Life Itself documentary review: he found it at the movies
A touching biography, and an accidental look at the tremendous upheaval that journalism has weathered in the past half century.
historical
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared movie review: yes, that’s what he does
An absurdist mock epic that is hilarious, outrageous, and completely insane. It’s like a bonkers Swedish Forrest Gump.
The Unknown Known documentary review: let Rumsfeld tell you his evil plan
This documentary interview with Bush-era insider Donald Rumsfeld is like a horror movie with a calm sociopath at its center.
Radio Free Albemuth movie rating: red light
A too-literal adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s paranoid science fiction fantasy lacks the atmosphere and human feeling it demands to work on any level.
Cold in July movie review: summertime and the killing is easy
Confused suspense drama starts out gripping and descends into a moral muddle that a very good performance by Michael C. Hall cannot quite overcome.
Forgotten Men documentary review: antiwar hopes from between the wars
This 1934 English antiwar propaganda film is a fascinating and, in retrospect, bittersweet document of the brief era between WWI and WWII.
Jersey Boys movie review: it’s not only rock ’n’ roll…
Director Clint Eastwood’s discomfort with his own material is enormous and obvious. Does he just not get pop music, or is he actively disdainful and suspicious of it?
The German Doctor (aka Wakolda) movie review: don’t mention the war
The subtle veil of horror draped over things we take for granted as good and wonderful aspects of humanity is deeply unsettling…
Belle movie review: untold stories
Wonderful true story about a mixed-race woman raised in aristocratic late-18th-century England; like the best Jane Austen romance with a social conscience.
Grace of Monaco movie review: it’s hard to be a woman
It’s not emotionally enthralling, but there’s still much that’s intriguing in this portrait of a woman who refused to let herself be pushed out of frame.
