Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Mistress America – 7.9
The adorable Greta Gerwig in a madcap farce from Noah Baumbach – much better than While We’re Young – reminded me of the younger Woody Allen’s movies: a charming female lead, New York locations, oddball secondary characters and real-life situations that seem real but probably occur more often in the movies. Lola Kirke is the grounded one, […]
Diary of A Teenage Girl – 6.5
“I had sex today,” announces 15-year-old Minnie in the opening scene, and that’s pretty much all that happens. When we learn that the sex was with her mother’s slacker boyfriend, a certain uneasiness, not to mention creepiness, sets in, but even then the ultimate explosion we see coming is rather muted. Kristen Wiig is wonderful […]
The End of the Tour – 8
I haven’t read Infinite Jest – although now I want to – and I know nothing about David Foster Wallace, but Jason Segel did about as good a job of creating a real person out of a historical figure as I can remember. Jesse Eisenberg was brilliant, too, as a youngish reporter unable to separate an […]
Phoenix – 8.2
An intense psychological thriller, with both leads acting up a storm in a confined space, making us think and feel all at once and constantly. Reviewers cite a similarity to Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which I either don’t remember or didn’t see, but I felt an echo of Gaslight in the manipulative husband-wife relationship, or even Pygmalion, as Johnny tries to […]
Straight Outta Compton – 8
As far as I can tell, this captured the world of Gangsta Rap so well I feel I’m now an expert. I certainly learned a lot of new songs. I don’t think there was much original in the story of the friends from the ‘hood who rose through the power of their art, fighting the […]