eventually find his way to creating an entry in the recent spat of manchild comedies. However, Solondz is no Apatow and his tale of a 35-year-old man who still lives with his parents and spends most of his time pondering his latest action figure purchase isn’t merely a gently comedic take on the subject. Laughter is only the starting and as the film wears on, it soon becomes a sad deconstruction of manchild comedies and a hallucination-fueled nightmare of immaturity and failure. Not exactly a light date movie for the Seth Rogen crowd, but a comedy that cuts deep into the current filmgoing infatuation with unjustly glorified juvenile behavior.  Hit the jump for more.

Copyright ©2005 - 2012. All Rights Reserved. California web design