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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
The Informant! – an unfunny farcical treatment of a serious story
When I walked out of the theater after seeing The Informant!, I had kind of a slimy feeling. The film is a true story, re-envisioned as a light comic farce designed to heap ridicule on the main character played by … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Bright Star – striking visuals run amok
This film is two hours long. It felt like three hours. I’ll admit, I have a limited tolerance for these period dramas. Basically, it has to have a fantastic story and fantastic dialog for me to like it – think … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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The Cove – a “save-the-dolphins” activist commercial
The Cove is a “save-the-dolphins” activist commercial, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, as far as it goes. A group of fisherman in Japan is butchering dolphins for food, and the mercury-poisoned meat is being force-fed to Japanese … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Bandslam – one of the best films of the year
My wife and I went to the early evening show on the opening day of Bandslam in New York City. I was expecting to be overrun with teenagers. Instead, the audience was filled with nothing but Generation-X couples! As my … Continue reading
500 Days of Summer – An Annie Hall Music Video
This film is sort of entertaining, I guess, but it really does not amount to very much. The filmmakers are clearly influenced by Woody Allen (a lot of the style is lifted right out of Annie Hall, it seems to … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Post Grad – Painful!
My wife and I went to see Post Grad on our vacation. Why we would ever do such a thing is difficult to say. Basically it comes down to the fact that it is an Alexis Bledel movie, and we … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Islander – a wonderful film!
My expectations for Islander were pretty low, but wow did it surprise me. Very rarely do you see a film like this – a gritty, minimalistic story set in a strong cultural environment – that has anything like the pacing, … Continue reading
Posted in Films of the 2000s
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It Might Get Loud (and it does)
As a guitarist and songwriter who in my youth liked Led Zeppelin and U2, I was really excited to see this film. Although I did enjoy small parts of the film here and there, I must admit it is not … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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I Love You, Man – a really good comedy about male friendship
I Love You, Man explores male friendship with humor and dignity I Love You, Man is an example of that rare beast: a modern, non-intellectual comedy that is not a parade of sub-moronic comic cliches, unbridled crassness, obnoxious stereotyping, and … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Cold Souls – a postmodern downer in sheep’s clothing
I am not a fan of Charlie Kaufman-type movies, but I went to see this film because I really like Paul Giamatti. I am also fond of Emily Watson and David Strathairn, so I figured: what the hell. After all, … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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