Frozen review: I have chills
The showstopping central musical number is a glorious anthem to female power and ability… and so, in fact, is the whole wonderful movie. Disney is finally getting it. (new DVD/VOD US/Can)
adventure
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire review: reluctant heroine
A devastating indictment of pop culture as propaganda — about its power and the limits of its powers — and an upending of the typical teen-girl romance movie.
Gravity movie review: nowhere to go but down (London Film Festival)
Stunningly accomplished space survival adventure: heartstopping and heartbreaking; the best film of 2013. Just don’t call it science fiction.
Thor: The Dark World review: Viking with a chance of wormholes
Think heavy-metal Lord of the Rings. With wormholes. It’s completely mad and kind of awesome.
Ender’s Game review: big ideas, small heart
My soul was never stirred. My spirit did not soar. My intellect did twitch a bit in ways that made my heart ache disagreeably, however.
Side by Side review (London Film Festival) (world premiere)
Misses more marks than it attempts to hit, but there’s a refreshing sweetness to this child’s-eye view of grief and tragedy.
The Kings of Summer review
Mashes a heightened sense of the absurd rather awkwardly up against arty pastoral, and the mock-seriousness of the endeavor comes across as unpleasantly snide.
The Colony review
A small-scale science-fiction horror story full of big, troubling ideas about what a new Dark Ages might look like.
Riddick review: men will be boys
Dispenses with all pretense that the modern action blockbuster is anything other than the confused, terrified power fantasy of a particularly sheltered and emotionally stunted teenaged boy.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones review
Way to give overwrought fan fiction a bad name. No amount of fairy dust can make this bewitching.
