The Giver movie review: give it back
A very simplistic Dystopia for Dummies — with a bit of Terrence Malick for Dummies — and inoffensive enough until it devolves into all kinds of stupid.
political
Pride movie review: hanging together rather than hanging separately
One of the rare movies that gets absolutely everything right, bursting with happy-tears emotion about solidarity, friendship, and smashing bigotry.
The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz documentary review: threat to the system
An essential — and enraging — documentary about activist Aaron Swartz, a danger to corporate hegemony whose work could not be allowed to continue.
Welcome to New York movie review: the rampage of uncivilized men
One of the most repulsive movies I’ve ever seen. Also an important movie, laying bare the farce of equality and justice in the face of power and privilege.
Hercules movie review: he fights the lion!
Grading on the Ratner Curve, this is a positive triumph. The cheesy clichés are at least passingly entertaining. You could do worse.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes movie review: people get ready
A magnificent science fiction drama, and a beautiful one. Wonderfully radical for the simple fact that it is ruled by principled ideas.
The State Within TV review: unknown knowns
A riveting BBC political thriller offering one of the most trenchant explorations yet of the sick symbiosis between big government and big business.
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.
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.
