Category: 3.5/4
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens [2015] ★★★½
Fans can relax, the real “Star Wars” finally returns to the big screen in “The Force Awakens”, a burst of pure filmmaking exhilaration that manages to pay tribute to the original trilogy and still boldly add new elements that will make fans of the series jump for joy. I couldn’t be happier. After six movies, an…
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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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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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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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Sicario [2015] ★★★½
“Sicario” (which means “Hitman” in spanish) is a cannonball of a movie from director Denis Villeneuve, who did such an incredible job with “Incendies” and “Prisoners“. This is a world-class director, at the top of his startlingly creative form. Working from a tense script by Taylor Sheridan, Villeneuve opens his movie with one of the best sequences you’ll…
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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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Limelight [1952] ★★★½
I find it quite ironic that this is the last movie I ever saw with my granddad. Ironic because, unlike many Chaplin movies, this one is tragic. Ironic because my granddad passed away a few months later. Looking back at “Limelight”, there’s always a bittersweet feeling. Even when I saw it again recently, I couldn’t…
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Inside Out [2015] ★★★½
Far too many contemporary animated movies are like fast food, easily digested and just easily forgotten. Then there’s the folks at Pixar, who never fail to impress me. Their latest feature, “Inside Out”, is an amazing achievement, for a variety of reasons. It’s a breathtaking ride into the realm of pure imagination. Its story isn’t easily encapsulated, and…
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Selma [2014]
“Selma” mesmerized me from start to finish. It is everything a film about a towering figure like Martin Luther King ought to be: majestic and emotional, respectful but not worshipful. It manages to humanize a historical figure without diminishing him in any way, thanks to director Ava DuVernay’s sure hand, a superior screenplay by Paul Webb, and an…
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Whiplash [2014] ★★★½
Movies about music are so easy to get wrong. Yet “Whiplash” gets it wittily, thrillingly right. It turns the familiar into something bracingly fresh and funny. It’s intense, clever and brilliantly acted by its two leads, Miles Teller and J.K Simmons who gives the performance of his career. Written and directed by the gifted Damien Chazelle , from…
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The Imitation Game [2014] ★★★½
Everything adds up- just like a perfectly solved mathematical equation- in “The Imitation Game”, a fantastic movie about the life of Alan Turing, the man who helped crack the notorious German enigma code during World War II (and ultimately won the war). This is one of the best biographies I’ve seen in a long time; It puts…
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Foxcatcher [2014] ★★★½
I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about “Foxcatcher” ever since Bennett Miller won the best director prize at this year’s Cannes festival. Now that’s it’s finally here, this brilliant and devastating drama starring Steve Carell (in a role of a lifetime), Mark Ruffalo (in one of his best performances) and Channing Tatum can…
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The Theory Of Everything [2014] ★★★½
Eddie Redmayne has emerged as a fine actor over the past few years, in films like “My Week With Marilyn” and “Les Miserables“. With his performance in “The Theory Of Everything”, he reaches a new plateau, transforming himself into the brilliant Stephen Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor-neuron disease at just 21 and was given only 2 years…
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Nightcrawler [2014] ★★★½
A while ago, I had the chance to watch a 1933 movie called “Picture Snatcher”, in which the great James Cagney plays an ex-con who gets a newspaper job by snapping a forbidden photograph showing the execution of a convicted murderess. 80 years later and the subject of corrupt journalism couldn’t be more relevant. Want proof? “Nightcrawler”, the…
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Interstellar [2014] ★★★½
The mind-blowing movie event of the year arrives just in time to hold back the flow of Hollywood junk that’s been infesting the multiplex for a while now. “Interstellar”, written and directed by the visionary Christopher Nolan, will be called many things, starting with “Inception” meets “2001: A Space Odyssey” meets “The Grapes of Wrath”. But “Interstellar” glows with…
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Gone Girl [2014] ★★★½
Not only did David Fincher have to sweat out making his directing return following “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by adapting Gillian Flynn’s 2012 best seller, he also cast Ben Affleck in the leading role. Ballsy. So here’s the deal: His film sneaks up, messes with your head and then floors you. You can’t shake it. It’s…
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Life Itself [2014] ★★★½
Everything you need to know about Roger Ebert, the legendary film critic who passed away in 2013, is in Steve James’ fantastic documentary. Cancer destroyed Ebert’s body and robbed him of his voice, but he kept reviewing films on his blog till the day he died. In his final days, director Steve James followed him…
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Boyhood [2014] ★★★½
Artistic ambition can be a bitch for filmmakers. Stanley Kubrick was initially slammed in 1968 for aiming so high with “2001: A Space Odyssey”, now considered a classic. Lucky for him, and us, writer/director Richard Linklater (the genius behind the “Before Sunrise” trilogy) follows his own rigorous path. Whatever a modern story about boyhood is, Linklater’s…
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Seven Chances [1925]
Slapstick comedy at its best. Legendary silent movie star Buster Keaton plays a man who will inherit a fortune ($ 7 million to be specific)… if he’s married by 7:00 that evening! Delightfully winning, beautifully shot silent comedy mixes slapstick and verbal jokes in a winning combination. If you’re discovering silent cinema, this gem is…
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X-Men: Days Of Future Past [2014] ★★★½
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” is everything a comic book movie could hope to be: smart, original, exciting and funny. It is vastly superior to all the previous installments, and not just because it draws on one of the most admired stories in the series. Screenwriter Simon Kinberg has used the time travel concept as…
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