Paper Towns and Mistress America movies review: girls’ stories are their own (and not yours, boys)
Want to debunk the myth and the mystery of the manic pixie dream girl? There’s a wrong way to do that… and an oh-so marvelously right way.
drama
52 Tuesdays movie rating: green light
Compassionate Australian drama about a teenaged girl’s sexual awakening that is complicated by her mother’s transgender transition to manhood.
Max movie review: all dogs go to war
Jingoistic propaganda and heart-tugging cornball melodrama about a dog with PTSD. It’s how we are Enduring Freedom. God bless America.
War Book movie review: the fate of humanity
Riveting, terrifying, and unafraid to confront its own quiet horror. One of the most important movies ever about nuclear weapons and modern governance.
The Gift movie review: give it back unopened
Descends into emotional idiocy and insufficient intrigue to end in a disgusting place that presumes that a woman is an appropriate pawn in games men play.
Of Girls and Horses movie review: wishes are horses
A lovely film with a compassionate appreciation for how teen girls can often find a sort of comfort in clinging to their woundedness and pain.
Frank the Bastard movie rating: red light
Dreary New England noir soap about a woman uncovering family secrets is like a would-be supernatural thriller that forgot the magic and the chills.
Southpaw movie review: punch drunk and disorderly
Clichéd, obvious, and tired. We’ve seen this story so many times before, but rarely with such a lack of appreciation for just how unheroic its “hero” is.
Mr. Holmes movie review: the case of the missing myth
It looks lovely and Ian McKellen is amazing, of course, but it’s not very Holmesian. I suspect Holmes himself would snort in derision at its sentimentality.
The Longest Ride movie review: romantic bargaining
For once, a movie based on a Nicholas Sparks book is populated by relatively realistic people dealing with relationship conflict in realistic ways.
