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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
Big Miracle – an enjoyable throwback movie
Big Miracle is my second movie in less than a week which is set in an Alaskan shit-hole. But unlike The Grey, this film is dignified, fairly interesting, and fun, even though it is very light fare. It’s curious to … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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The Grey – getting 2012 off to a bad start
If you want to see this movie because you saw the preview and think it’s going to involve Liam Neeson killing wolves with his bare hands, my recommendation to you is: go see another movie. But it SHOULD have involved … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Midnight in Paris – Diverting, but certinaly not great in any way
I enjoyed Midnight in Paris more than I thought. It suffers from all of Woody Allen’s problems as a filmmaker. The dialog is stilted (painfully in some places) and rather unbelievable, particularly any time a character has to say anything … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
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War Horse – you either like Spielberg or you don’t
There is a Frank Zappa interview from the 70’s where he is talking about Holiday Inns and how invariably every room contained at least one horrible, tasteless painting (on burlap, mounted to the wall with metal rivets) of things like … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
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We Bought A Zoo – A really enjoyable, well-made film
My wife and I went to see We Bought a Zoo after suffering through War Horse, in the desperate hope that “ole reliable” Cameron Crowe would come through with something that was at least watchable. Well, it was more than … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
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A Dangerous Method – good performances, mediocre script
I thought all the performances in A Dangerous Method were very strong. Fassbender is very engaging as Jung. Keira Knightley continues to strike me as an underrated actress, turning in another fine, understated performance. Viggo really transcends his usual screen persona … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
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The Descendants – Boring and overrated crap
My wife and I saw this because we like George Clooney and we liked Sideways. What we learned is that Alexander Payne desperately and obviously needed his Sideways screenplay collaborator Jim Taylor on this film – Payne’s screenplay for The … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
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The Muppet Movie – It’s heart is in the right place
I really wanted to like The Muppet Movie, because I admire Jason Segel as a writer and comic actor, and I really appreciate his heartfelt and un-satiric approach to the material and to The Muppets as a cultural institution. And … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
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The Promise: The Making of Darkness On The Edge Of Town – An amazing glimps back to a time when pop music still mattered
The Promise is a very remarkable documentary. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in pop and rock music, music recording, and the creative process in general. I particularly recommend it to young people who think modern pop music … Continue reading
Posted in 2010
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Tower Heist – the worst film of the year, and maybe of the last 10 years
Tower Heist is deeply painful to watch, and its awfulness slimes you for days afterward, as you desperately try to expunge the memory of what you have seen and heard. It is so awful that for weeks I could not … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
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