Theatrical Releases: The Big Short & In The Heart Of The Sea

December 11, 2015 / Leave a Comment

THE BIG SHORT || December 11th, 2015

	THE BIG SHORT \|\| Director Adam McKay takes a step away from his normal dumb comedies like “Anchorman” and “Step Brothers” and delivers a timely, ensemble cast drama about the economic collapse, and a group of people that took advantage of what others would not admit to. Starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt, the film is now being considered for Oscars since it was nominated for several SAG and Golden Globe awards.	RENT
	BODY \|\| Instead of going to bed at 9:30pm on Christmas Eve, three young lades venture out to what they are told is one of the girl’s uncle’s mansion. But when one of the other girls notices that all the pictures in the house are of Asian people, the jig is up. They have broken into someone’s house and haven quite the night. This would be alright, but then a mysterious man enters the picture and after being thrown downstairs, is dead. Now the girls must figure out their next move. “Body” has all the right parts but still feels a bit small. Helen Rogers is the only recognizable face if you’ve seen the horror anthology “V/H/S”.	PASS
	IN THE HEART OF THE SEA \|\| “Based on the incredible true story that inspired Moby Dick,” “In The Heart Of The Sea” re-teams director Ron Howard with “Rush” actor Chris Hemsworth, as he plays a boat captain facing off against a whale of huge proportions with “an almost human sense of vengeance.” “The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.” The film also stars Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson.	THEATER
	SNERVOUS TYLER OAKLEY \|\| To show just how out of touch I am with the YouTube generation and all the YouTube stars, I do not know a single one of them, so Tyler Oakley and his documentary “Snervous Tyler Oakley” is one more foreign person to me. I can get behind him being openly gay and trying to get the support of his father, but the whole onesie on stage for an international tour thing is beyond me. But if people look up to him and he can help them, all power to him.	PASS

	AMERICAN HERO \|\| Basically somewhere between “Chronicle” and “Hancock,” Stephen Dorff stars lead in an anti-hero superhero film titled “American Hero,” about a drinking, foul-mouthed man who has the ability to move objects with his mind. But after he has a near-death experience, he decides to use his power for good and with the help of his wheelchair ridden friend played by Eddie Griffin, he trains and sets out to clean up the streets in his neighborhood. But it’s not as easy as he would hope it to be.	PASS
	BLEEDING HEART \|\| Jessica Biel continues her string of any movie that will come along, this time with “Bleeding Heart,” where she plays a woman that finds her long lost sister, played by Zosia Mamet. The only thing is, her sister is involved with some shady people and some shady sexual dealings, to which Biel takes it upon herself to help her sister out of. This includes catching her in some precarious positions and holding a gun to her much-to-macho, abusive boyfriend. Biel deserves better.	PASS
	BOY AND THE WORLD \|\| Shortlisted for the Best Animated Feature category for the Academy Awards, “Boy And The World,” has already won over 40 film festival awards and seems poised enough to get an Oscar nomination, if it can beat out the more popular American films that were released this year. The animation style progresses as the film does and the music is described as “a soundscape of pan-flute, samba, and Brazilian hip-hop.”	PASS
	DIXIELAND \|\| I will always remember Chris Zylka as Flash Thompson from “The Amazing Spider-Man,” but now he finds himself in a starring role in “Dixieland,” where he tries to get on the up-and-up in his hometown, meets a young girl that is stripping, and tries to get her out of the lifestyle that they both seem stuck in. But the controlling pimp of a man at her strip club has other ideas for her. This is sort of that innocent tainted love story, with a red neck feel.	PASS
	DON VERDEAN \|\| Director Jared Hess (“Napoleon Dynamite,” “Nacho Libre,” “Masterminds”) continues his eccentric film-making with “Don Verdean,” starring Sam Rockwell, Danny McBride, Amy Ryan, Will Forte, and Jemaine Clement. Rockwell plays the title character, a small-town pastor and Biblical archaeologist, who ventures off to find the skull of Goliath, but when he falls short, he attempts to cover it up. Like most of these dark comedies, the humor feels a bit stiff and out-there, but with this cast in place, it’s probably worth a viewing.	STREAM
	THE GIRL IN THE BOOK \|\| You can see Emily VanCamp in the “Captain America” films as Sharon Carter/Agent 13 and you know Michael Nyqvist from the foreign language “Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” films, but here “The Girl In The Book,” they play much different roles. VanCamp is a woman that is faced with Nyqvist, a man from her past that made a career off the story and writings that he stole from her a very young age, possibly even having taken advantage of her sexually, now she must face him again.	PASS
	THE TAINTED VEIL \|\| In Muslim culture, it is tradition for the women to wear hijabs or head coverings. The documentary “The Tainted Veil” interviews a variety of women about their stance towards wearing or not wearing them, and the reasoning, from wanting to be judged for their words rather than how their hair is, to feeling a sense of tradition to wearing it, to refusing to wear it because of the stigma that goes along with it.	PASS