Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict – 6
It would be hard to make a dull movie about Peggy Guggenheim’s life, what with her eccentric family, love affairs with artists and, finally, her world-class museum of Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist art in beautiful Venice, but this effort teetered. It started with the worst opening credits I have ever sat through, spread out over […]
Bridge of Spies – 7
A Spielbergian look at a Cold War incident, replete with recitations of the Constitution and what it means to be an American. Who better to present the message than uber-vanilla-good guy Tom Hanks, who, alas, seemed very unlikely as a tough-lawyer negotiator. Not only was I not convinced that his character could have pulled off […]
Janis: Little Girl Blue – 6
Janis Joplin was a phenomenon of a time and place – specifically, San Francisco USA in 1969, give or take. Unfortunately, viewed in retrospect, I don’t really like her music, her looks or her persona. While much the same could be said of Amy Winehouse, that documentary had a societal depth that Janis lacked and […]
Creed – 7
No boxing-movie-cliche goes unturned in this Rocky sequel, but the film is so genial and so devoid of any pretense of originality that you really don’t hold that against it. Stallone, especially, is so subdued – an actor with nothing to prove, probably more invested in his producing – that he’s good company onscreen. Michael B. […]
Brooklyn – 8.4
We’re living in Colm Toibin’s world at the moment – having finished Nora Roberts, reading The Master, now seeing Brooklyn – and what a sensitive and down-to-earth world it is! Characters are minutely observed, and the plot points are all everyday events. Here, all the everyday events happen to Saoirse Ronan’s Eilis, and the beauty of the film […]