The second-best film to be made about a Holocaust survivor in the early stages of dementia (in this case an Argentinian named Abraham, played by Miguel Ángel Solá) who undertakes a perilous pilgrimage looking to come to terms with a moment in his past. Unfortunately there are only two films …
A wealthy stag finally settles on a trophy bride, and three lifelong friends join him in Vegas for a senescent bachelor party. The Hangover with Depends. Michael Douglas tries, Kevin Kline succeeds, De Niro can barely summon the strength needed to hold a permanent scowl, and Morgan Freeman - engulfing …
What is it about this grab-bag of contrivances, this last word in geezer porn, that attracted the likes of Shirley MacLaine? To set the plot in motion, the newspaper that leisure-class dowager Harriett Lauler (MacLaine) uses to blot up the wine spilled during her botched suicide attempt is conveniently open …
It begins like a modern-day vampire movie; eye-line closeups of gawking spectators intercut with low-angle views — taken from behind so as to obscure the face — of a woman clad in tasteful business attire striding purposefully amid misty cityscapes. Is it writer-director Xavier Dolan’s desire to depict a transexual …
Instead of presenting a sweeping biographical portrait, Rob Reiner confines his narrative to the chapter in Lyndon Johnson’s life dealing with the Civil Rights Act, thus reducing the landmark decision to a plodding parable for our times. For suspense, Reiner intercuts the first half of the movie with Kennedy’s ill-fated …
Andy Goldsworthy has formed such a bond with nature that he refers to tree trunks as phantom limbs. Using overcast days as his canvas, the environmentalist once again partners with nature for a belated follow-up to his influential, vastly regarded documentary Rivers and Tides. Whether crowd-surfing atop prickly branches or …
Helping a stranger change a flat tire results in a summer job at a racetrack for Charley (Charlie Plummer) in this well made but seriously downbeat tale of a teenager who learns the hard way that quarter horses and housepets don’t mix. (And those looking to pursue a career at …
Homeless by choice — due in large part to the emotionally crippling time Dad spent serving his country — a veteran with PTSD (Ben Foster) and his teenage daughter (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) live peaceably for years in the woods of Portland. The girl’s curiosity about life in the forbidden zone …
Lee Daniels' schmaltzy abridgement of the Civil Rights movement. Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), an African-American man born into a family of sharecroppers and schooled in the art of “knowing he’s black,” spends 34 years of his life in domestic servitude under seven presidents. While Cecil dignifiedly fights to change the …
LEGO as cinema! LEGO as mathematical science! LEGO as therapy! LEGO as art! LEGO as theme park crammed with craggy scale replicas! LEGO as Holocaust remembrance!? (What do you expect from a Weinstein release?) LEGO as official Star Wars merchandiser! Leg’go the kiddie propaganda and there might have been something …
If this year’s most impressive supporting cast — Nia Long, Judy Greer, Gillian Jacobs, Michael Cera, Jeff Garlin, Rhea Perlman, Megan Mullaly, Fred Melamed, Shiri Appleby, David Paymer, and Maria Gibbs — were playing slices of fruit suspended in a bowl of slowly thickening Jell-O, the result would still be …
A fast-talking hustler (Bob Hope) dreams up a scheme to open a home for old ladies and then dump ’em on the street come Christmas day. For decades, America’s most enduring comedian spent his holidays overseas selflessly entertaining our troops, only to bring filmed evidence of his munificence back to …
Ariela (Naian González Norvind, who shares screenwriting credit with director Isaac Cherem) is a 25-year-old woman eking out a living as an artist in Mexico City. A child of divorce, she lives under her mother Estrella’s (Carolina Politi) roof. As the days pass, Ariela is feeling mounting pressure from all …
Another cobblestone in the well-intentioned path to cinema hell. This earnest and grievously routine outcast-comes-of-age drama tells the tale of a taciturn Aboriginal burn victim (Joel Evans), smitten by the prettiest girl in school (Chloe Rose) and taunted with cigarette lighters by the home room bully (Adam Butcher). Things quickly …
Three years after James Blackledge’s death, his mother Margaret (Diane Lane) witnesses both her young grandson and former daughter-in-law Lorna (Kayli Carter) winding up on the receiving end of a public smackdown from James’ replacement, Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain). A wellness call from Margaret is provocation enough to send Donnie …