Entertainment / Get Reel Digital: January 2015

Get Reel Digital: January 2015

Entertainment Jan 07, 2015

by Matthew Currie

This month’s Crop Of Blu-Rays Features Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens As A Super-Cool Psychopath, Tom Hardy Playing With A Puppy And 2014’s Most Powerful Cinematic Experience, Boyhood.

Boyhood (now available, Mongrel)

Image courtesy of IFC Films/nightlightcinema.com

Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused) finally unveiled his decade-in-the-making coming-of-age opus last year — a one-of-a-kind tale that opens on a six-year-old boy (Ellar Coltrane) and sticks with him all the way through to college, tracking his parents’ (Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette) contentious separation and all the other ups and downs that accompany childhood and adolescence. Filming over the course of 12 years, watching actor Coltrane grow and change just like his character lends Boyhood a truly unique authenticity that made this indie drama the toast of 2014 among critics and audiences alike.

The Guest (now available, ANconnect)

Image courtesy of Picturehouse/liveforfilms.com

Dan Stevens looks to leave Downton in the dust with this one-of-a-kind thriller from subversive indie horror director Adam Wingard (You’re Next). Here he plays an ex-soldier who shows up at the doorstep of a fallen comrade’s family and gradually insinuates himself into their lives — to ultimately terrifying effect. But far from the generic shocker you might be expecting, The Guest is a singular, ultra-stylish mash-up of a movie that’s been compared to everything from Drive to ’80s slasher flicks. It's anchored by a deft performance from Stevens, who turns from Ryan Gosling–cool to unhinged psychopath and back again on a dime.

Lucy (January 20, Universal)

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures/movienews.ro

Scarlett Johansson heads up this late-summer hit from French action auteur Luc Besson (The Transporter). She stars as a drug mule who, after being exposed to an experimental substance, unlocks the ability to use 100 per cent of her brain capacity, gradually turning her into an unstoppable butt-kicking machine. Putting aside the fact that the whole “we only use 10 per cent of our brains” thing is a myth, Lucy was praised by critics as a novel, sleekly crafted B-movie and yet another showcase for its star’s singular steely-eyed charisma.

The Drop (January 20, Fox)

Image courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures/impawards.com

An unassuming New York bartender (Tom Hardy) gets caught up in a tangled web of crime involving robbery, money laundering, an unsolved murder and an adorable little pit bull. Ahead of its release, The Drop was hyped among fans as “that movie where Tom Hardy plays with a puppy.” That’s very true, and said Hardy-on-puppy action is everything you want it to be and more. But helmer Michaël R. Roskam’s (Bullhead) film is also an engagingly character-based crime drama that builds to a powerful, pull-the-rug-out conclusion and features Hardy, frequent Roskam collaborator Mathias Schoenaerts and the late James Gandolfini in flawless form.

Fury (January 27, Sony)

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures/yahoo.com

Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf and Logan Lerman play a tank crew trudging their way through the closing days of the Second World War, saddled with one last impossible mission. One of the most raw, uncompromising depictions of armed conflict ever committed to celluloid, David Ayer’s (End of Watch) gory tale is as much horror flick as prestige war drama. Every moment's filled with the palpable dread of men about to burn alive or be reduced to mush before our eyes by the rolling death machines that its deeply broken characters call home.

^{_{Feature image courtesy of Columbia Pictures/thatfilmguy.net}}

Matthew Currie

Author

A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...

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Get Reel Digital: January 2015

by Matthew Currie

This month’s Crop Of Blu-Rays Features Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens As A Super-Cool Psychopath, Tom Hardy Playing With A Puppy And 2014’s Most Powerful Cinematic Experience, Boyhood.

Matthew Currie

COMMENTS

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