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- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsJake GyllenhaalMélanie LaurentSarah GadonA man seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie.Similar in tone, theme, *beep* craziness, etc. to Altman’s '3 Women' but from the male perspective, 'Enemy' is Denis Villeneuve’s haunting, uniquely horrifying follow-up to last year’s 'Prisoners,' which is just as enthralling a film yet more conventional and not as lingering. (I kid you not, 'Enemy' has burrowed itself deep inside of my mind and set up camp there for the past 24 hours with no intentions of leaving anytime soon---- someone please help, it won’t go away and I’m losing sleep over it.)
Here’s the thing: I’ll give credit to anything that puts me in a state of terror-stricken paralysis, that keeps my eyes so glued to the screen that I’m afraid to move a muscle for fear of missing something, and as far back as I can recall, 'Enemy' is one of about two films to do that. Villeneuve is fast becoming one of the great working directorial talents -- a filmmaker that knows how to build tension and build it impossibly well. He knows what move to make and when to make it. 'Enemy' is chock full of his masterful choreography; sequences that seem so simple yet leave such an indelible, devastating impact on one’s mind that they are unlikely to ever be forgotten. I’m telling you -– every frame of this is etched into my brain.
I could go on and on about about the cinematography, the sound design, the music and all of the other bells and whistles, but it would do no good. Saying any more would be setting expectations too high. Just see the damn thing.
87/100 - DirectorDamien ChazelleStarsMiles TellerJ.K. SimmonsMelissa BenoistA promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.86/100.
- DirectorJonathan GlazerStarsScarlett JohanssonJeremy McWilliamsLynsey Taylor MackayA mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.I’m still reeling.
I thought long and hard about watching 'Under the Skin' a second time—right after it had ended—but realized that it would do me no good. (When I say me, I am referring specifically to myself.) I don’t think I ever—and certainly that’s a stretch—need to see it again, partly because its visuals have been so permanently burned into my brain that I needn’t revisit it to remember what happened, but mainly because all that I’ll ever get from it I’ve already gotten.
Rarely do I have my perceptions of what constitutes a ‘great’ film—on a personal level—so shaken. 'Under the Skin' is one of these unforgettable instances, where my rating doesn’t reflect my own personal enjoyment; where I wasn’t watching a film—in its accepted definition—but rather experiencing something. I’ve always hated that phrase (“It’s not a film; it’s an ex-per-ie-ence, brah”), but this is the one true time where I feel such a phrase is applicable.
Because my criticisms of a film are always tainted—in one way or another—by my own personal biases, I can’t dub 'Under the Skin' a masterpiece, and of that I’m sure. (‘Masterpiece.’ What does that even truly mean?) It wowed me with its sound design, Mica Levi’s unnerving score—which, at times, is hard to tell apart from the non-music—its stunning visual pieces, Scarlett Johansson’s cold-eyed performance and how I couldn't look away even during moments where, in other films, I normally would, but ultimately, Under the Skin was a cold viewing. It isn't that it's too abstract or 'artsy' for my tastes; I just think that whether or not it reaches you depends on what kind of person you are.
I've more to say about it, but it'll be a while.
85/100 - DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsJoaquin PhoenixJosh BrolinOwen WilsonIn 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.85/100
- DirectorAlex Ross PerryStarsJason SchwartzmanElisabeth MossJonathan PryceWhen a self-obsessed novelist (Jason Schwartzman) has problems with his novel and his girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss), he seeks refuge in his mentor's cottage where the peace and quiet allow him to focus on his favorite subject - himself.Sidenote: not only did I co-direct/star in* a short film** that is identical to this in terms of score and shot composition, but this is also—aesthetically speaking—the exact sort of film that I used to/still want to make, so that factors into why it spoke to me so much. The intimate framing, the grungy mid-70s arthouse vibe, the jumbled editing structure and how it manages to throw a relatively simple story into complete disarray, the omniscient narrator with an inflated vocabulary, the melancholic freeform jazz ballads that underscore the loneliness felt by nearly every character onscreen—which, is there a god damned soundtrack album out there, and if there is, where can I get my hands on it and how fast?
Movies centered on misanthropes—and this movie has not one, but two!—are endlessly fascinating to me because: a) I love life and am sentimental to an embarrassing degree, but b) am also consistently baffled by its ultimate meaningless. The main character here is Philip, but his story is told almost entirely through supporting characters, and I think of this as a real stroke of genius on Alex Ross Perry's part, because he has the good sense to know that it would be an absolute chore to sit through a movie focused exclusively on a narcissistic *beep* the fact that I don't find Philip to be a particularly unfunny narcissistic *beep* Also, I've never read any of this Philip Roth guy—I'm not as well-versed in literature as I'd like to be—but I do like how Perry pays his respects by constructing his film in an almost literary fashion.
No cast member hits a false note; Elisabeth Moss is the obvious standout.
*Yes, I am bragging.
**No, it is not very good.
85/100 - DirectorAndrey ZvyagintsevStarsAleksey SerebryakovElena LyadovaRoman MadyanovIn a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man's arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.Not remarkably subtle with its metaphors, but there is one motif—a wraparound POV shot of two church ceilings seen from differing perspectives—that is crushing in its bluntness, and I mean that as high praise. This is an all-around fantastic satire, but I think that it really excels when focusing on its characters rather than their involvement in the bigger picture. Regardless, despite the bloated first act, I love how epic this story becomes, how it grows and grows into something Leviathan-like, sucking you further and further in until its finale pushes you completely out. Truly harrowing stuff—and funny, too!
83/100 - DirectorChristopher NolanStarsMatthew McConaugheyAnne HathawayJessica ChastainWhen Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.I think that it's very easy to write this one off as pedantic and preachy, because it is, and it's even easier to write it off as schmaltzy, which it also is. Nolan's lack of skill at crafting emotional drama and posing philosophical questions—not to mention doing both with at least an ounce of subtlety—seems to have all but eluded him at this point; the sole purpose of Hans Zimmer's score seems to be setting some kind of record for how loud one can pound on an organ; and then you've Matthew McConaughey mugging the camera for nearly three hours with a grin that plaintively suggests that he is now a credible, Oscar-winning actor.
But damn it, when it comes to spectacle—and I'm talking about the kind of spectacle that only movies have the power of delivering—pack up your bags and head home, because no one does spectacle like Christopher Nolan. Some people refer to him as the destroyer of cinema; I have no idea what those people are smoking. The space sequence that makes up the center of Interstellar is not only electrifying in every known definition of the word—I cannot recall the last time that I went so long without blinking for fear that I would miss a single second—but it proves that Nolan's talent as a director can override his lack thereof as a writer. I don't know how the same people who championed Gravity can condemn this as something of lesser quality, because although Interstellar may be less technically-accomplished—Hans Zimmer sure does know when to shut up and capitalize on the silence of space, though—this is the more ambitious and personal film of the two, despite having its central set-piece bookended by a lot of eye-rolling.
And for all of its schmaltziness, if that first video message of Jessica Chastain had gone on for a second longer, I think I might've just broken down and cried my eyes out. I guess I'm just a schmaltzy guy.
83/100 - DirectorKelly ReichardtStarsJesse EisenbergDakota FanningPeter SarsgaardThree radical environmentalists look to execute the protest of their lives: the explosion of a hydroelectric dam.Weirdly enough, Night Moves would make for a nice companion piece to Martha Marcy May Marlene; the subject matter is completely different, but both share the same minimalist approach to storytelling, the same use of visuals over dialogue to develop characters, practically the same ambiguous, cut-to-black ending and—saving the best for last—the same brooding paranoia.
‘Slow burn’ has (probably) been used to describe the way in which Reichardt mounts tension, and for good reason, too, because she mounts it like a total champ. Instead of milking each scenario for all of the thrills that they’re worth, she carefully—very carefully, I might add—piles on the tension, layer by layer, until the very prospect of looking away from the screen or taking just one breath seems relatively impossible. The air remains thick with anxiety throughout, somewhat dissipating during the second act—which is maybe a little too lax—but ultimately returning with the climax and subsequent closure—which, the final shot is almost The Conversation-like in its unnerving open-endedness.
Eisenberg is terrific, Fanning is also terrific, Saarsgard is underused, but yes, equally terrific as well. The real star is Reichardt, though.
82/100 - DirectorLuc BessonStarsScarlett JohanssonMorgan FreemanChoi Min-sikA woman, accidentally caught in a dark deal, turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic.Sweet Wusian doves, the balls on Besson. The sheer—and possibly figurative, but also possibly literal—balls, man. You know when critics label some mainstream flicks as having arthouse sensibilities? That’s almost never the case; here, it most assuredly is the case. I’d heard rumors of Lucy being mystical and weird beyond reasonable definition, but disregarded them completely, of course—and oh, how wrong I was to ever have done so.
'Lucy' is utterly sensational—the kind of curious delight that rarely gets made, let alone sneaks into the number two spot at the box office. Mankind’s greatest cinematic achievement? No, of course not, but Besson’s ambitions seem to suggest that he thinks otherwise. This is total go-for-broke filmmaking; so gloriously wacky, convoluted and spectacular yet also touching and strangely life-affirming. To call it the biggest surprise this year would be to understate the actual size of the smile on my face.
Strange how it was marketed as just another lifeless euro-thriller when it’s almost anything but; not so strange when taking into consideration that Besson had to get asses in the seats somehow. Its biggest fault is that it is still dressed up in genre clothes, but that’s a price that had to be paid.
The comparisons to 'Under the Skin' have surely already been made, but they’re justified. 'Lucy' pans out like 'Under the Skin'’s complete opposite, where, instead of having Johansson as an alien striving to become human, only to end up realizing that she will never be one, Johansson plays a human that ultimately becomes alien to her peers, yet discovers what humanity is all about in the process. And speaking of Johansson, as much as I love her performance here, which effortlessly makes the gradual shift from warm to startlingly cold, I’m almost more infatuated with the acting of the supporting players, whose reactions to her inhuman abilities are consistently priceless.
