Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Synecdoche, NY 3
The longest two hours I’ve had in a movie this year. For 15 minutes the film showed promise, with Charlie Kaufman-trademark quirkiness leavening Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener’s dysfunctional marriage. Then the MacArthur grant arrives and the few remaining tethers to reality are cut loose, leaving us nothing to care about. People are not […]
Rachel Getting Married 8
Anne Hathaway gives a riveting performance (Best of the Year) as the psychotic woman released from rehab to attend, but in the event almost wreck, her sister’s wedding. The other characters barely register (I kept waiting in vain for Sidney to display some evidence of a personality), and none can draw our eyes away from […]
In the Valley of Elah 8
We saw this a year later, and on TV, but my firm belief is that this is the one movie about the Iraq war, so far at least, that will stand the test of time. (We tried to watch The Deer Hunter the other night, to see if that plays a similar role for Vietnam, […]
Anvil 4.5
Unfortunately, a loser of a film about unfortunate losers in the rock’n’roll sweepstakes, the Canadian heavy-metallists, Anvil. The two leads, Lips and Robb, look so much like the stars of Spinal Tap, the film often resembles a parody of a parody, which is not a good thing. The songs, of which we get to hear […]
Body of Lies 7.5
The Mideast terrorist world seems to be the new Cold-War-spy paradigm for thrillers, and if this scenario hadn’t felt so familiar it would have rated even higher. Mark Strong was sharp as the Jordanian security chief, and all the Arabs were convincing Arabs. Brad Pitt’s Arabic accent was standard American, but otherwise he was a […]