2013

Reviews of the best movies of 2013 and some of the worst movies of 2013.

Drinking Buddies Review

Drinking Buddies Review

RATING: (3.5 STARS) An observational comedy best observed by the late 20s, early 30s craft brew crowd, Drinking Buddies represents mumblecore master director Joe Swanberg’s first baby step toward higher-profile filmmaking. Not unlike the Duplass Brothers’ Cyrus, Drinking Buddies is still a decidedly Swanbergian picture; it just features a cast of mainstream actors, as well […]

Lovelace Review

Lovelace Review

RATING: (2 STARS) Ordinary vs. extraordinary. Linda Boreman was the former, but she found herself in the midst of a situation that was very much the latter. Lovelace is both the name Boreman would carry throughout her adult life and the title of the, unfortunately, very ordinary cinematic chronicle of her bizarre career and horrific […]

Fruitvale Station Review

Fruitvale Station Review

RATING: (3 STARS) Fruitvale Station, from first-time director Ryan Coogler, proves there’s power in cinematic simplicity. The film needs just a two sentence plot description; Oscar Grant III (Michael B. Jordan) was shot and killed by a security guard for San Francisco’s public railway system (called BART) shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, 2009. […]

Olympus Has Fallen Review

Olympus Has Fallen Review

RATING: (3 STARS) While far from great cinema, Olympus Has Fallen, from director Antoine Fuqua, delivers exactly what it promises. It’s a patriotism-soaked exercise in John McClane-esque badassery. Was my red, white, and blue blood boiling while North Korean extremists swooped in and took the White House? Yes. Were my knuckles white with excitement while […]

Monsters University Review

Monsters University Review

RATING: (3.5 STARS) Three of Pixar‘s last four films have been “familiar” projects. Whether a sequel (Toy Story 3, Cars 2) or a prequel (Monsters University), the idea that the beloved animation studio was out of “original” ideas—or at least that the minds at Pixar were content falling back on the familiar—have permeated many a […]

Mud Review

Mud Review

RATING: (4 STARS) Nobody makes movies like Jeff Nichols, few people make movies as well as Jeff Nichols, and Jeff Nichols has never made a movie as rich and satisfying as Mud. The film is ultimately about love in all of its messy incarnations, but told from a child’s perspective, it takes the shape of […]

The Canyons Review

The Canyons Review

RATING: (2 STARS) There’s something perversely mesmerizing about the cinematic train wreck that is The Canyons, the latest from director Paul Schrader. Maybe it’s the director’s confidence. This pulpy, sex-fueled story is utter nonsense, but it’s entertaining nonsense. The performances from porn star James Deen and tabloid queen Lindsay Lohan are abysmal, but they’re also […]

Reality Review

Reality Review

RATING: (3 STARS) Matteo Garrone made a name for himself internationally back in 2008 with the release of Gomorrah, an Italian crime epic with a lot to say about the sociopolitical state of his home country. Gomorrah won Garrone the Grand Prix at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and his latest, Reality, won the same […]

Spring Breakers Review

Spring Breakers Review

RATING: (3.5 STARS) Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers is perhaps the ultimate test (or, less hyperbolically, the ultimate test this year) of seeing the forest for the trees. Is Korine—an infamous boundary pusher whose first film was about an HIV-positive man deliberately infecting young women—saying something profound about our youth and culture with this would-be exploitation […]

Europa Report Review

Europa Report Review

RATING: (3.5 STARS) Mere minutes into Europa Report, we’re told the space mission being chronicled—one that would, for the first time, send man into deep space—was watched intensely by the general public for six months before it went dark. The four men and two women on board Europa One—a vessel headed for the icy Jupiter […]

No Review

No Review

RATING: (3 STARS) Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain has defined his career thus far by capturing the dark side of life in his native country during the authoritarian rule of General Augusto Pinochet. His latest, the Oscar-nominated No, is a decidedly brighter picture that chronicles Pinochet’s democratic defeat, and the optimistic tone serves Larrain well. For […]

Man of Steel Review

Man of Steel Review

RATING: (3 STARS) Once more unto the breach, dear friends… When the public’s goodwill toward Superman turned sour following the abominable Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Krypton’s finest took a 19 year break from the big screen. Superman Returns was meant to be a triumphant return, and the film played that angle up, but […]

We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks Review

We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks Review

Like most of prolific director Alex Gibney‘s documentaries, We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is serious-minded, but breezy and easily digested—it deserves much more than simply being called “the WikiLeaks movie.” Gibney has a nack for efficient storytelling that entertains as much as it informs, and his take on the enigmatic Julian Assange is […]

Frances Ha Review

Frances Ha Review

RATING: (4 STARS) Who would have thought the best film from writer/director Noah Baumbach—master of the melancholy—would be so light and airy? Frances Ha is simple, but delightful—a film carried on the back of clever writing and a dynamite lead performance. It also packs a surprising amount of emotion and insight, even if it isn’t […]

Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie Review

Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie Review

“Is this a passing fancy or is this in front of the wave?” Former Today Show host Bryant Gumbel asked this of rabble-rouser extraordinaire Morton Downey Jr. sometime during his meteoric rise to the top of syndicated television. The quote very appropriately concludes this exceptionally entertaining documentary chronicling Downey’s life and career, and its answer […]

Behind the Candelabra Review

Behind the Candelabra Review

RATING: (3.5 STARS) For his feature film swan song, director Steven Soderbergh has elected to tell a sordid tale about sex, drugs, plastic surgery, possible incest, and shattered dreams. Behind the Candelabra also happens to be a biopic chronicling the latter years of music legend Liberace. Dubbed (by himself and those around him) “Mr. Showmanship,” […]

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