Actress-filmmaker Radha Blank’s semi-autobiographical midlife-crisis tale The Forty-Year-Old Version evokes memories of Woody Allen + Paul Mazursky.
-
Starring Chadwick Boseman and standout Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler’s movie history-making Black Panther gives new life to the superhero genre.
-
Trouble Is My Business is a tongue-in-cheek film noir homage that evokes memories of classic Hollywood crime dramas of the 1940s and 1950s.
-
However well-intentioned, Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal’s skillfull Detroit movie is unsatisfying as both drama and history. Will Poulter and John Boyega star.
-
Barack Obama and me: Vikram Gandhi’s Barry movie brings to mind the various things the author has in common with the former American president.
-
Don’t wet your seat while watching Fede Alvarez’s cleverly assembled Detroit-set horror thriller Don’t Breathe. Cast: Stephen Lang and Dylan Minnette.
-
Reminiscent of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America: Civil War is the far better movie. Chris Evans + Robert Downey Jr star.
-
With some assistance from Dalton Trumbo himself, Bryan Cranston delivers a phenomenal performance as the blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter.
-
Despite its many and notable qualities, Lenny Abrahamson’s movie Room is a less-than-pleasant experience. Brie Larson stars.
-
Bread and Butter shows that late-life virginity is detrimental to your emotional health. Cast: Christine Weatherup and Bobby Moynihan.
-
The sharp and well-acted romantic comedy In Stereo feels like a throwback to edgy American indies of years past. Micah Hauptman stars.
-
Jason Strouse’s indie comedy Teacher of the Year makes its views on education known in a clever and humorous manner. Matt Letscher stars.
-
Featuring its title character as a mere sidekick, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road places women on top. Cast: Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy.
-
Damien Chazelle’s visually and aurally accomplished Whiplash provides J.K. Simmons with a devil of a role. Also in cast: Miles Teller.
-
Ira Sachs’ moving gay romantic drama Love Is Strange makes great use of cinema’s various crafts. Cast: John Lithgow, Alfred Molina and Marisa Tomei.
-
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood movie brilliantly tackles the effects of the passage of time. Cast: Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette and Ellar Coltrane.
-
Tom Cruise - Hollywood’s last film star - single-handedly brings to gripping life Doug Liman’s otherwise absurd sci-fi actioner Edge of Tomorrow.
-
Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013) is more daring and philosophical than Vol. I. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Stellan Skarsgård star.
-
The starkly funny Nymphomaniac: Vol. I provides further evidence that Lars von Trier is a cinematic genius. Cast: Shia LaBeouf and Stacy Martin.
-
Paul Greengrass’ less than satisfying political thriller Captain Phillips places its focus on the less intriguing character. Tom Hanks stars.
-
Woody Allen is pissed and it shows in the mordantly thoughtful and beautifully acted social satire Blue Jasmine. Cate Blanchett stars.
-
Nicolas Winding Refn’s good but sadistic thriller Only God Forgives isn’t for the uninitiated. Ryan Gosling and a malevolent Kristin Scott Thomas star.
-
Excessive self-seriousness derails the (pertinent) message of Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling’s social thriller The East. Alexander Skarsgård costars.
-
Ulrich Seidl’s deeply affecting Paradise: Love focuses on the relationship between a middled-aged Austrian tourist and a young Kenyan man.
-
Jeff Nichols’ unusual psychological drama Mud makes great use of its Arkansas locations. Reese Witherspoon and Matthew McConaughey star.
Christian movies: Starring Nicolas Cage, the widely panned 2014 apocalyptic thriller Left Behind was a box office bomb – unlike (relatively) recent popular “faith movies” such as Heaven Is for…
Spike Lee effectively provides a 21st-century setting to Aristophanes’ 2,400-year-old play in Chi-Raq. Teyonah Parris plays Lysistrata.
A victim of British anti-gay bigotry, the title character in the movie Lord Montagu became a successful businessman and popular jet-setter.
Ava DuVernay’s Martin Luther King Jr.-focused drama Selma is a reminder that Civil Rights events of the mid-1960s remain disturbingly relevant.
In his Jersey Boys movie, Clint Eastwood prosaically tracks the humdrum rise and fall of Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young) and the Four Seasons.
Ritesh Batra’s Mumbai-set debut feature The Lunchbox weaves a ‘socio-romantic’ narrative connecting a married woman and an unhappy widower.
Jean-Pierre Melville’s Un Flic is a great neo-noir. Alain Delon stars as the cop, Richard Crenna as the crook, and Catherine Deneuve as the femme fatale.
- 1
- 2