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: 2009
The Hurt Locker (2009) – incredibly overrated
My wife and I finally caught up with The Hurt Locker on Netflix. I always felt bad that I never saw it. Turns out my instincts to avoid it were in fact right on the money. The first half of … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
Comments Off on The Hurt Locker (2009) – incredibly overrated
Cracks – a nifty little film
I really enjoyed Cracks. It’s not the kind of film I would add to my collection and enjoy over and over, but it was well-written, well-acted and interesting. The film used subtext beautifully and in layers, like the way you … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
Comments Off on Cracks – a nifty little film
The Other Woman – a good little film
The Other Woman is a good movie. It’s not a great film, but it is well done, earnest, and avoids a lot of common pitfalls in this genera (the kid being too cute, the ex-wife being too unsympathetic, etc.) I’d … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
Comments Off on The Other Woman – a good little film
The Double Hour (La doppia ora) – a good, solid Euro thriller, but nothing special
The critics are comparing this to Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne, 2006). All I can say is: forget it! This film is nowhere near Tell No One, which is probably one of the best films of the … Continue reading
Sin Nombre – a gangster movie that sort of works
I really do not like gangster movies, but Sin Nombre is something of an exception. It’s not that these gangsters are more interesting or more human – they are just like all the other gangsters in movies: raping women, killing … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
Comments Off on Sin Nombre – a gangster movie that sort of works
Mother & Child – good, but rather joyless
Mother and Child is one of a certain kind of movie that I always find difficult to watch. I think this is because it deals seriously with the emotions of our own mortality, which is a good thing, but its … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
Comments Off on Mother & Child – good, but rather joyless
A Prophet – It’s LONG!
A Prophet feels about 5 hours long, and as the running time is under 3 hours this is decidedly not a good thing. I suppose that for what the film is, it is, technically speaking, “pretty good”. The story just … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
Comments Off on A Prophet – It’s LONG!
The Damned United – these filmmakers aimed too low
The Damned United relies almost exclusively on the acting flair of Michael Sheen, and as he possesses incredible electricity on screen this strategy is not a complete failure and makes for a fairly enjoyable movie. But the film suffers from … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
Comments Off on The Damned United – these filmmakers aimed too low
Whatever Works – Woody Allen at his worst
It ironic that the main character of this film is driven crazy by the utterance of cliches, because this entire film is nothing but a stream of cliches from Allen’s past work. He’s got all his tired old pet ideas … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
Comments Off on Whatever Works – Woody Allen at his worst
Good Hair – a fun and interesting documentary
My wife and I caught up with Good Hair this past weekend and we both really enjoyed it. Despite the presence of Chris Rock, I would not say this film is laugh out loud funny, but it is very entertaining … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
Leave a comment
Irreviews 