The Battered Bastards of Baseball Review
RATING: (3 STARS) It’s a shame “For the Love of the Game” is already spoken for as far as baseball movie titles go. I think Chicago Cubs fans could be a little peeved at the implication that the short-lived Portland Mavericks minor league franchise are baseball’s true battered bastards… The love of the game, though, […]
Like Father, Like Son Review
RATING: (3 STARS) The Cannes-Jury-Prize-winning drama Like Father, Like Son, from the marvelously talented Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda, tells a really straightforward tale of a pair of families in crisis. It’s a regular Greek tragedy, in fact, but Kore-eda very interestingly circumvents emotion that’d be unapologetically oozing out of an American version of the same […]
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Martin Ritt’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold captures the essence of its source material almost eerily well. Adapted from what’s arguably John le Carre’s best and most well-known novel, the film and its lead character are portraits of Cold War malaise. Though it came out in 1965, during the […]
Radio Days Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Radio Days comes at an interesting time within the Woody Allen canon. That output that follows it (excepting Crimes and Misdemeanors) for the next several years is generally regarded as a series of high-concept, well-intentioned misfires. Preceding Radio Days, of course, were Hannah and Her Sisters, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway […]
22 Jump Street Review
RATING: (3 STARS) 22 Jump Street—the sequel to the hilarious film adaptation of the popular 1980s TV show 21 Jump Street—spits in the face of its very existence. Not unlike The LEGO Movie—which also came from the brains of this film’s directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller—it comes from greedy, vain, and uninspired origins, but […]
Casino Review
RATING: (3 STARS) The 1990s were a fascinating period in the career of Martin Scorsese. It might not have been his most creatively fruitful decade, but he really started to experiment and step away from what’d become known for—The Age of Innocence, Kundun, etc. Casino, then, is an anomaly because it’s so (for lack of […]
Kids for Cash Review
RATING: (3 STARS) For the uninitiated, the “Kids for Cash” judicial scandal took place over a period of about ten years, from the late 1990s to the late 2000s. In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (one county over from where this reviewer grew up, incidentally), Judge Mark Ciavarella ruled over the juvenile court system with an iron […]
Mitt Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Though it’s chronicling years of recent Republican political history, Mitt is a mostly apolitical film, and certainly, the lessons one takes away from the film (which is available to stream on Netflix) have nothing to do with your choice of party. On a very basic level, it tries to humanize a man […]
Metropolitan Review
RATING: (3 STARS) It takes a bold man to craft a film around a group of really snotty, spoiled teenage Manhattanites, but Whit Stillman did just that with 1990’s Metropolitan. He judges these characters without coming across as too judgmental, crafts them in a way that they deserve our scorn and sympathy simultaneously. It’s a […]
Saving Mr. Banks Review
RATING: (3 STARS) The most cynical viewers will no doubt find John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr. Banks unbearable. It’s narrative trajectory—stern woman’s icy exterior melts away—is hardly new territory, and the “Disneyfication” of the storyline makes this a film content to merely please, not challenge, its viewers. Mission accomplished, then. I found Saving Mr. Banks […]
American Hustle Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) Of many great pleasures found in David O. Russell’s latest, American Hustle, the greatest is watching not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE talented actors give truly exceptional performances. Jeremy Renner is the only Russell newcomer, as the Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter helmer has brought together an […]
All Is Lost Review
RATING: (3 STARS) J.C. Chandor, as writer and director, might have his name all over All Is Lost, but make no mistake: this is Robert Redford‘s movie. With no one to play off of (or even speak to), he needs to shepherd us along a harrowing journey without any explicit reason to care about him […]
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints Review
RATING: (3 STARS) David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints has been compared to a Terrence Malick film for its lyrical tone, outlaw characters, persistent score, and painterly handheld cinematography. Such comparisons are understandable but a little unfair. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is more than a mere Malick rip-off. It’s a lovely yarn about learning to […]
In a World… Review
RATING: (3 STARS) In a World… derives its title from the famous little uttered by Don “The Voice of God” LaFontaine hundreds and hundreds of times in movie trailers, commercials, etc. It takes place in the wake of LaFontaine’s death, and while the real man’s specter hangs over the entire film, it’s an entirely fictional—and […]
Enough Said Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Considering my only taste of writer/director Nicole Holofcener‘s cinema was the icy cold Please Give, it’s hard for me—even in its wake—to think of her as the heart and soul behind Enough Said. Maybe that’s because the true heart and soul of the film is the late James Gandolfini, who gives one […]
Running From Crazy Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Early on in Barbara Kopple‘s latest documentary, Running From Crazy, actress Mariel Hemingway takes the podium to speak at an event promoting suicide prevention. She acknowledges that she’s lost seven family members to suicide including, most famously, her grandfather Ernest. Before she gets to the seventh name, however, she pauses, and Kopple […]
