Stranger by the Lake review: a cautionary tale about bad boys
As an exercise in style, this minimalist noir erotic thriller is pretty cool. But it loses its way somewhere around the midpoint and never quite finds it again.
reviews by year
Stalingrad review: life among the ruins
Russia’s first 3D IMAX spectacle is visually intense, but I never warmed to a story meant to be about human resilience.
A New York Winter’s Tale (aka Winter’s Tale) review: cold in the city
A leaden, charmless movie that is unable to commit to its own fantasy. So implausible that even Colin Farrell’s own Irish accent sounds fake.
The Returned review: zombies in remission
Cuttingly sharp and incisive SF horror; a chillingly polite film about the fascism that rises quickly up in a moment of fearful crisis.
Easy Money and Easy Money: Hard to Kill review: easy money… isn’t
Easy Money is a smart, affecting, slow burn of a movie, a spectacular example of Nordic noir. The sequel suffers by comparison, though.
The Monuments Men review: saving private collections (and public art)
As jaunty as Jean Dujardin’s beret, but in a sincere, old-fashioned kind of way. It could almost have been rediscovered from the 1940s…
Cuban Fury review: so he thinks he can dance
The cast is game, and hit the right notes balancing cartoonishness and charm. As sitcom rom-coms go, it’s far from the worst one ever offered to us.
The Lego Movie review: take the brick pill
You’ve seen this all before — it’s Toy Story meets The Matrix — just not done in Legos.
The Pretty One review: in her shoes
Far too blithe and cheery, yet nowhere near madcap and comic enough, for its potentially powerful switched-twins conceit…
Endless Love review: no more Daddy’s little girl
Shockingly not terrible, and says some things that need to be said more often, like how dads do not own their teenaged daughters…
