Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
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 […]
The Way, Way Back – 7
Lots of cute moments, most supplied by Sam Rockwell as the cool-dude amusement park assistant manager (although technically he didn’t seem to be managing anything, no one else was, either). The limp 14-year-old dealing with parents and girls is a tried-and-true trope, and it didn’t fail here, but the story otherwise never rose above the […]
The Conjuring – 5
Moral of the movie: don’t move into a haunted house. Backup advice: once in a haunted house, move out as fast as you can. The pseudoscientific demonologists, especially the lovely Vera Farmiga, added a nice touch to the otherwise plebeian story, but I lost track of the various daughters and the opportunity to make something […]
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 […]