Author Archives: roguespirit

My wife and I loved Moonrise Kingdom. It exceeded all expectations (in part because its trailer was horrible.) It’s a charming, clever, and heartwarming film about two despised and outcast children who find each other and cling together in love. Although its … Continue reading →

Side Effects is fairly intriguing for about the first half. It seems to have potential to go somewhere interesting – a film about the dangers of prescription drugs, and the big business around pushing them on patients. The dialog is not great, … Continue reading →

Magic Mike is a good film, worth seeing. But it’s nothing I would ever need to see again. It captures the world of male strippers in an interesting and entertaining way. The story, while certainly not at all deep, holds … Continue reading →

The Life of Pi is not the type of film I usually go ape shit over, but I recognize exceptional quality and substance when I see it. There were a lot of good films this year in genres I tend to … Continue reading →

When a movie tells its story exclusively from the point of view of a six year old, it has to be somewhat limited because the child doesn’t understand anything it’s seeing, and it can’t articulate anything it’s feeling. Thus is … Continue reading →

My wife and I kicked off the new year with Gangster Squad, hoping it would be better than last year’s kick off movie, The Grey. Admittedly, it’s not too hard to be better than The Grey – all you need … Continue reading →

The mainstream critics panned Promised Land? Why?! It’s a really good film, with a fabulous cast, excellent writing, nicely directed by Gus Van Sant, and a really timely, important and interesting story. There’s really almost nothing to dislike about this … Continue reading →

Hysteria is about a doctor who got a job jacking off stressed-out women in a clinical setting. When he eventually developed something like carpel tunnel servicing the insatiable needs of his patients, he invented the vibrator so they could jack themselves off. … Continue reading →

Barbara is a decent film – interesting, beautifully filmed, well-conceived. My problem is that I expected it to be an “escape from a communist country” film, and it’s really not. It’s a slow, careful look at life in a communist … Continue reading →

The Impossible is a mesmerizing movie. It captures the tsunami and its devastating aftermath very skillfully and effectively. Naomi Watts is good. (An Oscar nomination? I don’t quite see that.) Ewan McGregor is really good, as is the oldest child (Tom Holland.) All the … Continue reading →