Old Fashioned movie review: how would Jesus date?
Old-fashioned is right. Like how the Taliban is old-fashioned. Behold some pretty despicable passive-aggressive othering of women in the name of “respect.”
romance
Amira & Sam movie review: moving on from 9/11
A delightfully engaging, convention-busting slice of of-the-moment America that is far from the typical culture-clash romantic dramedy.
Son of a Gun movie review: wholesale cinematic heist
Misogynistic, predictable, crammed with tonal shifts, and devoid of likable characters. Another young filmmaker has taken all the wrong cues from Hollywood.
Eastern Boys movie review: pretty boy
Repugnant drama about the tender relationship between a man who pays for sex and the boy he hires. At least Pretty Woman pretended to be a fairy tale.
The Way He Looks movie review: love is all-seeing
A charming teen drama bursting with a warmth and compassion unexpected in the genre, and with a freshly sweet surprise of young love.
Le Jour Se Lève (Daybreak) movie review: man on the edge
Serious film fans will appreciate the 4K restoration of this 1939 French melodrama, which has been all but unseen for 75 years.
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.
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.
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.
