Virunga documentary review: no walk in the park
This is not a nature documentary, though there are some beautiful scenes of wild spaces. This is war journalism, tense and upsetting.
war/antiwar
Tangerines movie review: caught in the crossfire
Slaps an honest emotional sincerity and a dry, almost humorous pragmatism in the face of macho posturing and identity tribalism.
Last Days in Vietnam documentary review: withdrawal symptoms
Paints a true-life picture of ordinary people with human consciences defying their orders and the law to do the right thing when bureaucracy fails them.
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.
American Sniper movie review: a pawn in the game, misplayed
A banal, bland tribute to things no one questions as laudable (though it has to misrepresent its subject to do so). But Bradley Cooper is very good.
Unbroken movie review: where war movies have gone before
Jack O’Connell is the most exciting young actor to break out in years, and he makes this overly familiar film worth your time… if only just.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies movie review: there and back again… at last
I fear that Peter Jackson has been suffering from a similar affliction to the dwarf king’s “dragon sickness”: a compulsive lust for epicness.
Rosewater movie review (London Film Festival)
Jon Stewart’s first film is passionate and principled, as I expected, but also hopeful, almost serene, and even gently amusing, which I did not.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I movie review: image manipulation
One of the best SF series ever deepens its critique of the power of propaganda in ways complicated, intriguingly contradictory, and a little bit horrifying.
The Imitation Game movie review: decoding Alan Turing
A marvelous combination of thrilling intellectual adventure and sensitive portrait of a man ahead of his time both personally and professionally.
