45 Years movie rating: green light
Keenly observed drama about a couple shaken by an unexpected blast from the past, featuring a career-best performance by Charlotte Rampling.
drama
Pawn Sacrifice movie rating: red light
Yawningly dull Cold War chess drama squanders the charms and talents of Tobey Maguire (as Bobby Fischer) and Liev Schreiber (as Boris Spassky).
Concussion movie review: heads up
A quietly horrifying, solidly entertaining medical procedural that makes no bones about the terrible damage American football causes to its players.
Fat movie review: prisoner of his own body (and mind)
There is fearlessness here, and uncomfortable raw honesty, but there’s also little opportunity to care about a man who pushes everyone, including us, away.
Bleeding Heart movie review: sisters in waiting
There may not be much surprising here, but this is a smartly sensitive depiction of abuse and redemption that never descends into caricature.
In the Heart of the Sea movie review: here be monsters (and whales)
Solid, old-school man-versus-nature adventure melodrama, with a simmering green awareness; rollicking, smart, breathtaking, and sobering.
The Letters (aka Letters from Mother Teresa) movie review: utter nunsense
A fatuous argument for Mother Teresa’s sainthood; credulous and willfully ignorant, and disregards everything about her beliefs that was nasty or skeptical.
Creed movie review: the boxing ring of truth
Feels natural and organic, not forced by the dictates of movie franchises. A smart, engaging, unsentimental portrait of male friendship and male emotion.
Bridge of Spies movie review: the lawyer who went out in the Cold War
Presents American hypocrisy in defense of America with the snorting derision it warrants, while also being a gripping and intense Cold War thriller.
Black Mass movie review: men behaving badly… again
A solid execution of a familiar tale, crammed with a likable, watchable cast. But it doesn’t have anything new to say about why men do despicable things.
