Denial Review
RATING: (3 STARS) If 2016 proved anything to me, it’s that facts are as fragile as fine china. The idea that something is irrefutable doesn’t matter to people with the right mixture of ignorance, prejudice, and/or intention, and so admirers of historical and scientific truth are forced to debate where one shouldn’t be necessary. And […]
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) This is the true story of seven people, who choose to live in a foreign land, retire together, and have their lives taped to find out what happens when India stops being polite and starts getting real. OK, it’s not a true story, but the rest is accurate. The Best Exotic Marigold […]
Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol is hopefully the beginning of a beautiful friendship. It’s hard to say whether Brad Bird needed Ethan Hunt more, or if it was the other way around, but regardless, their first collaboration is one hell of an action movie. Bird is the director of such animated hits as […]
Sense and Sensibility Review
RATING: (4 STARS) In high school English class, I was the kid who usually didn’t bother reading the assigned novels. Victorian-style lit wasn’t really my thing. Unfortunately for me, filmmakers seem to love these types of stories. We’ve got plenty screen interpretations of Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, and Jane Eyre (with […]
In the Bedroom Review
RATING: (4 STARS) “In the Bedroom†is an incredibly thoughtful story about grief, how people cope with it differently, and how these differences drive people apart. This was Todd Field’s directorial debut, and it set the independent film world on fire in 2001. It does a marvelous job of drawing us into the world of […]
The Best Performances of the 2000s
In descending order: 10.) Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) – Most of Clint Eastwood’s films this decade have featured a lead character who, for better or worse, dominates the screen. Sean Penn in Mystic River, Angelina Jolie and Changeling, and Eastwood himself in Gran Torino all demonstrate this. They might not be captivating figures, but […]
Duplicity Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Tony Gilroy knows the spy genre. He’s written the Bourne movies and “Michael Clayton” in addition to directing the latter (although Clayton isn’t a spy film per se, it follows many of the same conventions). The tone of those features was deadly serious. In “Duplicity,” Gilroy switches things up. He takes what […]
