The Grand Budapest Hotel is a celebration of all things filmmaking. Director Wes Anderson, one of the most creative minds in film history, has crafted an original, witty, and emphatically entertaining experience that belongs in his top tier of work. And his bottom tier is better than most top tiers.… Continue reading
Seedy, drug-fueled, and absent any type of sense we’re used to in film, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice is a film destined to divide any audience that watches it. Its core story is fairly straightforward, but twists and turns abound that don’t make a great deal of sense. Anderson seems to… Continue reading
Wild chronicles Cheryl Strayed’s 1,100 mile journey along the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995. It’s a story of personal enlightenment and redemption, well-told and acted, and beautifully photographed. The film doesn’t trek over new ground, but its stream-of-consciousness narrative style and an Oscar-worthy turn from Reese Witherspoon raise it above the… Continue reading
American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in American military history. With 160 confirmed kills out of a probable 255, Kyle did four tours of duty in Iraq as part of SEAL Team 3. The film is a largely straight-forward look at his life. The… Continue reading
The Babadook is a relentless psychological horror film. Made for a modest $2.5 million, this Australian export is about five times as scary and disturbing as its big-budget Hollywood counterparts. With most of the film taking place in the dark corners of a house, writer/director Jennifer Kent, in her feature film debut,… Continue reading
The Theory of Everything is, above all, a marvelous love story. Based upon Jane Hawking’s account of her 30-year marriage to famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, director James Marsh has crafted an emotional, affectionate tribute to the man, love, and life itself. It does get stuck in the biopic genre gears here… Continue reading
The Boxtrolls is another dark, edgy, macabre story from the same team that brought us ParaNorman and Coraline. If you’ve seen one or both of those films, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect here. Directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi and their team have created some of… Continue reading
Amir Bar-Lev’s Happy Valley is about hero worship, first and foremost. When the Jerry Sandusky scandal rocked Penn State University to its core in 2011, it sent a tight-knit community that viewed themselves as a notch above the rest in terms of morals and decorum into a downward spiral. For anyone that… Continue reading
Roger Ebert once wrote that “movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” The Great Invisible is like the embodiment of that. Margaret Brown’s look at the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig calamity and its ongoing effects along the Gulf Coast is a sobering, frequently enraging account of corporate greed and the toll… Continue reading
Force Majeure examines how one split-second decision can shake up the trust between a married couple and the family unit as a whole. That decision also results in what may be the worst family vacation ever. An export from Sweden, the film is an exquisitely filmed, awkward, and challenging drama… Continue reading