Writer-director Adam Green’s “Frozen,” a Sundance 2010 entry, is a high-concept chiller trapping talkative post-teens atop a high-high-up ski-lift overnight with increasingly implausible but not quite risible complications. (Its programming at midnight in the ski resort of Park City is wittier than much of the film itself.) Call it “Open Water” with wolves, or “Lifeboat” with down jackets instead of lifejackets. The complications deliver on genre expectations, but “Frozen” doesn’t rise farther than that. The characters are paranormal chatterboxes. The sometimes-inventive cinematography is by Will Barratt. With Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell. 94m. (Ray Pride)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Uncanny Ally: A Review Of M3GAN "M3GAN" sells itself in its first handful of seconds in how it introduces the handiwork of roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams, "Get Out") and her present product, PurrPetual Petz from Funki.
Writer-director Adam Green’s “Frozen,” a Sundance 2010 entry, is a high-concept chiller trapping talkative post-teens atop a high-high-up ski-lift overnight with increasingly implausible but not quite risible complications. (Its programming at midnight in the ski resort of Park City is wittier than much of the film itself.) Call it “Open Water” with wolves, or “Lifeboat” with down jackets instead of lifejackets. The complications deliver on genre expectations, but “Frozen” doesn’t rise farther than that. The characters are paranormal chatterboxes. The sometimes-inventive cinematography is by Will Barratt. With Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell. 94m. (Ray Pride)
