Must See Movies
Movie reviews that are rated 8 and higher
Computer Chess (Berlinale)
For me personally, Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess was one of the most anticipated films at the Berlinale festival. What made this film so great was the tremendous callback it makes to independent film prior to the DSLR era, when not everyone had access to the “film look,” and made due with whatever they could get Read More
Mud
Jeff Nichols’ latest film is now finally hitting the theaters after nearly a full year since its warm receptive premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Mud centers on two teenage boys who end up befriending a fugitive that is looking to dodge the men who are out looking for him. Nichols elects to bring Read More
Before Midnight
In Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset (1995), twentysomethings Jesse (Ethan Hawke), a gruffly charming American, and Celine (Julie Delpy), a French beauty with a wily intellect, meet on a train headed to Vienna. They talk…talk…talk the night away, fall in love, and vow to reunite back in Vienna six months later. Cut to nine years later, Read More
Only God Forgives (Cannes Review)
Only God Forgives is another highly-stylized film from director Nicholas Winding Refn that stars Ryan Gosling as the lead. Gosling’s character pretty much picks up where he left off in Drive, playing an emotionless badass with few words, trading hobbies of driving for boxing. Due to the sensory obsessed visuals in the film, Only God Read More
Like Father, Like Son (Cannes Review)
Hirokazu Koreeda’s Like Father, Like Son turned a lot of heads in theater at the Cannes Film Festival today, where it played in front of a teary eyed audience. On front display is the depiction of how strong parental bonds can be and how the right thing to do is often the most difficult thing Read More
Stories We Tell
“Every family has a story.” Canadian actor and director Sarah Polley (Away From Her, Take This Waltz) lost her mom, Diane, to cancer in 1990. In Stories We Tell, her quietly spectacular documentary, she sits with her family and friends and asks them to “tell the whole story [about Diane], from start to finish.” The Read More
The Place Beyond the Pines
It would be easy to mistake The Place Beyond the Pines as a sequel to Drive as this film also stars Ryan Gosling as a stuntman turned getaway driver who is a soft-spoken badass that beats people with hardware tools. But I am here to tell you that The Place Beyond the Pines is not Read More
Simon Killer
In Simon Killer, director Antonio Campos plays provocateur, giving us a protagonist who becomes so unlikable, so repulsive, you’re sure to leave the theater full of hatred and contempt for him. Campos’ film is thoroughly distressing, an exercise in discomfort that will be difficult to embrace for most, much like his first film, Afterschool. However, Read More
Timecrimes
It does not take long to notice that even the smallest of details in Nacho Vigalondo’s Timecrimes are not without purpose. As with most time-travel films, if you were to break everything down you are bound to find plot holes here and there. But over-thinking the logic ruins the entertainment the film provides and what Read More
Paradise: Love
Ulrich Seidl packs a punch full of irony in Paradise: Love where neither paradise nor love is anywhere to be found. On display instead is a voyeuristic view of a shy woman in search of love who goes wild and ends up on both sides of exploitation. There is some repetition in the film as Read More
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