Sure they're my friends. Don't try to steal this from me.
Don't you dare try to steal this from me.
http://twistedtwinsproductions.blogspot.com/2012/10/american-thorpey-reviews-american-mary.html
The Awesome Blog
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Review: American Mary
The short review is that it's just really, really good. |
I so totally don't blame you if you're jealous. |
The direction was "act like you don't like each other." Clearly that meant "act like you don't like Sylvia." |
Tristan Risk & the Twins, the darlings of Fantastic Fest. |
A solid alternative title would have been Fun with Surgery! |
Mary, Mother of mod. |
Risk, damn near unrecognizable as Beatress. |
This is all I'm showing you of the Twins. Go see the film. |
Just an aside, but suck a hard one, TIFF. |
Film - 5 out of 5 Stars
Radness - 8 out of 5 Human Corsets
Tribal Scarings - Get out of here
It seems like everything is coming up Milhouse for the Soskas and their American Mary crew. They were picked up by Universal Pictures for European distribution over the summer, which is mind blowing. Monster Pictures is releasing the film in Australia, too. But there was big news revealed last night, and that is that Anchor Bay has bought the Canadian distribution rights, which I'm so stoked about. Now we just have to wait and hope to hear about American distribution. But that's not all: after an already busy year of screening Mary at different festivals, Jen & Sylv are going to be staying on the road for a few weeks more, heading back to LA for Son of Monsterpalooza and then to Monsterfest in Australia, where they get to hang out with THE Elvira.
Yup. |
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Van City Love
Bienvenue, bitches. |
There's a lot of Canadian bacon in this picture. |
Ssssiiiicccckkkk! |
Risk's the girl that there's one of. |
If, for absolutely nothing else, the delicious poutine. |
Listen! Do you smell that? It's not pee! |
Ever swing dance with a flapper? If you haven't, you need to check your priorities. |
There's a legit place called Shenanigans. Sadly, there wasn't really any goofy shit hanging on the walls. |
Fierce |
Sosklove |
A delightful mountain view from Stanley Park |
So this was a building... |
The City by way of Stanley |
They totally love me. I'm totally okay with that. |
See? |
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
It's a Fact: Jen & Sylvia Soska are Taking Over the World
Nerd girls FTW |
If you know me, or regularly read my infrequently updated blog, you'll know that I'm a huge fan of the Twisted Twins, aka Jen & Sylvia Soska, both as writers/directors/everythings and as people (talk about two people who are absolutely amazing to their fans). You can read my first post about them/review of their feature length debut, Dead Hooker in a Trunk, here. Also, if it weren't for them, I never would have made this radgasmic little zombie short, so I kind of owe them, too.
Seriously, who isn't swooning over the Twinniepoos? |
I could gush about them forever, but the three people who read it don't want that, so I'll just make my point: after a killer (pun!) showing at the Cannes Film Festival a few months back, their newest film, American Mary, made quite the splash. A couple of weeks back, the Twins tweeted a message about great news (and subsequent dancing around). The filthy teases. Well, we had to wait until today.
Sosklove |
Dread Central and Daily Dead, among other media outlets, have broke the news that Universal Pictures International Entertainment has picked up the foreign distribution rights for American Mary. This is absolutely amazing news for the Canadian duo, as well as there fans. Now, I, for one, am fiercely waiting for the news of a US distributor for the film, which may or may not be one more of the many rad secrets that the Twins want to share with us, but contractually cannot. Yet. In the meantime, I highly, highly recommend that you watch the American Mary trailer, then rewatch it, then rewatch it like 17 more times (20 times would be far too much...for one sitting...maybe).
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Using That Degree of Mine = Zombies
I graduated from William Paterson University 4 years ago with a degree in Communications, Specialization in Film. In that time, I'd done nothing with it. And that's my fault. Granted, I did some writing on unfinished scripts and ideas, but nothing that came to fruition.