The opening moments are rocky, with some subliminal—or anti-subliminal, depending on how you look at it—cutting between man and animal that borders on pretentious, but once it gets where it’s going, it sure does go there. Most of all, though, it’s fun, and not simply the kind of fun that most summer blockbusters—in one way or another—are expected to deliver, but the kind of fun that you’ll end up remembering, and cherishing.
81/100 - DirectorAdam WingardStarsDan StevensSheila KelleyMaika MonroeA soldier introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their son who died in action. After the young man is welcomed into their home, a series of accidental deaths seem to be connected to his presence.This is about as 'cult classic' as contemporary cinema gets. There is no subtext, no greater meaning, no complexity, no elegance—just a shotgun blast of fun to the face. It's like if Nicolas Winding Refn shot Drive as though it were an episode of Happy Days, substituting a hokey psychopath in for The Fonz. Wingard switches tone without ever encountering a single hiccup—which shows that he learned a thing or two from You're Next—but what's more impressive is just how much he gets out of each tonal change, and how quickly he does it; how he can have you laughing one second and then *beep* your pants in fear the next—and this back-and-forth happens several times over the course of ninety minutes, which adds unpredictability to a generic narrative.
Dan Stevens is not only the glue that holds The Guest together, but the glue that practically holds the entire world together. This is fantastic acting—some of the year's best—and the definition of a character performance that understands tonality and timing. He is the reason to see the movie, for sure, but that's not to say that he's the only reason that it succeeds—although I can't imagine it being remotely as entertaining without his presence.
80/100 - DirectorDan GilroyStarsJake GyllenhaalRene RussoBill PaxtonWhen Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.It's been said before, but damn it, that Jake Gyllenhaal is on one hell of a bender. It seems like ever since the crash-and-burn of Prince of Persia, he's been trying his damnedest to redeem himself with nuanced, transformative performances, so obviously, he's the life of the party here. Louis Bloom is a fascinating—if slightly underdeveloped—character; heroic in the sense that you find yourself rooting for him no matter what, villainous in the sense that you find yourself cringing with every word that he says. In that regard, he's kind of like this generation's Rupert Pupkin, which is fitting because of how similar Nightcrawler is to The King of Comedy. It's a real powerhouse of action, suspense, comedy and stone-cold satire, all combined to resemble something that's simultaneously hilarious yet deeply disconcerting. I haven't felt this uncomfortable during a movie since, well... The King of Comedy.
Dan Gilroy doesn't have a distinct directorial eye—this could've easily been directed by a late 90s Michael Mann—but Nightcrawler doesn't at all suffer at his hands. It's a real thrill ride, culminating in one of the year's most bone-chilling, most heart-pounding sequences—and among the most exciting and electrifying that I've ever witnessed—and closing with a monologue delivered by Gyllenhaal with a weasly grin and a twinkle in his eye that'll make your skin crawl.
80/100 - DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsMarion CotillardFabrizio RongioneCatherine SaléeLiège, Belgium. Sandra is a factory worker who discovers that her workmates have opted for a EUR1,000 bonus in exchange for her dismissal. She has only a weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses in order to keep her job.The Brothers Dardenne transform a task as mundane as trying to keep your job at some *beep* factory into a quest of hugely dramatic heights—and I've got nary a damn idea how they do it. If there's a more inspiring movie out there in which almost every move made is of the downbeat and un-inspiring variety, then I haven't seen it.
Marion Cotillard, man. She'll break your god damned heart in two.
80/100 - DirectorDavid FincherStarsBen AffleckRosamund PikeNeil Patrick HarrisWith his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.David Fincher does black comedy, and to startling effect. Gone Girl has him at his least formal but also his most playful, trading in his usual stylistic excesses for humor that’s equal parts pitch-black and camp. The conceit and narrative structure are interesting in theory, but awe-striking in execution, as Fincher and Flynn work together to unfurl one of the most unpredictable webs of plotting in recent memory, and both Affleck and Pike do an excellent job of never revealing as much about their character as you want them to. Meanwhile, Tyler Perry shows up and is so great I almost want to forgive him for making those Madea movies I never saw.
I admire how self-aware Fincher makes the humor out to be, but part of me misses his unparalleled skill for creating intensely terrifying scenarios. Gone Girl has the same bleak, brooding nature that characterizes Se7en and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but at a much less consistent and suffocating level. There are several chances for white-knuckled suspense, but most of them are forsaken for meta-humor—which, I don’t mind, but I would’ve liked to have been more on the edge of my seat rather than casually leaning back in it.
80/100 - DirectorSteve JamesStarsRoger EbertChaz EbertGene SiskelThe life and career of the renowned film critic and social commentator, Roger Ebert.80/100
- DirectorGraham AnnableAnthony StacchiStarsBen KingsleyJared HarrisNick FrostA young orphaned boy raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator.80/100
- DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsMichael KeatonZach GalifianakisEdward NortonA washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.Improves upon rewatch, for the most part, although I remain adamant that the tacked-on epilogue undoes the power of that lasting image where the audience applauds Riggan's self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, I love the thematic weight, the cinematography, the writing, the performances, the the way that the humor switches between being bawdy and highbrow, the ambition—and any nitpickings I have about lack of subtlety or whatever barely matter at all in the big scheme of things. This is the work of a true visionary, and I think that's something worth celebrating.
80/00 - DirectorMike LeighStarsTimothy SpallPaul JessonDorothy AtkinsonAn exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner's life.78/100
- DirectorMichael DowseStarsDaniel RadcliffeZoe KazanMegan ParkWallace, who is burned out from a string of failed relationships, forms an instant bond with Chantry, who lives with her longtime boyfriend. Together, they puzzle out what it means if your best friend is also the love of your life.I’m an all-day sucker for romantic comedies, wimpy as that sounds, but I also have standards and will more than likely not be swayed by the bulk of the ones placed in front of me. However, on occasion, about once or twice a year, there’ll be a romantic comedy that doesn't exactly subvert its genre or do anything drastically different with its formula, but what it does it does so well, and that movie is 'What If.' Yes, to say how indebted to the likes of 'Annie Hall' and 'When Harry Met Sally…'—which is also basically indebted to 'Annie Hall'—it is would be to state the obvious, but it also stands its own ground, repeating the traditional meet-cute story in a rather delightful way.
Radcliffe is surprisingly great as the lead, as is Zoe Kazan, but both are bolstered by stellar support from Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis, Rafe Spall and Megan Park. The jokes are quicker and more consistent than expected, the ‘cute’ factor is relatively high, all of the emotional beats hit and its overall indie-ness is never overbearing, as so often is the case with these kinds of films. I could have done without some of the quirks, but most of them are delivered in passing, and never do they threaten to induce eye-rolling.
78/100 - DirectorBryan SingerStarsPatrick StewartIan McKellenHugh JackmanThe X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.Knowing next to nothing about the history of the 'X-Men' franchise didn’t stop me from enjoying most of this. (My knowledge beforehand extended about as far as character names.) You put quality action in front of me and I will involve myself regardless of whether or not I understand the narrative scope in its chronological entirety, character motivations, etc.
'Days of Future Past' has the beating heart that most other movies of its kind are lacking, inasmuch as it feels less like another studio effort to cash in on the check that is this superhero craze and more like it was made out of a genuine love for the material. (Although I’m not that oblivious – this is the cash cow of the summer.) What’s refreshing is that these characters are interesting, likable, developed people that I found myself rooting for, despite not knowing a whole lot about them. The filmmaking is clean, the action remarkable, the emotional core wholly present, the CG iffy but really, who the hell am I to complain? I even laughed, on multiple occasions, which is in itself some sort of incredible feat, and for that I say bravo, sir. Bravo.
It’s got some bits that don’t work as well, but hey, if a movie about mutants flinging each other about and traveling through time and lifting football stadiums off of the god damned ground can hold my attention for more than two hours, someone somewhere is doing something right.
And seriously, people who nitpick about the logistics or scientific accuracy behind time travel in this movie or, for that matter, any movie need to just go *beep* off somewhere. It’s time travel, for God’s sake. Time travel.
77/100 - DirectorLaura PoitrasStarsEdward SnowdenGlenn GreenwaldWilliam BinneyA documentarian and a reporter travel to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden.77/100
- DirectorMichael WinterbottomStarsSteve CooganRob BrydonRosie FellnerTwo men, six meals in six different places on a road trip around Italy. Liguria, Tuscany, Rome, Amalfi and ending in Capri.Sometimes, a film can simply be an unambitious, unpretentious week-long chronicling of the lives of two grown men as they enjoy Italian cuisine, dissect the music of Alanis Morissette, ruminate on both life and death and duel celebrity impressions. Sometimes, that's all that I ever really need from the movies.
The Trip to Italy has less conflict, less narrative, less intimacy and less of the impressions that made the original The Trip so damned endearing, yet—in spite of all that was forsaken—it feels more emotionally heavy, more burdened by the weight of the world. The humor is still there—the Humphrey Bogart and Michael Parkinson bits are about as good as it gets—but this is a much more somber trip, and I kind of like it for that reason.
77/100 - DirectorRichard AyoadeStarsJesse EisenbergMia WasikowskaWallace ShawnThe unenviable life of a government-agency clerk takes a horrific turn with the arrival of a new co-worker who is both his exact physical double and his opposite otherwise--he's a confident, charismatic ladies' man.“I don’t know how to be myself. It’s like I’m permanently outside myself—like you could push your hands straight through me if you wanted to—and I can see the type of man I want to be versus the type of man I actually am, and I know that I’m doing it, but I’m incapable of what needs to be done. I’m like Pinocchio; a wooden boy—not a real boy—and it kills me.”
