Spectre (★★★) starts strong, overstays its welcome, overshoots its marks, and ends up a big mess. There is enough good here to make it enjoyable, especially if you like these sorts of movies. But the film doesn't quite live up to the the rabid anticipation it seems to have succeeded in building.
Kenneth R. Morefield explains why, no, you cannot borrow his screener.
Jesus Camp meets Breaking the Waves.
Adrian Grenier almost always charms in charming movies.
The Ballet Boys (★★½) doesn’t quite hold our attention as strongly as First Position, but it should nevertheless please its target audience. The film focuses on the high-school experiences of… Continue reading "The Ballet Boys (Elvebakk, 2015)"
"I want my dad in my life, but I grew up with addicts..."
I started to write that it took me a week to decide whether or not I liked Sleeping with Other People (★★), Leslye Headland's Millenial riff on When Harry Met Sally, but that wasn't true. It took me a week to accept and come to terms with the fact that I didn't.
I will confess, too, that the last act of The Walk, when Philippe Petit finally executes his tight wire trip between the two towers of the World Trade Center has some swell special effects.
While it is not as accomplished and polished as Do The Right Thing, The Sixth Sense, or Reservoir Dogs--films that announced the arrival of a major new talent--Boiling Pot is certainly good enough to land the Ashmaweys on my "keep an eye out for what they do next" list.
The first hour of Erik Matti's Honor Thy Father (★★★★) is so good, so steeped in its time and place, that one can't help but feel a little disappointed that it's second half becomes a fairly conventional heist genre film.
