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Recent Reviews
- Good Kill – An artistic exploration of drone assassinations
- Citizenfour – a fascinating and important topic, but a disappointing documentary
- Interstellar – Probably the best film of the year, certainly the most enjoyable!
- Laggies – a delightful little film about late-blooming misfits
- Two Days, One Night – it’s (almost) exactly what you expect it to be
- Whiplash – a disgusting, stupidly manipulative piece of absurdity.
- Still Alice – big stars, big production, but still just a Hallmark movie of the week
- Wild – it’s surprisingly well-made and fun to watch
- Black Sea – diverting, but sadly predictable
- Birdman (Or the Expected Emptiness of Pretension)
- Mr. Turner – Planet of the Ape
- The Imitation Game – It’s an abomination
- A Brief Word on the 2014 Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts
- Kill The Messenger – The important and tragic story of Gary Webb, the mainstream media, and the CIA
- This is Where I Leave You – the latest in a long line of “family reunion” movies
- A review of summer cinema – it was pretty grim!
- The Trip to Italy – It never should have been made
- A Most Wanted Man – Superficially entertaining, but poorly-made and overrated
- Magic in the Moonlight – It’s pissing me off!
- The Purge: Anarchy – Surprisingly, it’s rather good
- I Origins – ambitious and entertaining
- Boyhood – a bit one dimensional, but its one dimension is lovely, impressive and fun to experience
- Obvious Child – cute, dignified and gutsy
- Snowpiercer – a fantastic, riveting science fiction action allegory
- Edge of Tomorrow – it’s fairly entertaining
- Begin Again – confronting the future of pop music head-on
- The Fault in Our Stars – not super-moving, but definitely enjoyable
- Hellion – a gritty tale of fucked up parents and children
- Night Moves – a cool, subtle portrayal of hippy-liberal activism turned violent
- Cold In July – an outstandingly fun and unusual film, and a paean for the 1980s
- Austenland – so horrible, I’m speechless
- Elena – 80 minutes of torture
- Lucky Them – Toni Collette takes center stage and lights up the screen!
- Belle – it means well, but God is it slow (and dull)
- Finding Vivian Maier – an okay documentary on a fascinating artist
- The German Doctor (Wakolda) – Diverting, but feels more than a little contrived
- Chef – it’s heart is in the right place
- Jodorowsky’s Dune – a bizarre and amazing documentary
- Hateship, Loveship – it goes down well
- Divergent – entertaining, but there’s a lot wrong with it
Author Archives: roguespirit
World War Z / The Heat / This is the End – A potpourri of summer brain rot
Over the Fourth of July holiday, my wife and I went to three “summer blockbuster” movies which seemed somewhat entertaining at the time, but which are now filling me with dread at the prospect of actually having to review them. … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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In Time – A fantastic little B-film
In Time is one of those little B-films that takes you totally by surprise and winds up being way better than you ever expected, way better than most A-films manage to be with their gigantic budgets, coiffed superstars, and exalted directors. It … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
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Dirty Wars – without doubt, one of the most important films of the year
Dirty Wars is a remarkable documentary, made by a mainstream journalist (Jeremy Scahill) who is swimming against the overwhelming tide and actually doing his job: working to expose Americans to truths they should care about and should do something about. … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Little White Lies (Les petits mouchoirs) – A total waste of time
I can’t really believe how bad Little White Lies was. It’s from the guy who made the (perhaps accidental) masterpiece Tell No One. It had those two great guys from Tell No One, plus Marion Cotillard (who could object to her in … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Hanna K. (1983) – interesting, ocasionally lovely, but flawed by bad performances
When Hanna K. came out in 1983, it was virtually banned in the United States. Why? It portrayed Palestinians as human beings. Indeed it was the first film to do so in the West. It’s impossible to rent or buy a copy … Continue reading
Posted in Films of the 1980s
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The Bling Ring – about as deep as Paris Hilton, but just as glitzy
My wife and I saw The Bling Ring in a double feature with Dirty Wars. It was a shocking experience, the two films defining absolute extremes of the current American experience, in almost every conceivable way. Actually, I highly recommend … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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The Big Picture (L’homme qui voulait vivre sa vie) (2010) – it kind of haunts you
The Big Picture is not your average movie. It’s surprising, thought-provoking, it creeps up on you. It’s kind of haunting. I liked it. The film is about a lawyer who abandoned his artistic ambitions long ago, and instead started a … Continue reading
Posted in 2010
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The Internship – the good, the bad, and the ugly
The Good: If you like Vince Vaughn’s shtick (I certainly do,) this movie has plenty of Vince Vaughn performing his schick. Is it good enough to warrant seeing this movie? I’m not sure. If you like Owen Wilson’s shtick, this movie … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Fill The Void (Lemale et ha’halal) – a nice, sweet little movie
I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would. It’s a sweet, low-key “love” story, with a style that reminds me a little of 90’s indie films. The main focus of the story is the relationship between … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Now You See Me – semi-idiotic summer fun
Now You See Me starts out okay, for maybe the first third. Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson are fun to watch in their flashy roles. Mark Ruffalo is always a welcome quantity in any film. The first robbery is fun, and Morgan Freeman’s … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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