Call Me Kuchu Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) There’s courage, and then there’s what the men and women at the center of Call Me Kuchu display. This exceptional documentary, from directors Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall, chronicles the fight for LGBT rights in Uganda where homosexuality is illegal and almost became a capital offense. For these individuals, among them […]
2014 Best Documentary Oscar Predictions: Digging Deep
Click on over to my 2014 Oscar Predictions page to see everything I’m forecasting in the major categories. And check out my 2014 Oscar Predictions: Technical Categories page for projections in Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and more. Another year, another problem with the documentary branch of the Academy. The Wrap’s Steve Pond reported a […]
An Appreciation: A View to a Kill
This is the first in a new monthly series of posts called “An Appreciation” in which I’ll profile films both good and bad and try to get at my personal connection to them. This particular post was done in conjunction with the site 007hertzrumble.com. You can read more posts like it by clicking here, and […]
The Movie Chain Challenge: Jennifer Lawrence and James Dean
What’s the Movie Chain Challenge, you ask? Each week, you’ll be, well, challenged to connect one movie star to another by identifying costars they have in common. Think of it as a true cinephile’s Six Degrees of Separation. Ever wonder who connects Matt Damon to Max von Sydow? Julia Roberts to Julie Andrews? Elizabeth Taylor […]
2014 Oscar Predictions: Resetting the Board
Click on over to my 2014 Oscar Predictions page to see everything I’m forecasting in the major categories. And check out my 2014 Oscar Predictions: Technical Categories page for projections in Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and more. I’d planned to dive a little deeper into Best Documentary Feature today, but I’ve got quite a […]
Escape From Tomorrow Review
RATING: (0.5 STARS) The more horrifying thing about Randy Moore’s Escape From Tomorrow—a David Lynch-inspired nightmare of a movie filmed covertly at Disney World—is how hypocritical its message feels. By setting such a disturbing movie at the “Happiest Place on Earth,” Moore pretty clearly wants to say some things about Disney’s dirtier side—the side that […]
Captain Phillips Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) Movie magic happens when the right actor finds the right director. Jimmy Stewart was the perfect everyman to navigate the twisted worlds of Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers. In Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese found the ideal actor to bring his tough Italian leading men to the big screen. The list goes on and […]
2014 Oscar Predictions: The Technical Categories
Click on over to my 2014 Oscar Predictions page to see everything I’m forecasting in the major categories. And check out my 2014 Oscar Predictions: Technical Categories page for projections in Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and more. Oscar talk always get serious for me when I start pondering the more technical categories. I’ve been […]
Iron Man 3 Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Whatever Marvel movie followed The Avengers was going to struggle to overcome the scaling back that, in this franchise’s very particular case, was unavoidable. Marvel movies, for better or worse, never take place in a vacuum, and for four years and five films, this studio was building toward something massive and unprecedented. […]
Gravity Review
RATING: (4 STARS) “I hate space.” That quote represents a brief moment of levity in Gravity, an otherwise harrowing thriller, and it perfectly sums up its lead character, rookie spacewalker Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock). The film itself—or at least the stakes from which every bit of tension is derived—is better summarized by a quote […]
Alfonso Cuaron Movies
Alfonso Cuaron movies are incredibly, delightfully varied. If not for his recent bend toward science-fiction (even of the two visions of the future in question couldn’t be less similar), we might be labeling Cuaron a possible heir apparent to the auteur-theory-destroying throne of Steven Soderbergh. Of course, like Steven Soderbergh movies, those of Alfonso Cuaron […]
What Else I’m Watching: September 2013
Because you can’t review them all. Sadly, life gets in the way of writing about everything I see, so this space is as much for keeping track of what I’m watching as it is for you to share your thoughts on what are, with any luck, a group of high-quality films. It’s an eclectic bunch […]
Join John Likes Movies on Facebook
Just a quick announcement: John Likes Movies now has a Facebook fan page. If you can take five minutes out of your movie watching and “like” the page today, it would, of course, be greatly appreciated. Thank you! And if you’re interested in connecting even further on social media, check me out on Tumblr, Twitter, […]
The Movie Chain Challenge: Chris Hemsworth and Jeff Daniels
What’s the Movie Chain Challenge, you ask? Each week, you’ll be, well, challenged to connect one movie star to another by identifying costars they have in common. Think of it as a true cinephile’s Six Degrees of Separation. Ever wonder who connects Matt Damon to Max von Sydow? Julia Roberts to Julie Andrews? Elizabeth Taylor […]
2014 Oscar Predictions: Animated and Documentary Features
Click on over to my 2014 Oscar Predictions page to see everything I’m forecasting in the major categories. Today, I unveil more new categories to add to my 2014 Oscar predictions list—2014 Best Animated Feature and 2014 Best Documentary Feature. Both categories have had great, great, GREAT years over the last half-decade, and while 2013 […]
Prisoners Review
RATING: (4 STARS) Prisoners is the most tightly plotted 153-minute movie you’ll ever see. It’s a masterpiece of the crime genre that covers a lot of ground, but every crumb, clue, and detail dropped by director Denis Villeneuve and screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski is essential to its (murky-ish) resolution. Comparisons to films like Se7en and Zodiac […]
