Trashwire
Movie reviews, Whatcha Watchin podcast, and more
Category: Movies
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Depp channels Thompson in wandering tale of excess and corruption
The Rum Diary, based on the early Hunter S. Thompson novel, takes a searing look at excess and corruption in Puerto Rico in 1960. Johnny Depp stars as Paul Kemp, a journalist who travels to the island to write for a failing newspaper. Paul is a go-with-the-flow kind of guy who’s not out to mix…
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Indie horror flick ’15’ keeps viewers on edge
Do you ever wonder what attracts people to violence or what it is exactly that we, as humans, are so fascinated by when it comes to murder? Do you want to know what makes a serial killer tick? 15: An Exploration of Human Violence, an independent, low budget horror film from Portland, Oregon attempts to…
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Arizona indie ‘The Big Something’ a big hit
Lewis is a down on his luck, vinyl aficionado. He’s broke, lives out of the record store he works in, and now he’s the prime suspect in the murder of his boss and friend, Marcus. Poor guy can’t catch a break. Luckily, the prime suspect label doesn’t last long. One morning Lewis comes home to…
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Texas Killing Fields splits stories
The Texas Killing fields are a place where people die. It’s a place in Texas that locals know is unsafe. Out-of-towners will never understand it and there is no way they will be able to fix it. This area of Texas seems to be cursed, a place where the most evil of people do their…
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‘Margaret’ moves too slowly
Margaret is the story about a spoiled, over privileged, Jewish girl named Lisa. Well, at least this is how Lisa Cohen (Anna Paquin) describes herself. She is a fairly attractive female living in New York City, where she attends a private school on half scholarship. She’s also a fairly intelligent young lady. We see much…
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’50/50′ combines cancer and comedy
Typically, when the main character of a film is dying of cancer, you can’t expect a lot of laughs in the script. That’s not the case with 50/50, which combines comedy and drama in a way that emulates the natural ebb and flow of emotions in real life to create a film that is both…
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Pitt and Hill score with ‘Moneyball’
Just like most sports movies, Moneyball is about underdogs, a ragtag group of guys no one ever thought would make but who end up impressing everyone in the final scene. Unlike most sports movies, Moneyball’s underdogs aren’t necessarily the players, and it’s this shift in perspective that makes the movie so unique and successful. Brad…
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‘Brighton Rock’ showcases English culture and crime
Brighton Rock is not just another English gangster flick. Sure it seems like that at the go, but as we get deeper into the story the film reveals more about people and society. In this feature we pick up on Pinkie Brown (Sam Riley) out to scare a rival mob member named Fred. After a…
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Visual storytelling a key strength in ‘Contagion’
It all starts with a cough. Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) is returning from a business trip to Hong Kong and chatting on the phone at an airport bar. She seems to have a little cold, but she keeps on snacking on the tray of peanuts in front of her and preparing to return home to…
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Contagion lacks focus
Have you ever thought about what would happen if a bat started eating a banana, dropped the uneaten portion into a pig farm, a pig ate the rest and then a chef handled the pig without washing his hands? Luckily this has never happened because this is the making of an infectious disease–well, at least…