I love surprises—for instance, because 'The Double' operates mainly on such a surface level, with a lot of flashy visuals and deadpan humor characteristic of Terry Gilliam, when the aforementioned passage of heartfelt dialogue comes, it comes out of left field. Eisenberg plays such a meek, tragic, sympathetic person, but his fully-realized character is seemingly at odds with the cold, ironic and quirky tone that Richard Ayoade goes for, so when he gets moments to reveal a part of himself, boy are they unexpected, and quite lovely.
That’s not a detraction, by the way, because even though I would’ve loved to have seen more moments like the one mentioned above, I also love irony, dystopian settings and deadpan humor—and lighting, oh God the lighting here is phenomenal. 'The Double' is what I imagine 'Punch-Drunk Love' cross-bred with 'Brazil' would be like—comic and technically inventive yet profoundly sad.
Yes, Ayoade is obviously a big fan of Gilliam—nothing wrong with that—but the comparisons to 'Brazil' only go so far, because 'The Double' has a style, a feeling, a world entirely of its own. The human element is lacking, but hey, at least it’s there.
Also, weirdly enough, you’d think that a film that practically sells itself with obscure camera angles and flair and whatnot—and, after all, it was made by a comedian—wouldn’t have much substance, but it’s strikingly post-modern.
77/100 - DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsMasaharu FukuyamaMachiko OnoYôko MakiRyota is a successful workaholic businessman. When he learns that his biological son was switched with another boy after birth, he faces the difficult decision to choose his true son or the boy he and his wife have raised as their own.77/100
- DirectorPhil LordChristopher MillerStarsChris PrattWill FerrellElizabeth BanksAn ordinary LEGO construction worker, thought to be the prophesied as "special", is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil tyrant from gluing the LEGO universe into eternal stasis.75/100
- DirectorGareth EvansStarsIko UwaisYayan RuhianArifin PutraOnly a short time after the first raid, Rama goes undercover with the thugs of Jakarta and plans to bring down the syndicate and uncover the corruption within his police force.One of the rare instances where I'd rather plot just take a backseat to spectacle. I'm no proponent of violence for the sake of violence and am liable to feel queasy/cover my eyes whenever people are puncturing each other with hammers, but there's something about the raw athleticism and unbridled intensity here that just keeps me glued to the screen. We can all agree that two and a half hours is long by any standards for an action movie, but 'The Raid 2' almost never lets you feel its length. As a crime odyssey, its ambitions are lofty and go largely unfulfilled, but as a high-octane ballet of blood-soaked sadism, it does its job and then some. When the gears of plot start to turn and characters take it upon themselves to stand around explaining what's going on, you get a little restless, but thankfully - and I really can't believing I'm saying this - a huge dose of ass-kicking is always right around the corner.
I had NO idea what was going on the entire time. From what I gathered, and this is as specific as I will and can be, the main character is some undercover cop that gets sent to jail to befriend the son of the boss of an Indonesian crime syndicate, yada yada yada, and there's a lad with a cane, and a homeless Rastafarian-looking dude, and a bunch of suits that look like the Crazy 88s from 'Kill Bill,' and one of 'em has a bat, and none of them are too fond of each other, and that's it. That's all I know, and you know what? I think I'm fine with that. I haven't been so enthralled by an action movie in ever, so I'll happily overlook an incomprehensible narrative for some of the most well-choreographed set pieces the movies have yet to give me. (And probably the greatest car chase sequence ever filmed, but give me a few days to grapple with that one. I'm big on 'Diva' and 'The French Connection.')
So, one half's a passable crime movie, the other's an adrenaline junkie's dream come true. I wish Gareth Evans would've cut down on the plot-explaining bits 'cause none of it makes a damn bit of sense anyhow, but like I said, those fight scenes'll fry your brain.
74/100 - DirectorJeremy SaulnierStarsMacon BlairDevin RatrayAmy HargreavesA mysterious outsider's quiet life is turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself an amateur assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.“We all end up dead.”
A sort of McCarthy lite tale of how violence begets violence, and how pointless of an exercise it is when we’re all headed into the ground anyway.
Funny stuff, right?
'Blue Ruin' is unpredictable yet, at the same time, completely predictable, because while we’re never sure what move Dwight is going to make next, and neither is he, apparently, it follows the traditional revenge arc closely, rarely without missing a beat. Comparisons to 'Blood Simple' and 'No Country for Old Men' are bound to—and have been—drawn, but 'Blue Ruin' forgoes the Coens’ penchant for moments of pitch black humor for just plain pitch blackness. It’s stone cold serious through and through, which is kind of admirable, but it’s never as deep as you feel it oughta be. Well-made, yes, and totally unflinching when it comes to its depictions of the aforementioned violence, but lacking the edge that should cut you to the core when it’s over. Deep down inside, maybe I was expecting for it to be as emotionally heavy as 'No Country for Old Men,' which I now realize were totally unfair expectations to ever have had in the first place.
Good film, though. The tension is built so well it gets to a point where you actually start dreading what comes next.
74/100 - DirectorRob MarshallStarsAnna KendrickMeryl StreepChris PineA witch tasks a childless baker and his wife with procuring magical items from classic fairy tales to reverse the curse put on their family tree.73/100
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsBradley CooperSienna MillerKyle GallnerNavy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home with his family after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.Most of the words written about this one have not been kind—I will admit that the teaser/trailer had me expecting the worst—but I surprisingly found American Sniper to be a mostly soulful experience, marred only by the Have-Your-Cake-And-Eat-It-Too dichotomy of showing the psychological repercussions that violence has on the human mind and then also lingering far too long on the actual violence, almost to the point where it starts to feel thematically counterproductive. There are also a few moments where Clint Eastwood veers close to self-parody, but fortunately reels it in just before doing so. I take little issue with the rest of the film, however; the action sequences are as riveting as anything Kathryn Bigelow has given us, the dramatic scenes are nearly just as good and Bradley Cooper gives a truly stunning performance—without a doubt some of the year's best, most nuanced acting.
72/100 - DirectorBennett MillerStarsSteve CarellChanning TatumMark RuffaloU.S. Olympic wrestling champions and brothers Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz join "Team Foxcatcher", led by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont, as they train for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but John's self-destructive behavior threatens to consume them all.We'll never see the 4 hour cut of Foxcatcher, and this fact irks me to no end, because another two hours would greatly benefit a story this complicated and grueling. The main issue I have with Foxcatcher lies with Bennett Miller, whose frosty formalism both glazes over significant plot details and disconnects us from the characters. I wasn't wowed the first time that I saw it, but I really wasn't wowed the second time, because I realized—after briefly investigating the story of John du Pont and the Schultz brothers—how much important information (chiefly the relationship between du Pont and Mark Schultz) has been forsaken for Miller's cold, disconnected aesthetic, which is reserved almost to the point of abstraction. It's just too restrained.
And this is one hell of a shame, because Foxcatcher is an otherwise superb picture, filled top to bottom with powerful symbolism, subtle character interactions and incredible performances. Steve Carrell has gotten a lot of criticism for his portrayal of du Pont—one reviewer referred to his acting as limited, which I plainly do not see—but I think he does a tremendous job at gradually revealing the internal loneliness and resulting bitterness of such an introverted character.
This should've been a masterpiece.
72/100 - DirectorJames Ward ByrkitStarsEmily BaldoniMaury SterlingNicholas BrendonStrange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.'Coherence' is pretty much… totally coherent. It makes sense—at least, it makes sense according to itself; does that even make sense?—and there are rarely lapses in logic or those moments of Whaa..? or Huh..? or head-scratching confusion – which, when considering that Shane Carruth practically founded this sub-genre on things not making sense, is surprising.
'Coherence' is different than other low-budget science-fiction, however, because it presents a truly fascinating idea—parallel narratives colliding with one another—and then expounds upon this idea instead of just using it as a jumping-off point for conventional sci-fi antics. The logic is all worked out and explained to us as the situation gets further and further out of hand, so we never have questions about continuity or meaning. We’re kept up to speed the whole time, and even though 'Coherence' works as a thriller of sorts, I found myself so much more enthralled by its mechanics, how the story continues to build and build upon itself but never in a confusing way.
I had an issue, though, with a certain character’s brother’s profession, because of course his brother would have that job.
72/100 - DirectorBong Joon HoStarsChris EvansJamie BellTilda SwintonIn a future where a failed climate change experiment has killed all life except for the survivors who boarded the Snowpiercer (a train that travels around the globe), a new class system emerges.Turns out this is better than two hours aboard an actual train.
Chris Evans tripping on a wet fish in the middle of a gruesome axe-to-axe battle sequence—in exaggerated slow-motion, of course—is the moment that best illustrates the tone that 'Snowpiercer' goes for. It charts some pretty bleak and brutal territory, albeit in a PG-13 friendly way, but is also surprisingly—and inconsistently—funny – which, I guess given Bong Joon-ho’s track record, isn’t that surprising. The black humor never lightens the mood, but adds a sort of playfulness to 'Snowpiercer'’s unremitting grimness—including a handful of ‘Look what the powers that be have doing to us all this time!’ reveals that are very unsettling—that almost elevates it to cult-level status. But only almost, because, despite trying to be unpredictable, it’s far too weighed down by genre conventions to reach that level.
There's a much, much weirder film hiding in here somewhere, and it seems like Bong Joon-ho and Tilda Swinton were the only ones that knew it.
72/100 - DirectorPhil LordChristopher MillerStarsChanning TatumJonah HillIce CubeAfter making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college.Funniest movie of 2014? Eh... more than likely, yes, but that doesn't make me any less forgiving about its rushed conclusion, where things are wrapped up much too quickly and cleanly, and it loses most of its comedic edge in the process. But the rest of time? Dynamite stuff, really. People say meta-humor is the easy way out; I say I can't get enough of it.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are both funnier than I'll ever give them credit for, but most of my laughs stemmed from a scene-stealing Rob Riggle and a movie-stealing Ice Cube, who, in a pivotal, genuinely surprising 'big reveal' scene, almost made me fearful about having a legitimate heart attack, and I don't even think I'm old enough to have one.
