Thursday, August 28, 2014

The One I Love, To Be Takei

To Be Takei
The One I Love





In Charlie McDowell's "The One I Love," from an ingenious script by Justin Lader, not only do you not know what's going to happen from one moment to the next, you don't know what kind of movie you're watching.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Love is Strange, Are You Here

Love is Strange
Are You Here







Too much Chopin, not enough substance in the sleepy, white-people-problems movie "Love is Strange," starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as Ben and George, a Manhattan couple of forty years who finally tie the knot.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Abuse of Weakness, Jealousy, Frank, If I Stay, The Olivia Experiment

Abuse of Weakness
Jealousy



Frank

If I Stay
The Olivia Experiment




A great performance by a French legend highlights a poor week in film:

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

The Giver






"The Giver" is not the first - or even the seventh - bad movie Meryl Streep's appeared in, but it is bad, sententious YA sci-fi. In case you hadn't heard: conformity and eugenics, boo; freedom and self-definition, yay.

Let's Be Cops





There's no reason "Let's Be Cops" should be swimming face down at the depths (12% fresh) of the Rotten Tomatoes pool. It's not great, but it's got a fair share of big laughs.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

The Trip to Italy






Director Michael Winterbottom made my top-ten list in 2011 with "The Trip," and with the hilarious and completely delightful "The Trip to Italy," he's sure to do so again.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

The Hundred-Foot Journey






It can be useful, say when grandma's in town, for a movie as innocuous and blandly palatable as Lasse Hallstrom's "The Hundred-Foot Journey" to be playing.

About Alex





First-time director Jesse Zwick (son of Ed) aims for an updated "Big Chill" with "About Alex," in which a hexad of college friends convene at the home of Alex (Jason Ritter, son of John) after he attempts suicide in the movie's opening sequence.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

The Kill Team





Documentarian Dan Krauss' superb "The Kill Team" would make an apt double feature with Kirby Dick's four-star 2012 doc "The Invisible War," about the ways in which the chain of command and military justice system fail women victims of sexual harassment and assault.