The Retrieval review: the emotional legacy of American slavery
Deceptively simple and deeply cutting. A remarkable little film, a marvel of American indie filmmaking and of stories typically overlooked.
drama
Half of a Yellow Sun review: history with a romantic flourish
Oh what a lovely film! As romance and history, this is by turns funny and tragic, suspenseful and celebratory, and never less than solidly entertaining.
I Am Yours (Jeg er din) review (Birds Eye View Film Festival)
Culture clash amplifies the options open for a young Pakistani-Norwegian woman in this quietly compelling film.
Tom at the Farm review: shoulda stayed in the city
An overwrought pastiche of Hitchcock that makes less sense and renders its protagonist far less plausible the longer it goes on.
Noah review: The Bible Episode IV: A New Hope
A Biblical action disaster fantasy epic that is completely bonkers, endlessly entertaining, and actually religious in that inspiring-and-instructional way.
The Past review: they are family
A remarkably grounded French-Iranian drama about a broken family trying to mend; unexpectedly riveting, thanks in part to one of 2013’s best ensembles.
Geography Club review: mapping the teen terror of being weird
A gentle high-school drama about how little courage it actually takes to break through adolescent panicky silence and embrace everyone’s differences.
Blood Ties review: same old New York groove
Excellent performances by Clive Owen and Billy Crudup can’t disguise the fact that there’s absolutely nothing here we haven’t seen too many times before.
Starred Up review: no feel-good redemption to be found
Could be the most realistic depiction of the horribleness and the ineffectiveness of institutional incarceration that I’ve ever seen.
The Machine review: brain underpower
The bleak chic of this SF drama is intriguing, but the script that starts out smart and elegant soon slips into the shoddy and familiar.
