The Second Mother movie review: cleaning house
Sharply observant and always surprising; mixes dry humor, aching drama, and stinging social commentary in its clashes between classes and generations.
reviews
The Visit movie review: grandma’s house (of horrors?)
Over the river and through the woods to yet another banal, anticlimactic attempt at storytelling from M. Night Shyamalan. And this time, it’s found-footage.
Ricki and the Flash movie review: rocking (down and) out
There’s some good stuff here, like the prickly relationships between women at odds with one another, but too much feels too contrived to fully satisfy.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl movie review: sick of it
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl gets sick, but she can still inspire a man to better himself, while also adding a dash of repugnant narcissism to the subgenre.
American Ultra movie review: Bourne to lose
It’s one joke dragged out for 90 minutes, and while it’s not entirely unamusing, the comedy feels mired in the same stoner fog as its slacker protagonist.
The Transporter Refuelled movie review: infuriating road
There isn’t a single level on which this crass reboot operates that isn’t a disaster. There is all sorts of stupid at work here, and all sorts of offensive.
Hitman: Agent 47 movie review: kill it
Even dumb SF action needs a certain grounding in plausible reality. But nothing here makes a damn bit of sense.
Barely Lethal movie review: hidden in plain sight
Charming and funny, a wonderfully sweet and silly mashup of spy stuff and high-school comedies, like if John Hughes made a James Bond movie.
Straight Outta Compton movie review: men’s anger, but only when it makes them righteous
The seething rage radiating from the screen elevates this above similar movies. But that rage is truncated in ways that are hard to ignore.
We Are Your Friends movie review: straight outta the Valley
Not so much a movie as an advertisement for a soft drink or tampons or sneakers or a cell phone for fresh! active! fun! young! people.
