Once again, the DC universe sings an all-too-familiar tune with their new superhero/supervillain flick.  Wasted talent, music, and special effects lead the audience astray from their expectations going into Suicide Squad.  The only decently written character in the film turns out to be Deadshot.  Will Smith (Men in Black, I Am Legend, The Pursuit of Happyness) gives a refreshing performance as the assassin, leading a gang of supervillains to do good.  Unfortunately, his gang is full of misfits with poor scripts and undeveloped backgrounds.  David Ayer (Fury, End of Watch) seems to have tried a little too hard to make all of these characters relatable.  The finished product moves quickly through all of their backgrounds, leaving a lot of plot holes and storylines that could be used as individual movies.  Margot Robbie's (The Wolf of Wall Street, Focus) Harley Quinn was portrayed as a stand-out character in the trailers, but ends up as a surface character without depth.  Her one-liners all fall short, detracting from any chuckles that I hoped to get out of the film.  I understand that DC is going for a dark and grittier tone than Marvel, but we need a few decent laughs over the course of two hours!

Jared Leto's (Requiem for a Dream, Dallas Buyers Club) hype for the film through method acting also ends up going to waste.  Jared Leto's Joker is barely in the film and barely fits into the story at all.  This is a Joker that the audience has never seen before on the big screen.  That's cool, but I have no desire to spend any more time watching this Joker.  The Joker is supposed to be clever and maniacal, but Leto's portrayal is more of a mobster without any sort of purpose aside from gaining capital and bling.  Maybe he is just set-up for the next Batman film, but I'd rather see a fresh villain surface in Ben Affleck's (Argo, Good Will Hunting, Gone Girl, The Town) solo Batman film.  There is another main villain in Suicide Squad, but the villain is not even worthy of time talking about him/her, so I am going to refrain from even discussing that.   

The best part about Suicide Squad is definitely the soundtrack, which deserves a lot of credit.  The soundtrack helps to smooth out the jumpy cutting, bringing spontaneous rap and pop into the storyline.  I also liked the flare in the color palette on the screen.  Neon lights combine well with the music to give younger generations a flick that they can enjoy solely for the art.  I really wanted to fall in love with this film, but DC is struggling to create decent scripts and storylines for their star casts to work with.  Hopefully Ben Affleck's solo Batman film will introduce us to a better DC cinematic universe, but for now I will continue to be excited for Marvel films.  When a Doctor Strange trailer plays before a DC film, you know that the DC cinematic universe is on a bumpy journey!

The Bottom Line: Suicide Squad is the best DC film since The Dark Knight Rises, but that's not really saying much.

Score: 5.5/10

Image credit: ​By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Will Smith & David Ayer, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49300595

On September 1st, 2015 I decided that I wanted to start a blog.  At the time, I was gaining more and more interest in films through classes that I had been taking and involvement in certain organizations such as The Seattle International Film Festival and the University of Washington Film Club.  I found an affinity for film and it's many art forms on the big screen.  In my past, I was always involved in the arts world through music.  

As an avid violin player in multiple groups, I learned to love music and its many uses for creating social connections among cultures.  Eventually, I started to connect my music experience with analyzing the film medium.  Around this same time, I decided that I wanted to try out my hand at a radio station on the UW campus.  Rainy Dawg Radio was looking for volunteers and I applied the previous year but was unable to get into the group.  Originally I expected to run a show on indie music, but there were a lot of other shows already that revolved around the genre.  I settled on using my film experience to create a show about movie music.  Thus, Sounds on Screen was formed as a one-hour show on Rainy Dawg Radio.  Over time, I loved doing the show so much that I expanded the show to a two-hour format, sometimes including special guests.  This brainchild of mine continued to be a fun space for me to express myself and introduce audiences to new music used in film.

During Sounds on Screen, I was looking for ways to try and gain more audience.  I valued the show and wanted as many people that could to hear it.  I chose to create Firstflix as a way to get people more interested in film.  Firstflix started as a review site with Straight Outta Compton as the first featured review.  Since then, the site has grown from being just a review site to featuring many segments ranging from Sounds on Screen (an analysis of one film's soundtrack) to What to Watch (ten recommended films for each week).  As time went on, I started to get onto a routine of blogging three times a day.  The routine created structure for the site and will hopefully help audiences to find the segments they like at the times they like.

