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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: 2014
Hateship, Loveship – it goes down well
Hateship, Loveship is a sweet, strange little story about love and playing a tough hand in life. Kristen Wiig plays a sheltered maid who moves into Nick Nolte’s house to care for granddaughter Hailee Steinfeld, and though a bizarre chain of … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
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Divergent – entertaining, but there’s a lot wrong with it
I find this whole post-apocalyptic young adult movement – both the books and their movies – fascinating and troubling. On the positive side, these authors are actually writing interesting stories, with life-sized heroes and heroines, exciting plots, and complex and … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
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Sabotage – it’s not what it should have been
I expected Sabotage to be a fun movie about Arnold Schwarzenegger and a small team of bad-asses who invade Mexico with an absurd amount of weaponry and wipe out all the drug cartels, rescuing Arnold’s family in the process. That’s … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
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Enemy – Jake Gyllenhaal meets has match: a movie too bad for him to save
I have said before on this blog that I regard Jake Gyllenhaal as one of the finest actors of his generation, and can’t understand why he is not winning awards. He is so good that I now make a point to … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
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Veronica Mars – Some of us have been waiting a long time!
The Veronica Mars movie is out in New York! It’s at the Village 7 theater, but with only four shows per day I have no idea how long it will be there, or if it will even last to the … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
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The Lunch Box (Dabba) – very sweet, but a bit slow
My wife and I went to see The Lunch Box largely because it stars that Life of Pi guy (Irrfan Khan), but also because it seemed like a sweet little story, one that might have hidden depths. It actually is … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
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Le Week-End – utterly bizarre
I basically hated Le Week-End until the last 15 minutes of the movie. I wouldn’t exactly say I liked the film in the end, but it did in its final moments somehow manage to charm me somewhat, and reshape my … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
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The Grand Budapest Hotel – somewhat diverting, but ultimately a little dull and disappointing
My wife and I went to see The Grand Budapest Hotel because it’s the first somewhat intriguing mainstream movie of the year (unless you’re really into Legos) and we’re feeling a little desperate, what with the crappy Oscar winners and nominees … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
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Nonstop – How could you, Liam Neeson?
My wife and I were really excited to see Nonstop because it was the latest from Liam Neeson, the formerly drippy actor who in the last few years has become the greatest and most likable ass-kicking action hero in the history of … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
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The Monuments Men – yes, it’s bad, but it’s not completely unwatchable
The Monuments Men is quite bad. The filmmakers take an interesting but very limited story idea (the Nazis stole art during the war, but we found most of it, and pretty easily) and they stretch it out over two hours … Continue reading
Posted in 2014
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