The Danish Girl movie review: sometimes it’s hard to be a woman
Safe, conventional, and not particularly sympathetic to women, cis or trans. Mistakes the external signifiers of femininity with actually being a woman.
historical
The Hateful Eight movie review: all hat, no cattle
Inexcusably self-indulgent. Tarantino gratifies his enormous self-love and his amusement at his own genius at the expense of all else.
The Revenant movie review: an extreme walk in the woods
High-toned body horror that emotionally and tonally starts on one note and never deviates from it, which becomes rather exhaustingly dull.
Joy movie review: a mess to be mopped up
Even the miscasting of Jennifer Lawrence takes a backseat to the forced quirkiness, which David O. Russell cannot get his cast on the same page with.
Pawn Sacrifice movie rating: red light
Yawningly dull Cold War chess drama squanders the charms and talents of Tobey Maguire (as Bobby Fischer) and Liev Schreiber (as Boris Spassky).
In the Heart of the Sea movie review: here be monsters (and whales)
Solid, old-school man-versus-nature adventure melodrama, with a simmering green awareness; rollicking, smart, breathtaking, and sobering.
Victor Frankenstein movie review: monster mush
A riff on the Hollywood conventions of a story we know very well already, with little new to say. James McAvoy’s mad scientist is fun to watch, though.
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.
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.
Bridge of Spies movie review: the lawyer who went out in the Cold War
Presents American hypocrisy in defense of America with the snorting derision it warrants, while also being a gripping and intense Cold War thriller.
