Category Archives: 2014

I caught a sneak preview of Hellion at IFC last night, which featured Aaron Paul and director Kat Candler in a Q&A afterward. I guess I’m a little out of it, because I didn’t anticipate it would be such a … Continue reading →

My wife and I went to Night Moves at Angelika with fairly limited expectations. Jesse Eisenberg is not a favorite of ours, but Dakota Fanning is a favorite of ours, and Peter Scarsgard is usually a pretty good quantity in films as … Continue reading →

Cold In July is a story set in 1989 about a small-town picture framer (Michael C. Hall) who kills a nighttime intruder in his home by shooting him in the head, then gets stalked and terrorized by the dead man’s crazy … Continue reading →

My criticism of this film is in no way meant to disrespect director Petra Costa’s pain regarding her sister’s suicide, which clearly comes across in this artistic processing of the event and its aftermath. I just found her artistic approach … Continue reading →

Walking by IFC Saturday night, my wife spied Lucky Them, which was screening that evening with a Q&A afterward, featuring the director Megan Griffiths, the writer Emily Wachtel, one of the supporting actors, and Dick Cavett of all people (he was … Continue reading →

I really wanted to like Belle. It’s a important historical topic, based on a true story, and features the always fabulous Tom Wilkinson. But its pacing problems (and the associated script problems) are so extreme and distracting that the movie … Continue reading →

Finding Vivian Maier is an interesting documentary about a nanny who was secretly a prolific and talented photographer, whose work was discovered posthumously by an earnest and sensitive young man (John Maloof) who sets about bringing her work to the … Continue reading →

The German Doctor is story inspired by the fact that Nazi fugitive Josef Mengele hid out Argentina for a while; here, he hides out with a family who runs an inn, without them knowing who he is, and slowly becomes involved … Continue reading →

I’m a big fan of Jon Favreau. He’s a good writer, a good actor, and has a good presence on-screen. In a comic era where most film comedians range from “mostly unfunny” to “completely unfunny”, Favreau actually is quite funny … Continue reading →

Jodorowsky’s Dune  is a documentary about an elaborate but aborted movie project of the mid 70’s, in which psychedelic director Alejandro Jodorowsky embarked on a visionary rendition of Frank Herbert’s famous science fiction novel. Jodorowsky is still alive, and well-edited excerpts from several … Continue reading →