Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Twenty Feet from Stardom – 7
A “fun-fun-fun” movie with great music and genuinely heartwarming cameos by Bruce Springsteen, Sting, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder and Mick Jagger. Although nominally about them, the backup singers Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, Claudia Kennear, et al., somehow remained in the background. I couldn’t figure out if the movie had a “point” – how someone becomes […]
World War Z – 7.4
What I found incredible were Brad Pitt’s initially rejecting the request that he help save mankind and the Israelis’ letting all comers, including Palestinians, into their secure compound. By comparison, I found the zombies quite believable – frighteningly so – and the discovery of how to combat them quite brilliant. (Well, okay, maybe Brad’s successful […]
Frances Ha – 7
It all comes down to how much you enjoy the company of Greta Gerwig, and I found her quite pleasant. She is sufficiently attractive to be pleasant on the eyes, but not such a looker that she can’t play an “undatable.” Her insecurity and attempts to cope with her shortcomings are generally endearing, as we […]
Before Midnight – 3
Not since My Dinner With Andre have I watched two such uninteresting characters talk so self-indulgently, often in complete paragraphs, to so little purpose. Julie Delpy came across as real, albeit neurotic, but Ethan Hawke was unconvincing as a novelist, as an expatriate, and certainly as a dad. When you watch a young couple courting, […]
Hannah Arendt – 2.5
What is it with cigarettes and movies? Although smoking has not been a part of “the world I live in” for 40 years or more, 80% of the movies I see have a scene with a character who lights up. Is this the only way to tell us we are in the 1950s, or that […]