“Waiter, can a black man get some water?”
“Someone get the man some water. He's black. He's been through a lot.”
72/100 - DirectorDoug LimanStarsTom CruiseEmily BluntBill PaxtonA soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.Didn't expect for it to be so funny—which, funny in this case equates to about nine or ten laughs, but we're talking about a god damned science-fiction action movie here—nor did I expect for Cruise to be so good. (He does weasly so well that it's a real shame he's almost never cast as such.) The third act is sort of a slog—unavoidably so, due to the route that the narrative takes—and the premise is inherently repetitive, so Edge of Tomorrow occasionally gets tiresome, but the action sequences are stellar, the chemistry between Cruise and Blunt is there and, like I said, I wasn't expecting for it to be so funny.
And, by the way, Bill Paxton, you are a champ—the truest of champs. The guy must've traveled to some distant galaxy colonized by Southern-accented alien robots in order to prep for his character.
72/100 - DirectorGerard JohnstoneStarsMorgana O'ReillyRima Te WiataGlen-Paul WaruA young woman is forced to return to her childhood home after being placed under house arrest, where she suspects that something evil may be lurking.Great fun. Besides its central conceit of having the protagonist bound by the law to live at a haunted house*, this isn't as original as rumor has made it out to be, but the blending of comedy and horror is so deft that being able to predict most of the beats seems trivial by comparison. Morgana O'Reilly great, but Glen-Paul Waru is better. His likability as an actor somehow transcends his talent as one.
*Is it just me or is being sentenced to a nine-month house arrest at your mother's home a weirdly specific verdict for robbery?
72/100 - DirectorJames GrayStarsMarion CotillardJoaquin PhoenixJeremy RennerIn 1921, an innocent immigrant woman is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.72/100
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsEmmanuelle SeignerMathieu AmalricAn actress attempts to convince a director how she's perfect for a role in his upcoming production.If someone simply walked into the theater while all of this was going on... Yikes. That'd be embarrassing.
So, apparently, Polanski is doing The Friedkin, where an auteur past his glory days just says *beep* it to directing original scripts and starts adapting stage plays—which, I'm partial to Polanski because he made the greatest film ever—and some other pretty good ones—but c'mon, man! Give us another one of those mystery-thrillers you do so well.
Whatever. He'll probably stick to translating stage to the screen and all will be fine, because the simple truth is that if he keeps churning out films like Venus in Fur, I really can't complain.
Emmannuelle Seigner, Lord have mercy on your soul.
71/100 - DirectorOrlando von EinsiedelStarsAndré BaumaEmmanuel de MerodeMélanie GoubyA team of brave individuals risk their lives to protect the last mountain gorillas.71/100
- DirectorLars von TrierStarsCharlotte GainsbourgStellan SkarsgårdStacy MartinA self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.71/100
- DirectorJim MickleStarsMichael C. HallSam ShepardDon JohnsonWhen a protective father meets a murderous ex-con, both need to deviate from the path they are on as they soon find themselves entangled in a downwards spiral of lies and violence while having to confront their own inner psyche.Starts as one movie, ends as something completely different, and that’s not overstating the fact; if Jim Mickle is the driver in this scenario, and Cold in July is the car, then he’s the kind of person that drives fast and changes lanes without signaling. The gear-switching mentality of Cold in July has been the source of much criticism, but I don’t find the incidental narrative to be as jarring or as bothersome as others do. It doesn’t change genres so much as it changes attitudes, never keeping a consistent tone, and the reason Cold in July doesn’t hold together in the long run is because not enough time is paid to each individual segment. This could just have easily been a masterful two-and-a-half hour crime saga of epic proportions, and would’ve worked better as one, too.
71/100 - DirectorDavid MackenzieStarsJack O'ConnellBen MendelsohnRupert FriendEric Love, 19, is locked up in prison. On his first day, he assaults another inmate and several guards. He's offered group therapy and his dad, an inmate as well, tries to talk sense into him. Can he be rehabilitated?Performance-wise, Starred Up is top-shelf material, with Ben Mendelsohn—continuing to hold his own as the most reliable of working actors—and Jack O’Connell in fine, raw form as father and son locked up in prison together. Working against the naturalism of their performances and the handheld camerawork, however, are the predictable beats of the narrative—which, without having even seen it, imagine how a film like this normally would pan out, start to finish, and you wouldn’t be that far off.
The climax is intense, thanks to some nice parallel cutting and low-lit cinematography, but disappointingly short-lived, and unsatisfactory when you think about it; however, I’ll be forgiving, because what comes afterwards—the final exchange between O’Connell and Mendelsohn—is beautiful (and quite profound) in its simplicity. Almost made me tear up.
71/100 - DirectorCraig JohnsonStarsKristen WiigBill HaderLuke WilsonHaving both coincidentally cheated death on the same day, estranged twins reunite with the possibility of mending their relationship.70/100
- DirectorCarl DealTia LessinStarsDavid H. KochCharles G. KochScott WalkerA documentary that follows the money behind the rise of the Tea Party.69/100
- DirectorYi'nan DiaoStarsFan LiaoGwei Lun-MeiXuebing WangAn ex cop and his ex partner decide to follow up on investigation of a series of murders that ended their careers and shamed them, when identical murders begin again.A great directional piece. Yi'nan Diao has the electric compositional skills of Nicolas Winding Refn and the visual humor of Wes Anderson. The first act—set in '99—contains some of the most startling cinematic moments of 2014—including one surprising/disorienting shootout that has my vote for best-directed scene of the year; unfortunately, the second act flounders as the narrative takes shape, and the third treads generic noir territory, which all but diminishes the power of such an original beginning. This tends to be the case with films that open strongly—the momentum just cannot be maintained.
Disappointments aside, there's a lot of good stuff in here.
68/100 - DirectorCharlie McDowellStarsMark DuplassElisabeth MossTed DansonA troubled couple vacate to a beautiful getaway, but bizarre circumstances further complicate their situation.Sort of like the structural opposite of 'The Adjustment Bureau'; instead of promising sci-fi devolving into schmaltzy romance, we start on romance and then make the gradual shift into unnerving sci-fi territory. For a low-key film about a couple working together to overcome their relationship-related problems, 'The One I Love' has a surprising amount of ambition, continually raising the stakes as it progresses, moving with the kind of unpredictability you wouldn’t normally find in other films of its kind. Ultimately, yes, it never reaches the bar that it sets for itself—which is somewhat disappointing, given all of the potential a premise like this contains—but at least it tries to do something different. I only wish that the sci-fi element had been explored more instead of being left mostly up to imagination; i.e., Ted Danson’s creepy supporting character. What really had been going on at that cabin?
68/100 - DirectorGareth EdwardsStarsAaron Taylor-JohnsonElizabeth OlsenBryan CranstonThe world is beset by the appearance of monstrous creatures, but one of them may be the only one who can save humanity.Restrained, almost to a fault, but electrifying when it wants to be. There was a moment in the midst of that climactic carnage, when the titular behemoth reveals itself in a cloud of debris and Alexandre Desplat, for a split-second, takes a break from his unceasing bombast to give us a few haunting notes on the vibraphone, where I looked over at my buddy, and he at me, and both of us, without actually saying so, acknowledged that we had just witnessed something too impossibly awesome to describe.
The plotting reaches near Hitchcockian heights in terms of its slow-but-steady escalation. (Think 'The Birds' but with a three-hundred (or more) foot tall amphibian.) There is a calculated logic and undeniable brilliance to the proceedings, especially the moments of epic destruction, but 'Godzilla' is ultimately more concerned with humanity than it is with humanity’s destroyers, which, as a concept and a change of pace, is fine by me, but the issue is that if you’re going to make what is essentially a ‘monster movie’ and set a majority of the action between said monsters in the background to focus more on what’s happening ground-level, don’t half-do it and expect me not to be disappointed. Either go all in with the human element or give the people the relentless, large-scale, skyscraper-toppling fight scenes that they want. That’s not saying that 'Godzilla' is bad or even passable entertainment, because it never bores or lags like the traditional, dumb-downed blockbuster – which, I think we can all agree, this surely isn’t – but more could have been done on both the human and monster fronts. However, what’s there ain’t too shabby.
Marketing is to blame for convincing audiences that they were getting into thirty minutes of exposition and ninety of Godzilla stomping the *beep* out of the world when, in reality, it’s the exact opposite.
I don't hold it against it, though.
68/100 - DirectorWoody AllenStarsColin FirthEmma StoneMarcia Gay HardenA romantic comedy about an Englishman brought in to help unmask a possible swindle. Personal and professional complications ensue.Woody Allen, you continue to have my heart. Unambitious and familiar as 'Magic in the Moonlight' may be, it still has the warmish-glow-in-the-chest feeling that only Woody Allen films can have; a sort of pleasantness that washes over you, to the point where you quit trying to resist and just give in to its irresistible charm. If not the greatest working filmmaker, he’s certainly the most reliable, always turning out—save a few given missteps, like 'Whatever Works'—enjoyable and competent work, the bulk of which you forget about almost instantly after having seen them, but every once in a while, he’ll make something truly profound and remind you of just what an asset to cinema he is.
'Magic in the Moonlight' is not that one profound Woody Allen film of the bunch because it’s practically the same thing he’s been making ever since he first started, but hey, that’s okay. The beats are predictable, the philosophies on life are made very obvious, the performances—while nice—are nothing incredible. It’s most definitely a film for the elderly crowd—landscape shots of foreign locales, jazz music, period costumes, an uncomplicated narrative—and, in a way, that’s paying it a compliment. For all of its unremarkableness, it sure does go down easy.
