The Foxy Film Fan

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) I, like many other twenty-somethings who were raised on a steady diet of Harry Potter books and films, was absolutely ecstatic when the a new movie taking place within the Harry Potter universe was announced. Unfortunately, high hopes often lead to great disappointment, and while Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  is certainly a solid film, it failed to live up to the high expectations set by the Harry Potter franchise preceding it. Fantastic Beasts  opens with a promising premise, involving a mysterious and lovable new protagonist who's left racing through New York City to gather the magical creatures he accidentally set loose, but quickly falls apart when it struggles to offer anything else. Characters are rarely developed beyond the archetypical roles they must fulfill in order for the plot to move forward, and plot beats are hit like dominos aligned in a straight line. The film simply offers little to no unexpec...

Harrison Feldman and  Bethany Whitmore in Girl Asleep (2015) Girl Asleep  is simultaneously two movies; one is fantastic, the other is absolutely terrible.  As the name implies, a large portion of the film is entirely comprised of one lengthy dream sequence (because short dream sequences aren't obnoxious enough, right?), and it simply doesn't work, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Girl Asleep  is, at first, a charming little independent film about fourteen year old Greta Driscoll, a shy girl who is dreading life at a new school after moving with her eccentric and often times overbearing parents. There, she meets Elliott, an odd but friendly and promising new friend, who seems ecstatic at the notion of befriending the new girl in school. Initially, Girl Asleep  comes across as something which may have been made by the likes of Wes Anderson. It has a clear and crisp visual style, with bright colors, odd and unique mapped out camera shots which are stationary...