Men, Women & Children movie review (London Film Festival)
Jason Reitman is way too young to have produced a work of such fuddy-duddy handwringing over These Kids (And Adults) Today and how we play with our e-toys.
based on a book
The Maze Runner movie review: a terrible feeling of deja vu
Bland and generic beyond the small pleasures of its theme-park-ride-esque thrills and its half-intriguing, half-infuriating mystery.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day movie review: not terrible
It’s strictly for kids, this very silly, mostly sweet tale of middle-school angst, with a few nonconformist hand grenades tossed in for good measure.
Gone Girl movie review: proof of wife
Ruins itself as even high-toned cinematic junk food when its justifiable cynicism morphs into something manipulative and dangerously disingenuous.
A Walk Among the Tombstones movie review: only mostly dead
Liam Neeson’s good performance only just elevates the general seen-it-before-ness, including a risible appropriation of women’s pain for men’s redemption.
The Giver movie review: give it back
A very simplistic Dystopia for Dummies — with a bit of Terrence Malick for Dummies — and inoffensive enough until it devolves into all kinds of stupid.
The Boxtrolls movie review: avert your eyes
There’s a fine line between baroque and grotesque… and The Boxtrolls crosses it. Here is a film that actively makes you want to look away.
Before I Go to Sleep movie review: memento worry
When it finally collapses under the weight of its own preposterousness, this would-be elegant thriller becomes a cheap retrograde melodrama.
Life of Crime movie review: minor misdemeanor
Low-key black comedy and sporadic horror lazily pop up among the crime drama, but never enough of either to score many zings.
If I Stay movie review: you see me, you really see me
Honest, emotional teen melodrama with a great performance by Chloe Grace Moretz that serves as a beautiful metaphor for the choices that teen girls face.
