Eli Brumfield in an actor/screenwriter from Seattle Washington, living in Los Angeles.
He is the host of the RV8 Podcast.
He hates the word cinefile, but considering how many films he consumes in a week...and how many films he goes out of his way to see, no matter the genre...he kinda seems to be one.
A lot of things work for this film. Amy Adams is a surefire Oscar nominee for Best Actress, and the screenplay might get a lot of love too. This is a very honest and realistic depiction of what it’s like to be a single mom in 2024. This is a very emotionally ugly film a lot of the time. But if you’re going to depict the practical impossibilities of a “traditional” type of marriage, then the ugliness needs to be…
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Without question one of the best films of 2024. Extremely powerful stuff here. Jude Law has got Oscar nominations for less impressive work than what he does in this film and Nicholas Hoult might be a shoo-in for Supporting Actor nominations in the future. The script is absolutely incredible as well. Word around the campfire was that when it came to this film it was kind of a throwback to the William Friedkin days of crime thrillers and it’s a…
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Shaky cam was really adorable…back in 2008. When Paul Greengrass used it incessantly it made sense because it was the visual style for THE BOURNE TRILOGY. Any other usage of shaky cam since the last Jason Bourne movie has been borderline hotshot bull****. The first act of BIRD was super duper shaky in the most egregious and unnecessary way, and I was borderline on the verge of walking out. However, in the second act, the film recovers very well, and…
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I’m just resigned to the fact that I just don’t understand Pedro Almodovar’s work as a whole. He always manages to make beautiful-looking films with amazing performances… but more than half of the time his characters don’t have any arcs, and his stories feel glacially slow. I defy anybody to watch this film and tell me that these characters change in any way whatsoever throughout the course of the film. I try really hard with Almodovar flicks. I really do.…
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This story of two Palestinian cousins trapped in a purgatory-esque side of Athens is nothing short of incredible. The only issue with this film is that I wish it wasn’t so heavily influenced by MIDNIGHT COWBOY. Respectfully, there’s so much stuff in this movie that is directly borrowed from that movie that it feels like a remix of a really, really, old song. Mahmood Bakri and Aram Sabbah give very complex, Oscar-level performances and director Mahdi Fleifel is an incredible…
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There was a pretty big line for this, so I jumped in – not necessarily knowing what it was all about. Went in totally blind. I’ll be honest, I don’t necessarily understand the energy or the message that is trying to be conveyed. The whole film feels very esoteric in many different ways. The camera work in this movie is very idyllic, but also a very long drawn-out 30-seconds-a-pop kind of shots. Add to that the demonic-sounding voiceover that comes,…
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For my first time at AFI (American Film Institute) Fest, I have to say I made a couple of mistakes when it came to signing up for screenings. I admittingly was lacking when it came to signing up for some of the big red carpet premieres that were here. Films like here (starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright), Maria (starring Angelina Jolie), Juror #2 (which may be the very last film from Clint Eastwood), and heretic (starring Hugh Grant) will…
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There are two things that horror movies tend to iconize. The obvious ones are horror characters. Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, and Leatherface are what I like to call the big four. Venerable horror figures with franchises that can last the test of time. Horror characters that multiple actors can play without anybody getting upset about it. I’m a man of a certain age, and the Halloween costumes of all four characters are just as relevant now as they were in…
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PREMISE Global pop star Sky Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and explicable events. She’s forced to face her past as these events escalate everything surrounding her life. THE GOOD STUFF NAOMI SCOTT – There’s a big difference between what is referred to as a scream queen and just a good actress in a horror movie. Scream Queens encompass all the traditional things that have defined scream Queens over time (sex appeal, loud screaming, girl next door type of image). Scream…
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