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: 2013
Austenland – so horrible, I’m speechless
Austenland is so horrible it does not deserve a full ripping here on Irreviews. It’s so horrible, I didn’t even want to turn it off, feeling inexorably compelled to learn if it could actually get even worse (and it did, I … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
Comments Off on Austenland – so horrible, I’m speechless
Irreviews Awards 2013
Most people I know describe 2013 as a relatively weak year at the movies, and a brief perusal of this year’s Oscar Nominations certainly reinforces this idea. As usual, the Academy’s selections are completely lame and unoriginal, almost as if the voters … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
Comments Off on Irreviews Awards 2013
Omar – it’s good, but it does not live up to its considerable hype
I liked Omar. I really did. My wife did also. But it just didn’t wow me quite the way I was expecting it to, or hoping it would. I was hoping for a serious artistic statement on the Israeli-Palestinian situation, … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
Comments Off on Omar – it’s good, but it does not live up to its considerable hype
The Hunt (Jagten) – once again, Danish cinema shines!
The Hunt is a gripping and moving drama about child abuse, human stupidity, and the psychodynamics of small towns. A man named Lucas who works in a kindergarten is falsely accused of sexually abusing a child at the kindergarten (the daughter … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
Comments Off on The Hunt (Jagten) – once again, Danish cinema shines!
The Broken Circle Breakdown – A movie to make you hate movies
I saw The Broken Circle Breakdown at the Quad two nights ago. It is so perfectly awful it’s almost enough to turn you off movies altogether. I want to make a few remarks about this, because as you know this film is … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
Comments Off on The Broken Circle Breakdown – A movie to make you hate movies
A Brief Word on the Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts
My wife and I caught the Oscar-nominated animated shorts at IFC this past weekend. I am not a big fan of animation, nor do I get to see a lot of short features (what person outside the film industry ever … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
Comments Off on A Brief Word on the Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts
The Invisible Woman- interesting, but slow and unremarkable
I enjoyed The Invisible Woman, but I must say the film did not make much of an impression on me; in fact, my memory of it is something of a grey-brown blur. This true story about Charles Dickens’ secret mistress … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
Comments Off on The Invisible Woman- interesting, but slow and unremarkable
The Square – a well-made, but somewhat limited documentary on the Egyptian social revolution
The Square is a captivating documentary on the fate of the so-called “Arab Spring” within Egypt, focusing on the January 11 demonstrations in Tahrir Square, and their protracted aftermath. It follows events through the eyes and reactions of six main characters … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
Comments Off on The Square – a well-made, but somewhat limited documentary on the Egyptian social revolution
Nebraska – occasionally cute, mostly depressing, and not a lot of content
My wife and I finally caught up to Nebraska, the last of the Best Picture Oscar nominations that I had not yet seen. It a simple little story about old age dementia, in which a son humors his age-addled father … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
Comments Off on Nebraska – occasionally cute, mostly depressing, and not a lot of content
Her – what a crashing bore!
I think I’m done with Spike Jonze. I don’t know why I keep going to his movies. I don’t like any of them. Her was no exception. The preview of Her is designed to suggest this film deals with interesting … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
Comments Off on Her – what a crashing bore!
Irreviews 