Fast-Forward to a few months ago. I stumbled upon a little gem of a grindhouse film called "Dead Hooker in a Trunk," written/directed/starring/more-or-less everythinged by Jen & Sylvia Soska, a set of hot Canadian twins. I've written about that film before, so let me just reiterate my feelings on it: it's rad. So rad. But getting back on track, the internet has let me become friends with the Twisted Twins, and I'm thankful for that.
It's because of them that I got interested in filmmaking again. So, I banged out a script, rounded up some friends, and filmed (what I think is) a pretty freaking rad little short zombie film. I entered it into a competition in Vancouver. Sadly, I didn't make the finals (not that I was expecting it), but I don't care. I'm so proud of what we accomplished, especially for what little we had.
It's called "Your Time is Up" and is inspired by Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." I truly hope you enjoy it. The fact that anybody's seeing it blows my mind & makes me ecstatic all at the same time.
It's called "Your Time is Up" and is inspired by Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." I truly hope you enjoy it. The fact that anybody's seeing it blows my mind & makes me ecstatic all at the same time.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Review: The Dark Knight Rises
"Batman Batmans the shit out of everything" - James Thorpey |
Break. The. Bat. |
The picture above is an artist's representation of Bane "breaking the Bat." Now, if you are knowledgeable about comics in any way, you already know that Bane was created for the sole purpose to snap Batman's spine, thus causing the Knightfall arc to occur. In every medium that this has been portrayed in, in however many retellings or reimaginings, Bane carries out his plan with extreme precision, and ends it with a vicious wrestling maneuver known as a "backbreaker." Christopher Nolan has recreated that quintessential moment of the Bat-mythos in excruciatingly brutal accuracy. Spoiler alert? Nope. You should know that Bane breaks the Bat to begin with. It's the one thing that everybody should know going into the film.
Because, I mean...damn. |
Let's take a pause right quick to let me discuss the two flaws that I had with this film. Oh, BTDubs, I only had two issues with this film, both dealing with Bane. The first, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks this, s that the sound mixing for Bane was ridiculous. Every time the man spoke, it was so ridiculously loud compared to everybody else. But, you know what? Fine. I got over it quickly. The other issue I took with the film, and this isn't just because I'm a DC fanboy, was the complete absence of Venom (the mutated steroids on...steroids...didn't think that one through. Or did I?) in the film. So, I know I just said that when people think of Bane, they think of him breaking the Bat, but that's not the only thing they think. They also think of lucha libre masks (or mechanical pain-killer jockstraps you wear on the face, as it is in this film) and Venom. I mean, sure, Bane is a ginormous, musclebound beast of a tactician in general, but his whole thing is that he injects himself with Venom to (and forgive me for mixing companies) "Hulk-out" and bring even more pain. That being said, I know that the Nolan Bat films are as realistic as you can really get, and having a tube running to the back of your head that injects yourself with a ridiculous amount of glowing green rage juice isn't realistic. I get that. I knew it was an impossibility from the moment that Bane was announced. But I was shocked to see that Venom was cut completely out of the film. I was really hoping that Nolan was going to show Bane shooting up with some serious juice before fighting Batman. Oh well. Once again, just a little nitpicking that is easy to get over.
Rawr |
There was a lot of moaning and groaning about Anne Hathaway being cast as Catwoman all those months ago. I admit it, I definitely said something along the lines of "Yeah, she'll look really great in skintight leather, but the chick from Bridewars? Really?" (Yeah, I went with the Bridewars reference. You don't get to do that often). But, you know what? I've had this motto since Batman Begins came out, and it goes a little something like this: "In Nolan, we trust." There has not been a Chris Nolan film that I've watched and felt disappointed by, so I figured that he knew what he was doing when he casted her. You know what happened? She blew me away. Anne Hathaway's portrayal of Catwoman was fantastic. She brought a strong, determined mindset to the character. I'd go so far as to say that she may have (almost) stolen the film. Almost. Most importantly, though, is that Hathaway did Catwoman proud. Unlike that abomination that DC tried to pull off a few years ago.
Seriously, what is this garbage? Everybody associated with this owes the estates of Bill Finger & Bob Kane the biggest of apologies. |
But yeah, Anne Hathaway was a pretty puff-fect (yup) Selina Kyle. As always, Bale, Freeman, Oldman, & Caine were top notch, and Tom Hardy was stellar, as Tom Hardy always is. Seriously, have you seen Bronson? Go see Bronson. And, last, but certainly not least...
Tommy Solomon has come a long way. |
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the star of the film. No, seriously. Sure, the movie was about Bane & Batman fighting over Gotham (if you want to get really broad about things), but JGL's John Blake was the heart and soul of the film, and he totally brought his A-game. Now, make all the assumptions you want, but Blake is a wholly new character created for the film. Now, there is a shot (like Harley Quinn, who was created for B:TAS) that he'll be brought into the DCnU, but I doubt it very much. Though, I will say, for those of you who know the comic, and know it well, there are a few nods to the fans. In fact, if you know anything about the Bat-Fam surnames, Blake sounds a lot like somebody else's name... But I'll stop there.
Superfly Pimps |
And now, the numbers:
Movie: 10 out of 10 Stars
Batmanliness: 10 out of 10 Hotlines to the Comissioner
Holy $#!+, Batmans!: 10 out of 10 Ka-Pows!
Long story short, Chris Nolan capped of his Dark Knight Trilogy perfectly. Is The Dark Knight Rises better than The Dark Knight? No, but it's close. Does it kind of tear you up inside that DC is rebooting the franchise already so that they can lead into a Justice League movie? In more ways than one. But you know what? This story is over. Nolan told the tale he wanted, and he told it so damn well. Only one thing to do about it, really...
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Review: Prometheus
Clearly this is one of them feel-good movies. |
Prometheus is the return to a universe that Ridley Scott created way back in 1979 with Alien (which is still the most terrifying film ever made. I defy you to find one scarier). The genesis of the film began years ago, with Scott & Aliens director James Cameron collaborating together to make a film that would probably have been described as a "pants-shittingly scary action-fest." Sadly, this never saw fruition as AVP: Alien vs Predator was green-lit instead, and what a colossal let down that was (at least they had Lance Henriksen playing Charles Bishop Weyland as a nod to the fans). Scott refined the original idea he had been working on and thus Prometheus was born.
If you're looking for a film full of rapey dick-aliens, sorry, brah. |
So, it'd be easy to say that Prometheus is a prequel to Alien, then, right? Well... I mean, it is set in the same universe as the Alien series (but so is the Predator series, as well as Joss Whedon's Firefly and Angel, which also means Buffy is in the same universe, and so on & so forth). Also, it takes place between 2089-2093, which means that it also takes place before Alien. So it HAS to be a prequel. Yeah, but not really. It's complicated. Let's just say that the films are so closely related, and while watching one adds so much more substance to the other, they are more than able to stand on their own as separate film series (serieses? serisess? seri? I just don't know any more).
It should be known that this image is integral to both. |
Long story short, Prometheus is the "God question." Not only does the Greek story of the Titan Prometheus lend it's name to the film, as well as the ship, but the story itself. Prometheus was the being that created and championed mankind, only to be punished for his transgressions. A lone figure standing against the gods. And THAT, gentle readers, is the closest I'm coming to a plot summary for the movie. It should also be stated that the ever amazing Michael Fassbender played the android David 8 with amazing grace, poise, and child-like wonder. [POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILER, BUT ONLY IF YOU'RE A SLIGHT MORON] Yes, the Alien franchise staple of androids full of milk-blood is included. [END SPOILER] I've even created a mathematical equation to explain David 8's personality:
Take Ash from Alien (minus the homicidal personality) |
PLUS
ST:TNG's Data's wonderment |
PLUS
Bishop from Aliens's Loyalty |
EQUALS
This handsome son of a bitch. |
And now, the numbers:
Film: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Suspensefulness: 4 out of 5 Butts on the Edges of Seats
Suspensefulness: 4 out of 5 Butts on the Edges of Seats
Grandeur: 12 out of 5 Glowing Fassbender Smiles
I wish that my hair will one day be as immaculate as his. |
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