65/100 - DirectorJim JarmuschStarsTilda SwintonTom HiddlestonMia WasikowskaA depressed musician reunites with his lover. However, their romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister.64/100
- DirectorJean-Marc ValléeStarsReese WitherspoonLaura DernGaby HoffmannA chronicle of one woman's 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy.64/100
- DirectorNeil LaButeStarsStanley TucciAlice EveA man surprises his former mistress by claiming to have left his wife. However, before long, a dark history between the two comes into focus.Ultimately not as successful on an emotional level as LaBute’s prior bare-boned conversational pieces—i.e. not as bruising as 'In the Company of Men' or 'The Shape of Things'—but it’s nice to see the man make a return to form after overstaying his (un)welcome in dreary Hollywood, director-for-hire territory. The tables-turning twist is a zinger, and arguably what seals the deal, but it’s one of those twists that feels arbitrary and loud and oooh!, like it had to happen in order for the semi-lackluster action that came before it to be excused, rather than casual—like, for instance, the twist in 'In the Company of Men'—which lessens its impact.
I won’t nitpick though, because even if 'Some Velvet Morning' isn’t LaBute at the top of his game—he can write this kind of plaintive character drama in his sleep—at least he’s on the right track. Tucci and Eve are both excellent, especially when considering that they make some awkwardly-worded lines of character background sound convincing.
64/100 - DirectorWes AndersonStarsRalph FiennesF. Murray AbrahamMathieu AmalricA writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.So here we are, at 'The Grand Budapest Hotel,' with all of its pastel colors, glorious throwback visuals and an eccentric ensemble of A-list actors, most of whom are hiding under makeup, a hairpiece or a combination of the two. (Ah, so this is where the other half of Hollywood has been hiding.) I should start by saying that Wes Anderson has never been my cup of tea – which isn’t to imply that I don’t go into each and every one of his films with an open mind, ready with open arms to embrace whatever delightful concoction he’s dreamed up – but I can’t seem to join the rest of the public and say that he’s ever right blown my mind to smithereens. ('Moonrise Kingdom' is the closest he’s ever come to doing so, and even then, I still have my reservations about its final act.)
And damn it, what a beauty it is. The sets, the costuming, the photography, but more importantly, the sets. The titular Grand Budapest Hotel itself is a marvel of spectacular design, reminiscent of a confection from one of those five-star bakeries. (Mendl’s Bakery, perhaps?) Its seemingly endless layers and frosty pinks and whites make it look like a giant, delicious cake. Other locations, ranging from the Kunstmuseum to Madame D.’s residence to the mountain-set monastery, each have their own separate but equally splendid style. ‘Enthralling’ isn’t a good enough word to describe them; they overwhelm you. These places are the stuff dreams are made of, and Anderson (along with the able lensing of cinematographer Robert Yeoman) has brought them to life.
However, it’s a shame that this world has been created and yet so little of it is actually traversed. The central adventure story jumps from place to place, providing us with glimpses of these wonderfully imaginative locales, but that’s all. Granted, when you consider that the story moves at such a breakneck speed, glimpses are all that a hundred-minute running time allots, but therein lies the problem – Anderson dreams up this remarkable landscape and can’t find a decent-enough story to fill it, thus rendering much of the visuals superficial. They’re there, and they look absolutely stellar, but if I can’t invest myself in the ongoing action, what good are they?
On top of this, perhaps my biggest complaint is that the humor is largely nonexistent, which would be fine if 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' was intended to be wholly dramatic, but Anderson’s whimsical directional choices suggest otherwise. Tonally, it feels at odds with itself, moving between comedy and seriousness, between light and dark. Just when you think it’s going to stick with the jokes, along comes a scene of gruesome violence and then the mood abruptly changes. And as for the jokes, most of them feel recycled from the Anderson repertoire of deadpan deliveries and cutesy sight gags, which I’m normally fine with, but here, the charm is lacking.
Maybe I’m being a bit too harsh because I actually enjoyed it – on a semi-detached, superficial level, that is. I won’t argue that it isn’t well put together, because then I’d just be lying, and it’ll give you at least a handful of laughs, but frankly, to use an old theater term, I pretty much left humming the lights.
Oh, *beep* I didn’t mention that Ralph Fiennes is terrific, did I?
64/100 - DirectorAva DuVernayStarsDavid OyelowoCarmen EjogoOprah WinfreyA chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.64/100
- DirectorRob MinkoffStarsTy BurrellMax CharlesStephen ColbertSherman, a young boy, misuses a time machine made by his scientist father Mr. Peabody and causes the world history to go haywire. It is now up to Mr. Peabody to rescue his son and the world.64/100
- DirectorAlan HicksStarsClark TerryJustin KauflinQuincy JonesA documentary that follows jazz legend Clark Terry over four years to document the mentorship between Terry and 23-year-old blind piano prodigy Justin Kauflin as the young man prepares to compete in an elite, international competition.64/100
- DirectorGillian RobespierreStarsJenny SlateJake LacyGaby HoffmannA twenty-something comedienne's unplanned pregnancy forces her to confront the realities of independent womanhood for the first time.I'll echo the consensus that this movie isn't great or even very good, but I dunno, I kind of just wanted to cry during every second of its existence. It paints such a believable portrait of a difficult situation, never dramatizing the central decision, and that ends up making it feel incredibly human. The dynamic between Jenny Slate and Jake Lucy is phenomenal; Slate is seemingly the better player due to having a performance that requires more range, but Lucy is equally as good. There is virtually no narrative—not a criticism—but the stand-up moments don't work their magic like they should, and they end feeling like filler—not because Slate's charisma is lacking, but because her material just isn't even remotely funny. Of course I laughed, but how often I'm not so sure.
Some of it comes across too heavy-handed and the supporting performances are just... there, but I dunno. I kind of liked it.
63/100 - DirectorWilliam EubankStarsBrenton ThwaitesOlivia CookeBeau KnappOn a road trip, Nic and two friends are drawn to an isolated area by a computer genius. When everything suddenly goes dark, Nic regains consciousness - only to find himself in a waking nightmare.Laurence Fishburne for Coolest *beep* In Town, amirite?
Okay, so this is, essentially, sort of a hybrid of 'Looper,' 'Dark City' and an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' with a big reveal that, while not totally unpredictable, is out of this world. Yeah, it strays into mumbly, Sundance territory on occasion – which, sigh – but counterbalances those bits with riveting action, a chilly atmosphere and William Eubanks’ terrific lensing, which is responsible for more than a handful of visually arresting sequences.
The twistiness of the narrative is frustrating because most of the questions aren’t answered until the final few minutes, and some aren’t even answered at all, so a lot of the running time is spent in confusion, but I have an appreciation for 'The Signal' that I never had for the other low-budget sci-fi puzzlers of its kind, like 'Primer' and 'Beyond the Black Rainbow,' because while it doesn’t shy away from having an ambition that exceeds its financial grasp, it isn’t overly convoluted or reliant on high-gloss visuals to cover up a mucky story, and there isn’t a bad performance in the bunch. There are instances of iffy dialogue, which also means instances of iffy line delivery, and I’m not completely sold on some passages, and I still have tons of questions that can only (maybe) be answered upon rewatch, but damn it, as it currently stands, what a film.
63/100 - DirectorJohn MaloofCharlie SiskelStarsVivian MaierJohn MaloofDaniel ArnaudA documentary on the late Vivian Maier, a nanny whose previously unknown cache of 100,000 photographs earned her a posthumous reputation as one of the most accomplished street photographers.63/100
- DirectorJ.C. ChandorStarsOscar IsaacJessica ChastainDavid OyelowoIn New York City 1981, an ambitious immigrant fights to protect his business and family during the most dangerous year in the city's history.63/100
- DirectorDon HallChris WilliamsStarsRyan PotterScott AdsitJamie ChungA special bond develops between plus-sized inflatable robot Baymax and prodigy Hiro Hamada, who together team up with a group of friends to form a band of high-tech heroes.63/100
- DirectorDavid MichôdStarsGuy PearceRobert PattinsonScoot McNairy10 years after a global economic collapse, a hardened loner pursues the men who stole his only possession, his car. Along the way, he captures one of the thieves' brother, and the duo form an uneasy bond during the dangerous journey.63/100
- DirectorSteven KnightStarsTom HardyOlivia ColmanRuth WilsonIvan Locke, a dedicated family man and successful construction manager, receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his carefully cultivated existence.I had no idea that 'Locke' was to be set entirely within one BMW X5, as the titular character tries to right several wrongs during a nighttime car ride; however, what’s interesting is how this central gimmick takes a backseat—damn it—to Locke and his late night calls as we barrel through the narrative, to the point where we’re so immersed in his quest that we forget that all of this has been taking place inside of a car.
'Locke' is one of those instances where its success as a film depends on how captivating the lead actor is, and fortunately, in this case, that actor is Tom Hardy, whose performances are always at least marginally brilliant. The story is told fairly simply, with nary a revelatory twist or earth-shattering plot point, and you’ll reach a point where you start asking yourself, Can’t five seconds pass without this guy getting another phone call?, but Hardy makes the journey an unexpectedly immersive experience.
63/100 - DirectorAharon KeshalesNavot PapushadoStarsLior AshkenaziRotem KeinanTzahi GradAfter a little girl is brutally murdered, a suspect avoids arrest due to lack of evidence. Working separately, her father and a cop decide to do something about it.The horror and comedy elements work well by themselves, but not together—which means to say that there are parts that are funny and parts that are unsettling, but the transitions between the two aren't exactly smooth. I found the second act hard enough to endure, but I guess that's because I'm Queasy McShiftypants when it comes to onscreen torture.
Also, Tarantino listed The Lone Ranger and Paul W.S. Anderson's The Three Musketeers as some of the best films of their respective years, so take his recommendation with a grain of salt.
