Film Works

Film Screening Invitation: ‘Technophilia’ Screens in Las Vegas on Aug. 25, 2011

The Philippine-Korean-Iraqi 16mm short film “Technophilia” will have a screening at “RAW: Las Vegas Presents Fusion” on Aug. 25, 2011 (Thursday) at Tommy Rocker’s in Las Vegas. If you’re in the Vegas area on the said date, you’re invited to come to the event and support local artists. You can buy tickets through this link. Buying ahead of time will only cost $10 for a night of film, music performances, photography, mixed media, and performance art exhibitions, and fashion show.

“Technophilia” will start the showcase at 8:30 p.m. For more information about the film, you can check out the: trailer, film stills, behind-the-scene photos, and film blog. This film is produced by Colorwheel Media Studios through the help of the Korean Film Council, Korean Academy of Film Arts, and Korea University.

Synopsis

Inside a hangout place, the game addict boyfriend gets boxed up by his techie lifestyle, which further alters his relationship with his already fed-up girlfriend. Things become more and more mechanical as they move on.

More About RAW Artists Events

You can also check out the video of last month’s “RAW: Las Vegas Presents Illuminare” for an idea of what’s to come for the next showcase. You can also view videos of other RAW Artists events: “RAW: Los Angeles Presents Incite” and “RAW: New York Presents Artcade.”

What is RAW?

RAW: natural born artists is an independent arts organization, for artists, by artists.

Our mission is to provide independent artists of all creative genres with the tools, resources, and exposure needed to inspire and cultivate creativity. RAW educates emerging artists through seminars, workshops, and insights to further knowledge of their industries.

RAW connects them with one another so that they may grow together, while also providing them with opportunities to give back to their own local youth communities through the arts.

We encourage the creative success of the many visionaries and storytellers of our generation.

Grassroots Showcase Events

RAW handpicks and spotlights local artistic talents in film, fashion, music, visual art, hair and makeup artistry, and performance art. With artists from all genres in each showcase, RAW events come together to form an amazing circus of creativity.

What Can You Expect when Attending the RAW Showcase?

We screen an independent film (usually a short, webisode, or music video), a fashion show from an up-and-coming local designer, a musical performance, an art gallery featuring several independent visual artists, and performance art (comedy/dance/fire dancers, you name it…). You’ll get a little taste of everything. Combine all this creativity with drinks, fun, and good company! To partake in the experience, RSVP ($10/ticket) in the “Showcases” section of the event.

Inception Film Review: An Exceptionally “Inceptional” Masterpiece

Now, Inception is more than just a leap of faith for filmmaker Christopher Nolan.

With its elements about powerful ideas, dreaming in a dream, and dreaming inside other people’s dreams, Inception is one entertainingly hard-core, multi-layered mindbender. This motion picture masterpiece is one of the strongest science-fiction concepts to come in a long time. Nolan and his production team construct a breathtakingly audacious blockbuster narrative while not leaving the intelligent and more demanding film lovers behind.

Inception is nothing less than astounding. It dreams big, dreams deep, and creates challenging dreams to engage the wide-eyed dreamy viewers. In doing so, the film’s own thin line separating dream space and reality innovatively creates such a well-mounted story. It carefully blends the conscious and subconscious in various levels. It balances philosophical ideas and narrative tension within a labyrinthine plot that engages in various forms, degrees and intensities.

Whether for its visceral popcorn thrills, elegantly laid out action sequences, boldness and restraint, this ambitious film knows how to manipulate its thematic fetishes and its complicated narrative structure.

Like its own theme, Inception taps into the subconscious of each viewer in its relatively comprehensible way. Orchestrated by a crafting hand of a director who knows what he wants and how to make things happen, even the most obscure details get digested as the film cinematically sells its conceptual and emotional investments. It’s bold, intense, exhilarating, engaging, and impressive. It is complex yet coherent. It’s something that can benefit repeated viewings and feed the viewer with something new or different each time. Preposterous, yet ingeniously done, it offers such an entertaining ride. It serves as a popcorn flick, too!

While it is ambiguous enough to lead to conflicting opinions, the main purpose of the film is to engage the intellect about its theme and concept, not just merely figuring out which one is real, which one is a dream. While additional viewings are needed to personally provide a more solid analysis and opinion about the film’s ending, it seems more like the filmmaker crafts this opus in a way that there is no concrete interpretation to dictate to each and everyone that something is or is not.

