Janis: Little Girl Blue documentary review: the painful soul of the music
A compassionate, intimate unpacking of the legend of Janis Joplin that reveals the troubled influences on the force-of-nature singer she willed into being.
girls/women
The Letters (aka Letters from Mother Teresa) movie review: utter nunsense
A fatuous argument for Mother Teresa’s sainthood; credulous and willfully ignorant, and disregards everything about her beliefs that was nasty or skeptical.
The Dressmaker movie review: haute couture as a tragicomic weapon
So entertaining, so unexpected, so wonderfully oddball, so damn good. Witty genre-busting simmering with pathos, humor, and calamity.
The Perfect Guy movie review: dating blame
An enragingly stupid and obvious “thriller” jammed with dull genre clichés, wild hypocrisy, and just a hint of victim blaming.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 movie review: breaking the blockbuster
One of the smartest and most enthralling SF film series ever breaks more new ground as it ends on notes as emotional and provocative as they are explosive.
Fathers & Daughters movie review: fit to be family tied
It’s all rather implausible and hugely melodramatic as it milks ham-fisted histrionics from high soap opera. A pitiable excuse for a movie.
Brooklyn movie review: across the ocean to find yourself
Beautifully portrays a very universal experience — not only of immigration but of growing up — via an elegantly nuanced performance by Saoirse Ronan.
He Named Me Malala documentary review: teach your children well
A charming film — Yousafzai is as endearing and funny as she is ambitious and brave — but also one with a vital message: how we raise kids matters.
Truth movie review: when journalistic truth is ugly (LFF 2015)
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.
Tales of Halloween movie review: buckets of blood, and lots of laughs
The best of the bunch in this anthology of vaguely interconnected shorts are the outrageous and uproarious genre pastiches “Friday the 31st” and “Bad Seed.”
