Requiem for the American Dream and The Divide documentaries review: economic inequality for all
Two powerful documentaries look at the ever-growing wealth gap, and introduce us to some of those struggling through the resultant financial insecurity.
1970s
Miles Ahead movie review: where the music takes you
A fantasy about Miles Davis’s life and music; loose, free-flowing, a kind of cinematic jazz. An astonishingly assured directorial debut from Don Cheadle.
My All American movie review: football fundamentalism
Not an inspirational football movie but the highlights reel from one, with a golden boy who is his own manic pixie dreamboat. The worst sort of hagiography.
Woodlawn movie review: Jesus is an Alabama football fan, obvs
A film taken with the singular American delusion that Jesus loves football… though it also throws in a new delusion: Jesus hates the U.S. Constitution.
Pawn Sacrifice movie rating: red light
Yawningly dull Cold War chess drama squanders the charms and talents of Tobey Maguire (as Bobby Fischer) and Liev Schreiber (as Boris Spassky).
Janis: Little Girl Blue documentary review: the painful soul of the music
A compassionate, intimate unpacking of the legend of Janis Joplin that reveals the troubled influences on the force-of-nature singer she willed into being.
The Letters (aka Letters from Mother Teresa) movie review: utter nunsense
A fatuous argument for Mother Teresa’s sainthood; credulous and willfully ignorant, and disregards everything about her beliefs that was nasty or skeptical.
Black Mass movie review: men behaving badly… again
A solid execution of a familiar tale, crammed with a likable, watchable cast. But it doesn’t have anything new to say about why men do despicable things.
Experimenter movie review: the subject is you
A creepy-cool vibe of constructed cinematic artificiality echoes the illusory nature of Stanley Milgram’s notorious experiment into human behavior.
The Walk movie review: head in the clouds
Puts CGI, IMAX, and 3D (and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to perfect use. Everything here comes with a vertiginous thrill and a delightful enchantment.
