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A heartbreaking, quirky, and ultimately inspiring look at love in the Information Age, Spike Jonze’s Her is an unconventional romantic comedy that offers a profound and incredibly insightful meditation on relationships in a world changing faster than we can comprehend. Joaquin Phoenix delivers one of his most nuanced performances as Theodore, a lost soul living in … Continue reading
Based on ex-Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s book about a 2005 mission in Afghanistan that went shockingly and tragically bad, Lone Survivor plays out like the antithesis of the standard hoo-rah military-themed action films that have been a staple of American cinema since the 1960s. Much like similar fact-based films Black Hawk Down and Captain Phillips, the … Continue reading
Though it may not seem like it at first glance (check out the trailer below), John Wells’ screen adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play is ideal viewing for anyone dreading a family get-together this week, or any other. Letts’ parade of thoroughly damaged people makes even the Manson Family seem like the Brady Bunch. … Continue reading
The Scorsese movie that Martin Scorsese never directed, American Hustle is a stylish tour de force for director David O. Russell and its stellar cast. Russell creates a taught, delicately plotted caper-comedy that plays out like The Sting filtered through Boogie Nights, drenches it in ’70s period nostalgia, and then gives his cast room to lose … Continue reading
Though it doesn’t justify exploding a 300-page children’s novel into a trilogy of nearly three-hour movies, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug goes a long way towards course correcting the series after the clunky, plodding start of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Now that the set-up dispensed with and the story is fully underway, there’s … Continue reading
More engaging than the soft-soaped first installment, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a little too bogged down by tedium and a surprising degree of stiffness to be more than a modest improvement. In all fairness, however, it is the second act of a three-part story arc, two hours and thirty minutes of build-up with … Continue reading
A flashback to the worst days of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, when death rates were at their highest and hopes were at their lowest, and biopic of a true drugstore cowboy, Dallas Buyers Club boasts the latest in a string of course-correcting performances by Matthew McConaughey, it’s certified Oscar bait. McConaughey stars as … Continue reading
With Phase Two of its master plan for pop culture domination now well under way, Marvel has put itself in a precarious position: The novelty value of seeing these characters on the big screen for the first time is spent, the afterglow of The Avengers has worn off, and loft fan expectation means coasting is … Continue reading
Part nautical adventure, part existential drama, writer-director J.C. Chandor’s All is Lost represents another career-defining performance from movie icon Robert Redford — no mean feat considering his is a five-decade career decorated by unforgettable turns in such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, All the President’s Men, The Natural, and The … Continue reading
An underwhelming adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s cult science fiction novel, Ender’s Game is a shiny spectacle with a hollow center, a missed opportunity that makes a half-hearted statement. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield, Hugo) is an introverted child gifted with a strategic mind that makes him an ideal candidate for training in the International Fleet, … Continue reading
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