True Story movie review: lies and the lying liars who tell them
The height of poor taste. Grants notorious men even more notoriety by giving voice to their inexcusable “travails,” thereby feeding their self-absorption.
based on fact
Eddie the Eagle movie review: white man can’t jump, much
Yet another celebration of an overconfident mediocre white man as charming, heroic, and worthy of emulation. It’s inspirational!
My All American movie review: football fundamentalism
Not an inspirational football movie but the highlights reel from one, with a golden boy who is his own manic pixie dreamboat. The worst sort of hagiography.
Woodlawn movie review: Jesus is an Alabama football fan, obvs
A film taken with the singular American delusion that Jesus loves football… though it also throws in a new delusion: Jesus hates the U.S. Constitution.
Freeheld movie review: lovers *and* fighters
May be a familiar David-versus-Goliath tale, but it is also an inspiring and hugely emotional experience, due in large part to the powerful performances.
The Finest Hours movie review: that sinking feeling
See this for Casey Affleck: he exudes a classic cinematic masculinity here. Alas, the rest of the film is old-fashioned in ways that are downright stodgy.
Oddball and the Penguins (aka Oddball) movie review: dogs and birds living together
Sweet, silly, charming. A true story about an unlikely canine-assisted project to protect endangered birds, goofily fictionalized to engage kids.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi movie review: American mercenary
Michael Bay propagandizes for a right-wing idea of “true America,” seething with disdain for anyone who isn’t a former elite soldier turned mercenary.
The 33 movie review: swallowed up by the earth
A missed opportunity to tell what should be a captivating real-life disaster tale that is instead plodding, scattershot, and lacking in dramatic impetus.
The Danish Girl movie review: sometimes it’s hard to be a woman
Safe, conventional, and not particularly sympathetic to women, cis or trans. Mistakes the external signifiers of femininity with actually being a woman.
