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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
Wreck-It Ralph – a complete failure
It might have been cute if the story was not so boring and unimaginative, and if they had bothered to make any of the characters likable.
Posted in 2012
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Mental – a glorious breath of fresh air!
Watching Mental in the Village East Cinema the other night I was happily transported back to the glorious 1990’s Indie Renaissance. Absent were all the deplorable obsessions of modern comedy – poop humor, slapstick routines that have been beaten to death, post-Seinfeld humor, … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch (2008) – The early days of the modern “French Hollywood” movement
It is becoming quite clear that French cinema is settling comfortably into aping the style of Hollywood blockbusters from about 25 years ago, and through this trying to eclipse the rotting corpse of Hollywood at their own game. As with … Continue reading
Posted in 2008
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For a Good Time Call … – surprisingly delightful
My wife and I really enjoyed For a Good Time Call …. On one level it’s just silly fun: two girls trying to survive in New York City start their own phone sex service. But it’s immediately evident how well-made this … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Shame – deeply hostile to sex, sexuality and women
Shame is a ridiculous and insulting movie. It’s supposed to be about sexual addiction, but it’s really not – if it was, they would have made it at least somewhat realistic, and they would have written some dialog so you … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Admission – Worse than horrible!
Admission is so terrible, I don’t even know where to begin. I had just a few days before seen the horrible Ginger and Rosa, to which I went with somewhat hopeful expectations and from which I came away disappointed in … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Ginger and Rosa – Horrible!
I must say, 2013 is getting off to a really inauspicious start at the movies. It’s not just that nothing good has been released. These moves are so bad this year, I can barely find anything I’m even interested in … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Quartet – mediocre, but basically enjoyable
Quartet is an inoffensive little film that stubbornly refuses to be anything more than that. The main problem with the film is the script – character development is clumsy, the humor is sadly flat, and the intellectual content is kind of dull … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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A Late Quartet – a solidly good and interesting little film
A Late Quartet really surprised us, because so many critics and people we know had given it decidedly mixed reviews. It may not be a great film, but it was a really good, balanced film with no major flaws. The … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Lore – an interesting portrait of losing a war
Lore is a film about life in Germany after they lost World War II, focusing on a family’s attempt to travel across Germany on foot to get to relatives. It excels at painting a picture of the desolation, hopelessness, and … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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