Chase Whale
Featured Critic;
Los Angeles, California
In 2007, Chase Whale co-founded the little movie website that could, GordonandtheWhale.com (now defunct). Through GATW, he covered Cannes, Sundance, SXSW, the Toronto International Film Festival, and Comic-Con, along with junkets in London, Toronto, and other parts of the world. In 2009, NBC named him one of the 25 most interesting people in Dallas, along with Erykah Badu and Nolan Ryan. Later that year, The Wrap listed him among 30 Movie Insiders to Follow Right Now On Twitter. Before moving to LA, he was a member of the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, and the Austin Film Critics Association.
Review: STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, a Subpar Dark Comedy Almost Saved by a Knockout Performance from Allison Janney
For a lot of people, high school was never fun - the bullies, the pimples, and the god awful cafeteria food. For Carson Phillips (Glee's Chris Colfer, who also wrote the film), high school became the death of him. His dad...
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Exclusive: First Trailer for BLACK METAL, Set to Rage at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival
I admire filmmaker Kat Candler's affinity for chaos. Last year at Sundance, she brought her short film Hellion (currently being written into a feature film), about a rambunctious group of boys. This year, she's bringing more anarchy to Park City with her...
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VIDEO: LOOPER Interactive Live Chat with Writer/Director Rian Johnson
Here's the video of the Looper interactive live chat with writer/director Rian Johnson that I moderated on Monday at the Sony lot. This method was very new for me since it was all online and I'm used to doing...
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Want to Chat with LOOPER's Writer and Director Rian Johnson? Here's Your Chance.
Don't Twitch that dial - we have an important message for you. Tomorrow, Monday December 17, at 8pm EST / 5pm PST, I will be moderating a live Q&A with the brilliant mind behind Looper, Rian Johnson. What's in it for you,...
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Review: THE GIRL Splashes Abbie Cornish's Fantastic Acting, But the Film is Dead in the Water
There are two films titled The Girl that were released this year. One stars Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock and is about his unsuccessful journey to swoon Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) during the filming of The Birds and Marnie, which...
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Review: SAVE THE DATE, A Delightful Movie About a Female Slacker and Her Mushy Men
Bookstore manager and freelance artist Sarah (Lizzy Caplan) plans on getting her shit together. Someday. But not anytime soon. When we first meet Sarah, she's moving into an apartment with her rock star boyfriend, Kevin (Geoffrey Arend). Helping them is Sarah's...
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Review: WAITING FOR LIGHTNING Strikes as One of The Best Documentaries Made About Skateboarding
There's been a few* flawless documentaries about the skateboard industry. Two are Dogtown and the Z-Boys and Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, which were both made by the guy who perhaps saved skateboarding, Stacy Peralta. In those docs, he focuses on...
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Review: DEADFALL Flaunts Eric Bana's Badassery, But Not Much Else
Deadfall really hits the ground running. Addison (Eric Bana) and his sister Liza (Olivia Wilde) are celebrating her first casino heist. En route to the Canadian border, freedom is temporarily put on hold when their vehicle hits a deer, sending...
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Review: PRICE CHECK With Parker Posey Is A Snoozy of a Movie
You can usually count on Parker Posey. Her untiring comedy and witty improv helped her gain notoriety in the 90s, starring (at a young age) alongside older generation comedic vets in Christopher Guest films. This Party Girl was hailed as...
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Review: NATURE CALLS For a Limited Audience
I first learned of writer/director Todd Rohal when I saw his film The Catechism Cataclysm (or Cat Cat for short) at Sundance two years ago. You will either love or hate this film's guts -- I love it. I described...
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AFI 2012 Fest Review: ALL THE LIGHT IN THE SKY Shines on Love, Life, and the Wonders of Living in L.A.
There's a warm fire to Joe Swanberg's All the Light in the Sky. Co-written by and starring Jane Adams (Happiness, Hung), All the Light follows a few days in the life of a moderately successful actress, Marie (Adams). She...
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AFI Fest 2012 Review: Amy Seimetz' Feature Debut SUN DON'T SHINE Haunts and Thrives
There's a small scene in Sun Don't Shine that keeps playing over in my head. A woman is telling a story about the time she was making a pizza and almost burned her house down. She mixed her prescribed...
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Review: SMASHED Offers a Sobering Look at a Young Alcoholic
Young and in love, married couple Kate and Charlie Hannah like to get smashed. Like GG-Allin-meeting-your-Christian-parents smashed, someone is going to vomit and piss themselves at some point in the night. They spend their days in bars getting drunk and...
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Review: MIDDLE OF NOWHERE Takes Us On A Pleasing Road of Self-Discovery
Ruby (Emayatzy Corinealdi) is on a road to nowhere. She just dropped out of med school to work full time in hopes of getting her husband out of jail for being bad once (really nice of her, right?). Things really...
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Review: BUTTER is a Sassy Movie That Spreads Charm and Laughs. And Butter.
Greed. Blackmail. Sex. Butter. Are you hooked yet? OK, read on and give this a chance. Butter stars Jennifer Garner and Ty Burrell as Laura and Bob Pickler. They live in a small town in Iowa and are Small Town...
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TIFF 2012 Review: SMASHED Faces the Awkward Side of Sobriety
Young and in love, married couple Kate and Charlie Hannah like to get smashed. Like GG-Allin-meeting-your-Christian-parents smashed, someone is going to vomit and piss themselves at some point in the night. They spend their days in bars getting drunk...
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Comic-Con Day One Recap: "Male Pattern Badness"
Today marked the first time in four years that I have been back to Comic-Con. My first experience was very unpleasant - too many slow walking, smelly strangers, and I have the craziest claustrophobia. This phobia gets so overbearing at times that I...
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LAFF 2012 Interview: The Wonderfully Weird Wayne White and BEAUTY IS EMBARRASSING Director Neil Berkeley
A few days ago I was talking to BEAUTY IS EMBARRASSING's director Neil Berkeley on Twitter about setting up an interview. I saw the film a few days ago and it's unquestionably one of the best of the fest....
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LAFF 2012 Interview: PINCUS Writer/Director David Fenster
I have a lot of respect for David Fenster. He made an excellent movie called PINCUS, about a slacker with heart who takes cares of his father with Parkinson's Disease. He got really up-close-and-personal for the film and cast...
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LA Film Fest 2012 Exclusive: First Character Posters for Alex Karpovsky's RED FLAG
I have to hand it to Alex Karpovsky. Every time I attend a film festival, he's either acting in a movie playing there, or has directed one. This guy is always working. His hard work has really paid off on...
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