Top Films by Year
Top Films of 2020
Top Films of 2017
Top Films of 2015
The Personal History of David Copperfield – 5
I have no idea what someone not familiar with the titular book would think of this scrapbook of moments culled from its pages, but maybe there isn’t such a one who would be watching. As it is, we are left to compare the movie’s impersonations of the memorable characters, from Uriah Heep to Mr. Micawber […]
The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart – 8
Everything you need to know about one of my favorite groups in less than two hours, this documentary was loving but not fawning, with samples of their best songs (out of the 1,000 they wrote). Archival footage was mixed in good proportion with current interviews, and I couldn’t take my eyes off the Greek-god looks […]
Dick Johnson Is Dead – 6
The punch line, of course, is that Dick Johnson isn’t dead in this loving documentary by his daughter Kirsten. She uses his growing dementia as an excuse to grapple with his inevitable end, in ways it might occur (but probably won’t), how it will affect people and where he will go (which he clearly won’t). […]
Collective – 6.5
Bravo to the journalists of Sports Gazette who doggedly exposed scandal in the Romanian health system. Bravo to the young Minister of Health who tried to clean up the scandal. And bravo to the filmmaker who somehow managed to record the private deliberations of both. But as a film, this came across as an amateurish […]
Mank – 4
A thoroughly unpleasant two hours of snark, cynicism, cigarettes and a drunken boor, with nary a witty line to be heard nor a noble man in sight. Mank’s wife and secretary, who also look alike, are the only people who exude any decency. The story is a “who-cares?,” and it goes back-and-forth with flashbacks to […]