Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine documentary review: portrait of the symbol as a young man
An almost unbearably heartbreaking documentary rehumanizes the LGBT icon… and makes him newly tragic all over again.
reviews by year
Fifty Shades of Grey movie review: neurotica
A charm-free hero with control issues and a passive, fretful heroine have coy and tediously vanilla pretend-sex. This is meant to be erotic?
Last Days in Vietnam documentary review: withdrawal symptoms
Paints a true-life picture of ordinary people with human consciences defying their orders and the law to do the right thing when bureaucracy fails them.
Old Fashioned movie review: how would Jesus date?
Old-fashioned is right. Like how the Taliban is old-fashioned. Behold some pretty despicable passive-aggressive othering of women in the name of “respect.”
Two Days, One Night movie review: on the coins of a dilemma
A genuine horror story, sweaty with a palpable ring of truth about the unending fear that accompanies life on the knife edge of financial despair.
Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts (87th Academy Awards) review
An extraordinary group of films concerned with corralling confusing and conflicting human experience at emotional borderlands.
Selma movie review: the march of time is slow
A magnificent film, vital and alive, with the most profound sense of immediacy I think I’ve ever felt in a historical story.
Shaun the Sheep Movie movie review: sheep in the city
Charming in that gloriously detailed Aardman way, but with its simple slapstick humor, it’s strictly for the littlest tykes.
Jupiter Ascending movie review: princess drearies
Sees no need to engage metaphor or dispense with cliché, so when you haven’t seen it before, you can’t believe what you’re seeing. And not in a good way.
Oscar Nominated Live-Action Shorts (87th Academy Awards) review
Three of the five nominees are about women, and it’s hardly a surprise that their fresh perspective results in stories that are new and original.
