The Hunger Games: Catching Fire review: reluctant heroine
A devastating indictment of pop culture as propaganda — about its power and the limits of its powers — and an upending of the typical teen-girl romance movie.
drama
Dallas Buyers Club review: the personal is political
There’s nothing the least bit sentimental here. Nothing flashy or showy in McConaughey’s rough-edged portrait. But there is enormous compassion. (new DVD/VOD US/Can, new cinemas UK)
Gravity movie review: nowhere to go but down (London Film Festival)
Stunningly accomplished space survival adventure: heartstopping and heartbreaking; the best film of 2013. Just don’t call it science fiction.
Chasing Mavericks review
This gentle father-son(ish) tale about an expert surfer and his teen apprentice is a rare “family” movie that isn’t preachy or insipid.
Anno 1790 review: Sherlock in 18th-century Sweden
So awesome that I almost can’t bear it. And so relevant to today: Are the battles between rich and poor, science and superstition, freedom and repression actually endless?
Diana review: princess of whines
Transforms the beloved “People’s Princess” into a drippy, unappealing rom-com heroine, sort of like Bridget Jones with bodyguards.
Ender’s Game review: big ideas, small heart
My soul was never stirred. My spirit did not soar. My intellect did twitch a bit in ways that made my heart ache disagreeably, however.
Closed Circuit review: cheating in the War on Terror
Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall are as engaging as ever, and the film raises intriguing issues concerning the “War on Terror”; pity the plot descends into the ridiculous.
Blue Is the Warmest Color review (London Film Festival)
There’s nothing particularly surprising here. Not even the rather tediously obvious 15-minute all-nude lesbian fuckfest.
Trap Street review (London Film Festival)
It’s never intense enough for the paranoid thriller it wants to be, but it has some chilling things to say about the dangers of the not-quite all-seeing eye of a total-surveillance society.
