Category: drama
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Room [2015] ★★½
Critics have been praising “Room”- the incredible story of a mother (Brie Larson) and her five year old son (Jacob Tremblay) who have been held captive in a tiny room by a kidnapper- for months now. Once again, I respectfully disagree. While the acting couldn’t be more credible (especially Brie Larson who gives a terrific…
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Macbeth [2015] ★★½
Just like many movies based on William Shakespeare’s famous plays, Justin Kurzel’s “Macbeth” is very easy to admire but a bit more difficult to love. A lot of critics who saw it on opening day sang its praises to the skies, but I respectfully disagree. The movie has too many beautiful passages, mainly when the great Michael…
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In The Heart Of The Sea [2015] ★★★
“In The Heart of the Sea” is a good old fashioned sea story from a master director, Ron Howard. In adapting Nathaniel Philbrick’s Book about the story that inspired “Moby Dick”, Howard recounts the journey of Essex, a Nantucket whaleship that sank after being attacked by a giant sperm whale. Ancient territory? Perhaps. But in the hands…
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By The Sea [2015] ★½
Stylishly made but painfully boring drama about a 1970’s marriage gone bad. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt play husband and wife and it’s a nasty sight. Vacationing in a beautiful place in Europe, Jolie barely says a word. She’s depressed and we have to suffer with her for an agonizing 130 minutes. Written and directed…
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Bridge Of Spies [2015] ★★★½
Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies” is one of the year’s finest movies: a well crafted, extremely well acted Cold War drama that kept me on the edge of my seat for over 2 hours. Working from a script written by Matt Charman, Ethan and Joel Coen, Spielberg focuses on James Donovan (an amazing Tom Hanks), an insurance…
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Creed [2015] ★★★
I expected to hate on Sylvester Stallone’s seventh round as Rocky Balboa, the Italian Stallion who boxed his way into popular and Oscar glory with the first and best Rocky film back in 1976. I was wrong. Stallone, now 69, and in fine, feisty form, has a ball mixing it up with Michael B. Jordan, who…
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Secret In Their Eyes [2015] ★★★
“Secret in their Eyes” is powerful and extremely well acted, even if you’ve seen the 2009 Argentinian movie of the same name. Here’s the deal: Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a powerhouse performance as Ray, an investigator who is tormented by the unsolved rape and murder of his partner’s daughter. He is matched by Julia Roberts, who is exceptional,…
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Mr. Holmes [2015] ★★★
Prepare yourself to see Sherlock Holmes like you’ve never seen him before: old, tired and regretful. This is Holmes at 93 (impeccably portrayed by Ian McKellen), dealing with a failing memory and living on a farm, where he relies on a widowed cook (Laura Linney) and her son, Roger (Milo Parker) to take care of…
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Steve Jobs [2015] ★★★½
Here’s a poke to apple users and non users: “Steve Jobs” isn’t some yawny visual aid on how Jobs came to be Jobs (you can watch the 2013 film starring Ashton Kutcher for that). Instead, it’s a beast of a movie with a full tank of creative gas that keeps it going from start to finish. Sure, it gives…
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Burnt [2015] ★½
As a sucker for food movies, I thought “Burnt” was tasteless; a mess of a movie that deserves no stars on the Michelin scale. Director John Wells and his writer Stephen Knight (“Locke”) should have known better. Instead, they got all the ingredients wrong, starting with Bradley Cooper who is painfully annoying as an American chef who…
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The Program [2015] ★★½
The truth was finally revealed in the 2013 documentary “The Armstrong Lie”, in which Lance Armstrong himself opened up about his doping allegations. The documentary was credible and above all, shocking. And by the end, we learned everything there is to know about the fallen idol. That places even greater pressure on the people behind “The Program” to…
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Legend [2015] ★★★
A fact based story about the Kray brothers, two of the most notorious criminals in British history, starring Tom Hardy in a double performance sounds like Oscar bait. It isn’t. Yet “Legend” pulls the magician’s trick of distraction, offering enough solid entertainment value—with good use of locations, charismatic actors, and moments of shocking violence—to divert attention from its faults. For some…
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Me And Earl And The Dying Girl [2015] ★★★½
This is one of my favorite movies of the year: a coming of age story that turns the familiar into something fresh, funny and poignant. It makes you laugh, then breaks your heart. Thomas Mann plays Greg, a shy teen who is trying to survive high school. One day, his mom “forces” him to visit Rachel (Olivia Cooke,…
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Before We Go [2015] ★½
Ripping off the classic movie “Before Sunrise”, “Before We Go” (look there’s even a “before” in the title!) tells the story of two people (Chris Evans, who also directs, and Alice Eve) who meet in Manhattan one night and end up learning a lot about one another. Unlike “Before Sunrise”, this dull, uninspired film has nothing…
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The Walk [2015] ★★★
“The Walk” is a spectacularly entertaining movie, even if you’ve seen the Oscar winning documentary “Man On Wire”, which in turn was based on Philippe Petit’s book “To Reach The Clouds”. If you did catch that terrific documentary a few years ago, you should be familiar with Petit’s story by now, the man who walked between the…
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Pawn Sacrifice [2015] ★★★
A chess movie is probably the last thing you needed right now. Snap out it. This is Toby Maguire like you’ve never seen him before, playing chess master Bobby Fischer, who faced Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber) at the 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjavík, Iceland. The film, directed by Edward Zwirk with a keen…
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The Intern [2015] ★★★
Nancy Meyers makes adorable movies (yes I’m using the term “adorable” to describe movies now). Her latest movie, “The Intern”, is an agreeable piece of entertainment featuring one of the best actors on the planet, Robert De Niro. If the movie were merely a vehicle for his comedic gifts , that would be enough to…
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Everest [2015] ★★★
It hurts to watch “Everest”. I have never seen a more powerful story about mountain climbers and I can’t count how many times the movie forced the audience to look away. Director Baltasar Kormakur, his actors and cinematographer outdid themselves to bring this gripping story to the screen, and they have much to be proud of. The reenactment of the…
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The Runner [2015] ★½
Nicolas Cage in yet another paycheck movie, this time as a politician accused of corruption in the aftermath of the BP oil spill in 2010. The result is a boring, confusing mess from start to finish. Pains me to say this but I don’t think we’ll ever see Nic Cage in a decent movie again. Face…
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Black Mass [2015] ★★★½
Maybe you’ve heard the internet buzz about “Black Mass” being Johnny Depp’s comeback movie. Maybe you’ll think so too if you’ve seen “Mortdecai” and/or last year’s horrible “Transcendence“. Despite the gangster theme (Depp has been there before in “Donnie Brasco” and “Public Enemies), “Black Mass” is one terrific movie. The opening scene sets the mood:…
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