[9] Director David O. Russell (The Fighter, Three Kings) sticks with his good luck charm, casting Jennifer Lawrence as the title character in Joy. Russell has said that his film career started to disinterest him several years back, and that he became reinvigorated when he decided to start telling stories about very specific people in very specific places. If you watch The Fighter or Joy, you …
[8] Director Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame) brings to life the true-life story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York who is kidnapped and sold into Southern slavery. Northup endures two different owners and many harrowing experiences before attempting to reach out for help from his friends in the North. McQueen succeeds in making very palpable the fear and danger that comes in …
[8] Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Ritter star in this tale of two boys from different sides of the tracks who form a tenuous, unlikely friendship over time, until one boy’s secret and the other’s temper threaten to pull them apart. I think this might be one of the most enlightening examinations of bullying yet put to the screen. I expected the story to unfold predictably …
[10] I’ll come right out with it: The Witch is my favorite horror film of the last ten years. Newcomer writer/director Robert Eggers serves up a masterfully creepy tale that’s equal parts psychological and atmospheric, elegant and restrained, but not without some visceral imagery that will haunt you for years to come. The story centers around a New England family circa the 1630s. Having just …
[9] Birdman swoops into cineplexes offering the antidote to superhero hysteria, CGI migraines, and Hollywood’s usual hackneyed, formulaic bullshit. It’s goddamned original, a showcase for skill and craft, and a breath of fresh fucking air. Michael Keaton turns in a career-best performance as a one-time popular film actor who is risking it all to put on a Broadway play. In the span of hours leading …
[8] Robert Sean Leonard, Christian Bale, and Frank Whaley play tight-knit German teenagers rebelling against the growing Nazi party by embracing a counter culture of long hair and banned U.S. swing music. But as each of the boys is pressured into joining Hitler’s Youth organization, difficult and deadly decisions are made. Swing Kids is surprisingly dark for a film hiding under a Disney-esque veneer. And …
[8] Writer/director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters) takes on the life and work of sexual research pioneer Alfred Kinsey, whose teachings and publications caused a national uproar in the late ’40s and 50s. If you think America is sexually prudish and repressed now, try to imagine what it was like back in Kinsey’s day, with most people constantly wondering, “Am I normal?” Before the work …
[8] Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a morally bankrupt ambulance chaser who sells gruesome crime video to L.A. television stations. First-time writer/director Dan Gilroy paints an interesting portrait of a disturbed man who may reflect our times more accurately than we’re ready to acknowledge. Nightcrawler shows its hand pretty early on, but Gyllenhaal and co-star Rene Russo, playing a cutthroat TV news producer, keep you engrossed …
[8] Christopher Nolan (Inception, Memento) co-writes and directs this emotional sci-fi adventure about a farmer (Matthew McConaughey) who leaves his family during the last generation of human life on Earth, hoping to find a new planet for the species to call home. With the help of a secret rag-tag team of NASA scientists, he makes a two-year voyage to Saturn where a wormhole makes the …
[8] Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Soldier of Orange) directs this sexually super-charged Hitchcockian thriller about a San Francisco detective (Michael Douglas) investigating a seductive writer (Sharon Stone) about a murder case that plays out similar to one of her novels. As he digs deeper, he discovers more and more reason to believe she is indeed the killer, and that his own life may be in danger. …
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