"Well, you know what they say: 'Veronica Mars, she's a marshmallow."

Hell frickin' yeah. Airing 10 years ago, Veronica Mars was only a passing thing that I saw on ads as a little kid. But several years after its sad cancellation after season 3, I jumped on the bandwagon and started watching the series. I couldn't help but be absolutely hooked and captivated by its actors, its stories and the general writing and direction of this TV show. With a kickstarter campaign that broke records, Rob Thomas has returned with a bang. The dedication of the fans in creating and raising funds for this movie, even after almost a decade after its cancellation just highlights the brilliance of this show.…

usually when i'm so nonplussed about a film i find myself thinking something to the tune of "well, that was *definitely* a movie." but with VERONICA MARS, i'm not so sure.

of course, the conversation with this film is driven by the question of utility more than anything else. the people who paid for it knew exactly what they were getting, and the movie delivers it to them in spades. except, it doesn't. it exposes and underscores whatever weaknesses were inherent in the characters from the beginning, namely how incredibly fucking dull veronica's love interests are. piz, logan, who gives a shit. i suppose it's a nice change of pace from the women being the ones who are written so…

I binged on all four seasons of Veronica Mars plus the movie in one week.

The story conveniently revolves around a 10 year high school reunion so the audience can see familiar faces from the series. Weevil's (Francis Capra) character experiences a little bit of a character arc, while Dick Casablancas (Ryan Hansen). It's also self-aware: Logan (Jason Dohring) says to Veronica (Kristen Bell), “I appreciate you keeping it PG-13 for me” and sure enough, that is the rating.

The film also features actor James Franco playing himself. With his inappropriate and even exploitative behavior in the film industry (See: L.A. Times article and Hollywood Reporter article), it was a shame to see his face pop up.

Overall, it felt…

Part of A Film A Day

"I don't care if Logan Echolls not the guy. America thinks he's guilty, and that's enough for me."

It's hard to believe that Veronica Mars started as a Kickstarter project. Though I haven't seen the series, the film still held up pretty well. It's highly entertaining and very quickly paced, or so it seems. Though the introduction seems overlong, and the conclusion much too short, the film acts as solid entertainment, moreso than most films I've seen this year (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, this film makes me even more disappointed in you). At times though, where Veronica Mars falls short is that it feels too much like a made for TV movie. For fans…

Going into this movie I had barely heard of the tv show....Veronica Mars...much less actually watched any of its episodes. The opening credits of the movie tried to catch up all non-Veronica Mars fans on some of the history of Veronica. That helped get me though this movie although I am sure I missed many of the inside jokes and references.

The movie revolves around Veronica (Kristen Bell) coming back to her hometown and solving a murder that her former boyfriend is accused of doing. Most of the story made sense to me except for a subplot involving another high school friend who is framed by the police...maybe that is something for the sequel. Bell is as sexy as ever....and…

”A teenaged private eye. Trust me. I know how dumb that sounds.”

The unique thing about Veronica Mars is that its budget was raised by a Kickstarter campaign which means the fans of the original TV series are the real producers of the film. So first of all kudos to all those people who donated to the campaign. The good thing about Veronica Mars is that it doesn't disappoint those fans. It’s a decent detective story with some fine performances, a couple of okay twists, an acceptable noir-ish atmosphere and some fair levels of unpredictability and thrill which means it is an instantly enjoyable and engaging movie that will certainly make a good time for you if you’re looking for…

This is the fourth part of my four-part essay on contemporary cinematic representations of the law. You can find the full essay (with pictures!) here.
Part One: Intro & RoboCop (2014)
Part Two: Dredd (2012)
Part Three: Prisoners (2013)

Part Four: Veronica Mars (2014)

We find a similar pursuit of justice outside the law in Rob Thomas's Veronica Mars (2014), but here our protagonist finds a solution to the heroic exceptionality which made Keller Dover's position problematic. She achieves the best of both worlds: the justice of subjectivity without its exceptionalism, and the containment of objectivity without its inhumanity. She retains the subjectivized dimension of the law without reproducing the conditions of its necessity. The reason for this is her attitude…

"Dumb question, but I have to ask : Did you know you were being filmed?"

Veronica Mars is a character driven action thriller with a solid fan base due to the short lived TV series success. I never watched the critically acclaimed series which aired for three seasons from 2004 to 2007, but the film is easy to follow and engaging nonetheless. Kristen Bell is given a well written character and delivers a strong performance in the lead role. She has some witty lines and I'm sure I missed out on a lot of clever gags aimed towards fans of the series, but I still was entertained by this film. I'm sure fans of the series will have a much…

With it so far up my yearly ranking (and knowing that it would be a safe bet for family movie night) I decided it was time to revisit Veronica Mars. When the movie came out I was excited to finally have a strong and complex heroine on the silver screen, but was I blinded by my ideals? Well, maybe, but if so I was just as blinded by them this time around.

There's a graceful symmetry to the film as Veronica gradually slides away from her new life and back into her old one. There are duplicated shots which punctuate her transition, marking crucial no-turning-back points (gazing out the window of a car first in daylight then at night, even…

I love how inaccessible the movie must seem for outsiders. In general I’m not a fan of movies that try to lure in non-fans of thing in order to appeal to a broader audience. In the case of a movie funded by the fans, there should be absolutely zero effort spent on viewers making this their first Veronica Mars experience. 

As for the movie itself...it’s okay. This combines the brevity of a case-of-the-week mystery with the dramatic weight of a full season arc, an untenable marriage. We’ve already seen Logan as an accused murderer and it was better the first time around. I spent a lot of this viewing finding connections, parallels, winks, nods, and coincidences in relation to the…

I think I’m gonna start this review with the things I liked the most. The high school reunion fight. The afterparty dancing sequence. Logan and Veronica final. The perfect scenes. Academy Award. Chef’s kiss. Mwah. Veronica Mars the show truly delivered when it came to well-done, beautiful scenes, so did the movie. Remember that scene is season 3 when Logan and Veronica were lying in bed together, asked each other questions and a Leonard Cohen song was playing in the background? So that’s what I’m talking about. Speaking of Logan and Veronica and their epic love, that’s another thing I loved about the film. I’m sorry for Piz (I’m gonna mention it later) but the relationship between Logan and Veronica…