The various elements, symbolisms, characterizations, and dialogues are carefully planted in a way that they work together to let the audience go beyond the need to figure out a twist or find out the “truth” behind the main story. Like how actual dreams are, Inception is open to different interpretations. And it does so without making specific aspects of it bug its quality down. It works in higher levels of film viewing that it touches something beyond a film viewer’s surface thinking, quite different from how s/he would typically treat other movies. And this is what makes Inception seem quite different from the usual. It is endlessly elliptical and it works in many facets. It allows its tagline “Your mind is the scene of the crime” validate itself; while its grand provisions for a visual feast keep up with the more palpable sense of its thrilling ride.

Inception isn’t perfect. Yet, its weak points are unquestionably shadowed by its brilliant and meandering machinations. The film splurges and invests in its concept, story, script, visuals, sound, emotions, and intellect, in accordance to how the film language can intangibly bring out all its cinematic ideas and values across.

Like Leonardo diCaprio’s character Cobb, Nolan is a meticulously skilled extractor and an architect of deep and provoking thoughts. He is a sly narrative tactician who juggles at big ideas and make people think about his idea. He takes the audience to a pleasurable trip through varying mental labyrinths filled with elegant dreamscapes and genuine human drama. It has a sort of paradoxical architecture of its own as Nolan offers a clockwork-precise showmanship in every scene. By the film’s ending, he impressively allows the characters to wake up from their dreams to figure out what’s real. Yet, whether for his film’s characters or for his film audience, things doesn’t really end there…

Inception is a rare movie project that can be enjoyed on a superficial and/or progressively deeper level of viewing. It uncannily fascinates the audience as the story moves further into the challenging layers of the subconscious mind. It is a work of a visionary. For all its high production values and budget requirements, this is the kind of film that the big movie studios should support more often.

Twilight Saga: Eclipse Film Review – Eclipse Continues to Suck Blood Out of Pop Culture

Eclipse Continues to Suck Blood Out of Pop CultureBy Rianne Hill Soriano

Twilight Saga: Eclipse is a compelling sequel certain to enthrall die-hard fans.

Twilight is now a legendary brand famous for its teenage angst, pale make-up, and otherworldly love triangle. Now a historical movie franchise breaking box office records worldwide, this third installment clearly marathons every opportunity to please fans. While they ultimately deserve more, this movie successfully utilizes the right blood type to fuel all its bankable possibilities. And whatever critics and non-fans say, its hard-core followers ultimately back up this romantic fantasy flick as an ultimate cash cow.

Eclipse is dull, boring, and overly dramatic; unless the viewer finds it therapeutic, entertaining, or orgasmic to see perfectly pale and powerful vampires and perfectly chiseled, shirtless werewolves making a regular girl happy on the big screen. If just for those, this movie is a sure winner. The movie marathons to as much close-ups and beauty shots while the actors and actresses try to put life to their clichéd lines. Add up some action to boost things up in between the many drags, and that’s about it.

Its vampire boy-meets-ordinary girl-meets werewolf boy story can already be effectively told in a short movie, but of course, the studio needs to prolong it as much as it can. To keep up with the feature-length movie requirement, Eclipse incorporates many visceral set pieces, stylistic flashbacks, and impassioned sentiments to keep the viewers hanging on to its swoony tale of forbidden love.

There’s no middle ground with the Twilight Saga: Either the viewer surrenders to the value of this movie version of the Stephenie Meyer bestseller or the viewer walks out feeling lifeless in disappointment. One thing is for sure, this film confidently provides the commercial requirements to make fans satisfied.

In its own mediocre level, Eclipse’s good points are its pretty good make-up, atmospheric feel, and art direction setting the mood for a sort of emotional pornography for teenagers. The “melodramatic crush factor” works well for those craving for such inner adolescent fantasies. The marketing strategy establishing the vampire-wolf division “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob,” along with the “in-Bella’s shoes” girl fantasies, is developed pretty well throughout the movie. It validates its teen-friendly demeanor where words overcome sexual urges and where fight scenes are meant for viewers who are only concerned about the protagonists winning and looking so cool with it.

Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, and Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black embrace their own sense of camp in this movie about teenage uncertainty, emotional highs and lows, and impassioned teenage love. It is not the stunning locations, special effects, or the plot that “Twilighters” will keep in mind, it’s the characters and their relationships that they shall remember.

Director David Slade taps into what Twilight fans want. He keeps it cold and lifeless in a way that the ultimate teenage fantasies about the characters become the full movie. The adolescents and the adolescents at heart don’t mind how characters shamelessly have their buttons pushed as long as they can relate to these characters’ own personal hurdles.

Eclipse manages to create a teen drama effectively utilizing its cheesy special effects to stage chaste, romantic tensions against the many scenic backdrops. It demonstrates adolescent longing and primal physical confrontations where the ultimate damsel in distress gets saved by not one but two “prince charmings,” not to mention their whole clans helping out.

