Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
The Impossible – 8
I was expecting a mawkish story of a family reuniting after being tossed asunder by the 2005 Asian tsunami, but I got so much more. Yes, the “Bennett” family story was there, but it shared the screen with a more macro vision, of the loss and human tragedy suffered by thousands of others. In a […]
Top Ten 2012
1. A Separation and Amour. Every year, it seems, there is a critical favorite that avoids the smaller cities until the deadline for my list has passed. Last year it was A Separation, which opened in 2011 but was far and away the best film I saw in 2012.
The Invisible War – 7
I can’t say I rate this highly as a film – there was way too much of one woman’s story, for instance, and too much of that was a side issue – but the overall thrust was compelling, so much so that it has already brought change and will, one hopes, bring more. The regularity […]
Greenwich Village: Music that Defined a Generation – 6.5
Perfectly pleasant if forgettable scrapbook of memories from the ’60s: Peter, Paul & Mary, Phil Ochs, Buffy Ste-Marie, Judy Collins, Don McLean, John Sebastian and many more. If you hadn’t been there, however, I’m not sure what, if anything, the movie would have meant to you. Plus, it featured annoying cartoon flashes between scenes and […]
A Royal Affair – 7.5
The title and the opening scene give away all suspense, so what we are left with is a Danish Lincoln, which undoubtedly means more to the Danes than us Yanks. The costumes are nice, but can’t compare to recent dramas from the French court. It’s fun to meet actors we’ve never seen, although Queen Caroline […]