63/100 - DirectorJohn Michael McDonaghStarsBrendan GleesonChris O'DowdKelly ReillyAfter he is threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.63/100
- DirectorCãlin Peter NetzerStarsLuminita GheorghiuBogdan DumitracheNatasa RaabAfter the terrible news of a fatal car accident involving her son, a desperate mother will do anything in her power to set her child free.Calin Peter Netzer isn’t a great formalist—too much wobbly cam, distracting pans—but whatever. We’re here for the performances, anyway, so it’s only a minor hindrance.
Luminita Gheorghiu as the domineering Cornelia is the performance that sells 'Child’s Pose,' because she operates with almost total ambiguity. You’re never quite sure of the root of her emotions, whether she acts with genuine affection or out of selfishness, and Gheorghiu gives no hints, greeting every situation with the same cold, detached expression—that is, until the end, where all that emotion comes bubbling over the top.
'Child’s Pose' is less concerned with the plot-related details than it is with the central mother-son relationship, but I don’t think that the looseness of the narrative works to the film’s advantage, though, despite lending a very naturalistic flow to the proceedings. Aimless isn't the right word; it's got too much flack, with each conversation managing to just overstay its welcome.
However, trying to keep up with Cornelia as she wheels and deals is somehow strangely enjoyable. She’s an interesting character, and there are individual moments—like the one with a scene-stealing Vlad Ivanov—that are subtly brilliant.
62/100 - DirectorJon FavreauStarsJon FavreauRobert Downey Jr.Scarlett JohanssonA head chef quits his restaurant job and buys a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.62/100
- DirectorJames GunnStarsChris PrattVin DieselBradley CooperA group of intergalactic criminals must pull together to stop a fanatical warrior with plans to purge the universe.Lets its freak flag fly, but only at half-mast—because, after all, this is just another print hot off the Marvel press, so only so much weirdness and unconventionality is allowed. The references to 80s pop culture are there, the 70s rock songs are there, the comedy shtick is unexpectedly old school—and funny!—but 'Guardians of the Galaxy' conclusively feels compartmentalized and broadened to satisfy the kind of audience that goes to see Marvel movies, with each string of successfully comic scenes undone by an action setpiece that feels included to redeem the attention of a distracted theater patron. (Let it be known that I actually wanted to see this, but for all the wrong reasons.) James Gunn isn’t adept at directing spectacle, which serves as irony because the smaller moments are what give 'Guardians of the Galaxy' its life anyway.
Dave Bautista is solid, though, and not just physically.
61/100 - DirectorDeclan LowneyStarsSteve CooganColm MeaneyTim KeyWhen famous DJ Alan Partridge's radio station is taken over by a new media conglomerate, it sets in motion a chain of events which see Alan having to work with the police to defuse a potentially violent siege.I know [almost] nothing about Alan Partridge, his origins as a television character or what it is about him that people find so hilarious—or British humor, for that matter—but I do have a rather Coogan-sized inclination towards the comedic stylings of one Mr. Steve Coogan*, and that’s what sold me on 'Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.'
As it turns out, the film adds little dimension to his character, which—as I see it—is both good and bad, because while Alpha Papa feels more stand-alone and less self-referential than other spin-offs, i.e. good news for an ill-informed schmuck like me, the lack of dimension is almost too noticeable. This version of Partridge seems more toned-down and generalized than the one on television, whom I’ve only seen pieces of, and while I can appreciate that Coogan did this in an attempt to make the character more accesible to audience members such as myself, something was obviously lost in the translation from television to the big screen.
That being said, Coogan sells 'Alpha Papa' for way more than it’s worth. The supporting cast gives him a helping hand on occasion, but most of the time, he’s just out there lone-wolfing it, running through one-liners so fast that you end missing more than half of them by the time the film’s over. The narrative is less perfunctory than you might think, and 'Alpha Papa' hardly ever feels like an excuse to milk a popular television character, but it’s ever-so slight and rarely laugh-out-loud funny. However, I’ll give it credit for actually feeling like a movie rather than a series of improvised bits—the way we Americans do comedy over here.
*Who doesn’t?
60/100 - DirectorJason BatemanStarsJason BatemanKathryn HahnAllison JanneyA spelling bee loser sets out to exact revenge by finding a loophole and attempting to win as an adult.Was this shot in the 1970s? Or perhaps set in the 1970s? If not, cool it with the sepia tone, Jason Bateman the Director. You're not doing Gordon Willis any favors.
Alright, so I wouldn't dare lie about my unabashed Jason Bateman fanhood. I don't care that his range as an actor exists somewhere between Sarcastic Everyman and Extremely Sarcastic Everyman. I don't care that he gives virtually the same performance in each one of his films, because it's a good performance. I like his shtick.
Unsurprisingly, Bateman is the reason why Bad Words works as well as it does. It doesn't have any big comedic moments, which makes it kind of a failure as far as comedies go, but that's not saying that it isn't funny, because it does have a lot of small chuckles. I rarely find Older-Man-Teaches-Punk-Kid-Curse-Words movies enjoyable, but in this case, because said Older Man is being played by Jason Bateman—and because the narrative, while conventional, is a little bit looser than this genre tends to allow—I'd have to say that Bad Words is completely tolerable. I actually think I kind of liked it.
60/100 - DirectorIsao TakahataStarsChloë Grace MoretzJames CaanMary SteenburgenKaguya is a beautiful young woman coveted by five nobles. To try to avoid marrying a stranger she doesn't love, she sends her suitors on seemingly impossible tasks. But she will have to face her fate and punishment for her choices.60/100
- DirectorRichard GlatzerWash WestmorelandStarsJulianne MooreAlec BaldwinKristen StewartA linguistics professor and her family find their bonds tested when she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.Oscar bait, in all senses of the word, but my using that barb doesn't mean I don't discount the performance Julianne Moore, because her performance is a one hunnerd per cent devastating one. Having had a grandmother that was diagnosed with the disease, I can say that Moore captures the gradual transition into the eternal bewilderment of Alzheimer's with incredible ease; she gets all of the mannerisms, the subtle changes in behavior, mood, etc. perfectly right. The ending is a definite soul-crusher, as is inevitable, and Moore gets good support from the rest of the cast—chiefly Alec Baldwin and his world-weary eye bags—but it's an overly earnest and glossy PSA, in spite of its good intentions.
60/100 - DirectorChris EskaStarsAshton SandersTishuan ScottKeston JohnOn the outskirts of the U.S. Civil War, a boy is sent north by his bounty hunter gang to retrieve a wanted man.60/100
- DirectorAaron KatzMartha StephensStarsEarl Lynn NelsonPaul EenhoornDaníel GylfasonA pair of former brothers-in-law embark on a road trip through Iceland.So, this one grew on me—not meaning that I warmed to it days after having seen it, but that I warmed to it while seeing it. These two guys don't make the most interesting or exciting pair, but... I dunno. Spending time with them is kind of really lovely.
I would recommend the second half over the first, for sure, because up until its halfway point, Land Ho! is total amateur hour. Nothing clicks—not the acting, not the writing, not the directing. It isn't until the moment where the two main characters decide to make a departure from urban Iceland to rural Iceland that things start to pick up—and then, inexplicably, the acting gets better, the humor starts to work and we get lines as great as the one quoted above. The whole time, though, there is no conflict, but that only becomes a problem if you notice that there isn't any. Frankly, if a lack of conflict or narrative is the price that a film must pay in order to simply show two older dudes—one of whom is just way too horny for anyone's good—dicking off and looking at geysers and *beep* then so be it.
'Doobification' is officially part of the repertoire of words/phrases I use on a daily basis.
58/100 - DirectorIvan SenStarsAaron PedersenHugo WeavingRyan KwantenAn indigenous detective returns to the Outback to investigate the murder of a young girl.Calm as all hell, but brutish when it wants to be; two hours of layered mystery that moves at an unhurried pace, and boy do I mean un-hur-ried. Mystery Road doesn't slow-burn so much as it slow-simmers, taking its time to flesh out the details of its fairly simple police procedural story, but it's an oddly—and consistently—captivating experience. The themes of racial injustice are there as an added bonus, but they're mostly treated as window shopping. My issue with it, I guess, is that it feels much too made-for-television, which is weird considering that a) it's a conscious-heavy neo-Western b) set in a heat-stricken, impoverished, drug-addled town in rural Australia c) that focuses on an act of grisly violence and the resulting search for the murderer. That description would have you believe that Mystery Road is cinematic in the way that No Country for Old Men is, but it never even comes close to reaching that level. There's relatively little action, it doesn't raise many questions about race relations or the nature of violence and, visually, while most films set in Australia are inherently gorgeous due to being set in Australia, the compositions are uninspired and kind of dull.
Aaron Pedersen's performance is arguably the most interesting here, because while he has—and this might be character-related, but also, it might not be—very little personality, he has presence. Physically, he fits the role perfectly; acting-wise, not so much, yet you get the sense that he knows exactly what he's doing. His facial expressions constantly shift between understatement and confusion, and he'll often deliver lines in detached, abstract ways, but you know what? You inexplicably end up rooting for the guy to come out on top.
58/100 - DirectorLenny AbrahamsonStarsMichael FassbenderDomhnall GleesonMaggie GyllenhaalJon, a young wanna-be musician, discovers he's bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank.The quirks are less bothersome than the completely unfulfilling narrative, which is told in a sort-of fast-forward style that skips entire passages of time with a single cut, condensing little over a year* into less than ninety minutes—which, Christ Almighty, you just can’t tell a story that way and expect it to be emotionally satisfying. What’s even more bothersome is how the eponymous Frank is mainly relegated to the role of Kooky Supporting Character, doing and saying things mostly of the non-sequitur variety, until—inevitably—the big Third Act Reveal, where he becomes more than just a sideshow freak; he becomes a real human being. Before that third act, however, we’re stuck with Domhnall Gleeson’s Jon, who proves to be an increasingly insufferable character, which—from what I gathered—is intentional, but it doesn’t make enduring his presence any easier. Frank—with his paper mache head and incomprehensible poetic ramblings, reminiscent of a drunk Jim Morrison—is such an intriguing persona that it’s a shame he gets so little of the spotlight; a damn shame considering that Fassbender is unsurprisingly in stellar form.
