Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
The Messenger – 6.5
It was fun to watch Woody Harrelson for awhile, but his characterization couldn’t sustain the whole movie, and there really wasn’t much else. The story of two Army men assigned to inform next-of-kin of a death in Iraq, the film thought it was deeper than it was: Sgt. Will’s struggle to regain his humanity after […]
Khargosh – 2
I think something didn’t make it across the cultural divide here. From my Western perspective, this movie socred low on cinematography, acting, characters, plot, credibility and score (there wasn’t any). So far as I could tell, this was merely a love story without any romance.
Bluebeard – 8
[MSPFF] A Renaissance jewel of a film from French director Catherine Breillat. Almost every shot could be a museum still, and every character had a charming face that, Clouet-like, filled the screen. The dialogue and pacing were perfect for the fairy tale portrayed and the postmodern addition of two young girls from the 1950s added […]
Alamar – 6.5
[MSPFF] Perfectly lovely Mexican portrait of a grandfather-father-and-son living off and learning about the sea – a gentle sea over a coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico. The ruggedly handsome looks of the father and the way they caught fish and lobster made the movie fun to watch. The characters’ hermetic existence – “At […]
Harlan – the Jew Suss – 3
[MSPIFF] A repetitive and poorly edited documentary about a movie director in Nazi Germany, the anti-Semitic film he made and the current views of his descendants. There was no coherent point and we didn’t even get a very good sense of the underlying film. Just the same talking heads over and over, with nothing surprising […]