Search Irreviews
-
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
I Origins – ambitious and entertaining
There are a tiny number of individuals in film for whom I make a point to try to see everything they are involved in. Brit Marling is one of them. She is a bold and talented screenwriter and she is … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
Comments Off on I Origins – ambitious and entertaining
Boyhood – a bit one dimensional, but its one dimension is lovely, impressive and fun to experience
I tend to see movies as coming in two basic flavors. There are movies that tell a story and there are movies that somewhat passively invite the viewer to ponder certain ideas, emotions, concepts, or realities. The best films do … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
Comments Off on Boyhood – a bit one dimensional, but its one dimension is lovely, impressive and fun to experience
Obvious Child – cute, dignified and gutsy
My wife and I were resisting seeing Obvious Child but two things broke down our resolve. First, it was hanging on at Angelika for weeks and weeks, still drawing large crowds of hip, excited New Yorkers, almost as if word had … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
Comments Off on Obvious Child – cute, dignified and gutsy
Snowpiercer – a fantastic, riveting science fiction action allegory
Sociopolitical science fiction has been all but dead for a long time now. For fifty years, there’s been no successor to the horrifying visions of writers like Orwell, Bradbury, and Huxley, and at the same time those visions have somehow … Continue reading
Posted in 2010
Comments Off on Snowpiercer – a fantastic, riveting science fiction action allegory
Edge of Tomorrow – it’s fairly entertaining
Edge of Tomorrow is Groundhog Day, set in a futuristic battle with aliens. The gimmick dominates the whole movie, together with Tom Cruise doing his “charming” thing, and it keeps you interested for at least two-thirds of the film, after which … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
Comments Off on Edge of Tomorrow – it’s fairly entertaining
Begin Again – confronting the future of pop music head-on
Begin Again is a movie about the joy of making music and living a life enriched by music. It’s a movie that captures the roll pop music used to play as a bonding agent between humans, especially romantically, and offers up … Continue reading
Posted in 2010
Comments Off on Begin Again – confronting the future of pop music head-on
The Fault in Our Stars – not super-moving, but definitely enjoyable
My wife and I finally caught up with The Fault in Our Stars at the 19th St. theater last night. We had been avoiding it (even though my wife loved the book) because of its poor critical reception and uninspiring trailer. … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
Comments Off on The Fault in Our Stars – not super-moving, but definitely enjoyable
Hellion – a gritty tale of fucked up parents and children
I caught a sneak preview of Hellion at IFC last night, which featured Aaron Paul and director Kat Candler in a Q&A afterward. I guess I’m a little out of it, because I didn’t anticipate it would be such a … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
Comments Off on Hellion – a gritty tale of fucked up parents and children
Night Moves – a cool, subtle portrayal of hippy-liberal activism turned violent
My wife and I went to Night Moves at Angelika with fairly limited expectations. Jesse Eisenberg is not a favorite of ours, but Dakota Fanning is a favorite of ours, and Peter Scarsgard is usually a pretty good quantity in films as … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
Comments Off on 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
Cold In July is a story set in 1989 about a small-town picture framer (Michael C. Hall) who kills a nighttime intruder in his home by shooting him in the head, then gets stalked and terrorized by the dead man’s crazy … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
Comments Off on Cold In July – an outstandingly fun and unusual film, and a paean for the 1980s
Irreviews 