Movie Reviews

I first saw Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.  It was towards the end of the festival and the hype around the film was through the roof.  The film ended up being one of my favorites of the festival and was one I was constantly thinking about for months after. I decided check the movie out again when it finally got a wide release, a rarity for me, as I would…

The Eyes of My Mother is a truly disturbing and horrifying film, yet one of the most beautifully shot and made films of the year. The film looks at the life of Francisca, a lonely girl who witnesses a horrible tragedy the skewers her way of life.  We see as young Francisca (Olivia Bond) learns how to do facial surgery using dead animals, and we watch the questionable parenting techniques of her parents, until tragedy…

Loving tells one of the most important moments in the history of the United State.  It is the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), an interracial couple in the 1950’s who fight for their right be married in Virginia after being banned from the state for getting married in Washington D.C.  The film looks at their lives as they struggle to get the banned lifted while attempting to keep…

In 1946, Hollywood mogul and aviation tycoon Howard Hughes got into a horrific plane crash in Beverly Hills, California.  The crash demolished three houses, blew up the plane Hughes was in, and nearly killed Hughes, causing him a number of injuries, including a crushed collar bone, multiple cracked ribs, crushed chest with collapsed left lung, shifting his heart to the right side of the chest cavity, and numerous third-degree burns. This crash pales in comparison to the…

Disney has done it again.  Moana is simply dazzling.  A sweet, funny, heartfelt film with beautiful animation and spectacular voice work. Moana is about a young girl named Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho), the destined princess of her tribe, though she feels there is more to her life than following in her father’s footsteps.  When her tribe and island are in danger, Moana adventures out to save them, by sailing the high seas in search of…

The opening shot of Tom Ford’s second feature film, Nocturnal Animals, is a shot of an older, 300-plus pound nude woman dancing in slow-motion as gold confetti falls from the sky against a bright red backdrop.  It is a beautifully shot image, yet an unsettling one to a degree, especially as it is the first thing we see in the movie. This shot is what for Nocturnal Animals is as a movie.  Beautiful, yet unsettling. Nocturnal Animals follows Susan Morrow…

Here’s the deal with boxing movies; you know exactly how it is going to end.  Regardless of the story, the film will always end with a climactic fight where the main fighter will give it his all and either win or lose.  There are a couple exceptions to this, mainly Raging Bull (1980) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), but almost every other boxing film, from Rocky (1976), to Cinderella Man (2005), to The Fighter (2010), falls into this category. However, that…

Shut In is everything that is wrong with modern horror movies.  It is a scareless, dumb, predictable, laughable movie that made me immediately regret ever entering the theater. Shut In is about Mary (Naomi Watts), a widowed child psychologist who takes care of her crippled son (Charlie Heaton) in an isolated house in rural New England.  When one of Mary’s patients (Jacob Tremblay) goes missing near her house, she tries to find a way to…

Moonlight is one of the most important movies of 2016.  It looks at a part of life most people know nothing about – homosexuality in the African American community- and looks at in great depth, with excellent filmmaking and great performances. However, I didn’t love it. This is nowhere near a bad movie.  In fact, two-thirds of the movie are absolutely brilliant, and some of the toughest, most emotional cinema I’ve seen all year.  But,…

Arrival is a jaw-dropping masterpiece.  It is a simple story at its surface, but peels back layers to reveal something truly special.  Dennis Villeneuve has created a powerful, visually stunning film that pushes the science-fiction genre to new heights. When alien spaceships land all across the globe, the government seeks the help of a linguist (Amy Adams) to help communicate with the aliens. Amy Adams is one my favorite actresses ever and is one of the…