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 […]
Looper Review
RATING: (4 STARS) Looper represents a quantum leap forward for Rian Johnson as a filmmaker. Brick and The Brothers Bloom have their admirers, but these films are child’s play compared to what Johnson achieves with this trippy time-travel tale. It’s a genuine masterclass in storytelling, as not a single element in this sprawling story feels […]
Meek’s Cutoff Review
RATING: (2 STARS) I’m not one to complain about a movie being slow. After all, I’m a big supporter of movies like The American and Drive. Hell, my favorite movie of all-time—2001: A Space Odyssey—is really slow. But when a movie goes nowhere and takes a really long time to do so, I’m more inclined […]
Knight and Day Review
RATING: (2 STARS) Well, summer blockbusters this year are improving, albeit at a snail’s pace. The best thing I can say about “Knight and Day†is that it’s a step above most of what I’ve seen this summer. Coming fresh off the heels of The A-Team, it was good. But judged objectively, this is just […]
There Will Be Blood Review
RATING: (4 STARS) The first time I saw Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood,†I thought film was kind of a mess. A sprawling, epic, random mess, but a thought-provoking, impeccably made, sensationally acted mess. The direction, music, and cinematography are all over the place, as is the main character who’s a bundle of […]
