AltWeeklies Wire
Reece Witherspoon Stumbles — Cheryl Strayed, and So Did This Movie
“Wild” is an unsatisfying self-help drama that exposes the limitations of Reece Witherspoon’s range.
What Becomes an Enigma Most? Benedict Cumberbatch Transforms Into Alan Turing
Genius mathematician Alan Turning is revealed as the father of the modern computer, an unsung British hero of World War II, and as a lonely victim of Britain’s Draconian punishment of gays, in this well-rounded biopic about the man who broke the Nazi’s cryptographic machine — the “Enigma.”
Neo-Western: Tommy Lee Jones Breaks Some Eggs
Of the handful of directors ready, willing, and able to make a Western that’s worth a damn, Tommy Lee Jones runs neck and neck with Clint Eastwood.
Not Quite All: Redmayne Wows as Hawking, But Biopic Falls Flat
While possessing an outstanding performance by Eddie Redmayne in the role of the great theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, “The Theory of Everything” is formulaic to a fault.
Vampire Culture: Jake Gyllenhaal Goes Dark
Social satire doesn’t get much blacker than it does in “Nightcrawler.”
The Snowden: Effect Edward Snowden — During and After
Laura Poitras’s fascinating documentary, about the process and aftermath of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s earth-shattering revelations, is an essential historical filmic document.
Canned Heat: A World War II Tank Story
Writer/director David Ayer’s World War II drama is a gritty European-styled coming-of-age picture that reminds us how much the nature of war has changed in the past 65 years, and yet how much it remains the same.
An Incomplete Investigation: Gary Webb’s Story Gets Short Shrift
Investigative journalism isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It never was.
Tags: KILL THE MESSENGER, Michael Cuesta
Undone by Broad Strokes: Historic LGBT Battle in the UK Goes Soft
All attempts fail at forcing a by-the-numbers narrative template on a fact-based story about unlikely bedfellows uniting against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's mid '80s reign of anti-union and anti-gay rhetoric and public policies.
Box of Trash: Laika Animation Goes Backwards
This animated 3D children’s picture is as clumsy, tone-deaf, and useless as they come. Laika, the Oregon animation production company behind “Coraline” (2009) and “ParaNorman” (2012) takes more than a few a steps backward.
Less Than Zero: Terry Gilliam Slips On a Virtual Banana Peel
Terry Gilliam’s further slide down the stairs of filmic entropy is best summed up in an oft-repeated phrase by his latest film’s hypochondriac protagonist Qohen Leth, “Q” for short. “We are dying.”
One-Woman Revolution: Charlotte Roche’s Novel Goes Big, and Nasty
Challenging and provocative, co-writer/director David Wnendt’s nervy adaptation of Charlotte Roche’s long-presumed unfilmable popular novel breaks new cinematic ground.
Pro-Israel Propaganda: Elvis Style
A shoe-in for a spot on the worst movies of 2014 list, this poorly constructed slice of filmic propaganda, courtesy of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (the MJAA), is so unintentionally campy you can’t help but laugh.
Black, White, and Red: Greed, Lust, and Violence Do It Again for Frank Miller and Robert Rodriquez
Oozing with more hard-boiled wit than two Dashiell Hammett novels put together, and more visually compelling than every comic-book movie Hollywood has put out in the past three-years combined, “Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” is an action-packed feast.
Zeitgeist: John Lithgow and Alfred Molina Get Married
Although it suffers from a glaring third-act jump that makes you wonder where four or five ostensibly missing scenes went, “Love Is Strange” resonates as a heartfelt allegory about committed gay relationships in modern day America.
