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 […]
The Spectacular Now Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) Delightfully atypical and marvelously in tune with its lead characters, James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now defies the rules of the high school dramedy subgenre as frequently and forcefully as Miles Teller‘s Sutter defies underage drinking laws. It’s a joyful, precious film built around a boy and a girl who love to live […]
Blue Caprice Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Director Alexandre Moors’ Blue Caprice takes the horror you felt watching We Need to Talk About Kevin a few years ago (assuming you could sit through it) and sets it in the real world. That isn’t to say Lynn Ramsey’s film about an evil teenage boy who goes on a killing spree […]
World War Z Review
RATING: (3 STARS) World War Z doesn’t add anything new to the realm of zombie movies, but it’s filled with so much chaotic tension that I couldn’t help but admire it. Directed by Marc Forster and based on Max Brook’s best-selling novel, World War Z shares as much with the post-apocalyptic action flick (like War […]
The Bling Ring Review
RATING: (3 STARS) The Bling Ring is director Sofia Coppola‘s most satisfying and thematically precise film since 2003’s Lost in Translation. Her eye for style, subtly irreverent tone, and tendency to dissect the matters of Hollywood’s most privileged all find a glass-slipper-like fit in this story, based on a real events, of a group of […]
Blue Jasmine Review
RATING: (3 STARS) In 1988, Pedro Almodóvar directed Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. In 2013, Woody Allen directed Blue Jasmine, a.k.a. “Woman on the Verge of Another Nervous Breakdown (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Stoli Martinis with a Twist of Lemon)”. Blue Jasmine is a far cry from […]
Touchy Feely Review
RATING: (1.5 STARS) Touchy Feely, the latest from writer-director Lynn Shelton, is the dreariest thing this side of Shelton’s hometown of Seattle. If the over-under on smiles cracked by the film’s quartet of main characters was four, I’d take the under. Even worse than the misery is the film’s thematic aimlessness. Shelton got at deep […]
Passion Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) Passion seems like the absolutely perfect title for the latest thriller from director Brian De Palma. An absolutely batshit crazy film with a truly internal logic that folds in on itself at every turn, Passion‘s four lead characters all think they’re in love at various points throughout the film. Love and lust—i.e. […]
At Any Price Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) For fans of Ramin Bahrani movies, At Any Price is source of both jubilation and frustration. Finally, after toiling in relative obscurity and making small, character-driven films with mostly unknown actors, this talented, young filmmaker gets a chance to stretch his legs. How odd it is, then, that he fumbles the ball. […]
Lee Daniels’ The Butler Review
RATING: (3 STARS) If The Paperboy was director Lee Daniels unfettered, Lee Daniels’ The Butler (henceforth to be referred to as The Butler) is a film clearly saddled with self-importance. The film opens with a quote and closes with a dedication, but those are far from the only clues hinting that Daniels has big things […]
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
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
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
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
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
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 […]
