Dallas Buyers Club represents that breed of Oscar contender where the performances are far better than the movie. Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto turn in career-defining work, but the film as a whole is pretty standard underdog fare and surprisingly cold and distant emotionally. You can’t help but feel like you… Continue reading
You pretty much know what you’re getting into with any movie dealing realistically with slavery. You’re going to be mad, you’re going to be sad, and you’re going to be ashamed that this was ever considered okay in our humanity’s history. 12 Years a Slave doesn’t contain any groundbreaking revelations… Continue reading
We all have our own image of Abraham Lincoln in our head. One of the most beloved presidents in U.S. history, his legend has reached mythical levels. Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln brings the popular image of the man to life, flaws and all. Rather than creating a convoluted whole-life biopic, Spielberg… Continue reading
For the second time in the past month we have a film where the outcome is known. And for the second time, the tension couldn’t be higher. Everyone, even young kids, know who Osama bin Laden was. We know what he did, we know what he financed and carried out.… Continue reading
Emerging as the lead candidate of the 2012 Oscar bait sweepstakes, Hyde Park on Hudson is a disappointingly bland mix of drama and comedy that never comes close to gelling. It also paints a pretty unflattering picture of everyone involved, from Franklin D. Roosevelt on down. Whether this was intentional… Continue reading
Heartbreaking, sad, and infuriating, The Invisible War may be the most intense talking head documentary ever made. Tackling the highly uncomfortable topic of the epidemic of rape (“epidemic” is the only word that can be used when faced with the film’s sickening statistics) in the United States military, The Invisible… Continue reading
“Argo f*ck yourself!” That’s the punch line to the “knock knock” joke that inspired the fake sci-fi film at the heart of Argo, actor/director Ben Affleck’s outstanding film about what has to be one of the strangest CIA missions in the history of the United States. Working from a fantastic… Continue reading
Red Tails has supposedly been in the Hollywood pipeline for over twenty years, never finding financing because of the African-American-driven cast. George Lucas has been behind the project from the beginning, and finally became so fed up with the studio system that he decided to finance the film himself. The… Continue reading
J. Edgar is a by-the-numbers biopic that’s just never quite as engaging as it should be. Interesting things happen onscreen, but there is an inexplicably empty, sterile feel to the whole affair. This seems surprising considering that J. Edgar Hoover is one of the more polarizing characters in all of… Continue reading
Invictus is a tried-and-true sports film: inspiring and great to look at. But that’s all it is, which, considering the historical and political implications, is a letdown. Here we have a true story of how a leader used an athletic competition to help ease racial divides and unite a country,… Continue reading