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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: 2009
The Invention of Lying – a light but dignified comic diversion
Ricky Gervais obviously is tormented by eugenics. This is a cute, light movie about a world where no one lies and a guy that figures out how and becomes really powerful. But then about half way through the movie something … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Whip It – good fun and a good message
Whip It is a fun, uplifting movie. It has a great message about individuality and following your heart in life, and about the need for parents to let go of the desire to control the lives and choices of their … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Fame(1980) vs. Fame(2009)
The original Fame: It was perfect, so why would anyone remake it? Alan Parker’s Fame (1980) is a landmark film. It stands with other timeless, near-perfect classics such as Missing, The Verdict, Tootsie, and My Dinner with Andre at the … Continue reading
Posted in 2009, Films of the 1980s
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The Informant! – an unfunny farcical treatment of a serious story
When I walked out of the theater after seeing The Informant!, I had kind of a slimy feeling. The film is a true story, re-envisioned as a light comic farce designed to heap ridicule on the main character played by … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Bright Star – striking visuals run amok
This film is two hours long. It felt like three hours. I’ll admit, I have a limited tolerance for these period dramas. Basically, it has to have a fantastic story and fantastic dialog for me to like it – think … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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The Cove – a “save-the-dolphins” activist commercial
The Cove is a “save-the-dolphins” activist commercial, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, as far as it goes. A group of fisherman in Japan is butchering dolphins for food, and the mercury-poisoned meat is being force-fed to Japanese … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Bandslam – one of the best films of the year
My wife and I went to the early evening show on the opening day of Bandslam in New York City. I was expecting to be overrun with teenagers. Instead, the audience was filled with nothing but Generation-X couples! As my … Continue reading
500 Days of Summer – An Annie Hall Music Video
This film is sort of entertaining, I guess, but it really does not amount to very much. The filmmakers are clearly influenced by Woody Allen (a lot of the style is lifted right out of Annie Hall, it seems to … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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Post Grad – Painful!
My wife and I went to see Post Grad on our vacation. Why we would ever do such a thing is difficult to say. Basically it comes down to the fact that it is an Alexis Bledel movie, and we … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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It Might Get Loud (and it does)
As a guitarist and songwriter who in my youth liked Led Zeppelin and U2, I was really excited to see this film. Although I did enjoy small parts of the film here and there, I must admit it is not … Continue reading
Posted in 2009
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