The Missing Picture review: giving cinematic life to unillustrated memories
A blend of documentary and memoir that’s like a dream and a nightmare, though it’s more commendable than actually engaging.
war/antiwar
Omar movie review: trust no one
Palestine’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar is terse, tense suspense drama, and less overtly political than you might expect.
The Book Thief review: don’t mention the war…
Thoughtful tweens and teens interested in adventurous stories of kids their own age should love this, but adults may find the light tone off-putting.
Dirty Wars review: the self-perpetuating “War on Terror”
An infuriating and depressing look at how American foreign policy and warfare have been transformed in highly undemocratic ways, and a reminder of what real journalism looks like.
The Wind Rises review: Jiro dreams of flying
Visually ravishing, as you’d expect from Hayao Miyazaki, but there is, disappointingly, no drama and no conflict here.
Stalingrad review: life among the ruins
Russia’s first 3D IMAX spectacle is visually intense, but I never warmed to a story meant to be about human resilience.
The Monuments Men review: saving private collections (and public art)
As jaunty as Jean Dujardin’s beret, but in a sincere, old-fashioned kind of way. It could almost have been rediscovered from the 1940s…
The Patrol review: hurry up and wait
Bracingly free of the usual macho posturing that characterizes movies about the military, and a compassionate and humane portrait of modern soldiering.
Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts (86th Academy Awards) review
There is a single thread running through these shorts, and it is deeply existential and irreducibly personal: How do we save ourselves?
Oscar Nominated Live-Action Shorts (86th Academy Awards) review
My favorite of the five films is the British “The Voorman Problem,” starring Martin Freeman and Tom Hollander in a hilarious and provocative bit of speculative fantasy…
