Monday, September 29, 2014

Jimi: All is By My Side, Pride, Bird People, Smiling Through the Apocalypse: Esquire in the 60s

Jimi: All is By My Side
Pride



Bird People
Smiling Through the Apocalypse: Esquire in the 60s






A Jimi Hendrix movie without his hit songs goes over like a George Washington Carver biopic hold the peanuts in "Jimi: All is By My Side."

Sunday, September 28, 2014

The Two Faces of January





Screenwriter Hossein Amini, whose “Drive” made my top-ten list in 2011, debuts as a director with the Patricia Highsmith adaptation “The Two Faces of January.”

Friday, September 26, 2014

The Equalizer, Art and Craft

The Equalizer
Art and Craft





Are you as tired as I am of Russian villains? Of the lazy assumption that Russians in movies must be avaricious, amoral, ruthless psychopaths? Then again, just about everything in “The Equalizer” feels reflexive and hoary. It could have been made ten years ago, or longer.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Guest, I Am Eleven

The Guest
I Am Eleven





What a constricted and depressing view of humanity writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard offer in the insultingly slapdash genre-bender “The Guest.”

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

This is Where I Leave You, Keep On Keepin' On, The Zero Theorem, Last Days in Vietnam, Tracks, Life's a Breeze, Hector and the Search for Happiness

This is Where I Leave You
Keep On Keepin' On


The Zero Theorem
Last Days in Vietnam


Tracks
Life's a Breeze


Hector and the Search for Happiness



This week sees the best documentary of the year to date and one of the worst films of 2014.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Thursday, September 11, 2014

God Help the Girl, Starred Up, Levitated Mass, Frontera, My Old Lady

God Help the Girl
Starred Up



Levitated Mass

Frontera

My Old Lady






The good stuff can't get here quickly enough. A documentary about a giant rock highlights another poor week in film.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The November Man, The Last of Robin Hood, A Letter to Momo, The Congress, Life of Crime, The Notebook, May in the Summer, The Calling

The November Man
The Last of Robin Hood



A Letter to Momo
The Congress



Life of Crime
The Notebook



May in the Summer
The Calling




Two modest recommendations highlight another poor week in film: