Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Joy – 5
This movie was a test of your appetite for Jennifer Lawrence and her hairstyles: I loved her going in but had seen quite enough by the end. My Robert DeNiro fuse was quite a bit shorter and was exhausted almost from the start: his comic persona didn’t fit a character that wasn’t actually funny. Once […]
Top Ten 2015
Spotlight was not quite All the President’s Men but it was the next best thing, a rare “true story” that played out as drama. I loved its depictions of journalism, Boston and the Catholic Church’s pedophilia scandal, with telling end credits the coup de grace.
The Wrecking Crew – 3
A boring portrait of L.A. studio musicians that goes nowhere, despite – or maybe because of – a multitude of musical teases. Sort of how not to make a documentary. (Airplane viewing)
Danny Collins – 6
Annette Bening is a wonderful actress. Everything else is by-the-book as Al Pacino plays a Neil Diamond character trying to rescue his lost soul, or is it humanity, unconvincingly prompted by the unlikely (based on a true story) appearance of a letter from John Lennon. Lennon’s songs give the film a bit of undeserved heft. […]
Youth – 7
Gorgeous shot after gorgeous shot, in what feels like a Technicolor remake of Last Year in Marienbad. The dialogue is wading-pool deep, which made me wonder if last year’s The Great Beauty only resonated because it was in Italian. Michael Caine was pleasant, if unconvincing, while Harvey Keitel seemed to have wandered in from a different movie […]