‘Brooklyn’, ‘The Martian’, ‘It Follows’, ‘Son of Saul’, ‘Amy’. 2015 was such a strong year for cinema that none of those terrific films even cracked my Top 20 list! Here are the very best movies of 2015: 1) ‘Mad Max: Fury…
The End of the Tour
Grade: A I know, I know, I’m late on this. ‘The End of the Tour’ opened at the Varsity in early September. No one saw it in theaters. It grossed under $3million in total and was only shown on 355…
Creed
Grade: A- 2015 may go in the books as the year Hollywood decided to recondition well-established franchises for a new generation (with the upcoming ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’, the abysmal ‘Jurassic World’ from this past summer, and now ‘Creed’)….
Steve Jobs
Grade: A- You’re probably reading this review on your Mac or your iPhone or your iPad and even if you aren’t, I’m certain I don’t have to explain who Steve Jobs is to you. I didn’t know what to expect…
TIFF15 Recap
I realize as I write this that attempting to provide a recap of TIFF15 is an exercise in futility. I managed to catch 34 films at the festival and this only covers about 9% of the line-up. Within the confines…
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
★★ Guy Ritchie’s spy thriller ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ is an adaptation of the television series which ran from 1964-1968. I have never seen an episode of the show, but I suspect most moviegoers haven’t either given that fans who…
Southpaw
★★1/2 Wikipedia informs me that ‘Southpaw’ underwent a number of production changes. Initially, this screenplay penned by Kurt Stutter was written with Eminem in mind for the lead role. Antoine Fuqua was set to direct (that seems to be the…
Amy
★★★1/2 ‘Amy’ is a portrait of the fast rise and ultimately sad demise of British singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse. Director Asif Kapadia has an abundance of archive footage to pull from: home videos, concert material, publicity interviews, and recording…
Love & Mercy
★★★★ ‘Love & Mercy’ is not only one of the best films of 2015, but it is as good a musical biopic as I have ever seen. This is a movie that hits all the right notes, foregoing genre clichés…
Jurassic World
★1/2 Why even bother with a review? ‘Jurassic World’ has already set a record for the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time. All the same, something should be said about the film’s atrociousness. With a franchise built on best-selling…
Me & Earl & the Dying Girl
★★★1/2 With a title as Sundancy as ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’, it is no surprise the film was the winner of both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. I’m…
Tomorrowland
?? In ‘Tomorrowland’, a young girl, Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) and a bitter, grizzled man, Frank Walker (George Clooney), use a magical pin to transport themselves to a futuristic utopia to make things right back on Earth before it is…