Current Reviews - Sobriety Test Movie Reviews

REVIEW: Dear White People, the Race Wars at Winchester University Showcase the Trouble with Pastiche's Blackface in a White Place

Posted by James Brown on Wednesday, October 29, 2014 In : 0.06% Beer or Wine

Dear White People

Directed By: Justin Simien

Starring: Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Teyonah Parris, Brandon P. Bell, Kyle Gallner, Brittany Curran, Dennis Haysbert, and Marque Richardson

This has been a very interesting couple of weeks in cinema. Last week, we had the jazz drama Whiplash, a film very personal to me that reminds me of my foray into the world of percussion years ago. As it stands, I have another film very personal to me in a very different way in this weekend's Dear Whi...
Continue reading...

REVIEW: Boogeyman John Wick Is A Wolf Lured Back to Life at the Continental by Hen

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, October 25, 2014 In : 0.09% Cocktails

John Wick

Directed By: David Leitch

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Winters, Willem Dafoe, John Leguizamo, and Ian McShane

Normally, I pay little attention to Rotten Tomatoes before I've drafted a review. I just saw the most bizarre thing though as I was pulling together a list of the cast members in John Wick. This weekend’s John Wick has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. My initial thought on this can be summed up in three word...
Continue reading...

REVIEW: Confusing Admiration for Love, Birdman's Super Realism Is the Unexpected Virtue of Our Cinematic Ignorance

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, October 25, 2014 In : 0.00% Water

Birdman

Directed By: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Starring: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, Lindsay Duncan, and Naomi Watts

"Popularity is the slutty little cousin of prestige."
-Mike Shiner (Edward Norton)

Twenty five years later, it's hard to deny the influence of Tim Burton's Batman and its star Michael Keaton. Just look at the state of mainstream cinema today. As we eagerly await the latest news bytes on Doctor Strange, X-Men: Apo...
Continue reading...

REVIEW: As the Grumpy St. Vincent McKenna of Sheepshead Bay Says, It Is What It Is, A Good Old Fashioned Comedy-Drama

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, October 25, 2014 In : 0.03% Wine Coolers

St. Vincent

Directed By: Theodore Melfi

Starring: Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O'Dowd, Scott Adsit, Naomi Watts, and Terrence Howard

Many folks of older generations with whom I've interacted have frequently claimed that the world has gotten worse since their heyday. Maybe I'm cold-hearted. Maybe I'm callous. In my humble opinion, the world has not gotten any better or worse. We just know more about what's happening in it. In this digital age, every violent crime, every scandalous af...
Continue reading...

REVIEW: Fury – Ideals Are Peaceful, History Is Violent

Posted by SoberFilmChick on Monday, October 20, 2014 In : 0.03% Wine Coolers

Fury
SoberFilmChick

Directed by: David Ayer

Starring: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal, Scott Eastwood

World War II has been depicted in countless films, most famously in Saving Private Ryan. With the war on ISIL raging, the conflict in the Ukraine, and the never ending turmoil in the Middle East, a World War II film feels oddly timely. David Ayer’s Fury is a compelling drama that depicts the savagery and the emotional and physical trauma that war inflicts on ...

REVIEW: For His Double-Time Swing Tempo for Caravan, Whiplash's Jo Jones Throws a Cymbal at Neyman to Turn Him Into the Next Charlie Parker

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, October 18, 2014 In : 0.00% Water

Whiplash

Directed By: Damien Chazelle

Starring: Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons

On this weekend, I come face to face with my 27th birthday. Though that may sound a bit overdramatic, it is nonetheless true. With this, I've been reflecting on life, what I've done and where I've been in this first quarter of it. Coupling this with the fact that I was just at a dear friend's wedding a few weeks ago at which I opened up a figurative time capsule and saw some familiar faces from high school, the arr...
Continue reading...

REVIEW: In Men, Women & Children, the Voyager Satellite Shows the Unimportant Yet Important Connections We Make On Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot

Posted by James Brown on Monday, October 13, 2014 In : 0.03% Wine Coolers

Men, Women & Children

Directed By: Jason Reitman

Starring: Rosemarie DeWitt, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, Adam Sandler, Ansel Elgort, Kaitlyn Dever, J.K. Simmons, and Emma Thompson

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, ev...
Continue reading...

REVIEW: With Comedic Pride, Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners (L.G.S.M.)

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, October 12, 2014 In : 0.06% Beer or Wine

Pride

Directed By: Matthew Warchus

Starring: Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, Ben Schnetzer, and George MacKay

I don't normally talk about LGBT rights, but it's been an eventful week on the gay marriage front. I am not a proponent of homosexuality. However, I am a proponent of people having the free will to do whatever they believe as long as it does no harm to others. The Supreme Court I typically love to hate surprised me and, for all intents and purposes, legaliz...
Continue reading...

REVIEW: Watching the Media Kill the Messenger Gary Webb Over the CIA's Dark Alliance With Nicaraguan Druglords Is One Good History Lesson

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, October 12, 2014 In : 0.03% Wine Coolers

Kill the Messenger

Directed By: Michael Cuesta

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Ray Liotta, Barry Pepper, Michael Sheen, Andy Garcia, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosemarie DeWitt, Paz Vega, Oliver Platt, Richard Schiff, Robert Patrick, and Michael K. Williams

History is often the best way to validate an opinion. We could all debate our friends and loved ones in perpetuity based on opinions alone, but facts are facts. Regardless of who’s writing history, there are always certain irrefutable facts. When...
Continue reading...

REVIEW: Prince Vlad Dracula, Son of the Devil, Goes to the Untold Broken Tooth Mountain to Protect His People From the Turks

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, October 12, 2014 In : 0.09% Cocktails

Dracula Untold

Directed By: Gary Shore

Starring: Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Art Parkinson, and Charles Dance

It's another weekend and yet another reminder that every other Hollywood studio wants to be Marvel. With blockbusters Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy perpetuating the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's easy to see why everyone else is so envious. While Fox had an excellent outing with X-Men: Days of Future Past in May, the film i...
Continue reading...

« Newer posts

Older posts »