For those seeking for a quality film offer, this 124-minute movie about convoluted passions and hormonal outrage cries out for life. It seeks for a life-saving blood transfusion. It is like watching two lovers looking at each other’s eyes and feeling the ultimate magic of being in love; while anyone not relating to it would most likely feel bored or apathetic.

With fans undoubtedly willing to get bitten, this third chapter in the Twilight Saga remains foremost a flick for devotees. Given the strength of this franchise, the least non-fans can wish for is for the next chapter/s to take the challenge of better quality over the shallowness of its comfort zone. If it continues to be this programmed and predictable, the only thing to remember it by is that it sucks the blood out of pop culture; while it leaves everybody else outside dead cold.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army Movie Review: High Fantasy Vs. Pop Culture Kitsch

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Shrek Forever After Film Review: Ogre Forever After

Ogre Forever After
By Rianne Hill Soriano

Shrek Forever After is technically fine, but it’s only mildly entertaining. While the pleasant nostalgia is a given that it renders something familiarly successful, the monstrously good fun has already faded for this fourth and last installment of the Shrek franchise. In comparison, it goes “far, far away” from the first two of the now four Shrek movies. It is not exactly “cat-astrophic nor ri-donke-lous,” at the least. Its saving graces are the solid performances for the movie’s bankable characters that breathe life into this commercially mandated and creatively bankrupt effort.

The quick wit and pop-culture referencing that made Shrek a fun movie doesn’t feel the same anymore after a decade down the line.  It falls flat when it comes to the supposed one-liners and adorable critters. It still maintains some appeal, but the fun and energy feels kind of forced already.

Director Mike Mitchell and scriptwriters Josh Klausner and Darren Lemke are all new to the franchise, yet the movie looks so derivative. There are only simple and minimal changes on a distinctly surface level (primarily a darker mise-en-scéne), but deep down, it’s just a tired offer.

Shrek Forever After is very much a recycled treat that bases everything about it for the fad on 3D technology. As a last dance for the profitable green ogre, this one last hit for the marketable business franchise is clearly a cash cow product. Yet, it has undoubtedly captured a steady audience after establishing an impressive past and setting a new trend in mainstream animated films during its heyday. Now, after almost a decade, it keeps its general charm and viability amidst being narratively overcooked and comically undernourished. While this final attempt to profit on the Shrek motion picture fame is a rather modest affair that barely exerts an independent quality and charm for itself, the characters viewers have learned to love through the years keep this movie hanging. Add up the expensive tickets from 3D theaters and everything really goes into the Dreamworks cash register.

Interestingly, after three movies aimed at children and adolescents, this final Shrek movie is aimed more or less at middle-aged men than attracting new younger recruits. Perhaps, Shrek Forever After is really aimed just for its “grown-up followers” (both the grown up kid and adult fans from the past films, but with more focus on the middle-aged adults). Its theme even centers on adult issues and concerns more than trivial children stuff. With this part of the film, it works in the sense that it allows adult viewers to relate to Shrek’s own midlife crisis, Puss’ obesity, among other things.

Mike Myers and company pull the interest to it when scenes fall flat in the other departments.

With a business kind of thinking, Shrek Forever After is a pretty good deal. After the box office profit, it has a very good market in home video sales together with the rest of the Shrek movies. Indeed, for a Shrek collection with four films to boost, it can live a long and prosperous life for the general collection of most households, and it is expected to be one of those movies meant for babysitting the kids inside the homes.

MacGruber Movie Review: MacGruber is MacAwful

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With references from the classic action TV series MacGyver, MacGruber is a popular Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch gone really MacAwful in its movie version.
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Ninja Assassin Movie Review: Splatter On, Adrenaline Junkies’ Ninja Fli

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Shrek Forever After Movie Review: Happily Ogre After?

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For its long-time followers, Shrek Forever After is passable entertainment. It’s for those who have grown with the franchise’s predecessors and not the type that can add any new toddler fans.
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The Time Traveler’s Wife Movie Review: “Time Warping” Love and Destiny

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Robin Hood Film Review: Bull’s Eye Action But Miles of Missed Storytelling

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Robin Hood is a sweeping epic complete with spectacle and pageantry; yet, it collapses into an epic cliché.
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Iron Man 2 Movie Review: The Iron Man Element Still Works

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Clearly and wittily exuding a screwball vibe filled with action and techno treats, “Iron Man 2″ lives up to the idea of slam-bang entertainment. It is undoubtedly a solid blockbuster sequel with a few faults that people won’t mind overlooking.
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Iron Man 2 Film Review: The Iron Man Element Still Works

The Iron Man Element Still Works
By Rianne Hill Soriano

“Iron Man 2” keeps its visual and polished appeal. It is entertaining enough but falls a little short of delivering anything new, other than rediscovering its “new element.” Yet, it doesn’t really oblige itself to, anyway. It packs itself with a cool “Iron Man” air and it blasts things in awesome ways.

