Stoker
“To become adult is to become free.” Eighteen-year old India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) intones these words over Stoker’s opening images—a series of beautifully composed shots of her standing on the side of a desolate road gazing out at something we can’t see.... read more
From Up on Poppy Hill
Adapted from the graphic novel by anime master Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle) and directed by his son Goro (Tales from Earthsea), From Up on Poppy Hill is a lush and lyrical ode to a generation pivoting between the painful past and the promise of the future. Set in 1963 in the harbor city of Yokohama, the hand-drawn 2D ’toon captures a moment in time when Japan is still struggling to recover and rebuild in the wake of World War II while eagerly preparing for the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Against this backdrop, high schoolers Umi... read more
Upside Down
One of the basic tenets of screenwriting is to show, not tell. Upside Down violates this rule in the first minute, and it’s no wonder; the sci-fi romance from writer/director Juan Solanas is the epitome of high concept.... read more
Couldn’t You Wait?: The Story of Silkworm
It’s practically a sub-genre unto itself at this point: Don’t-Call-Them-Indie Rock Docs Featuring Artists Whose Body of Work Remains Virtually Unknown to Mainstream Audiences. (The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Scott Walker: 30th Century Man, Dig! are just a few recent entries.) Seth Pomeroy’s Couldn’t You Wait?: The Story of Silkworm is the newest offering sure to confuse Netflix’s categorizing algorithm.... read more
Somebody Up There Likes Me
At first glance, Somebody Up There Likes Me might be mistaken for a debut film from a recent graduate of the Wes Anderson School of Offbeat Filmmaking, but the pedigree of its director is concurrent with that of Anderson. The film, which premiered at last year’s SXSW, is director Bob Byington’s fifth writing/directing effort. His first was 1996’s Shameless, which, ironically enough, is the same year Anderson came along with his debut feature, Bottle Rocket.... read more
The End of Love
With his wife as his partner, Mark (Mark Webber) might have handled parenthood fine. Alone, he has neither the maturity nor the wherewithal to rise to the task. The End of Love studies a man in disarray after his wife’s death, trying to care for his 2-year-old son yet lacking (or unwilling to use) any of the tools needed to do so. He soon finds himself alone and lost in a haze of young adulthood.... read more
Ginger & Rosa
We’re all shaped by our environments. Whether it’s the family we grew up in or the times we find ourselves, there’s no denying the massive influence that outside factors have in contributing to the people we’ll become. That’s never more true than in our formative adolescent years, a point that’s hammered home in writer-director Sally Potter’s Ginger & Rosa, a coming-of-age period tale about a young woman who discovers that her worldview might not be as freely chosen as she’d like to think.... read more
About Sunny
Supposedly based on writer/director Bryan Wizemann’s own real-life experiences, it’s difficult to not give the sustained note of misery that is About Sunny a complete pass out of utter pity.... read more
The Silence
Swiss director Baran bo Odar’s debut feature film, The Silence, is a particularly tense thriller about the murder of children and the price paid for all involved because of those who mutely bear witness to such a crime. The film begins somewhere in rural Germany, where two men come across a young girl riding her bicycle through a wheat field. One of the men rapes and murders her, while the other looks on in either horror or impotence; it’s unclear at this point. Shortly thereafter, the passive participant wordlessly boards a bus and disappears from his partner’s life. Flash-forward to... read more
Oz the Great and Powerful
Oz the Great and Powerful may well be the first movie since Avatar to fully exploit 3D’s potential as a “wonder delivery device” for the entire length of the movie. read more
Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey
Everyone loves a story in which a likable underdog triumphs and finds success; it’s a formula that’s been proven to be a hit with film audiences over and over again. The latest example of this is the story of Arnel Pineda, who was plucked out of obscurity from his life playing in cover bands in the Philippines to become the new frontman of Journey. Ramona S. Diaz’s documentary, which played at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, offers an engaging, sweeping overview of Pineda’s story, which is buoyed by the cheesy but classic sounds of Journey and Pineda’s soft-spoken, humble... read more
Beyond the Hills
Writer-director Cristian Mungiu’s follow-up to his Palme d’Or-winning film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days once again centers on best friends ensnared in a draconian institution. But whereas his 2007 film dealt with a modern issue (securing an illegal abortion) in an urban setting, Beyond the Hills addresses ancient conflicts of faith vs. free will and the needs of the community vs. the desires of the individual, in the isolated setting of a rural Orthodox convent. read more
Jack the Giant Slayer
It’s easy to imagine the film as a piece of Ikea furniture, with instructions reading “Insert herö-A and heröine-B into plöt pöint C.” read more
Koch
Released on the very day that its subject passed away at age 88, Koch is a fitting eulogy for the 105th mayor of New York City. The title may have been held by three men since Ed Koch’s three-term run from 1978 to 1989 but for many New Yorkers, it still belongs to Koch, “the people’s mayor.” Directed by former Wall Street Journal reporter Neil Barsky, the documentary charts both the triumphs and fiascos of the beloved figure while celebrating his singular personality. Quick with a quip and infamously blunt, Koch remained politically active right to the end while reflecting... read more
A Place at the Table
Years ago, a friend of mine who immigrated from Iraq told me that one of the biggest shocks in arriving wasn’t how people behaved, but the overabundance of choices, in of all places, a supermarket. The fact that she would be nearly paralyzed by the amount of choices made me appreciate the “super” in supermarket. The dark side to all those choices and why a nation should be ashamed is featured in the poverty documentary A Place at the Table.... read more
Escape from Planet Earth
You know there’s usually a juicy backstory when advance screenings for a film aren’t offered to press, there’s a lawsuit from the former production team and the final writing credits alone are nearly as long as a true indie film’s entire crew. Such is the case with The Weinstein Company’s animated sci-fi adventure Escape from Planet Earth, which quietly slipped into theaters this past weekend.... read more
Stand Up Guys
There’s something about Stand Up Guys that’s both brilliant and poignant. The film, directed by Fisher Stevens and written by Noah Haidle, is the story of a group of men who reunite for a final night of depravity.... read more
Identity Thief
Melissa McCarthy presents a familiar problem. The comedienne du jour who made her bones in Bridesmaids and the television series Mike & Molly is a force of funny, a comet that everyone is trying to catch. She is that rare commodity, an actress who is so good at her craft that she can play her role without the crutch of desirability, and her combination of appeals makes her a filmmaker’s dream. She’s sympathetic enough to bring pathos to characters who would descend into cartoonish single dimension in lesser hands, but versatile enough to make even the most basic gags shine... read more
Side Effects
As Steven Soderbergh’s distinguished career winds down—just one Liberace biopic forthcoming for HBO—it becomes virtually impossible to not reflect on the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s staggeringly diverse, influential body of work. Just in time, he adds “psychological thriller” (or psychiatric?) to his filmography with Side Effects. Unsurprisingly, the substance of a movie genre is again enriched with his latest, masterfully spare and confident effort.... read more
A Good Day to Die Hard
Less John McClane than James Bond, the fifth installment in the iconic Die Hard franchise puts our favorite maverick cop where he’s never been before: overseas and on his heels. Twenty-five years after he single-handedly foiled a sophisticated, well-financed robbery at Nakatomi Plaza—as well as rescued his estranged wife from the ruthless perpetrators—John (a grizzled Bruce Willis) travels to Moscow with much the same mission: Little Jack McClane (now big Jai Courtney) has landed himself in prison half a world away, and Dad travels there to bring him home—without backup or much of a plan.... read more