At times, I struggle with deciding on whether or not to continue the site.  Monetarily, the site is worthless with a small audience.  Maybe one day, it will gain enough money to afford its own domain from Weebly.  The numbers right now are $23.00 in one year.  Once we reach $100, I plan on instantly buying a domain.  You can help with that goal by donating on the site, but I do not expect readers to donate unless they are truly passionate about the site and want to see it grow.  I believe that if you are passionate about something you should continue to do it until you no longer have that passion.  For now I remain passionate about Firstflix, and I hope that you will find a similar passion with film that I have.  So for now, keep on watching and reading until you find that passion!

-Zach Williams

Finally, Suicide Squad loses its first place position to Don't Breathe.
​
1. Don't Breathe - $26.4M

2. Suicide Squad - $12.2M

3. Kubo and the Two Strings - $7.8M

4. Sausage Party - $7.5M

5. Mechanic: Resurrection - $7.4M

6. Pete's Dragon - $7.4M

7. War Dogs - $7.0M

8. Bad Moms - $5.5M

9. Jason Bourne - $5.1M

10. Ben-Hur (2016) - $4.5M 

Image credit: ​By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Stephen LangUploaded by maybeMaybeMaybe, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22895999

It has been a long time since I have seen this play, but this retelling refreshed my memory of the great tragedy written by William Shakespeare.  Kenneth Branagh (Valkyrie) reimagines the play with a modern touch and an older age group of actors than I have ever seen.  Some of this works for the better, but a lot of the changes fall flat and detract from the emotions of the original story.  I liked the noir atmosphere that often surrounded the stage with smooth jazz.  This ambience felt fresh and original, making it easier for the audience to connect with the old play.

My biggest issue for this retelling of Romeo and Juliet was the age of a lot of the actors.  Romeo and Juliet are usually young and innocent lovers, but Branagh's troupe chose to cast Lily James (Cinderella) as Juliet and Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) as Romeo.  Lily James is 27 years old and Richard Madden is 30 years old, so let's keep those ages in mind.  Those are both 10 years over the ages of Shakespeare's characters.  To be fair, James tries to make her character younger by portraying the nervousness of a young lover.  Yet, her character comes across as frantic and becomes annoying after the first hour or so.  James and Madden both give decent performances, it's just hard to put them in the shoes of Romeo and Juliet.  Mercutio is played by Derek Jacobi (Gladiator, The King's Speech), which is another older choice for the character.  Jacobi brings great comedy and gravitas to his performance, but he is another odd choice to fill this Shakespeare role.

At first, I was not sure if I was going to write about the play because it was filmed during a live performance.  During a live performance, the audience gets to look where they want to at all times.  However, when an event like this is filmed the editors choose what the audience can see at certain times.  One of the more interesting choices for the filming is the black and white coloring.  I am not sure why they chose black and white for the film, maybe it was to give a noir tone to the viewer.  Personally, I would have enjoyed seeing the real coloring of the stage and costuming, but this was the director's choice for the filming so I respect that.  

The Bottom Line:  Overall the play is modernized with its staging and filming, but younger viewers might struggle to relate to it because of its older cast and black-and-white color palette. 

Score: 6.5/10 

"If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it."  -Gene Wilder 

Filmography highlights:
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
The Producers (1967)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
and so many more...

This man could truly make anyone smile and his values of happiness shine bright even with his passing.

Image credit: By Towpilot - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1137138

Proclaiming itself as the first feature film about EDM culture, XOXO lacks relatable characters in its dream world.  I will admit that XOXO has a sort of charm around it, but there is a bit too much for my taste.  The film opens with the mayhem involved in the EDM world and constantly reminds us of how zany music festivals can really be.  Drugs are prevalent, sex is prevalent, and a whole lot of weird people are prevalent.  However, all of the weird people combine to create a diverse form of unity reminding the viewer that everyone in the world should have an equal right to party.  Maybe the cheesy aspects of the film were intentional to portray this message.  Still, the movie as a whole leaves almost no real hidden message that I care to pursue.

