Extraterrestrial movie review: no intelligent life on Earth
Utterly empty. It’s aware of the tropes of the new mythos of alien abductions, but makes no attempt to find anything even the slightest bit fresh in them.
girls/women
The Babadook movie review: mother of nightmares
Genuinely horrific and deeply scary in a way that draws on the most primal of emotions. A horror flick with rare emotional and psychological resonance.
A Picture of You movie review: family secrets
There’s nothing forced or sentimental here, and more than a modicum of bleak humor, but as laid-back indies go, this one may be a tad too laid-back.
Serena movie review: logging for pulp
What starts out as solid romantic melodrama — almost Golden Age of Hollywood stuff — gets so crazy so fast in so many ways.
Two Night Stand and #Stuck movie(s) review: let’s (not) talk about casual sex
Apparently written by the same people who write the ridiculous quizzes and sex-tip listicles in Cosmo and Men’s Health …
Men, Women & Children movie review (London Film Festival)
Jason Reitman is way too young to have produced a work of such fuddy-duddy handwringing over These Kids (And Adults) Today and how we play with our e-toys.
Gone Girl movie review: proof of wife
Ruins itself as even high-toned cinematic junk food when its justifiable cynicism morphs into something manipulative and dangerously disingenuous.
Advanced Style documentary review: life as art
There’s not much here beyond sass, but it is a genuine pleasure to spend time with women who are growing, changing, and living into their 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Magic in the Moonlight movie review: the spirit moves me
A flimsy trifle, but a diverting one. Colin Firth is absolutely hilarious, and the re-creation of the 1920s French Riviera is gorgeous.
Honeymoon movie review (Edinburgh International Film Festival)
Very effective in creating an unsettling mood, but its horrific, fantastic speculation ends, frustratingly, just when it could have gotten really intriguing.
