10s movies
Movie Review: Manchester by the Sea
4.5 stars out of 5 Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan doesn’t exactly churn out movies. He’s made three since 2000: the flat-out wonderful You Can Count on Me, the harrowing but brilliant Margaret (also answer to the trivia question, “What movie was Jack watching when Superstorm Sandy knocked the power out?”), and, released in the fall, Manchester […]
Movie Review: Café Society
4 stars out of 5 Since 1991, I’d seen 24 of the previous 25 Woody Allen films in the theater. (For you trivia nerds: Melinda and Melinda) And in the past handful of years, I’ve enjoyed a ritual of seeing Woody’s annual summer release. In the dark, air-conditioned theater, it was like taking a little […]
Movie Review: Allied
3 stars out of 5 Here’s another one I saw a ton of commercials for. It’s 1942 and hey military guy Brad Pitt, your Frenchy wife Marion Cotillard might be a German spy. So this means: A) She is a spy. B) She’s not a spy. C) In a crazy twist, HE’S the spy. Well, […]
Movie Review: Arrival
3 stars out of 5 I haven’t seen a new theatrical release in about five months. After seeing Arrival (don’t ask how), I’m thinking maybe I didn’t miss too much. Laid up in the hospital, I saw countless commercials for Arrival and interviews with its star, Amy Adams. And I’d think, “Hmm, if I wasn’t […]
Movie Review: The Shallows
2.5 stars out of 5 This was written by a guy named Anthony Jaswinski, and you have to wonder if he was nicknamed “Jaws” as a kid. And if so, did he start to daydream, “I’d like to make a shark movie someday….” Me, I’m not real big on shark flicks, or shark weeks, or […]
Movie Review: Maggie’s Plan
3.5 stars out of 5 Legendary screenwriting guru Syd Field claimed that in the first 10 minutes of a movie, viewers should learn just about everything they need to know about the story and characters. Maggie’s Plan sees Syd’s wager and raises him… down to 2 minutes! The very first thing we see Maggie do […]
Movie Review: Popstar — Never Stop Never Stopping
3 stars out of 5 Oh, Andy Samberg, what are we going to do with you? You were so funny on Saturday Night Live, and then in 2007 you made Hot Rod, showing it could be trickier to be funny on the big screen. In 2012, I was impressed with Samberg in the fairly serious […]
Movie Review: The Lobster
4 stars out of 5 At the artsy theater where I saw The Lobster, moviegoers are encouraged to grade the film they’ve just seen and tack up a mini review on a bulletin board in the lobby. I was giddy to see that The Lobster‘s reviews were split between enthusiastic A’s and F’s (and F […]
Movie Review: The Nice Guys
3 stars out of 5 Ah, OK, it all makes sense now: Director/co-writer Shane Black wrote the original Lethal Weapon. Because this is totally, totally the Lethal Weapon formula: mismatched buddies fightin’ crime and crackin’ wise. It’s 1977 in Los Angeles. The movie tries a little too hard to tell us “hey it’s 1977!” (The […]
Jack Silbert, curator