Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Call Jane – 8
An effective and moving dramatization of the women’s collective in Chicago, 1968, that provided compassionate but illegal abortions pre-Roe v. Wade. Sigourney Weaver is Oscar-worthy as the group’s leader and Elizabeth Banks does almost as good a job filling the screen as the Betty Crocker housewife turned activist. In its setting, its politics and its […]
Descendant – 6.5
There is little in the way of dramatic arc or suspense in this documentary about the discovery of the last slave ship in Mobile Bay in 2020. Rather, the film should be seen as a portrait of the community of descendants from that ship’s cargo still living in the Africatown district of Mobile. The film […]
Almost Famous – C-
Why bother? The original film was memorable, and presumably is still available, and was sharper, more intelligent and, of course, more original. The actors in the musical are appealing, especially when viewed from our seats in the second row, center, but inevitably invite unfavorable comparisons with Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson and Philip Seymour Hoffman, not […]
Leopoldstadt – B
A deeply personal play–and he wants you to know it–by Tom Stoppard, an apologia for not knowing until late in life that he is (100%) Jewish and most of his family died in and around the Holocaust. By honoring so many of his ancestors he assembles a cast of characters that challenges the audience’s understanding […]
Argentina 1985 – 8.5
A deft combination of the personal and political, pathos and humor, this historical drama was held together, above all, by Ricardo Darin’s remarkably human portrayal of Julio Strasseras, tasked with prosecuting the Argentine military junta for its decade of torture and disappearances. In composition and appeal his family echoed Tony Soprano’s, and the film was […]