The sense of concurrent being and non-being is key to the Michael Mann aesthetic and ethos.
The film only pretends to rail against the scourge of unchecked capitalism.
Throughout, the film balances a dynamic aesthetic energy with a generosity of spirit.
Kevin Macdonald’s film never captures the spectrum of a life lived in unimaginable extremis.
The series works best when it focuses on intimate, human moments rather than on broad social critiques.
Adrift is a simple, acutely observed love story that also happens to be a rousingly stripped-down tale of survival.
Baltasar Kormákur’s Adrift is, shudder, “based on the incredible true story…of what would become the largest storm in the Pacific.”
It’s too regimented in its storytelling to conjure any real insight into the privileged world in which it’s embedded.
It depicts Snowden’s ethical dilemmas in a political vacuum that disregards America’s complex security threats.
A Little Golden Book version of drastically simplified socialism accompanied with a healthy dose of warmongering bravado.
Gregg Araki’s film suggests a hothouse melodrama that’s been drained of the hothouse, the melodrama, and any other discernably dramatic stakes.
It frequently uses sass as a smokescreen, hiding what’s unoriginal and cheaply sentimental about this story behind a veil of witticisms about oblivion and “cancer perks.”
Neil Burger’s film transcends the déjà vu of its borrowed trappings but ironically sacrifices all momentum in favor of a long series of physical tests.
Given the film’s early promise, it’s unfortunate how it turns into a largely reductive Freudian character piece in which the main character has to come to terms with his old man.
You couldn’t help but wonder if this year’s Ebertfest was going to be the last.
In the minus column, Woodley is also proving to be an arm in the recent hydra of woman-hating entertainment news.
Payne’s lovely, resonant fifth film does the hula on a lonely island of imminent death and wasted life.
Which performance will land Jessica Chastain her first Oscar nomination?
The Descendants is unassumingly superb, and it’s sure to clinch a whole lot of Oscar nominations. Indeed, it’s a Clooney.
On the basis of About Schmidt, you’d think Alexander Payne had a problem dealing with grief.