[6] After a car accident, a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) finds herself prisoner in an underground survivalist bunker where a creepy John Goodman convinces her that the world has been invaded by either Soviets or aliens, and that if they open the bunker door, they’ll soon be dead from toxins in the air. The script does a more convincing job than me in making …
[8] David O. Russell directs a top-notch cast in this story of a Massachusetts boxer who tries to get out from under the influence of his crack-addicted brother and domineering mother. If those character descriptions sound like Oscar-bait, indeed they are — Christian Bale and Melissa Leo both took home supporting performer Oscars for their portrayals. Mark Wahlberg is commendable as the main character, and …
[6] The Coen Brothers are at it again, this time with a wonky tale of 1950s Hollywood studio politics mixed with political scandal. Hail, Caesar! is scattershot in its narrative. Josh Brolin’s character is marginally the main protagonist. Brolin plays a gruff studio executive who can barely keep all of his stars and starlets in line while another job offer tempts him away from the …
[7] Ryan Reynolds was born to play a wise-cracking vigilante, and indeed Deadpool comes off a bit like a higher-stakes Van Wilder. The story centers around the origin of the character, how he discovers he has terminal cancer and takes a chance on a scary experiment run by some bad guys who torture him and turn him into a hideously-scarred immortal super fighter. Most of …
[5] Pixar usually moves me with some genuine human emotion, but Inside Out is a little more sentimental and pandering than many of their other films. The big cry moment is a cheap, low blow, is what I mean to say. And I hold a special kind of grudge against movies that make me cry by hitting below the belt (I’m talking to you, Forrest …
[6] This documentary centers around the lasting influence of a week-long interview Francois Truffaut conducted with Alfred Hitchcock in 1962, and the book that encounter produced, 1966’s Cinema According to Hitchcock. Sprinkled throughout the run-time are snippets from interviews conducted with some of today’s top filmmakers about their affection for both the book and the work of Hitchcock, including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, David Fincher, …
[4] Julianne Moore stars as a psychiatrist who discovers the multiple personalities of a patient are actually murder victims. Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) plays the patient, and normally I love these two leading actors. But we’ve seen Moore do this kind of thing before and Rhys Meyers never quite convinces me that he’s not just showing off with all the different accents and quirky …
[8] A group of college kids go to a cabin in the woods, but that’s as far as we get into the story before director Drew Goddard and producer Joss Whedon turn the trope on its head. In a Scream-like fashion, The Cabin in the Woods subverts the familiar and offers a good time for horror fans. Pandering? Maybe. Entertaining? I say ‘hell, yeah.’ The …
[7] As a bullied grade-schooler (Devin Brochu) grapples with his mother’s death, an enigmatic stoner bad boy named Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) bursts into his life and further complicates things. At first, I worried that Gordon-Levitt would slip into show-off mode, but he ends up striking a good balance. Hesher’s presence and function in the movie begs a fantastic interpretation. I choose to think of him …
[8] A man captures a feral woman and chains her up in his cellar, calling upon his wife and kids to help him ‘civilize’ her. The Woman makes bold play of gender dynamics that will leave some viewers crying ‘misogyny’, ‘misandry’, or both — but I applaud writer/director Lucky McKee (May, The Woods) for his provocative exploration of the material. The film features outstanding performances …
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