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
Category Archives: 2011
Young Adult – A beautiful portrait of being different in a small town
My wife and I loved Young Adult. I highly recommend it, even though I am aware it will probably be deeply offensive to large swaths of the American population. Young Adult was panned, basically for being a depressing portrait of … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
Comments Off on Young Adult – A beautiful portrait of being different in a small town
Dragon Tattoo (USA) vs. Dragon Tattoo (Swedish) – which is better?
So now we have two film versions of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo made within a couple years of each other: a Swedish-language version (Män som hatar kvinnor) and an American version made by David Fincher. The Swedish version is … Continue reading
My Week With Marilyn – boring and unmoving
In the middle of My Week With Marilyn, my wife leans over to me and says “you know what the problem with this movie is? The kid! He’s like some kind of weird eunuch! He has no chemistry with either … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
Comments Off on My Week With Marilyn – boring and unmoving
Hugo – truly awful, in every way
Eleven Academy Award nominations? Best Picture? Best Director? David Demby’s best film from 2011? Are you kidding me?! This is the film that all our friends said was so great? All I can say is my wife and I had a … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
Comments Off on Hugo – truly awful, in every way
Tiny Furniture – a charming, old-school indie comedy
Tiny Furniture really surprised my wife and me. We never went to see it when it was at IFC last year, because we were listening to the New York critics, who panned it. As usual, paying them any heed was … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
Comments Off on Tiny Furniture – a charming, old-school indie comedy
Another Earth – one of the best films of 2011
Mainstream movie artistry is really in the toilet right now, and I think that for the most part the Euro and Indie scenes are wildly overrated. But one of the few positive things that is happening is the small but impressive … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
Comments Off on Another Earth – one of the best films of 2011
The 2012 Oscars – who will win?
So far my three year record is 13 out of 15. Let’s see how I do this year! Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer – Rule #1 of Best Supporting Actress is that if there is a “hot young thing” nominated, it … Continue reading
Posted in 2011
Comments Off on The 2012 Oscars – who will win?
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
Comments Off on Midnight in Paris – Diverting, but certinaly not great in any way
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
Comments Off on War Horse – you either like Spielberg or you don’t
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
Comments Off on We Bought A Zoo – A really enjoyable, well-made film
Irreviews 