Category: Film Reviews

Directed by renowned documentarian Steve James with Martin Scorcese as Executive Producer (both appear throughout the film), this is a love letter to the late Roger Ebert, long-time film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, and to his wife Chaz. It was begun with their collaboration before Ebert’s death. He was already unable to eat, drink,…

Directed by Stephen Frears, Judy Dench stars as the aging Queen Victoria to Ali Fazal’s Abdul Kareem, the Muslim clerk who, sent to deliver a gift to the Queen, stayed to become her friend, teacher and confident. Devoted to her until the day she died, he opened her to some knowledge of India and allowed…

Disappointing French farce about a boring accountant who gets fired. He gets his job back by staging a fake outing as gay, so that his condom manufacturing boss can’t fire him. It’s got a few funny bits (the sex scene between him and his supervisor in the factory is really hilarious) and, surprisingly, Gerard Depardieu,…

Dumb movie about a 12-step junkie, Stewart Smalley, who saves his family from itself. Touching despite the fact that it’s stupid and not funny past the first ¼ of the film. Not worth seeing

DVD. This is one odd film. A very dark Mike Figgis comedy about an assassin, played as uncool, unsophisticated, drunken and distasteful by Pierce Brosnan who meets Greg Kinnear’s computer geek in Mexico City where the former is on a job and the latter is trying to pitch his computer work. They strike up a…

DVD. This very good historical drama is excellent at relating Adam’s virtues (his devotion to the American cause) and flaws (his arrogance, his sense of superiority and his lack of understanding of others). Paul Giomatti is excellent as Adams, Laura Linney is fine as a very real Abigail, and an excellent supporting cast fleshes this…

DVD. Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandan, and Charlize Theron star in this well-paced Paul Haggis (dir, writer, producer) vehicle about the impact of the war on some of the American soldiers who are serving. Jones plays the retired Army MP father of a soldier sent to Iraq and damaged, along with all his comrades. Jones…

Ed Harris starred in, directed, co-wrote and produced this interesting, sort of quirky, western about a sheriff (Harris) and deputy (Vigo Mortenson—very good and not as dark as usual) for hire arriving in a town after the murder of the previous sheriff and his two deputies by the rancher, Jeremy Irons, and his men. Hell,…

Eddy Murphy’s tour de farce playing many roles. He’s great, it’s funny and very offensive about issues of weight. So sue me, I liked it

Edgy black comedy from Nicole Holofcener about a mother Brenda Blethyn and her three daughters, two grown (one an actress, one a married mom) Emily Mortimer and Katherine Keener, and one an adopted black 8-year old. It has funny moments, but the people are really not nice or attractive as people. Liposuction and body/looks concern…

Edward Snowden was your everyday contracted NSA security analyst. Well, sort of. Working for the NSA, he saw and participated in the most massive data mining expeditions on Americans ever undertaken. He saw what he considered to be unconstitutional invasions of privacy by the NSA and proceeded to do something about it This Oscar-winning documentary…

Delightful documentary about Bill Cunningham, the NYT fashion photographer who does both society charity affairs and the Sunday fashion on the street collage. If. “The Devil Wears Prada” is a fanciful look at the darker forces of fashion, this loving bio-doc is a study of the industry’s Peter Pan. You’ll never find anyone who enjoys,…

Effective, traditional filmmaking, this chronicles the struggle of George VI to overcome his speech impediment, a task that became all the more crucial when he followed his brother to the throne on Edward’s abdication and England goes to war. Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, the ‘unconventional’ and uncertified speech therapist who helps him overcome enough…

Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe star in this brutal Ridley Scott look at the drug ‘business’ under Frank Lucas in NYC in the early 1970s and the honest cops led by Detective Richie Roberts who brought him and ¾ of the city’s drug cops down. This is a vicious, well written and well acted bit…

Eh. Hard to discuss something so trivial and pretentious at the same time. Mindless visuals with nonsensical story line but not unpleasant. A strange combination. Always nice to see Stan Lee in his cameo. Most viewers seem to have enjoyed this. I watched it to kill time on a plane

Bronwen and I both really liked seeing this 1991 Chinese drama about a blind banjo player and his blind apprentice again. The master believes he will regain his sight when he breaks his 1,000th string. Hoping against hope, he moves forward with increasing intensity and desperation. Known as a saint, he resolves conflicts among clans,…

Bronwen, Bronwen, and I all liked this shift from the book to the movie about the young wizard who goes to school at Hogwarts Acadamy. Fun special effects and scary too. Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith are marvelous as teachers at the school, and everyone is really first rate. A fun story for all full…

Bronwen and I both really liked the acting in this French film starring Kristen Scott Thomas as a former prisoner released into the world after serving 15 years for killing her son. Wonderful acting by Thomas and all the principals and with a specially moving bit of work by Frederick Pierrot as the police parole…

Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins), New Zealander extraordinaire, rebuilt his 1920 Indian again and again, racing it and turning it into the world’s fastest street bike under 1000 cc. With the help of his friends and the many weird and wonderful Americans he meets along the way, he’s able to race at Bonneville and sets a…

Bronwen and I both really liked this Gus Van Zant biopic starring Sean Penn as the charismatic gay SF supervisor who was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone. In his one year in office as the first elected out gay male official in the country, he helped transform the nation and his view of the…

Captivating, non-linear romantic drama from Spanish filmmaker Julio Medem. Presented in the voice and vision of a boy (Otto) and girl (Ana). Their star-crossed love is joined to the comings, goings, and car crashes in the lives of their parents. Most critics found this too melodramatic (Jay Carr in the Globe actually liked it a…

Bronwen and I both really liked this, Tom McCarthy’s second movie. His first, “The Station Agent,” was excellent. Once you get beyond the conceit of the situation, this is a stellar drama with fine acting and deeply humane plot-lines. Walter, an economics professor played superbly by Richard Jenkins who was nominated for an Oscar for…

Cheryl loaned us this fine film about a woman (Halle Berry) whose husband Brian (David Duchovny) is tragically murdered. She’s left with two kids (both precocious, one of them is Berry’s son) and establishes a relationship with Jerry (Benicio Del Toro), Brian’s best and oldest friend and a very wacked out former-lawyer become heroin addict….

Bronwen and I liked this documentary about Al-Jezeera, the Arab satellite tv station that has so much audience in the Middle East and the Arab community in the US. It is both supportive and critical, acknowledging the bias of these Arab journalists (their despair and confusion on the fall of Baghdad is palpable) and the…

Children’s flick based on the book. Classic story of child with horrible parents, saved by wonderful teacher (Miss Honey) who she in turn saves as well from her wretched aunt/principal. Nicest work by Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman (he produced as well) as the awful parents. Fun to start, but the stress on her goodness…