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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
Category Archives: 2012
The Other Son (Le fils de l’autre) – Superb!
The Other Son is such a lovely film! Beautifully plotted, great casting, politically bold, and tremendous balancing of crisp pacing with the unrushed capturing of key emotional moments. It was one of the best films of 2012, without a doubt. … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Killer Joe – a wretched piece of trash
Killer Joe is based on a play, and its transition to screen is quite clunky, with the exception of one classic William Friedkin chase scene in the middle of the film which is filmed with characteristic skill and effectiveness. The … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Little White Lies (Les petits mouchoirs) – A total waste of time
I can’t really believe how bad Little White Lies was. It’s from the guy who made the (perhaps accidental) masterpiece Tell No One. It had those two great guys from Tell No One, plus Marion Cotillard (who could object to her in … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – So God-awful it boggles the mind
I watched Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies when they came out- I thought they were pretty mediocre, both in comparison to the novels and judged strictly as fantasy-adventure movies. But they did occasionally have their moments, and even though … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Jack Reacher – A very nice surprise
Jack Reacher is a really fun movie! The story, while certainly not deep, is well-conceived and well-written. It has a surprisingly good and extended set-up, decent pacing, and makes old-school use of dialog in telling its story. Tom Cruise is … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Irreviews Awards 2012, and the new ratings system.
In the aftermath of the awards season, I’ve been giving a good amount of thought to how awards should be approached here on Irreviews. Yearly movie awards are without a doubt a questionable thing. It is obviously quite artificial to give … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Queen To Play – Inoffensive but dull offering from the new French Hollywood
French Hollywood is at it again, following old, discarded formulae and selling it back to Americans. Queen to Play is a blended rehash of The Karate Kid, Educating Rita, and Searching For Bobby Fischer, with a few key rip-offs of the … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Wreck-It Ralph – a complete failure
It might have been cute if the story was not so boring and unimaginative, and if they had bothered to make any of the characters likable.
Posted in 2012
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For a Good Time Call … – surprisingly delightful
My wife and I really enjoyed For a Good Time Call …. On one level it’s just silly fun: two girls trying to survive in New York City start their own phone sex service. But it’s immediately evident how well-made this … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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Shame – deeply hostile to sex, sexuality and women
Shame is a ridiculous and insulting movie. It’s supposed to be about sexual addiction, but it’s really not – if it was, they would have made it at least somewhat realistic, and they would have written some dialog so you … Continue reading
Posted in 2012
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