2015 Top Ten
I love movies. These are the ones I loved the most last year...
Author: kenmorefield
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The Hateful Eight (Tarantino, 2015)
I've mostly been a Tarantino fan, but even I can't defend this...
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Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens (Abrams, 2015)
As mimicry, it is good. As fan-service, it is serviceable. But it adds nothing to the underlying tapestry. Whatever pleasures are there are imported from other movies. The audience applauds when the actors enter, but that's only out of respect for their past work. Could you imagine if J, K. Rowling did an eighth Harry Potter book and it was the next generation running through the same plot as the last? If Go Set A Watchmen had been about another trial of another African-American, a year later?
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The Big Short (McKay, 2015)
The Big Short is about people who got rich by short-selling credit default swaps--people who made obscene amounts of money by being able to accurately predict the suffering of others. That they themselves were not the root cause of the suffering makes it possible for us as viewers to not hate them; it doesn't necessarily keep them--or Baum at least--from hating themselves.
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Kingdom of Heaven (Scott, 2005) — 10 Year Later
"No one has claim. All have claim."
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A GLBTQ Movie Season
GLBTQ Movies Have Become More Prevalent at Festivals -- Will Mainstream Audiences Ever Embrace Them?
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Janis: Little Girl Blue (Berg, 2015)
A great introduction to the life of Janis Joplin, but some will wish it probed deeper.
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Big Eden (Bezucha, 2000)
Maybe our neighbors are more like us than we know.
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Feel “Better” Movies — What to Watch When the News is Bleak
Here are five films that make me feel better when I'm feeling bad about...everything else.
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My All American (Pizzo, 2015)
I'm not giving Freddie Steinmark a "C." I'm giving the movie about his life and death a "C."