Testament of Youth movie review: woman’s war story
A compassionate, distressing tale of a woman’s determination to find her own purpose, full of heartbreaking moments that pile up until they’re unbearable.
based on a book
Far from the Madding Crowd movie review: a woman’s choices
Ridiculously romantic in all the best ways, and more modern, more progressive, and even just plain more grownup that half the movies thrown at us today.
Still Alice movie review: a true horror movie
Julianne Moore’s terror at watching her own emotional and intellectual life slip away is palpable, and much scarier to me than any slasher movie.
Child 44 movie review: Stalin glance
Overly complicated yet somehow anticlimactic, and constructed more with pat Hollywood pomp rather than the authentic grit it demands.
The Water Diviner movie review: magic unrealism
When director Crowe sticks to historical adventure, his film is tense and exciting. But it lacks a sense of magic that it needs to make it fully engaging.
The DUFF movie review: a kinder shade of cruel
This high-school comedy avoids the worst clichés of the genre and resists rather than indulges the worst tendencies of adolescence. Which is a rare thing.
The Face of an Angel movie review: fiction is stronger than truth
A contemplative film pondering the nature of the difference between reality and fiction, one with resonance beyond the true-crime story it’s kinda sorta about.
Seventh Son movie review: witches be crazy
Like Monty Python without the comedy, or at least without the intentional comedy. Jeff Bridges’ saving throw against the Phoning It In curse fails!
Wild Card movie review: hardboiled rotten egg
Piles of noirish exposition get the better of Jason Statham in this unpleasantly retrograde crime drama. What happened in Vegas should have stayed there.
Home movie review: lots of places like it
Science fiction with training wheels, fine for sucking the kiddies into geekery but with little appeal for grownup fans of animated genre adventure.
