Movie Reviews

I saw Youth almost two months ago at the Chicago International Film Festival.  Due to reviewing other movies and attempting to have a social life, I was unable to review it immediately after I saw it.  Youth is a movie that I have constantly thought about since seeing it.  It is a powerful, funny, tragic, sweet look at aging, friendship, family, and life.  It also features some Hollywood legends doing some of the best work…

Dear Spike Lee, You used to be one of the most electric filmmakers working in Hollywood.  With masterpieces like Do the Right Thing (1989) and 25th Hour (2002), you made movies that mattered.  They spoke to a specific issue with such a passion and were made with such a focused vision. However, you’ve had a rough run as of late, including the abysmal remake of Oldboy (2013).  Chi-Raq was the perfect opportunity for a comeback….

Krampus should have been the worst kind of awesome.  A Christmas horror movie with a ridiculous plot and some funny cast members should have been a campy good time.  Instead, Krampus suffers from the soft, PG-13 rating and tries to hard to be taken seriously. Max (Emjay Anthony) is a child who just wants to have a good, family friendly Christmas.  However, his parents (Adam Scott and Toni Collette) are having issues and his trailer…

James White follows a man who is his own worst enemy. A confused, angry man unknown where he belongs in the world who can self destruct at any point for any reason. It isn’t pleasant to watch, but it is some of the most fascinating pieces of cinema and acting of 2015. James (Christopher Abbot) is a troubled twenty something trying to make a life in New York. He smokes and drinks too much, he…

Legend is much like the brothers the movie is about.  Ronnie Kray, the smooth, business savvy brother trying to stay clean, represents the good.  He’s charming, treats his wife well for the most part, doesn’t want to kill anyone, and will fight when he needs to.  His brother, Reggie, is a mentally unstable, violent mess who represents the bad.  Separate, Ronnie could have done great things.  However, due to the chaos his brother caused, he…

I love film history.  I love learning about new writers, directors, and actors.  I love learning about old movies.  I love learning about the past and how it affects current movies.  Dalton Trumbo was someone I had heard of, but never did any research on.  Trumbo’s story is pretty incredible and deserved to be told.  And while the film is entertaining and fascinating with a great lead performance, the focus of the film makes this…

In Creed, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), son of legendary boxer Apollo Creed (played by Carl Weathers in the original Rocky movies), tries to break free from his father’s shadow while also using what he knows as a fighter and about his father to guide him to greatness. You can say the movie itself is fighting a similar battle.  Creed is trying to be its own special movie and reinvent the Rocky series, yet not without keeping…

This is not a Christmas movie you see with your grandmother.  The Night Before is a raucous, debaucherous, drug-fueled Christmas movie in the same vein and sub-genre as Bad Santa (2003) and A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas (2011).  But what The Night Before has more than either of those films is heart.  The movie might be filled with bad language, drugs, and sex, but at the core, it is a sweet and touching film…

All the President’s Men (1976) is a landmark in film history.  It is a well-acted, perfectly paced, cinematic masterpiece about journalism and un-checked power.  It showed how important it was to get a story out there even when the most powerful people in the world are trying to stop it.  It also focused on a socially relevant issue that was still fresh in the minds of the American people.   Everything I said about All the…

The Hunger Games has finally come to an end.  Since coming to the screen in 2012, we have followed Katniss Everdeen and her growth as a leader to fight against The Capitol and a love triangle she can’t seem to figure out.  The first two films, The Huger Games (2012) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), were both extremely entertaining films and ones I thoroughly enjoyed.  However, the studio made the decision to split the third book,…