All of the characters in the film are given scripts that they are unable to naturally perform.  Almost every moment of dialogue feels inauthentically synthesized by the actors.  I cannot really tell if the problem is the script or the cast, but something did not mesh well in the film's creation.  Another problem is the juggling of six characters in a 1 hour and 32 minute movie.  It's hard to develop that many characters in such a short amount of time.  This short amount of time for each character makes them all unrealistic and fake.  Graham Phillips (Evan Almighty) and Sarah Hyland (Modern Family) lead the cast with potential, but largely miss the bullseye of acting as well-written characters.  Towards the end of the film, each of the characters go through some sort of resolution.  Yet, the process of moving towards the resolution is so swift that we only get a glimpse of each character every five minutes or so.  Christopher Louie (Death Cab for Cutie: Grapevine Fires) directs XOXO as if he is trying to give it as much impact as Crash had on moviegoers.  Falling flat, XOXO disengages from character development so that everyone can live happily ever after.

As an EDM culture film, it is important to recognize the costuming and neon lighting used for the setting.  All of the costuming is stereotypical of a rave, with butterfly wings and multi-colored lipstick.  There is only one character dressed in what you might see when you walk down the street.  The costuming is often alarming and abruptly sexual, but definitely fitting for the film's setting.  The neon lighting at the festival is sleek and attractive, giving the audience a taste of the craziness involved with setting up a DJ's stage.  The music also fits the film, featuring a lot of EDM tracks for audiences to hear.  Basically all of the technical aspects are fitting, but still feel placed in a fake world with fake people.  Louie might have wanted it this way, but I want to see more authenticity in these types of films.

The Bottom Line:  Escaping to this rave might leave you lost and distanced from reality.

Score: 4/10

Image credit: ​By Rick Doble - Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24859006

August 22nd
Farid Ali - Ghuddi
Michael Leader - EastEnders
Jacqueline Pagnol (b. 1920) - Nais

August 23rd
Andreas Barkoulis (b. 1936) - Sta synora tis prodosias
Steven Hill (b. 1922) - Law and Order
Andre Melancon (b. 1942) - La guerre des tuques
Evita Munoz (b. 1936) - Romancing the Stone
Henri de Turenne (b. 1921) - Fort Saganne

August 25th
Marvin Kaplan (b. 1927) - Meet Millie
Davoud Rashidi - Hezardastan

August 26th
Janis Reinis (b. 1960) - Defenders of Riga

Here are some book pairings that go well with films -

1. Cloud Atlas: This is for serious readers who like oddly organized, but really well written books.

2. The Disaster Artist:  All of you Tommy Wiseau fanatics can enjoy this book that stands on the same pedestal as The Room.  It's hilarious, sad, and one of the weirdest books I have ever read.

3. A Walk in the Woods: The book is fantastic, just trust me on that.  Actually this is one of my favorite books of all time and I refuse to watch the film in fear that it will ruin the book.  So for that, I applaud Bill Bryson on his funny and charming writing.

4, Angels and Demons: With Inferno coming to theaters soon, I recommend Angels and Demons as a fun mystery with Robert Langdon.  I honestly cannot get all the way through Inferno, but Angels and Demons was a breeze of a read.

5. Inherent Vice: Yep, it's just as hard to comprehend as the film was, but why not give it a shot?

6. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: A unique writing format creates this lovely read for young adults and old adults alike.  Basically, anyone can find something to enjoy in this book.

7. The Hobbit: I love this book and it is much easier to read than The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  However, if I were just starting to check out The Lord of the Rings universe, I would read The Hobbit and watch Peter Jackson's first three LOTR films.

8. As You Wish: I am currently reading this book, so I will get back to you when I finish it.  So far it is a great companion to The Princess Bride!

And finally, the featured flick of the week:

9. Les Miserables: You may be required to read it in school, but I read it on my own and loved it.  The book took me close to a year to finish (I'm a slow reader), but every bit of it was worth the time.  For this one, the book beats the film by a long shot.  Still, the film has some really good performances, even if Russell Crowe destroyed the best character.  If you like the film, I also encourage you to see a good production of the musical on-stage.  It's awesome to see such a spectacle right in front of you instead of on the big screen sometimes.  

It's a bit late but here are some new flicks to check out that were released on Friday: