Movie Reviews

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.

Evangelists dominate Sunday morning services in their mega-churches, yoga gurus instruct scantily-clad men and women to contort their bodies in heated rooms, and self-help authors coach their students to create image boards. This is just a small sample of people who lead religious or spiritual lessons to millions of men and women looking for their place in the world, or even their own bodies.

How does a massive cinematic franchise return when it unlinks itself from the convergence of another colossal franchise? How does one re-assimilate into society after a major traumatic event, perhaps war, between countries, between galaxies? Iron Man 3 follows Tony Stark’s post-Avengers’ life, the role that disfigurement has on traumatized individuals, and the very real implications of military and terrorist-industrial complexes.

Predestination may force certain individuals to chase their supposed privileges or reject them entirely. In The Place Beyond the Pines, we see the catalysts and the outcomes of these polarities test the role of revenge on an intimate family feud. This melodramatic thriller is told in three parts, from the perspectives of two men and their genetic legacies.