on the road archives - Page 9 of 27

Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie review: a new hope

Thu, Dec 17, 2015

Charts a path to a future that refuses to get mired in nostalgia. Yet all the Star Wars notes are here, remixed into a glorious new arrangement.

In the Heart of the Sea movie review: here be monsters (and whales)

Wed, Dec 09, 2015

8 comments

Solid, old-school man-versus-nature adventure melodrama, with a simmering green awareness; rollicking, smart, breathtaking, and sobering.

The Good Dinosaur movie review: bad dinosaur, bad

Tue, Nov 24, 2015

94 comments

Shamefully banal; such a confused mess that I cannot even figure out what the title is supposed to mean. A slap in the face to Pixar fans after Inside Out.

Spectre movie review: Bond goes backward

Wed, Oct 28, 2015

14 comments

After a truly spectacular and fresh opening sequence, everyone might as well be enacting a Bond puppet show, which is sometimes unpleasantly retro-icky.

Mississippi Grind movie review: a killer hand

Fri, Oct 23, 2015

no comments yet

A compelling character study of two intriguingly flawed people, the sort of richly observed drama that has gotten all but pushed out of mainstream cinema.

Dukhtar movie review: giving voice to women who have none

Fri, Oct 09, 2015

no comments yet

A gripping story from a place where women are less than second-class citizens that insists that they are, in fact, people who deserve to live as they please.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials movie review: apocalyptic pile-on

Fri, Sep 11, 2015

5 comments

The only slightly original element of the first film — the Maze — is gone, and now we’re in not simply a generic afterscape but every sci-fi afterscape.