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.
drama
A Second Chance movie review: cops and fathers
An impossible tragedy, a movie that confounds all expectations and is full of a terrible suspense. You have never seen a cop movie like this before.
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.
The Divergent Series: Insurgent movie review: being human
Sneakily undercuts tropes of the young-adult hero’s journey. But in a more adventurous movie environment, this wouldn’t feel this fresh as it does.
Suite Française movie review: enemy mine to love
An immediate and intimate tale of forbidden romance and other complex emotions and contradictory obligations. This ain’t history but a very human now.
X+Y (aka A Brilliant Young Mind) movie review: emotional equations
An honest, heartfelt film, full of lovely performances, yet one that ends up rather unexpectedly conventional.
October Gale movie review: islands in the scream
It’s not very suspenseful or romantic, but the always awesome Patricia Clarkson remains calm and kicks some ass, so that’s something.
Kill the Messenger movie review: all the news that’s fit to quash
A passionate and intense drama — fueled by a fierce Jeremy Renner — that furiously underscores the problem of lickspittle corporate “journalism.”
Chappie movie review: robot icks
A morally muddled mess that is convoluted in plot and appallingly simplistic in its themes. I am a sad geek today.
Ida movie review: alas poor Poland?
A beautiful film, and a mysterious one. I don’t quite know what to make of it, but I have been seduced by its evasive intrigue.
