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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: 2013
Gravity / All Is Lost – two more mediocre solo survival films
In Gravity and All Is Lost, the main characters struggle alone against all odds to stay alive, one in outer space, one in the middle of the ocean. Everything that can go wrong does, and eventually they reach a point … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Wadjda – a very cute, interesting film
Wadjda struck me very much the way A Separation struck me, except I found Wadjda a lot more enjoyable. The films coming out of Muslim countries these days are a bit hard to relate to as a westerner, because they focus on … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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12 Years a Slave – shocking and beautifully made, but inherently limited
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave is a very shocking and unpleasant film to watch. It captures the horrors of slavery far more directly and luridly than any film I can think of. Watching it, one is amazed by the realization … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Captain Phillips – it’s okay, but nothing special
Captain Phillips is a very average action thriller, marginally diverting the first time through, but nothing you would ever need to watch again. The story is not uninteresting, but it has no depth at all, and translated to a movie it’s … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Five Dances – a gentle, lovely exploration of dance and coming-of-age
Five Dances is a really lovely little film. It’s about four modern dancers hired to learn a piece for a performance in New York City, combined with a coming-of-age story involving the main character Chip, just off the bus from … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Runner Runner – it has its good points
Runner Runner is far from a great film, to be sure. The main character is not set up well nor is he developed particularly well. The whole industry of internet gambling is not explained adequately, nor is the complex system … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Prisoners – a good, solid, and enjoyable crime thriller
Prisoners is a long and entertaining movie. My wife and I both enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s gripping and suspenseful. But it’s not a film I would ever need to experience again. The story is a bit two-dimensional, character … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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Thanks For Sharing – playing fast and loose with “sex addiction”
Thanks for Sharing is not a romantic comedy, nor would I call it a dramatic comedy, and I don’t know why it’s being described in these terms. It is a gritty, intense and humorless drama about all kinds of addiction and addictive … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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And While We Were Here – fresh and interesting, but ultimately a bit disapointing
And While We Were Here is about a couple staying on the Amalfi coast for two weeks while the husband performs in a classical ensemble. The opening 15 minutes is pretty standard “marriage on the rocks” stuff. American Kate Bosworth is married to … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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The World’s End – another outrageous conception from Simon Pegg, but it falls a bit flat
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are a very underrated comic team, and their movies are bizarre, off-beat, edgy comedies with a golden heart. The World’s End is no exception – a bunch of 40-something guys attempt to complete a failed pub … Continue reading
Posted in 2013
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