This movie entertains. And that, surely, is its aim. After all, enough seems “off” with the science to me (even if it is awfully pretty) that it cannot have intended to educate. But this is not a documentary. It is a drama. And yes, it entertains as a good drama should. I often felt myself…
Movies have made me cry, weep, and hide my head in angst. Before watching this film, none had made me want to vomit at the level of disgust at humanity 12 Years a Slave evokes. Many cultures in the past have enslaved, imprisoned, and suppressed and oppressed others. (Many still do. Human trafficking, alas, is…
I didn’t plan to see Last Vegas, but when a friend asked at 7:20 pm if I wanted to go see a movie that night, we picked what was showing. Among what was available and what both of us were willing and in a mood to see, we walked into the theater to see Last…
Courage. That’s the word that kept coming to mind as I watched Captain Phillips. But the *best* display of courage I saw was not in what Captain Phillips did. It was not in the crew. It was not in the team of SEALS. It was in the medic who treated the man who had been…
Rush is a movie that offers a look at racing unlike I’d ever seen. Okay, so I haven’t seen much about racing. Even so, the movie entertains nicely. But what was more to me was its ability to share a glimpse into the psyches of racecar drivers, even as different as these two drivers were.…
Wow. As The Imposter begins, it takes a bit of time watching to understand the depth of the ruse carried off by Frédéric Bourdin (called by some a “serial imposter”). I rented this movie months ago, it sitting in its Netflix envelope on my table for the longest time. And I had forgotten it was…
Enough Said was a joy to see. The film displays a beautifully sweet honesty with its look at dating during midlife. The insecurities, the excitement, the laugher, the discoveries, and the ability to have fun, pure fun, with another, no matter your age—these things come together to create a feeling that it was more like,…
Anger. Grief. Victimization. Joy. Hope. Helplessness. Shame. Trust. Outrage. Support. And love. Love. Short Term 12 is a movie that moves through the above things with the heart and openness needed to truly get a glimpse into the lives shared in the film. I laughed. I cried. I ached deeply inside at the hurt portrayed…
I didn’t like Sutter, the character who is the male lead in The Spectacular Now. But I got him. I didn’t want Aimee, the female lead, to like him as much as she did. But I understood her doing so. And the path he takes her on is anything but spectacular in the positive way.…
What started many of these Summer 2013 coming of age movies? It was Mud, which opened early this past summer. I got around to watching it only this past week. When I think of Matthew McConaughey, I tend to think Rom-Com. But in retrospect, I suppose that’s not completely fair. He was in The Paperboy,…
The World’s End, to me, wraps up a summer of Apocalyptic-themed and “coming-of-age” movies quite nicely by blending the two genres. You’re probably saying, “But isn’t The World’s End about a lot of middle-aged men? How can this be coming-of-age?” I reply, “Who said everyone comes of age in their late teens? Sometimes it takes…
It seems that so many people have strong feelings about Woody Allen. I do not—in either direction. Even without any bias, I was intrigued with his latest film, Blue Jasmine. And I’m glad I saw it. Like so many of my other movies this summer, this was on my radar based on it being “on…
Moving. That’s the best word to describe my perspective of The Butler. (Lest it be confused with anyone else’s The Butler, I’ll call it Lee Daniels’s The Butler at least this once. There. Done. (Alas, Lee Daniels is only one person and not multiple people named Lee Daniel, so I will not call it Lee…
Too many big comedies with trailers shown for months before the movie’s release reveal too many, if not all, of the truly laugh-out-loud moments. And yet sometimes, something looks funny enough—with enough talent—that I’m willing to take that risk. My gamble paid off as, thankfully, We’re the Millers does not fall into that camp. Although…
Blackfish did not go as far as I expected it to go in one aspect. But for that, it went just far enough. And having seen the preview at least four times, I had a feeling what I was in for; what I left with was more than I expected. Blackfish tells the tale of…