The Parallax Review - Articles by Hanna Soltys

Beautiful Girls

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:01 -0600

Beautiful Girls is more than just girls to gawk at on the screen. It’s a look inside the lives of friends, and the way girls shape their lives, from helping the boys figure out their life’s worth and purpose to keeping them warm during the winter months. It’s touching, and most importantly, it’s real.

The Music Never Stopped

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:51:31 -0600

The Music Never Stops, based on a true story and Oliver Sacks’s case study, elicits those same emotions and feelings. After having a brain tumor removed, Gabriel Sawyer (Lou Tyler Pucci) returns to his parents, Henry (J.K. Simmons) and Helen (Cara Seymour), nearly twenty years after leaving them. Gabriel’s prognosis doesn’t look good as his surgery was very invasive, causing him to be in a vegetative-like state. After listening to The Beatles on a nurse’s Walkman (the film takes place in the ’80s), Gabriel seems to awake, but only when the music plays.

Final Analysis

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but what about judging a movie by the movie poster? One glance at Final Analysis would clue you in on what happens in the movie’s 2+ hours length: a steamy sex scene and nothing else much.

The Best Films of 2010

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Toy Story 3It’s hard to believe the we first met Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the toys fifteen years ago. This third and final installment of the widely popular series is, of course, an emotional one. We see Andy…

Somewhere in Time

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Imagine taking The Time Traveler’s Wife and Kate & Leopold, adding some turn-of-the-century ambiance and Superman himself, and you’ll be watching Somewhere in Time. You’ll also most likely fall asleep a few times throughout the whole thing, wondering where your time has gone.

National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Dorm Daze is equivalent to taking some of your favorite 1990s stars and making them fifth-year seniors who live in a dorm that looks like a frat house. It’s completely unrealistic in every sense, from the stereotyping of characters to the dorm rooms to the laundry room to the kitchen.

Serendipity

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:02 -0600

It’s sappy. It’s predictable. It’s completely unrealistic, yet you can’t seem to change the channel. Much like The Notebook and Titanic, Serendipity has become a movie that turning off seems like the greatest sin one could commit. There’s not much character development, yet you still sit there naming friends who embody the twisted soul of Jonathan Trager (John Cusack), the optimistic and live-by-the-seat-of-her-pants Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) and the self-indulgent hippie Lars Hammond (John Corbett).

The Believer

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:00:04 -0600

It’s hard not to like Ryan Gosling. Even as a drugged-up teacher in Half Nelson, you still felt a pull toward him. The Believer is no exception. Had another actor assumed the role of neo-Nazi Danny Balint, you might not enjoy the movie. The fact that Gosling captivates you from the beginning makes you intrigued throughout the film, which at times is a bit hard to watch.

Big Girls Don't Cry... They Get Even

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:00:01 -0600

If Ferris Bueller had been a girl and four years younger, he would have starred in Big Girls Don’t Cry…They Get Even. The film is completely reminiscent of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, with the characters talking to the camera. It’s a hokey film, with hardly any character development, a script with little depth and stereotypical characters, but it’s still surprisingly enjoyable.

Memoirs of an Invisible Man

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 11:35:45 -0600

Like most Chevy Chase movies from the ’90s, Memoirs of an Invisible Man is insanely entertaining, solely thanks to Mr. Chase. While we may not always see Chase, we always hear his voice and can imagine those infamous facial expressions we’ve all come to know and love over the years.

I'll Be There

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600

The only thing I’ll Be There had going for it was Charlotte Church’s voice; otherwise, the film falls flat.

The Next Three Days

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600

The Next Three Days has all kinds of promise in its cast (mainly Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, and Liam Neeson) and its director (Paul Haggis of Crash fame). The film, adapted from the 2008 French film Anything for Her [Pour Elle], which starred Diane Kruger and Vincent Lindon, lacks character development, any type of realistic situations and has a very misleading trailer.

The Fantasticks

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600

Two teenagers, Matt Hucklebee (Joey McIntyre) and Luisa Bellamy (Jean Louisa Kelly), live on neighboring farms and their fathers bicker constantly at one another. As expected, the two fall in love with each other, but must keep their relationship under wraps so as not to offend their fathers.

Southern District [Zona Sur]

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:43:42 -0600

Sometimes a film comes along that shows you despite a weak and bleak script, a movie can still be stunning. Southern District earns this distinction. The film takes place in a family home. The family literally never leaves the compound. And ironically, the sex-crazed son, Patricio (Juan Pablo Koria), rarely leaves his bedroom.

Trust

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:40:43 -0600

This year, we have seen movies take a shift into a new topic: The online realm. From Catfish to The Social Network, movies are talking about what everyone else on the planet is talking with: Facebook, Gchat, Twitter, iChat, et cetera.

Trust touches on this theme once the high school freshman Annie Cameron (Liana Liberato) meets Charlie, a high school volleyball player from California, in a chat room. Charlie and Annie begin sharing photos, texts, tips on how Annie can make the team, et cetera. Annie, like so many young girls, begins quite an infatuation with Charlie. She then learns he lied about his age. He’s really a 20-year-old. Then he lies again. He’s really a 25-year-old. And guess what? He lied again.