Category: Film Reviews

A very disappointing film for several reasons. One, directed by and starring Robert Redford, this 2013 offering deals with a subject I care and know about, the radical antiwar movement of the 1960s and ‘70s and Weather in particular. It posits RR (73 or 74 when the film was made) as a former Weatherman gone…

All warfare carries with it the moral dilemma of civilian death, now politely termed collateral damage. Drone warfare examined in this film brings with it exceptional elements. In this film, we see some of those complexities and moral difficulties as British, Kenyan, and American team members stalk Al-Shabab militants in Kenya for capture on the…

Another year another film from Mike Leigh. This one chronicles a very happy, centered couple (Tom and Gerri-Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) over the course of a year as they work, garden together (B loved that),. and interact with family and friends who aren’t anywhere near as together or happy In particular, it follows Mary…

A very funny, insightful, touching piece of science fantasy from a Russian/French company about a window that lets people go between. St Petersburg and Paris. Self-critical in a sly way. See this one. Subtitled

Also known as “Cria Cuervos” or “Raising Crows”. This moody,. 1974, transhistorical drama by A Suares stars Geraldine Chaplin and a set of fine actors. Looks at a young Spanish girl’s trauma around her mother’s (Chaplin) death in the 1950s from a long disease and the philandering and emotional distance of her husband. Shortly thereafter…

Anthony Weiner’s fall from lion of the liberal political establishment to punchline is chronicled in this painful look at his disastrous 2013 run for mayor of New York. Sexting scandals that reflect personal need for adulation , connection and intimacy with women, [psycho-historians will have a field day with this] lead to his resignation from…

A very funny, very well acted Woody Allen piece with a stellar job by Mira Sorvino (Oscar winning) as the hooker birth-mother of his adopted son. See this one

An accurate, overblown and over the top historical film about the Dreyfus Affair with Oliver Reed and Richard Dryfus. Very melodramatic in style. I did not like this one. Directed by Dryfus

A very good concept film with a weak ending. Sweet little Renee Zellwenger (in her first good role in ages) sees her nasty husband executed in a gangster-like hit/scalping and flips out. She imagines she is in the world of a TV soap opera and is leaving hubby for her ex-fiance, an MD on the…

An important and sad film that is well acted but not very well written. Great work by Don Cheadle as the hotelier in Rawanda who saves thousands of Tutsis, a Hutu Schnindler, but he’s already there as his wife is Tutsi. Nick Nolte as the Canadian colonel who cares and isn’t allowed to fire. Very…

A very interesting and unusual documentary about Ray Johnson, a performance artist and fine graphic artist in the NYC scene during the 50s-90s when he finally committed suicide. Bronwen knew him a bit. Even his most intimate friends and lovers really didn’t know him. He remained brilliant, eccentric, idiosyncratic and opaque throughout his life, and…

An interesting, well acted, if sometimes overly melodramatic look at the life and loves of the DePres sisters, one of whom became a ‘wife’ and the other a brilliant cellist, married Daniel Berrenboim, and died of MS Painful and sometimes overly florid with the classical music

A very quirky comedy about the impact of a new gun on a New Jersey couple. An odd, sort of off base film, that’s nonetheless interesting

An ok if overly long piece about Marine snipers during the first Gulf War. Craziness and boredom, lack of meaning, false patriotism figure large, along with ill-health, depression and lack of meaning. No one kills anyone directly. Based on one man’s story.

A very rough look at the hunt and killing of Bin Laden. It’s about Maya (Jessica Chastain) who hunts OBL for 10 years. Issues of bureaucratic lassitude abound, but the first half hour of torture has sparked a huge debate because the film states that a key clue is provided by torture in the early…

Andy’s on his way to college now, and where does that leave his toys?. In the attic?. Sent to a daycare center where they are abused and tortured by true little ones?. And how can they make this right?. A very nice, loving, funny and playful look at meaning and aging in a disposable world…

A very traditional sports-is-politics-brings-nation-together flick from Clint Eastwood. It stars Matt Damon (ok) and Morgan Freeman (who’s up for an Oscar tonight) as the captain of S Africa’s rugby team and Nelson Mandela (guess who plays which role?) Freeman is very impressive as the saintly NM who sees what others can’t and is willing to…

Anglo-American wizardry in a JK Rowling. prequel to the Potter cycle. This one’s set in NYC, a truly backward, morally loose and up-tight and corrupt place in the 1920s, where Newt (Eddie Redmayne) a wizard explorer arrives with a set of illegal fantastic beasts in his valise and all hell breaks loose. It’s clear why…

A very well-crafted film that only occasionally

Anita Hill’s story and the battle over Clarence Thomas’s nomination are brought to light in this 2013 documentary by Frieda Mock. It examines the impact of Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment and their long-term effect on her and the issue more broadly. I was disappointed that I didn’t learn very much new from the film,…

A well-done story of conjoined twins and their eventual separation. The death of one. The hooker who cares. Most of the acting is good, although the dialogue becomes quite stilted in parts.

Another children’s story based on the book, but oh so much more interesting and better done. Rather painful sometimes, but the happy ending is worth the wait (although I am not a fan at all of Rosie O’Donnell and don’t like her work here either). Unfortunately, there are parts of the book that are ‘implied’…

A wonderful neo-realist film from Majid Majidi, the Iranian who also did “The Color of Paradise”. This is a superb and sad film about a young man, Lateef, and the construction site he works on. Afghan refugees are used and abused as cheap and illegal workers at the site. When one is injured, his daughter…

Another con/heist flick with Cooney and the gang, including Julia (well, not intentionally at first). It’s ok until it just becomes too cute about her looking like Julia Roberts. Fun in parts and worth watching just to see the gang work together again, including Reiner, Pitt, Roberts, along with Catherine Zeta Jones, but nowhere near…

A wonderful set of character studies that makes the alternative very normal and