Moonlight movie review: the empathy machine in action (but only if you’re watching)
Luminous and plaintive, Moonlight is emotional virtual reality, transforming a unique human experience into something universal and unforgettable.
1990s
Bleed for This movie review: entirely bloodless
If there is something new to be said about boxing, Bleed for This doesn’t find it. Sucks all the energy out of a story that should have been a can’t-miss.
The Uncondemned documentary review: the horrors of Rwanda, on trial
Meet the dedicated young lawyers and activists who prosecuted and convicted the first person ever to go to prison for genocide and wartime rape.
Holding the Man movie review: grand romance, no qualifiers needed
Told with a lovely romantic sweep and full of raw, honest emotion, this is a gay love story that’s also just a great love story, full stop. Yay.
Bad Hurt movie review: family tied
Exhaustion of mind and body is the primary sentiment in this sensitively observed family drama, drawn with an intimacy that is palpable and uncompromising.
Regression movie review: no thanks for the memories
Amenábar aims for a noirish X-Files vibe, but preposterousness rules this inert trudge that does absolutely no justice to a terrible real-life phenomenon.
Oscar Nominated Live-Action Shorts (88th Academy Awards) review
“Day One” is a wartime drama the likes of which we have not seen before, with a marvelous Layla Alizada as an interpreter with U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
A Perfect Day movie review: war is hellacious
This compact little satire — set in 1990s Balkans — is a small, personal story about huge unfairnesses and injustices. Bleakly, bitterly, blackly funny.
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.
