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."

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.”

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.

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.”

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.

A Walk Among the Tombstones

Sometimes, before you get to an analysis of the merits of a film, you have to react as a human being.

The Green Prince, The Skeleton Twins, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them, Memphis, Guardians of the Galaxy, Canopy

The Green Prince

The Skeleton Twins




The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them

Memphis



Guardians of the Galaxy

Canopy





Quick capsule reviews on the rest of the week's releases:

The Drop

A star-making performance by Tom Hardy highlights the week in film.

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.

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: