Tag Archives: Jesse Eisenberg

A Real Pain review — Facing generational trauma (with a little laughter)

November 24, 2024 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Jesse Eisenberg | 90 min | ▲▲▲▲△ I look at Jesse Eisenberg and I think of his work in movies like The Social Network, Adventureland, and the creative casting of Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Along the way he's become a filmmaker, and A Real Pain is… Read More

Vivarium review — Bleak suburban lockdown horror

April 6, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Lorcan Finnegan | Written by Finnegan and Garret Shanley | 97 min | Crave Marketing materials compared this to Black Mirror, but there's not nearly enough tech anxiety. No, this is an old-fashioned Twilight Zone episode, a nightmarish parable about suburbia as a trap, featuring a couple, British teacher Gemma (Imogen Poots) and… Read More

Zombieland: Double Tap review — Shambling, but not brain dead

October 24, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by Reuben Fleischer | Written by Dave Callaham, Rhett Reese, and Paul Wernick | 99 min | VOD Zombieland from 2009 was, for my money, an exquisite example of what some people call popcorn for the brain: entertaining while in the cinema, but a movie where the emotional, nutritional value is near zero. Columbus… Read More

The Art Of Self-Defence review — The message of modern masculinity

October 9, 2019 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Riley Stearns | 104 mins | Crave Plus "Never hold back. Not ever. It'll only make you weak, and you can't be weak anymore. Not in the night classes." This is the lesson Casey (Jesse Eisenberg) learns explicitly from the only woman in his karate dojo, Anna (Imogen Poots), and implicitly… Read More

Reviews from The Vault: Vol. 6 — Quirky Gems

August 7, 2019 flawintheiris

From 2005 to 2009 I was a programmer on CKDU 88.1 FM in Halifax, every Sunday morning hosting The Love & Hate Movie Show. I talked about what I was seeing and revisited some of my favourite films of old, pretty much what I do now here on FITI. I still have a lot of… Read More

The Hummingbird Project review — Epic ambition drives unusual thriller

March 21, 2019 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Kim Nguyen | 111 min | Crave Plus "You are here to have moments of pure inspiration, and right now, you're not even here." So says Eva (Salma Hayek with an amazing dye-job), to Anton (Alexander Sarsgaard), a brilliant, slightly slouched tech wizard, one of those guys operating so far above… Read More

Café Society review — Woody in a Wistful Mood

July 28, 2016 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Woody Allen | 96 min | Amazon Prime |▲▲▲△△ "Until, one day out hunting, she mistook him for a deer." That line's got great bite, maybe the best in the whole picture, a fleeting moment of Woody Allen's wit at its sharpest—though, granted, some context will help with getting the laugh if… Read More

Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice review

March 25, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Zack Snyder | Written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer | 152 min. | ▲▲△△△ What a mess. That remark was one of my cinepanion's first upon leaving the cinema after this battle of comic book titans, and I can't deny her point of view. Zack Snyder's new, sprawling feature tries to do… Read More

American Ultra review — A spy-action-stoner mash-up

August 22, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Nima Nourizadeh, written by Max Landis Sometimes when you bring together two disparate influences in an odd little brew you get something fresh. For the most part, that's what's happened here. It's clumsy in places, but it entertains as the world's first stoner comedy/action thriller. American Ultra is being marketed on its action comedy… Read More

To Rome With Love review

August 1, 2012 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Woody Allen It used to be that I'd think, well, Woody Allen gets unfairly bad reviews because everyone is always comparing him to his own work. And how can you hold him to his best, his Annie Halls, Manhattans and Purple Rose of Cairos? I do it too, but I almost… Read More