Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Pawn Sacrifice – 5
Maybe if I hadn’t seen the excellent documentary, Bobby Fischer Against the World, I would have found something of interest in this recounting of the Fischer-Spassky chess championship. As it is, I found the characters cliches, drama lacking and the whole thing rather pointless.
Meru – 7.5
Just when you thought you’d seen an amazing movie about three “professional climbers” (whatever they are) almost making it to the top of the previously unscaled Himalayan peak known as “Meru,” only to be foiled by bad weather, lack of food and frozen toes, you found out that – oh, no! – they’re going to […]
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine – 6.5
There are amazing stories in the life of Steve Jobs: how two kids in a garage took on one of the world’s most powerful companies, IBM, and came out on top; how Steve Jobs, after getting fired, came back to Apple and returned it from near-bankruptcy to the most valuable company in the world; how […]
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 […]