“Zero Dark Thirty” Review: Torture Controversy in bin-Laden Raid Movie Absurd

Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal have caught a lot of flack for their portrayal of torture in Oscar-nominated film Zero Dark Thirty, detailing the operation that resulted in the death of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin-Laden. Ultimately, the controversy says a lot more about the state of Hollywood than it does about the film.

Bigelow handles the loaded issue of torture in a manner in line with her cinematic vision, as witnessed in prior films such as 2008’s The Hurt Locker. That being said, her latest movie harbors, if anything, an anti-torture message, although it requires a bit of discernment on the part of her audience to notice. Fortunately, the Flatiron Hot! News critic is on hand with 800 words of discernment.

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Flatiron Hot! Review: Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained

There’s something to be said for an artist who is out to please only himself. But when the product of the ensuing creative narcissism is so arcane as to be unfathomable to those who do not share the artist’s fetishes, then it is deprived of a certain universal quality present in the greatest of art. It has long been said that Quentin Tarantino has abandoned making movies in the traditional sense and has instead taken up the postmodern indulgence of making movies about movies.

To an extent, this has been the case since Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino’s most critically acclaimed and greatest cinematic achievements possessed more than a few elements of pastiche. But beneath all the allusions and arcane stylistic flourishes, one could still discern a beating heart. With Death Proof, which Tarantino correctly deemed his creative low point, the director completely abandoned any pretense of traditional cinematic ambitions with breakneck style over substance.

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Flatiron Hot! Critic: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel, The Hobbit, has captured the imaginations of young readers for decades. Therefore, in typical Hollywood fashion, the novel has been adapted for the big screen in three separate parts. The first installment of the series, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, was directed by the famous Peter Jackson (with a screenplay co-written by Guillermo del Toro), who garnered worldwide acclaim for his film adaptions of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

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The Dilemma of The Brainy Sci-Fi Blockbuster (BSFB): Looper

Flatiron Hot! Critic on those Sci-Fi BLockbusters …

Like many Brainy Sci-Fi Blockbusters (BSFBs), Looper begins with an emphasis on its intellectual side. The film’s basic premise is that in the distant future, crime syndicates have devised a new, foolproof way of making their enemies disappear: sending them back in time to be executed by agents known as Loopers. The moral implications of this concept bring up interesting thematic possibilities.

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