John Wick (2014) Film Review

So imagine that some stunt coordinators that helped make films like 300, The Matrix, V for Vendetta, Fight Club, Spider-Man 2, and many more decided to get together and make a movie. That movie would be John Wick. Now normally a movie like John Wick sounds like it would slip under the radar but surprisingly at the beginning of this week the film was picking up some pretty positive reviews. So I thought it would be worth a shot especially hoping that Keanu Reeves would give a great performance because I am a big fan of his. When Keanu is on his game then he can make any movie enjoyable and entertaining. Just look at The Matrix, Constantine, and Bill and Ted's! Plus I have never heard about stunt coordinators turning to directing so I was definitely fascinated to see what they could bring to the action drama. Also its really fun to go into a movie knowing absolutely nothing about it with zero expectations. Finally in world full or sequels, reboots, and rehashing of the same material repeatedly, its refreshing to see an original story on the big screen.

John Wick is written by Derek Kolstad and directed by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski starring Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, and William Dafoe. The film follows the infamous hitman John Wick (Keanu Reeves) who now lives in retirement and trying to stay out of the game. His wife has recently died from an unnamed sickness and in his state of grief receives a late gift from his wife before she passed: a puppy. Just as John starts to overcome his grief, he runs into a young mobster (Alfie Allen) who decide to break into his home, steal his car, and murder his new puppy. He finds out that the young mobster is the son of his old boss and he will do anything and kill anyone that stands in the way of his retribution. Now in rage, John Wick decides to get back into the hit game and get his revenge on the mob boss' son.

Dear White People (2014) Film Review

There are different approaches that films take to discuss race relations in our world today. Two of my favorite films, American History X and Fruitvale Station, take a harsh, dark, but realistic look at how it affects the individual. Then you have over the top comedies like Undercover Brother or Guess Whose Coming To Dinner take use humor to open up the discussion. What if a movie decided to take  mix of both of these worlds, a little bit realism look at race while also having fun and making some great jokes that also make a commentary. Somehow Justin Simien has been able to beautifully combine these two approaches to create one of the most original and honest films about identity that brings a breath of fresh air to cinema. Something that opens up the conversation and reminds us that there are more problems than we are willing to realize. Movies are all about perspective, the perspective of the writer's ideas on the world and its characters or the perspective of the audience that the director chooses for us to see, so I love seeing movies that give me people's perspective about the world around us. I can only see and fully understand my own perspective but film allows me to at least absorb someone else's outlook for a few hours. Especially as a White Christian Male, I seriously enjoy being able to see director's and writer's perspectives so that I can open my mind and expand my horizons. That way my views on the world, life, and people can always be growing, changing, and maturing the more I consume.

Dear Black People, written and directed by Justin Simien, follows a group of African American students at a predominantly white Ivy League university. One of them, Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams), a shy and unsocial homosexual, is try to get a spot as a writer on the main campus paper while also trying to find a place to live where his fellow residents won't verbally abuse and embarrass him. Sam White (Tessa Thompson), a passionate and outspoken media major, start growing in popular through her radio program "Dear White People" in which she blatantly calls out everyday racist tendencies of whites but by also speaking out against the oppressive school system her fellow African Americans are experiencing. We also follow a hall president who lives in his father shadow and a young lady who decides to make herself more ghetto in hopes to land a spot on a reality show. These students have to navigate college life while dealing with a white majority campus and trying to discover who they truly are on the inside. At the same time a college residency house choose a risky and racist party theme that could cause campus to implode.

Mysterious Skin (2004) Film Review

I like what Steve McQueen, the filmmaker not the actor, said about his film Shame. "Shame is my response to being lost." I feel like a lot of my favorite movies explore the topic of being lost, following characters who are trying to find their way in life either through good or bad decisions. My all time favorite film Requiem For A Dream and a recent favorite of mine Happiness are similar in that they bring us into the worlds of these people that we would never try to understand otherwise. The reason these films intrigue me is because they are trying to explore and understand the why behind these people. Why does someone fall into drug addiction? Why does someone have countless sex with prostitutes and girls but then can't actually get it up with someone who is interested in him? Even if the movie doesn't exactly answer all the questions it brings up, its creating that discussion with yourself and your friends and helps us realize that there is always more to people than what they present at the surface. That is where Mysterious Skin comes in as another example of a film trying to explore the why behind it's two main protagonists. Being a Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan I wanted to see him in an indie project before he hit it big and hopefully watch a compelling, honest film at the same time.

Mysterious Skin is a film, written and directed by Gregg Araki, that follows Neil McCormick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet) from the young ages of 8 years old and then to when they are young adults. Both boys played on a little league baseball team and were unfortunately sexually abused by their baseball coach. Neil remembers everything about his coach and grows up to be a homosexual prostitute, hanging out on playgrounds to find old men looking for young guys. Brian on the other hand cannot remember anything about his coach and suffers from amnesia because of the trauma he received. Instead he believes he was abducted by aliens and experimented on leading to a minor obsession with UFOs and extraterrestrials. Throughout the film we follow Neil as he dives deeper and deeper into the world of gay prostitution and Brian who tries to find out what happened to himself when he was 8 years old and why he can't remember it.