Frank is billed as comedy, although it’s almost never funny, but it is kind of charming, in the way that most indie flicks aren't, and despite not being a fan of any of the music played, I think that its depiction of the creative process, musically speaking, is spot-on, as is the overriding message of how compromising for mass appeal leads to stifling of said creativity. The whole ‘lipstick rainbow’ sequence is just a pot of god damned gold.
*I have no idea if this is accurate.
57/100 - DirectorAnthony RussoJoe RussoStarsChris EvansSamuel L. JacksonScarlett JohanssonAs Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world, he teams up with a fellow Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Black Widow, to battle a new threat from history: an assassin known as the Winter Soldier.I dunno. I just can’t get into it, and by it, I mean these Marvel superhero thingys everyone’s always yelling about and throwing their money at. And get this: 'Captain America: The Winter Solider' is actually the first one (aside from 'The Avengers,' which was relatively fun) I think I’ve seen, and I, really, you know, I just don’t have a damned bit of interest in seeing another one.
The cuts, the character twists, the intensifying action with the loud bombastic score that pauses only so someone can say some half-witty one-liner – I can predict it all. There are some genuinely riveting action sequences near the beginning, notably the whole Sam Jackson car chase extravaganza, but the intensity dwindles the more you learn about what’s going on and who’s behind what and why the ghost of Toby Jones has manifested itself in a computer and somehow managed to edit together an almost two-minute long video of stock footage that includes a shot of a satellite IN SPACE – which, how? How, ghost of Toby Jones, were you able to get that shot? See, when I start thinking of things like that, you know I’m bored *beep* And don’t even get me started on that final set piece, which is one of the most baffling sequences in all of editing history.
Chris Evans is a fine actor. Robert Redford is a damn fine actor. Scarlet Johansson is just plain damn fine. And Anthony Mackie, eh… Well, he’s pretty cool, too. This is a fine movie. For what it is – which is one of my most hated justifications for anything, because that's basically like saying, 'It's not good, but in terms of non-goodness, it's pretty good,' but oh well – 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' is totally fine.
57/100 - DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEllar ColtranePatricia ArquetteEthan HawkeThe life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.I have always really wanted to like Boyhood because the conceit is so appealing and ambitious—and I also really hate dismissing the writing and directing abilities of Richard Linklater because he has proven himself as a competent filmmaker in the past and I simply have not earned the right to discredit him as such—but time and time again I find myself simply baffled by its universal acclaim. It is confusing and ultimately very disconcerting to watch a film that has been hailed by some as the best ever made—twice—and come away feeling cold and disappointed on both occasions. I guess I have to assume that everyone else is frankly in denial, because no, Boyhood is not the best film of the century or the decade or the year or even the month within which it was originally released. (I'll have to do some fact-checking on that last one, but I'm at least pretty sure.) Upon rewatch, its flaws are ten times as noticeable. Linklater's political agenda overstays its welcome every time it surfaces, the performances—excluding Hawke and Arquette—are exceptionally bad for a film that has been praised for its acting, the characters are dull and poorly-written, the filmmaking is visually uninteresting and straight-up cheap in parts—that masked shot of Ellar Coltrane on FaceTime with his dad is excruciating to watch when you realize that it's just a freeze-frame—and the classic Linklater philosophizing sounds like it was written by a well-intentioned but generally dumb person. I still feel like I am overrating it by giving it two-and-a-half stars, but going any lower would simply be wrong.
I have no way of ever proving this, but I can almost guarantee that if Linklater had shot this screenplay on a regular shooting schedule instead of over the course of twelve years, no one would be talking about Boyhood the way they are now.
54/100 - DirectorChris RockStarsChris RockRosario DawsonGabrielle UnionA comedian tries to make it as a serious actor when his reality television star fiancée talks him into broadcasting their wedding on her television show.54/100
- DirectorEvan GoldbergSeth RogenStarsJames FrancoSeth RogenRandall ParkDave Skylark and his producer Aaron Rapaport run the celebrity tabloid show "Skylark Tonight". When they land an interview with a surprise fan, North Korean dictator Jong-Un Kim, they are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.54/100
- DirectorMichael CuestaStarsJeremy RennerRobert PatrickJena SimsJournalist Gary Webb, California 1996, started investigating CIA's role in the 1980s in getting crack cocaine to the black part of LA to get money and weapons to the Contra insurgents in Nicaragua.54/100
- DirectorMorten TyldumStarsBenedict CumberbatchKeira KnightleyMatthew GoodeDuring World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.54/100
- DirectorLars von TrierStarsCharlotte GainsbourgStellan SkarsgårdWillem DafoeThe continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adulthood, obsessions and what led to her being in Seligman's care.53/100
- DirectorEugenio MiraStarsElijah WoodJohn CusackKerry BishéA pianist with stage fright endures a performance under the eyes of a mysterious sniper, who will shoot and kill him if a wrong note is played.50/100
- DirectorJaume Collet-SerraStarsLiam NeesonJulianne MooreScoot McNairyAn air marshal springs into action during a transatlantic flight after receiving a series of text messages demanding $150 million into an off-shore account, or someone will die every 20 minutes.50/100
- DirectorAnton CorbijnStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanRachel McAdamsDaniel BrühlA Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets caught in the international war on terror.Christ, John le Carré, we get it. Spydom is much, much less riveting in real life than it is in the movies. Thanks for continuing to hammer in that point.
Alright, so I’m an idiot—and an unfair idiot at that—because le Carré is obviously a brilliant writer; I’m just not brave or patient enough to try and read one of his novels. On the other hand, I have seen four or five filmic adaptations of his work, and they’ve all played—or downplayed—like the exact antithesis of something like 'Spy' Game or James Bond.
'A Most Wanted Man' is what you’d expect: a spy… doing his job. He chain-smokes, he drinks his coffee, he speaks in a hushed tone, he looks over a file or two, he’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, try as he must, gives the role his all—as he was always one to do, God Bless the man—but he comes off just as underwhelming as the rest of the film—and the rest of the performances, which are just a bunch of faltering accents. Barely anything of interest transpires over the two hour running time—or maybe, because of the film’s detached, completely reserved nature, I just couldn't tell when something of interest did happen. Boredom is subjective, because there are undoubtedly many people out there who enjoy this kind of stuff. But so many yawns, man. So many yawns.
The conclusion packs the only real emotional punch in the film, yet it doesn't feel like a satisfying payoff due to the preceding lackluster action. I think that—in theory—the idea of deconstructing cinema’s image of the spy, showing us the mundanity of their lives and how little control they actually have over any given situation, is interesting, but one that is better left to the pages, where we’re more likely to be drawn into the character and the consequences of his job. On the screen, it’s just an endurance test.
50/100 - DirectorJennifer KentStarsEssie DavisNoah WisemanDaniel HenshallA single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.49/100
- DirectorDavid DobkinStarsRobert Downey Jr.Robert DuvallVera FarmigaBig-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth; along the way he reconnects with his estranged family.Palmer and Palmer: Coming This Fall To TNT!
But in all seriousness, this is a mawkish yet largely inoffensive drama, bolstered by a roundtable of good performances, individual moments of moving sincerity and a decent story deserving of a much less televisual treatment, ultimately letdown by tonal inconsistency and a bunch of unfortunate divergences into melodramatic territory. Janusz Kaminski's seriously moody cinematography doesn't fit the material well either, and it proves to be a constant distraction, but I don't mind movies like this when all is said and done. The dialogue can be cloying, several plot points require a total suspension of disbelief and the use of a mentally-impaired supporting character as comic relief is ill-advised, as it always is, but The Judge is relatively easygoing, and nothing to get upset about.
49/100 - DirectorJohn TurturroStarsJohn TurturroWoody AllenSharon StoneFioravante decides to become a professional Don Juan as a way of making money to help his cash-strapped friend, Murray. With Murray acting as his "manager", the duo quickly finds themselves caught up in the crosscurrents of love and money.Peculiar and not without charm, but completely unmemorable; as I write this, barely a week after having seen it, I can’t seem to remember more than four or five scenes. Fading Gigolo is a strange movie, one that bills itself as a comedy about a middle-aged man being ushered into the world of prostitution by his neurotic mentor when it’s more of a drama of sorts about loneliness and the social politics of Brooklyn’s Jewish population. It wants to be about both, in equal measure, but doesn’t make the transition between the two as smoothly as it should.
Allen’s a riot—as he always is—and there are moments where the story dips down into surprisingly emotional territory, but it doesn’t dwell there for long before switching gears back to comedy, and it’s because of this tonal confusion that Fading Gigolo proves to be an odd, unsatisfying experience. It tries to cover too much ground in an hour and a half and, as a result, doesn’t fully resolve either of its plotlines.
The jazz soundtrack—lots of Gene Ammons—classes things up a bit, and although Turturro is one of the least visually consistent directors working, he lends a touch of whimsy to the action that makes it inoffensive and easy to digest.
49/100 - DirectorJustin SimienStarsTyler James WilliamsTessa ThompsonKyle GallnerThe lives of four black students at an Ivy League college.Colorful dialogue and a wry sense of humor can not compensate for mediocre filmmaking—amateur Altman aesthetic—and broad satire. Dear White People seems very much like a cinematic rant—like Justin Simien built a inconsequential narrative around a bunch of stray observations and called it a day. It's too uneven as a result of this—because the (obviously) satirical moments and the story-related moments don't come together the way they should, and because all of the barbs that Simien flings never really coalesce into one central message. Ultimately, it ends up feeling a lot like a bunch of stray observations about white and black culture, which it for the most part is. That doesn't mean that most of the stuff here isn't worth saying—although I have to admit that I completely stopped caring after one character uttered the line 'Black people can't be racist.'
