All Film Reviews

Belle (PG)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen-era dramas attract large and devoted audiences. Add to the mix a real-life heroine who is the daughter of a British aristocrat and African slave, and the potential for tear-jerking, romantic moments grows exponentially. If only Belle, directed by Ghanaian Amma Asante, had a clever script or […]
Gone Girl (R)

For a film which depicts one of the more grotesque murders in recent cinematic memory, the most terrifying moment in Gone Girl is nothing more than the film’s hero being asked a few seemingly mundane questions about his missing wife by a pair of bored cops. Shortly before noon, on his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick […]
Locke (R)

In The Christian Future or the Modern Mind Outrun, Eugene Rosenstock-Huessy suggests that if you want to know a man, you have to talk to him on the drive to work. The Modern world has drawn thick, heavy lines between the home and the workplace, dividing a man’s livelihood from his bedroom, his office from […]
No Good Deed (PG-13)

No Good Deed is a genre piece pleasantly confident within its limitations. Its direction, script and acting all equally disclose an unimaginative professionalism that bears comparison to any number of films of a similar mold. While it must be admitted that the break-in suspense flick is hardly a genre with many permanent classics (the Audrey […]
Calvary (R)

Collective guilt might be unjust, but sometimes it is inevitable. That, at least, is one of the conclusions to be drawn from Calvary, John Michael McDonagh’s drama about the clerical abuse scandal which, ironically, does not feature a single frocked predator. This is because Calvary is not about the bad priests who caused the scandal, but about a single good priest left to deal with its consequences.
Braveheart (R)

When Steven Spielberg brought audiences Jaws in 1974, the ripples carried through decades of film. It is a defining point in the development of the world of movies. The term “blockbuster” was coined; gore on the screen was pushed to new levels; a fear of sharks settled deep in the bones of Americans. As influential […]
The Fault In Our Stars (PG-13)

The memento mori (“remember you will die”) is a significant part of Puritan spirituality as well as the monastic life. The benefits of reminding yourself that you will die is written into numerous ascetic prayers and the “Dialog Between Christ, A Youth and the Devil” which concludes The New England Primer both draw heavily on […]
Guardians Of The Galaxy (PG-13)

Sometimes you go to the movies with the need to hear a solemn complaint voiced. You need to hear the dignity of creation reaffirmed. You go to hear Jessica Chastain say to God, “Where were you?” as she laments the untimely loss of a son. You go to the movies in the Fall, when the […]
Only Lovers Left Alive (R)

Only Lovers Left Alive is a my-favorite-things picture from independent film director Jim Jarmusch. It is a Dutch still life painting, though the fruit has been substituted with the prized possessions of the artist. It is a film filled with cool and dark things, like dirty rock and roll, night drives, death, Nikola Tesla, sunglasses, […]
The Giver (PG-13)

A brilliant sunset. A wedding dance. The color red. Each person who reads these words will see a unique image. Humanity may share experiences, but because of our memories—and our emotions—we approach these commonalities in vastly different ways. Variety and choice aren’t just the spice of life. They make us human. In The Giver, a […]
Boyhood (R)

Boyhood is heartbreaking for this reason; in a scant 164 minutes this mortal life is seen in full Solomonic brevity, breathlike and fleeting. Mason (Ellar Coltrane) is six when the film begins and he ages, along with his co-stars Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette and Lorelei Linklater, at such a breakneck pace that there’s an inescapable desperation over youth, its opportunities and misfortunes.
Divergent (PG-13)

Why do we eat candy canes at Christmas? Why are they red and white? Why do we fold our hands to pray? If you ask a child these questions, they often offer an acrobatic answer. By the time they enter middle school, at least in this day and age, the answers become less and less […]
A Most Wanted Man (R)

The surveillance state has a human face. In A Most Wanted Man’s telling of it, it is the gruff, unshaven, alcohol-bloated, nicotine-addled visage of Gunther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a spy who looks like he has a way to travel before he can come in from the cold. As the lead field agent of a […]
Enemy (R)

Encountering a double, or doppelganger, is an ancient fear with long literary credentials. There’s something primeval about it, the pagan myths are replete with twins, both evil and otherwise, and the Bible has some very famous twins of its own (Jacob and Esau being the primary example), but perhaps the one that connects most readily […]
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (PG)

Pet dragons, taken as a whole, are worth any trouble they might cause. At least that’s what the Vikings of Berk have learned five years after the chief’s son, Hiccup, trained his first dragon. How to Train Your Dragon 2 endeavors to fly above its predecessor but, like many sequels, fails to capitalize on the […]
Falling Down (R)

I used to live about three miles from where I worked, which is close enough, although twelve stoplights separated the front door of my house from the front door of my place of business. On the wrong afternoon drive home, the fact that Cain’s first great project after slaying his brother was to build a […]
North by Northwest (Not Rated)

North by Northwest is the first of its kind. Released in 1959, it is the story of advertising executive Robert Thornhill (Grant) being mistaken for one George Kaplin by a powerful crime lord. Within the first 15 minutes Thornhill is kidnapped, questioned, blackmailed, forced to drink an entire bottle of bourbon, and placed drunk in […]
Pulp Fiction (R)

Nobody ever goes to the bathroom in movies. As strange as amateur comedians seem to find this, it’s entirely reasonable from a storytelling perspective. It may not be completely realistic, but good stories seldom are. Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is probably the most famous exception to cinematic convention on toilet usage, with no fewer than […]
The Big Lebowski (R)

Part One. Glance around academia.edu and you’ll find a few articles on the Coen brothers most popular film with titles like “’This Aggression Will Not Stand’: Myth, War and Ethics in The Big Lebowski,” as well as “The Big Lebowski, ritual and (imposed) narratives of the self.” In the last three years, over a hundred […]
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (PG-13)

Thomas Hobbes argued that the natural state of human affairs is one of universal conflict—all against all, neighbor against neighbor. That he failed to apply this dictum to hyper-sentient apes can be excused as the myopia of the seventeenth century. One escapes this warlike state of nature—perpetual war with one’s neighbors—says Hobbes, by banding together with […]