female protagonist archives - Page 30 of 40

The Dressmaker movie review: haute couture as a tragicomic weapon

Fri, Nov 20, 2015

So entertaining, so unexpected, so wonderfully oddball, so damn good. Witty genre-busting simmering with pathos, humor, and calamity.

Brooklyn movie review: across the ocean to find yourself

Wed, Nov 11, 2015

3 comments

Beautifully portrays a very universal experience — not only of immigration but of growing up — via an elegantly nuanced performance by Saoirse Ronan.

Truth movie review: when journalistic truth is ugly (LFF 2015)

Thu, Nov 05, 2015

3 comments

A fascinating look at the pitfalls of modern journalism, and a compelling portrait of a journalist who paid a high price for letting them trip her up.

Inside Out movie review: all the feels

Wed, Jul 29, 2015

51 comments

There is joy and wonder in this marvelous mounting of a human mind, and a thrilling audacity in how it dares at such a strange and impossible thing.

Amy documentary review: how the music dies

Tue, Jun 30, 2015

2 comments

An immense film, looming in tragedy, an infuriating portrait of how celebrity warps artistry and how wealth warps love and how suffering trumps everything.

Spy movie review: the other gals

Mon, Jun 01, 2015

15 comments

Does some wonderfully seditious feminist things while also being funny as hell. Finally, we are asked to laugh with Melissa McCarthy, not at her.

Results movie review: emotional workout

Fri, May 29, 2015

1 comment

Bracingly off-kilter, a sort of anti rom-com that sends up a cultlike subculture while embracing the full, curious humanity of those who live in it.

Tomorrowland (aka Tomorrowland: A World Beyond) movie review: back to the future

Thu, May 21, 2015

41 comments

It gets a tad heavy-handed, but my eyes welled with tears of geeky joy at the film’s embrace of an optimism it steadfastly refuses to see as old-fashioned.