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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
Twilight: New Moon – It sucks
My wife and I finally caught New Moon on DVD. It sucks. Look, I know Twilight was not a great film, but it had a few things going for it that made it basically enjoyable from start to finish. First, … Continue reading
Shutter Island (2010) / Angel Heart (1987) – Scorsese lamely copies the work of a forgotten master
Surely some critic somewhere must have noticed that Shutter Island is a rip-off of Angel Heart. The spirit of the story, the structuring of scenes, the visual effects, the use of flashbacks, it all hearkens back to the particular genius … Continue reading
The 2010 Oscars – who will win?
In last year’s predictions I got all five perfectly. Let’s see how I do this year! Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique – Normally it would be Vera Farmiga: she’s young, she’s hot, she’s blond, and she did a butt-shot in the … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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The Good Guy – a well-made little film
The Good Guy is a nicely crafted little movie. My wife and I both enjoyed it. The plot develops in a somewhat unpredictable way that leaves you very satisfied – I won’t give anything away. The pacing is good, the … Continue reading
Posted in 2010
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District 9 – bizarre fun!
District 9 is a surprisingly satisfying movie. I wouldn’t give it an award necessarily, but it is really interesting, fun and strange. It’s like 50% pure camp, 50% serious science fiction drama, with the two blended perfectly and neither half … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Crazy Heart – It’s not a music movie
The first thing you need to understand is that Crazy Heart is not a “music movie.” It is an “alcoholism movie.” Everything revolves around Bad Blake’s alcoholism. The music is completely incidental – you could substitute almost any career and … Continue reading
Is A.O. Scott reading IRREVIEWS?
I couldn’t help but notice that in A.O. Scott’s latest movie review, his style made a sudden shift toward the reviewing style of IRREVIEWS. He’s still a little pompous and academic, but he does seem to be loosening up a … Continue reading
Avatar – spectacular, and meaningful
All I can say is: James Cameron must really hate America. Just kidding – couldn’t resist. I’m really pleased that this remarkable movie is doing so well in America because it is surprisingly direct and ballsy in its portrayal of … Continue reading
Inglourious Basterds – Is this the worst film ever nominated for an Academy Award?
If Inglourious Basterds had been made in the 1980’s, people would laugh at it now. It would be legendarily bad, held up for ridicule as an example of how incredibly awful films were in the 1980s. The camp, the bad … Continue reading
The Road – A cure for happiness
A. O. Scott did not like The Road. It was “to positive” for him. Apparently he wanted that cute little boy to eat a bullet at the end! He clearly needs some serious help. He probably didn’t like the appearance … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
Tagged A.O. Scott, Cormac McCarthy, Movie Review, Robert Duvall, The Road, Viggo Mortensen
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