Say When (aka Laggies) movie review: resisting the path
Charming and off-kilter, this is a rare tale of a young woman struggling with her identity in a way that deals a shock of recognition and never apologizes.
2014 theatrical releases
The Skeleton Twins movie review: oh brother how art thou?
Funny and sad and wise and wonderful… with an absolutely heartbreaking, career-changing performance by Bill Hader.
A Most Wanted Man movie review: intelligence afterscape
A smart, classy, slow-burn thriller made up of the stuff of authentic spy work and plenty of bitter irony about modern geopolitics.
Kelly & Cal movie review (London Film Festival)
A simple, honest, deeply satisfying tale of the complex mixed emotions and desires that make up a woman’s life and often exist in secret.
Nightcrawler movie review: how news gets broken
Noirish 1950s cynicism meets nasty 1970s Corman-esque exploitation in a thriller that is uncomfortable, unpleasant, unforgiving, and pretty darn brilliant.
Interstellar movie review: trading worry for wonder
Thrilling intellectually and viscerally, full of stirring notions of what humanity is capable of, and full of hope. A wonderfully refreshing sort of SF.
Extraterrestrial movie review: no intelligent life on Earth
Utterly empty. It’s aware of the tropes of the new mythos of alien abductions, but makes no attempt to find anything even the slightest bit fresh in them.
Mr. Turner movie review: in the concrete abstract
This is no stuffy costume drama but a richly lived-in visit to early-19th-century England that is rough, bawdy, often funny, and more often unsettling.
The Book of Life movie review: what’s a woman for?
The animation is fresh, unique, and gorgeous. But we don’t need another tale of a man having exciting adventures while a woman waits around to marry him.
The Babadook movie review: mother of nightmares
Genuinely horrific and deeply scary in a way that draws on the most primal of emotions. A horror flick with rare emotional and psychological resonance.