49/100 - DirectorPawel PawlikowskiStarsAgata KuleszaAgata TrzebuchowskaDawid OgrodnikA novice nun about to take her vows uncovers a family secret dating back to the German occupation.So, apparently it takes more than pristine black-and-white cinematography and jazz music—Coltrane, to be exact, which is good enough, although I’m more of an Eddie Harris man myself—to win me over, because I just couldn’t ever get involved with Ida, nor did I ever feel like it actually wanted me to.
49/100 - DirectorMichael SpierigPeter SpierigStarsEthan HawkeSarah SnookNoah TaylorAs his last assignment, a temporal agent is tasked to travel back in time and prevent a bomb attack in New York in 1975. The hunt, however, turns out to be beyond the bounds of possibility.File under the category of post-Looper science-fiction.
This movie has a weird framing device, and it spends too much time in flashback. Also, too much time is spent explaining plot elements that are relatively easy to digest and not enough time is spent explaining plot mechanics that are harder to understand. In one instance, one character asks another a time jump-related question—I was genuinely curious about the answer—and he simply responds, “Doesn't matter.” Sure, it takes balls to be that lazy, but also, give me a break.
The whole first act develops interestingly enough, but it drags like all hell, and once the story decides to get off of its ass and actually go somewhere, it shoots itself in the foot with a predictable twist and a ridiculous ending. I do like how the second act deals with most of the issues presented in the first, but this premise just isn't explored in the right ways—it's easy to see that it was based on a short story—and the dialogue is too bluntly expository at times.
Ethan Hawke—to his credit—makes the whole thing incredibly tolerable, breathing charisma and energy into a one-trait character. He's got bills to pay, too, and not all of his gigs can be zingers, but I wish he would put his effort into something more worthwhile.
48/100 - DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsJulianne MooreMia WasikowskaRobert PattinsonA tour into the heart of a Hollywood family chasing celebrity, one another and the relentless ghosts of their pasts.This might be the nail in the coffin for me and David Cronenberg; I haven't ever warmed to his work, and Maps to the Stars is no different from the rest. It aims to depict Hollywood as a crazed, incestuous hellhole filled to the brim with rotten douchebags and self-indulgent *beep* but it's underwhelming with its characterizations, obvious with its metaphors and too thematically blunt to make the scathing commentary stick. Its satire is mediocre at best—more than half of the zingers just consist of characters dropping the names of real-life celebrities—and also, it looks awfully cheap. Julianne Moore and John Cusack are both marvelous; all others are meh at best.
It isn't as bad or pretentious as some other inside looks at Hollywood; it's just too tame. Also, unrendered climactic CG fire, what in the *beep* happened to you? Did one of the visual effects artists simply forget how atrocious you look?
48/100 - DirectorJon S. BairdStarsJames McAvoyJamie BellEddie MarsanA corrupt, junkie cop with bipolar disorder attempts to manipulate his way through a promotion in order to win back his wife and daughter while also fighting his own inner demons.48/100
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsJohn Lloyd YoungErich BergenMichael LomendaThe story of four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 1960s rock group The Four Seasons.46/100
- DirectorDerek LeeClif ProwseStarsClif ProwseDerek LeeMichael GillTwo best friends see their trip of a lifetime take a dark turn when one of them is struck by a mysterious affliction. Now, in a foreign land, they race to uncover the source before it consumes him completely.Doesn’t breathe new life into the found footage genre—if such a thing could even be done—but comes admirably close; the energy behind the filmmaking almost helps it to overcome problems inherent to the genre—which, for instance, in an un-cinematic scenario, i.e. real life, the cameraman would’ve acted like a normal person and stopped filming early on.
It is a movie, though, and a movie that chronicles Derek Lee’s transformation from simple dude to vampire with superhuman abilities, so maybe nitpicking about Clif Prowse’s decision to keep the camera rolling is me being just a tad too critical, or something.
However, that’s not even my biggest issue with Afflicted; my issue is how a certain character twist halfway through—unexpected and kind of awesome as it is—causes the film to practically deflate. The second half is completely nonsensical, yeah, but it’s mainly just a bore.
Still, some of those effects are pretty cool.
46/100 - DirectorMatt ReevesStarsGary OldmanKeri RussellAndy SerkisThe fragile peace between apes and humans is threatened as mistrust and betrayal threaten to plunge both tribes into a war for dominance over the Earth.The honest truth is that I forgot ever having seen this, and I saw it just two days ago—although, really, that doesn't matter, because I basically forgot everything about it the second I left the theater. That, to me, is almost—but not quite—worse than hating a film, because when you hate something, at least you remember it. 'Dawn' isn’t terrible or even bad; it’s just that I never felt compelled enough to care about the characters or their plight, let alone recall them. It's yet another perfunctory remake/sequel from the studio assembly line, almost mechanical in its execution, that never strays too far from the rules dictated by the Boring Blockbuster 101 handbook.
Gary Oldman's in it, right..?
45/100 - DirectorKristian LevringStarsMads MikkelsenEva GreenJeffrey Dean MorganIn 1870s America, the fury of a notorious gang leader is unleashed when a peaceful American settler avenges the death of his family. Then as his cowardly fellow townspeople betray him, he is forced to hunt down the outlaws alone.I literally forgot that I was watching this movie while I was watching it twice—both times before the halfway mark—and if that it isn't a clear indication of quality, then I don't know what is.
The Man Seeks Revenge For His Family's Murder story arc has been done to death—and then resurrected, usually, but only to be done back to death a short while later—so many times that in order for a film about such a story to be credible or noteworthy at all, it's got to be at least slightly different from the other films of its kind. The Salvation is just so passive, so generic, so uninspired—I never felt inclined to give more than half of a *beep* which is about a quarter of a *beep* more than I should've.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is in Watchmen, and he is the best thing about Watchmen. He is also in this, and he is just... really kind of terrible.
44/100 - DirectorDavid AyerStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerSam WorthingtonTerrence HowardMembers of an elite DEA task force find themselves being taken down one by one after they rob a drug cartel safe house.Tries to be oppressively bleak through grim atmospherics and gory violence, but ultimately comes up hella short. The drama is inert, the characters (MONSTER, NECK, etc.) are defined by name only, the narrative is repetitive until it hits the twist and then just plainly unravels, and all of this is exaggerated by the surprising paucity of action sequences, which means that a majority of 'Sabotage' is spent relying on the acting abilities of the Governator and crew, and I’m sorry, but these guys just can’t cut it.
For me, what it comes down to is that a film can be as vile, as repulsive, as heinous as humanly possible, yet if there isn’t a single character worth latching onto, then it’s just a lot of violence treated with a lot of indifference by yours truly. 'End of Watch' is thrilling throughout and especially tough to watch during its final minutes because of how much you grow to care for its two leads; in Sabotage, not a one, and that severely stunts its impact.
44/100 - DirectorAngelina JolieStarsJack O'ConnellMiyaviDomhnall GleesonAfter a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.Unbroken is as by-the-numbers and one-note as expected, but also moderately pathetic when you consider the fact that Universal Pictures had been trying to adapt Zamperini's life story into a film for over fifty years. I have a seriously hard time believing that this is the best that they could do.
Level all the blame at Angelina Jolie, who—like late-period Clint Eastwood—is a very workmanlike director that tries to hit all of the beats as loudly and as safely as possible, but—unlike late-period Eastwood—without infusing them with a single ounce of warmth or compassion. I have no doubts that Mrs. Jolie wanted to make a great movie about a great hero, so I can't fault her for lack of trying, but who really knows how much better this might've been under someone else's supervision.
44/100 - DirectorTheodore MelfiStarsBill MurrayMelissa McCarthyNaomi WattsA young boy whose parents have just divorced finds an unlikely friend and mentor in the misanthropic, bawdy, hedonistic war veteran who lives next door.Starts out well enough, with Bill Murray doing his Grumpy Old Man shtick to perfection, but loses most of its bite—and, not to mention, me—as it slowly but surely ventures into treacly territory. (Seriously, what a travesty of an ending.) What could have—and frankly should have—been a straightforward, grouchy-Vietnam-vet-schools-some-punk-kid-on-the-ways-of-life scenario—with all the yuks that a premise like that usually entails—ends up being some half-baked melodrama about how the grumpy neighbor-next-door is actually a really good guy or some *beep* Okay, so maybe St. Vincent was never intended to be just a comedy in the first place—which, in that case, the trailers are very misleading—but that doesn't excuse its slight dramatics, predictable narrative or uncomfortable sentimentality. It's unfortunate, too, because I was kind of digging the first half.
44/100 - DirectorGabe IbáñezStarsAntonio BanderasBirgitte Hjort SørensenDylan McDermottHuman race is at edge of the end. Robot race is at edge of the beginning.42/100
- DirectorJames MarshStarsEddie RedmayneFelicity JonesTom PriorStephen Hawking gets unprecedented success in the field of physics despite being diagnosed with motor neuron disease at the age of 21. He defeats awful odds as his first wife Jane aids him loyally.Insensitive as it assuredly will be, I'm not entirely sold on the idea that, because of his condition, Stephen Hawking's life story makes for inherently compelling cinema, which is why part of me thinks The Theory of Everything pushes him out of the spotlight and focuses on his wife—adapted from her memoir as the screenplay may be. His theories on relativity may make for compelling documentaries, but a man who leads solely a life of the mind does not make for a good subject in a biopic. I am aware that all of this makes me sound like some son of a bitch.
The characters are boring and live in a world that resembles some sort of Paul Verhoeven-styled dystopian England, where every person is freakishly nice and talks in only expository phrases. Eddie Redmayne—trying his hardest to secure that Oscar nomination—is good as Hawking, but he isn't given much to build a performance around.
42/100