More than just being a popcorn spectacle with a typically mainstream plot, the shots are impressively well thought off, the acting performances are engaging, the sound elements and music deliver well, and the special effects are visual grabbers.

Robert Downey Jr. and the rest of the cast fill this superhero flick with solid performances fitting its action-techno-fantasy package. His style for witty dialogue with deadpan delivery continues to own and entertain the part. His portrayal of billionaire industrialist Tony Stark and his superhero alter ego Iron Man continues to be the movie’s most compelling component and the franchise’s strongest asset. People can keep such satisfied popcorn smiles while watching the movie.

“Iron Man 2” soars high amidst the heavy metal it wears. There are fewer surprises and exhilarating scenes than its smarter predecessor and there are a few moments of contrivances, but this sequel is still a thrilling and charming offer.

Other than its heavy reliance on CGI, action sets, and stunts, both its production team and cast members live up to the task of making the film a worthwhile action-packed film. It has an aptly fast-paced and glossy look that overwhelms its not so engaging plot. It remains mindlessly entertaining from the technophile’s haven scenes to the fight and chase scenes. The industrialist clunks sometimes get slightly annoying, but it remains mindlessly entertaining with all the big guns, high tech gadgets, cool cars, flashy metal suits and machinery plot.

The filmmakers seem conscious of both the advantages and disadvantages of fight scenes involving faceless actors in big titanium battle suits. The insert shots of their faces from inside their metal gears work. But interestingly, Tony Stark’s scenes are more point blank solid if compared to the showy Iron Man fight scenes. As usual, Downey’s performance as the man outside the suit works best whenever he is hanging out and having fun.

The verbose parts, mostly from the bantering moments and tireless arguments between the main tandems (Tony and Pepper; Hammer and Ivan), are fun and charming. Snappy one-liners also help the movie build up well.

More than his own charismatic personality transcending on screen, Downey’s character really blends well with his colleagues in the acting department. Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts provides wit, energy, and chemistry with the leading man as she offers a beating heart to the story without resulting to cheesiness. Scarlett Johannson as Natalie Rushman/Natasha Romanoff effectively steals the show with her fight scene. Her cyborg-ish looks also add to the film’s visual commercial flavor.

Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer and Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko are great additions to the movie. Their characters are well developed; thus, making the typical plot and characterization work to the movie’s advantage. Rockwell’s smarmy acting is effectively irritating. He really measures up to the need of the story for such a selfish corporate freak character. Rourke is awesome with his very convincing performance as a Russian techno genius with a streak of both serious and comic personalities. He promotes a wide range of emotion than makes him such a driving force on the other end of the Iron Man’s superhero spectrum.

Don Cheadle as Lt. Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine doesn’t really transcend to the investment already made by Terrence Howard’s charismatic performance for the first “Iron Man.” It’s such a disappointing change that really affects this significant part of the franchise. Personally, Howard’s Rhodey is a bull’s eye in the same way as Downey’s Stark. Unfortunately, Cheadle doesn’t live up well as a needed replacement.

Garry Shandling as Senator Stern delivers greatly as the typical politician modeling in front of the public’s eye. Leslie Bibb as the journalist Christine Everheart is a recognizable face from the first “Iron Man” and she keeps her short but significant appearance in this sequel. Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury also has a short screen time; and yet, how he handles his role quite peaks the interest for his character. Favreau again appears more than just the director as he plays the part as the funny Happy Hogan for the second time around. Stan Lee makes another fun cameo in the movie.

This movie is another treat for those who pay respect to the credits. After the long scroll filled with endless names and production credits of people who really worked hard to make this cinematic project how it is, people staying get a glimpse of what’s in store for the next “Iron Man” sequel.

Clearly and wittily exuding a screwball vibe filled with action and techno treats, “Iron Man 2” lives up to the idea of slam-bang entertainment. Indeed, this franchise isn’t rusty yet. It is undoubtedly a solid blockbuster sequel with a few faults that people don’t mind overlooking.

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I Love You, Beth Cooper is average stuff… that is to compare what you see in the unimaginative trailer and what this teen movie rehash actually delivers for its worn out theme and story.
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Lucky You movie review: A poker life

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