Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
We’re the Millers – 6.5
Jennifer Anniston was way too good for Jason Sudeikis, let alone this movie, although she was seriously unconvincing as a stripper. Still, as spoofs go, there were plenty of cute, fun moments. I never looked at my watch, or worried that anything bad would actually happen.
The Spectacular Now – 5
I’m not wild for films about losers, and Miles Teller, besides being a 25-year-old high-school senior, was definitely a loser. Shailene Woodley was wonderful in the Molly Ringwald role, but instead of making me happy, their reunion at the end was disappointing: she could do better. All he had done was pick her up to […]
Blue Jasmine – 7
Woody Allen looks back, through Tennessee Williams to Shakespeare and the Greeks, to give us a classic tragical heroine. There is no story ‘arc,’ as is the Hollywood norm; instead, we are left to watch the inexorable, inevitable descent of Jasmine French from Hamptons high to homelessness. When she appears to have a chance to […]
In A World… – 6
The funniest part of this movie was the way it treated voice-over artists as major players in the Hollywood scene, culminating in the Golden Trailers ceremony. I mean, when was the last time you saw a trailer that even had a voice-over? Maybe it was a metaphor for Hollywood in general? Lake Bell, a better-looking […]
The Act of Killing – 6.5
A sick movie about sick people – specifically, Indonesian gangsters who killed wantonly in 1965 and are now willing to make a movie about it. It’s hard to feel bad for mass murderers, but it is fairly clear they are being manipulated by director Joshua Oppenheimer, who must know that his subjects are making fools […]