Nature may abhor a vacuum, but it seems lawyers also abhor arenas of life untouched by their professional advice or air-quote helpfulness, which goes a long way to helping explain the $50 billion a year cottage industry in (often contentious) divorce. A back-stiffening look at this sprawling problem — somewhat unsurprisingly unique to the United States in terms of its cost — director Joe Sorge’s documentary Divorce Corp., narrated by Dr. Drew Pinsky, makes a persuasive case for the reform of family law court, and in particular an attempted decoupling of money from issues regarding parental custody and visitation rights. For the full, original review, from Paste, click here. (Candor Entertainment, unrated, 93 minutes)
Monthly Archives: January 2014
Voodoo Possession
“There is a fate worse than death,” posits the back cover of the new-to-DVD horror flick Voodoo Possession, starring Danny Trejo. Yes, and it might involve being locked in a room with Jessica Simpson, and this schlock stuck on an alternating repeating loop along with some irritating indie tripe.
Burdened by guilt and other unresolved feelings, Aiden Chase (Ryan Caltagirone) strikes out for a Haitian mental asylum in search of his brother Cody (David Thomas Jenkins), a doctor who’s gone missing. With his television producer ex-girlfriend Bree (Kerry Knuppe) arranging to enter the country under the guise of a documentary film crew, Aiden, once there, discovers that his brother was dabbling in black magic and voodoo with his charges. A bunch of the inmates/patients seem possessed by a bloodthirsty spirit, as does a decidedly menacing hospital administrator (Trejo). Aiden, then, must delve into this unsettling world in an effort to rescue his sibling.
Written and directed by Walter Boholst, Voodoo Possession doesn’t exactly aim for high art, it’s true, but it also doesn’t really connect on a basic level as a piece of trashy, down-and-dirty genre entertainment. Truth be told, none of this is really the fault of Trejo, who simply shows up and cashes in on his previously established presence in a supporting role. The film features a nice central setting, and production designer Kalie Acheson achieves good work on a budget, but its dialogue and plotting are frequently insipid, and Boholst and director of photography Matthias Schubert overdo all the stylistic flourishes, in an attempt to prop up writing and performances that just don’t work.
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case stored in turn in an attractive, complementary cardboard slipcover, Voodoo Possession comes to DVD presented in a decent 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track. Apart from the obligatory chapter stops, bonus features consist only of a short and rather self-congratulatory behind-the-scenes featurette. Still, to purchase the DVD via Half, click here; to purchase it via Amazon, click here. Or if brick-and-mortar establishments are totally still your thing, by all means, have a go at one of those. D (Movie) C- (Disc)
Felicity Jones Talks The Invisible Woman, Future Projects
Did I have a chance to take part in roundtable interviews for Ralph Fiennes‘ sophomore directorial effort, The Invisible Woman, and talk to his co-star, Felicity Jones? Yes, yes I did. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so if interested click here for the read.
ShockYa DVD Column, January 9
In my latest spin around Blu-ray and DVD releases over at ShockYa, I take a look at the yawning inessentiality of The Wolverine, the documentary Linsanity, Jim Breuer’s latest stand-up special, a movie about a massacre at a porn shoot called Porn Shoot Massacre, another movie about a big-ass spider entitled Big Ass Spider! and more. If interested in taking a gander, click here.
Screenwriter Alan Trezza Talks Burying the Ex
I recently had a chance to visit the Los Angeles set of director Joe Dante’s new film, Burying the Ex, just as it was winding down principal photography before Christmas. There, I observed shooting and chatted with the cast and crew, including screenwriter Alan Trezza. A nice conversation with the latter about the long path to the big screen of his zombie-inflected first produced feature script is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
A competently made, moderately engaging franchise placeholder that doesn’t strike out and take enough chances with its supernatural possession story, ancillary spin-off Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones mainly marks time until the enormously lucrative found-footage genre series ostensibly returns to the roots of its main story later this year. Aimed in concerted fashion at Hispanic audiences, which have helped make the Paranormal Activity films a big box office success, the movie achieves a feeling of realistic socio-cultural milieu but suffers from an under-sketched narrative and a timidity born of parceled-out corporate profit protection. For the full, original review, from Screen Daily, click here. (Paramount, R, 84 minutes)
The Wolf of Wall Street Gives 506 Fucks
Good to know that The Wolf of Wall Street, in addition to its considerable ass-play, has also, per Variety, notched the record for most big screen uses of the word “fuck,” at 506. But wait, their source is Wikipedia? Ahhh, fuck, can we get a recount?