Bad Moms Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) A recent trend in comedy writing and filmmaking is to turn the mundane into something debaucherous. It probably started with The Hangover, which took a typically debaucherous activity — the bachelor party — and elevated it to a level previously unthinkable. Slowly, this type of story took over movies about “regular life.†[…]
Tallulah Review
RATING: (3 STARS) As I was watching Sian Heder’s Tallulah, I couldn’t shake the implausibility of the premise. A young nomadic woman steals the baby of a rich, careless mother? The film offers a title character who is easy to accept as impulsive and destructive, but a kidnapper? Please. Then something funny happened. I started […]
Star Trek Beyond Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) The term “episodic†gets thrown around a lot when it comes to major studio moviemaking. Between bifurcation of individual stories and the intense desire to turn everything into a “saga†or “cinematic universe,†the big-budget action film that mostly stands on its own is becoming an endangered species. Star Trek Beyond, then, […]
Zootopia Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) Zootopia is a perfect 2016 movie. Sure, it depicts a bunny cop and a fox solving a mystery — which is utterly timeless, obviously — but what it does here and how is speak with surprising grace about stereotyping that’s pervaded both the American presidential election and interactions cops and civilians. I […]
Independence Day: Resurgence Review
RATING: (1 STAR) “We had 20 years to prepare,†reads the tag line for Independence Day: Resurgence. I’m not sure that’s something they should be promoting because 20 years to make a movie as startlingly terrible as this one is inexcusable. There’s nothing redeeming about Roland Emmerich’s two-decades-in-the-making sequel to his silly but entertaining mega-blockbuster […]
Finding Dory Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) The last time Pixar produced a sequel that was a decade in the making, they gave us Toy Story 3, the best Pixar film. It relied heavily on nostalgia to hit its marks — something its latest mega-sequel, Finding Dory, curiously eschews. Yes, the forgetful Dory, the nervous Marlin, and the loving […]
The Lobster Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) The Lobster is an utterly transfixing and bewildering high-concept comedy about what the world would look like if everything we knew and liked about love was gone. In Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ English-language debut, coupling off is an obligation; We never find out why, but those without a partner are forced to […]
X-Men: Apocalypse Review
RATING: (3 STARS) X-Men: Apocalypse works in spite of itself. Here’s a film that takes arguably the best actor working today and turns him into a purple version of Imhotep from The Mummy. There are too many characters, not enough genuine excitement, and it runs at least 30 minutes too long. All that said, it’s […]
The Nice Guys Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) After a delightful foray into the world of Marvel, writer-director Shane Black has returned to the world of buddy cop movies with The Nice Guys. Well, Holland French (Ryan Gosling) and Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) aren’t cops — one’s a private eye, the other basically a tough guy for hire. They aren’t […]
Money Monster Review
RATING: (2 STARS) In 2011, Brett Ratner of all people made a supremely silly but surprisingly enjoyable “capitalism is evil” movie called Tower Heist. It starred Ben Stiller as the leader of a group of rag-tag blue-collar workers who were swindled by their Madoff-esque employer and seek to get their money back by any means […]
Captain America: Civil War Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) During the much-hyped battle between the Avengers and Friends in Captain America: Civil War, one combatant, with tongue firmly in cheek, remarks, “Everyone’s got a gimmick.” Indeed, every one does, and Civil War is “The One with Black Panther and the New Spider-Man”. Marvel movies are hardly identifiable anymore — assuming they […]
The Jungle Book (2016) Review
RATING: (3 STARS) The Jungle Book, as surprising as it probably seems, is one of the few Disney animated classics that eluded me in my childhood. A casual awareness of something called “The Bear Necessities” was all I knew about the 1967 version of Rudyard Kipling’s stories. Incidentally, Kipling’s books are foreign to me, as […]
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Review
RATING: (2 STARS) Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is a film about and full of contradictions. It’s a sequel to 2013’s Man of Steel — also directed by Zack Snyder — yet this film relegates old Superman to a supporting role, instead focusing on that which drives the film’s other titular hero. Despite this […]
Room Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Director Lenny Abrahamson’s Room plays like a non-science-fiction version of The Matrix. Like the Wachowskis’ action landmark, we’re introduced to its characters in an “unreal” world before they’re able to escape and discover (or rediscover) what’s real. Obviously, the two films vary in big ways — particularly when it comes to the […]
The Revenant Review
RATING: (1.5 STARS) Hardship is an easy thing to depict on film, but hardship in service of something meaningful to the butts in front of the screen is more of a challenge. 12 Years a Slave is a recent film that pulled it off with flying colors. How? It showed us who its lead character […]
The Big Short Review
RATING: (4 STARS) Adam McKay is a tightrope walker. His latest film, The Big Short, is one of 2015’s funniest offerings. Its subject matter? The 2008 collapse of the American economy. McKay cut his teeth with Will Ferrell vehicles like Anchorman and Talladega Nights, which are both absurdist comedies with their own internal logics born […]
