Mini-Review: Offers an unparalleled insider look at street art and its role in the art world. Banksy's a controversial figure for sure, but here he speaks with startling poignancy about what he sees as the destruction of a movement...but he still has a sense of humor about it. The level of discourse and interesting narrative make this one of the best looks at the nature of art since Welles' "F for Fake." Yes, it's that good.
Mini-Review: Nope, didn't have enough weed to enjoy this bad acid trip of a movie, and this is coming from someone who loved Enter the Void. It shares a lot: excruciatingly long shots drenched in amazing color, a few horror elements, and a Boards of Canada style soundtrack. You'd think that'd be amazing in an anti-narrative movie, but once the antagonist gets going, this movie takes a turn to excessive violence and doesn't much recover.
Mini-Review: The dystopian society is portrayed with a delicate balance of flair and oppression, which works well. Once the Games start, though, it never really finds its footing in portraying the stakes at hand, and skimps on a lot of characterization.
Mini-Review: As much as I love the "let's make an honest-to-God adventure film" sentiment Gilliam seemed to tap into, the antagonist is so cartoonish and campy that it becomes a bit too much to handle. But the Monty Python style humor peppered here and there definitely helps.
Mini-Review: It plays with genre tropes in ways that seamlessly blend comedy with horror, and it follows its central conceit down the rabbit hole and beyond. On the other hand, it's meant to mimic a lot of those tropes, so for the first two thirds you'll be all "this is crappy and unoriginal." The scares are decent enough, but there's nothing original about the movie until the end...which I'll remember as one of the most over-the-top cinematic acts for a while to come.
Mini-Review: Ramsay seems like a contradiction here: she has great control over cinematic composition that distills emotion, but still feel distinctively "outsider." Minute details of everyday life are injected with symbolic meaning,and while its plot pretty quiet and depressing, it's handled in a penetrating, voyeuristic manner that manages to make Callar's grief feel almost alluring.
Mini-Review: Actually, surprisingly good. Takes a tired concept and some characters drawn with a thick archetype brush, and makes it work on an entertainment level that actually supports a few different layers of subtext. Plus, it's about as close to a live-action Akira as you could hope for.
Mini-Review: The bombastic soundtrack and use of color make this movie. It's a by-the-numbers type murder mystery, but man can Goblin rock a scene.