Grand Central movie rating: yellow light
French drama about nuclear workers is riveting when it focuses on the dangers of the job, less so when it devolves into a sexy working-class soap opera.
2014 theatrical releases
Finding Vivian Maier documentary review: secret art comes into the light
An extraordinary examination of a remarkable photographer, part portrait unraveled by meticulous detective work, part sharp criticism of the hidebound art establishment.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes movie review: people get ready
A magnificent science fiction drama, and a beautiful one. Wonderfully radical for the simple fact that it is ruled by principled ideas.
Rage (aka Tokarev) movie review: Nicolas Cage’s public mid-career crisis takes a pathetic turn
Sporadically hilariously awful, but mostly cheap, amateurish and so distasteful it borders on the vile. Poor Nicolas Cage and his foundering career.
Boyhood movie review: time in a cinematic bottle
An audacious coming-of-age tale unique in the history of cinema; deeply moving and beautifully authentic.
Snowpiercer movie review: hunger train
Hauntingly grim, full of appalling ironies and awful truths. This is most definitely not the feel-good movie of the summer.
The Raid 2 movie rating: red light
Arthouse martial-arts action that’s incredibly dull even when it’s being pornographic about its extreme bloody violence.
Palo Alto movie review (Edinburgh International Film Festival)
A meditative contemplation of the boredom of overprivileged, under-aspiring, shallow, spoiled kids. As you’ve been dying to see.
Life Itself documentary review: he found it at the movies
A touching biography, and an accidental look at the tremendous upheaval that journalism has weathered in the past half century.
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared movie review: yes, that’s what he does
An absurdist mock epic that is hilarious, outrageous, and completely insane. It’s like a bonkers Swedish Forrest Gump.
