Mistress America was funny. But it was also scattered and tiring. It rambled. It was muddled. And it did not sell its premise to me well enough. It’s a good enough movie to escape for a short time for a matinee, but if you’ve choices for that time, think about which way to spend your…
What a fun movie! Granted, as I learned from reading the thoughts of another who saw the movie at the same time as I did, the film is not for everyone. But for me and my movie companions, it was a hit. Lily Tomlin delivers a fresh and spunky performance as the complexly layered grandmother…
When, with little notice, my movie companion was free for the evening for a film, I scrambled to find something suitable for both of us (said companion has displayed great patience in the past with my leanings toward less-than-blockbuster-esque films). Enter Black Mass—a decent enough crime drama with some violence, a lot of mobsters, and…
Short films…. Short films can appear to explore a single topic, but on viewing and reflecting, one realizes how complex each is, even in barely fifteen minutes. The short films selected to tour after this year’s Sundance Film Festival are no different: complex, breathtaking, beautiful, deep, heartwarming, and utterly strange. The first film, SMILF, seems…
I’ve never read David Foster Wallace’s work (yet), but you needn’t have in order to dive deep into the new movie about his interview by Rolling Stone’s David Lipsky, who spent several days with the author while Wallace wrapped up his book tour on the heels of publishing Infinite Jest in 1996. After Wallace’s suicide…
What an interesting, engaging film Tangerine is. Occurring all in the course of a day, Christmas Eve, the movie follows Sin-Dee, a transgender prostitute just released from four weeks in jail, as she tries to find her boyfriend/pimp and confront him for cheating on her while she was in jail. To sum up the movie…
Sunk deeply into an overstuffed sofa, snuggling under a cozy blanket in front of a warm fire in the fireplace, cold rain falling outside, but inside, holding a mug of tea or cocoa between your hands, and your favorite pet leaning on your leg. That’s how watching I’ll See You in My Dreams was. Gentle.…
I think I visibly jumped (and grabbed my movie companion) at least three times while watching The Gift, so I’m comfortable in saying that as a suspenseful movie, it did its job. And it entertained. For a couple of hours on a rainy Sunday summer afternoon, I immersed myself in the story of this midlife…
“I feel like I ambushed you,” said my vegetarian movie companion at the end of watching Unity. But I didn’t feel that way. Sure, the movie uses over-the-top images to promote against cruel treatment of animals (which I too am against), but as the writer and director noted during the Q&A after the film (the…
My timing in seeing films sometimes causes wonder in me. Watching the painfully self-destructive, fatal behavior of an addict on the screen rips at my heart. Seeing the vacant stare that hides the apparent hurt and pain behind those eyes brings such sadness. These are the things that rang out to me in watching Amy, the…
I love that spark of excitement that happens when, with fall on the horizon, I see that first grand performance of the movie year. That happened with Ian McKellan’s performance in Mr. Holmes. The film is indeed about that Mr. Holmes, as in Sherlock. But I didn’t go because I’m a fan of that literature. And…
I enjoyed this film—for what it was and for what it did not do. Sure, it could have been deeper. It could have been darker. But even the title indicated it wasn’t trying to do those things. And it was nice to see a country through a different lens than the one permanently smudged and…
Trainwreck is fun and funny and, most importantly, although formulaic, refreshingly unconventional. Directed by Judd Apatow, the same who directed Bridesmaids and The 40 Year-Old Virgin, the movie brings the raunchy side of humor, but at the same time, it’s sweet. There are elements in the film that touched me (but no, this would not…
What a delightfully charming movie! Inside Out explores how our emotions help guide—and misguide—us as they take the controls inside of eleven-year-old Riley’s mind while she navigates growing out of childhood to an age and time when emotions become more layered, more affected, and more unpredictably complex. Her tale is built around her difficulties of…
ROAR. “Can’t go thru life without seeing this.” When I asked my movie companion if he would indulge me in seeing this movie as our chosen film one evening, I described it and sent a write-up I’d found. The above was his reply. And even having seen it now, having cringed and rolled my eyes…