The Gift movie review: give it back unopened
Descends into emotional idiocy and insufficient intrigue to end in a disgusting place that presumes that a woman is an appropriate pawn in games men play.
reviews
A Lego Brickumentary documentary review: brick by brick
It does sort of feel like one of those rah-rah corporate promo videos they make you watch on the day you start a new job, but there are some surprises here.
Of Girls and Horses movie review: wishes are horses
A lovely film with a compassionate appreciation for how teen girls can often find a sort of comfort in clinging to their woundedness and pain.
Inside Out movie review: all the feels
There is joy and wonder in this marvelous mounting of a human mind, and a thrilling audacity in how it dares at such a strange and impossible thing.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation movie review: familiar yet fresh
Works for your appreciation with gasp-inducing action sequences and an ethos that has fun with its legacy while moving in a new direction.
Frank the Bastard movie rating: red light
Dreary New England noir soap about a woman uncovering family secrets is like a would-be supernatural thriller that forgot the magic and the chills.
Southpaw movie review: punch drunk and disorderly
Clichéd, obvious, and tired. We’ve seen this story so many times before, but rarely with such a lack of appreciation for just how unheroic its “hero” is.
Best of Enemies documentary review: “the practice of malice”
A brilliant, hilarious, exhilarating look at the Gore Vidal v. William F. Buckley paradigm-busting 1968 debates that changed TV journalism for the worse.
Big Significant Things movie review: road trip to nowhere
A leisurely, slightly absurd drive through 20something ennui that is as maddeningly diffuse as its protagonist’s state of mind.
Mr. Holmes movie review: the case of the missing myth
It looks lovely and Ian McKellen is amazing, of course, but it’s not very Holmesian. I suspect Holmes himself would snort in derision at its sentimentality.
