Movie Reviews

Director Noah Baumbach’s films tend to be dark comedies with defeated protagonists struggling with constant familial issues, often times at a crossroads in their life and/or career. His previous film Greenberg was one of his darkest and most anxious to date. With Frances Ha, he is reignited with a more lighthearted effort that is heavily influenced by the French New Wave.

The promotional material for The Hangover Part III promises an end to the franchise, which is the most we can wish for after a horrendous second installment. Although surprisingly less predictable and deviating from the common narrative of the first two films, Part III tends to pull off a few worthy laughs, but remains just as unsatisfying.

Directors have dreams and producers have products. One slaves over the same story for month or years to express a grand idea. The other counts pennies to deliver a concise product to earn a profit. Everyone else is in between, contracted to perform duties that will ultimately assist the director and producer, as a team and individually.

It has been nearly a decade since Shane Carruth dropped his 2004 ultra-low-budget, ultra complex sci-fi time travel thriller Primer on the Sundance Film Festival. Between that time and now, he found difficulty working with studios and the weight of larger budgets when developing the now abandoned A Topiary.