At first glance, this looks like your standard, sweet, coming of age movie about a shy, quirky high school freshman who finds his niche among a group of welcoming misfits. But it is way more than that, artfully maneuvering through such heavy topics as sexual abuse, depression, homophobia, and bullying – and all in a […]
This is, without a doubt, one of the most visually spectacular sci-fi movies ever made. Despite all its hype as an “Alien” prequel, the story really is much more. Noomi Rapace is the head of a scientific expedition searching for the origins of humanity, that instead, finds quite the horrific mess on a planet far, […]
Daniel Day-Lewis almost certainly has nabbed an Oscar hat trick for his amazing performance as one of America’s most beloved presidents. The Steven Spielberg film covers the last months of Lincoln’s life, when Lincoln won Congressional approval of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery and ended the Civil War. Although the movie is slow in spots, […]
This true story, about a couple and their three young children who were caught in the epic 2004 post-Christmas Day tsunami in Thailand, is the first disaster movie in recent memory that was so raw and straightforwardly realistic that you will actually feel like you are there. The terror, the surrealness of the disaster and […]
Despite a story that, at times, meanders and loses its audience, the riveting, intense payoff is still worth the two-and-a-half hour wait in this tale about the slaying of 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden. Jessica Chastain is intense in her portrayal of a CIA agent who dedicated her career to hunting Bin Laden (The character […]
This riveting Ben Affleck-directed story, about the six employees who escaped from the U.S. Embassy in Iran during the 1979 siege and hostage crisis, and the CIA operative who covertly helped them escape, is intense, riveting and easily one of 2012’s best films. It’s a fascinating glimpse inside one of the more frustrating moments in […]
This civil rights era period piece set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi is the story about an enterprising young writer (Emma Stone) who convinces the town’s black maids to spill the beans on what life really is like working for the town’s white women. A cleverly written story and an exceptionally strong supporting cast (Viola Davis, […]
This indy anthology of horror vignettes, loosely interwoven together, includes a couple that are surprisingly creative and entertaining and a couple that are a nonsensical mess (rework, please!), but nonetheless, this unusual film achieves its goal of keeping fans of gore enthralled to the very end.
The stunning Blake Lively battles a massive great white shark on a remote beach in this action-adventure hybrid of Jaws and Castaway with a wee bit of Sharknado. The surf porn cinemagraphy is gorgeous and Lively carries the film nicely, despite a predictable plot that frequently tests the bounds of believability – seriously, can anything […]
Sally Field is Doris, an old lady who is a hoarder, has had the same job for decades and has lived her entire adult life with her mother on New York’s Staten Island. When her mother dies, Doris’ small bubble of a world pops, leading to a fixation on the hot young new co-worker and […]