Category: drama
-
Heaven Is For Real [2014] ★½
Yep, this is the movie where Greg Kinnear’s 5 year old son suffers a burst appendix and claims he saw heaven, Jesus and his grandpa. I’m not making this up, since we’re told right from the start that this is all based on a true story. Fair enough. I am not criticizing any real belief…
-
Cold In July [2014] ★★½
With multiplexes crammed with Box office monsters, this little-hyped thriller emerges as a dark-horse winner by reminding us of how pleasurably exciting a popcorn movie can be when it’s populated by actors who are in it for more than a ridiculous fee. I’m talking about Michael C. Hall (from the hit series “Dexter”), Don Johnson and…
-
Mr. Morgan’s Last Love [2013] ★★½
Michael Caine is one of the best actors of all time and a pleasure to watch in almost anything. Now, at 80, he’s using the lessons of a long career to show how it’s done. In “Mr. Morgan’s Last Love”, he plays an aging widower who lives in Paris. Having lost his beloved wife three years ago, he…
-
The Fault In Our Stars [2014] ★★★
Say what you will about “The Fault In Our Stars”, the big screen adaptation of John Green’s best selling novel about two cancer patients who fall in love, but director Josh Boone and his screenwriters have crafted a sincere and totally irresistible tale that makes the familiar seem bittersweet and heart-stoppingly new. It’s rare to…
-
Joe [2014] ★★★
“Joe” is quite simply Nicolas Cage’s best movie in years. It’s a reminder of what a good actor he can be and that’s something we haven’t seen onscreen in a very long time. Director David Gordon Green returns to his indie roots after a series of Hollywood disappointments (“Your Highness”, “The Sitter”) with an intriguing…
-
Only Lovers Left Alive [2014] ★★
Jim Jarmusch (“Mystery Train”, “Dead Man”) is a smart filmmaker, and his new movie is so original, that I wish I liked it more. I was fascinated by its premise at first, about two vampires (Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton) who’s been in love for centuries. For reasons unexplained, they now live in different parts…
-
The Railway Man [2014] ★★½
Colin Firth is a fine actor. So casting him as Eric Lomax, a British Army officer who was tormented as a prisoner of war at a Japanese labor camp during World War II, is just plain inspired. The film opens in 1980, decades after the war. Lomax is about to marry Patti (Nicole Kidman), whom…
-
Heritages [2014] ★★★
For writer/director Philippe Aractingi, devising a film that follows his decision to leave his home country for yet another time during the 2006 war couldn’t have been easy. And if “Heritages” is less than perfect, it’s still pretty powerful. The fact that it’s a personal journey featuring his entire family makes it all the more…
-
Nymphomaniac (Volume I and Volume II) [2014] ★★
Depending on your reaction to the cinematic outrages perpetrated by Danish director Lars Von Trier (remember Antichrist?), you might want to add or subtract two from the rating I just gave “Nymphomaniac”. It seems that Van Trier enjoys courting controversy, and some of his films are deliberately designed to provoke and upset audiences. But he’s…
-
The Invisible Woman [2013] ★★★
Charles Dickens was an English writer and one of the most famous novelists of the Victorian period. But what you probably didn’t know is that he was deeply unhappy in his home life, which lead to a love affair with a much younger woman. The film itself, energetically directed by the amazing Ralph Fiennes (who…
-
Kill Your Darlings [2013] ★★½
“Fuck you! You’re a phony”.That trash talk is aimed at Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) by Daniel Radcliffe, in fierce, flamboyant form as the young poet Allen Ginsberg, a Columbia freshman in 1944. Ginsberg falls under the spell of the charismatic Carr and along with Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster), kicks…
-
Out Of The Furnace [2013] ★★½
Christian Bale has been on a roll for a few years now, with movies like “The Fighter”, “American Hustle” and “The Dark Knight” trilogy under his belt. He’s a movie star with real acting chops, and he makes any movie worth watching. Case in point: “Out Of The Furnace”, an uneven but effective drama about…
-
Oldboy [2013] ★½
The original “Oldboy”, directed by Park Chan-Wook is a powerful tale of revenge and a Korean cult classic. The new one, directed by the ambitious Spike Lee doesn’t deserve a review at all. It needs to be buried and forgotten. Rating: 1.5/4
-
The Monuments Men [2014] ★★½
George Clooney’s fifth shot as a director (following “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”, “Good Night and Good Luck”, “Leatherheads” and “The Ides of March”) is a wacky World War II film based on a remarkable true story about a mission to save precious works of art during Hitler’s reign. Call it Ocean’s Eleven in helmets…
-
Nebraska [2013] ★★★
Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” is basically an old fashioned road movie with terrific acting, beautiful cinematography and a delightful soundtrack. Watching a film as mature, moving and thoughtful as this one renews my faith in American movies and reaffirms Payne’s status as one of the most unique storytellers of his generation. He has also bestowed the…
-
Endless Love [2014] ★★
Unlike popular belief, I have nothing against romantic movies. But ever since 2004’s “The Notebook” became the ultimate choice in chick flicks (mainly because of Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams), the cheesy bestsellers of Nicholas Sparks have ignited a plague of Hollywood movies. “Nights in Rodanthe”, “The Last Song”, “Safe Haven” to name a few.…
-
Winter’s Tale [2014]
Next to Thierry’s Friends’ crappy gadgets, I can’t think of a worse Valentine’s gift than a ticket to see “Winter’s Tale”. How much I hate this movie? let me count the ways. I hate the way Hollywood insults audiences by deciding a surrealistic love story is what we need for Valentine’s week. I hate the…
-
The Past [2013] ★★★½
Writer/Director Asghar Farhadi made a strong impression with his Oscar winning feature “A Separation” a couple of years ago. His latest movie, “The Past”, isn’t an Oscar contender this year but that’s no reason for you to skip it. Much like his previous film, “The Past” dramatizes a credible situation and holds you in its…
-
Philomena [2013] ★★★
Judi Dench has emerged as one of the finest actresses alive, in films like “Shakespeare in Love”, “Iris” and “”Notes on a Scandal”. With her performance in “Philomena”, she reaches a new plateau, playing a real-life Irish woman named Philomena Lee, who had sex fifty years ago, gave birth to a child at a local…
-
Filth [2013] ★½
Nothing against James McAvoy (who was good in so many movies) or his director Jon S. Baid, but my patience drowned while trying to swallow this atrocity. McAvoy plays a self-obsessed bipolar detective who hallucinates, blackmails, boozes and drugs his way around Edinburgh, trying to solve a murder case but actually getting lost in his…
Let's Talk About Movies 