Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
Fire of Love – 5
90 minutes of home movies without any discernible plot or organizing principle. By the end I had no idea what a “volcanologist” is or whether this couple were actual scientists or merely storm-chasers. What they were “studying” was never disclosed. If their only contribution was to warn people that volcanoes are dangerous, that hardly seems […]
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris – 6
Call me stonehearted, but I wasn’t touched by Mrs. Harris or her story. The good guys were too sweet, the bad guys too ugly and nothing met the plausibility test. Individually, however, the characters were charming, especially Natasha, and the clothes were almost worth the price of admission.
Where the Crawdads Sing – 7
Much better than I expected. The action takes place from 1953 to 1969, and the film feels like it. When was the last time we saw a hero as decent, sincere, handsome and blond as Tate? The story is just as implausible as it was in the book, but the imperfect crime at its climax […]
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song – 7.8
The title acknowledges the film’s duality – one part about the man, the other about the song. The former is interesting but leaves the singer as inscrutable as he was going in: ladies’ man? Zen monk? fraud victim? poet? The story of the song is more satisfying, and the song is great. I wonder, however, […]
Flux Gourmet – 3
An absurdist comedy about a “culinary collective” that was too far off the mainstream for me. One of those films where you feel the director has a cult of 17 followers, and you’re not one of them.