Remember the Landmark Series of books – great events in history written (well) at a 6th-grade level? This could have been a movie version of one of those books, describing breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. It did make me wonder about the reality of the events depicted, in a more nuanced world […]
Very cool. I don’t know if what she does is “art” or “theater,” or maybe “performance art” is something in between, but what matters for this film is how well we get to know Marina Abramovic, how open she is to the filmmakers and how she works her way into our hearts. I was skeptical […]
The most notable aspect of this film was its structure, which Siri didn’t like but which I admired for its originality: the movie’s first half was about the Ryan Gosling character; the movie’s second half was about the Bradley Cooper character; and the third half, a separate coda 15 years later, was about their respective […]
It was hard to find a socially redeeming quality in this film about sex, drugs and violence on spring break in Florida, and despite thinking long and hard I failed. Nothing was realistic, so okay, maybe this is some kind of American magic realism. Except there was no magic. Just a lot of posing. James […]
What’s not to like in a film about four young Aborigines overcoming racism, entertaining our troops in Vietnam, finding love and singing classic Motown tunes under the tutelage of the loveable Chris O’Dowd, reprising his character in Bridesmaids? Well, lack of originality for one thing. Every plot development screamed “formula,” and there was a sense […]
An interestingly ambiguous movie about the power of a superficial ad campaign to bring down a dictator. You have to root for Gael Garcia Bernal – one of cinema’s more appealing actors – but are we sure that “Don-worry-be-happy” is the level of discourse we want in our political campaigns? And in another twist, the […]
I don’t know which was more remarkable: the footage of Israeli security forces battling Palestinians or the unanimity of opinion among the former Shin Bet chiefs who were interviewed. Together they produced stunning confirmation, if any was needed, of the shortsightedness of Israel’s own Middle East policy. As usual, it was the politicians who were […]
An unflinching look at old age in almost documentary mode. The performances are impeccable, and I was even more impressed by Jean-Louis Trintignant than the Oscar-nominated Emmanuele Riva. With scarcely a plot, this is more a portrait, sad or heartwarming depending on your viewpoint. For those of us with aging parents, it is certainly as […]
I was expecting a mawkish story of a family reuniting after being tossed asunder by the 2005 Asian tsunami, but I got so much more. Yes, the “Bennett” family story was there, but it shared the screen with a more macro vision, of the loss and human tragedy suffered by thousands of others. In a […]
1. A Separation and Amour. Every year, it seems, there is a critical favorite that avoids the smaller cities until the deadline for my list has passed. Last year it was A Separation, which opened in 2011 but was far and away the best film I saw in 2012.
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