Selma (2014)

I had honestly thought of just writing a one word review of Ava DeVernay's tale of a stand-off in 1965 Alabama over Civil Rights. That word was, "Wow!" From Paul Webb's powerful script comes a film that is equal parts historical drama and timely (and unfortunately timeless) critique of race relations in America. Behind the drama are the faces of two men who are looking to do what they feel is the right thing. The thing I loved most about these two men, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson), was how human they were both portrayed. Neither man is a cartoonishly styled archetype. Instead, they are both cogs in larger issue, who happen to be saddled with tough decisions that happen to have the lives of many in the balance.

DeVernay never lets the emotion drag in this film. She crafts it so meticulously, hitting every beat with expert precision. As Dr. King, David Oyelowo is stern, stoic, and tired. He makes mistakes, and isn't a perfect human being, but attempts to remain a shining example to a non-violent movement. Wilkinson's LBJ is driven more by procedure and politics, but strives to keep peace while waiting for pieces to fall into place. There is no mustache twirling, and he isn't villainous, he simply has a plan, and isn't trying to deviate. This cast, from top to bottom, is packed with lush performances: Carmen Ejogo as MLK's wife Coretta Scott King, Tim Roth as Governor George Wallace, Wendell Pierce as Reverend Hosea Williams, and (my personal favorite) Henry G. Sanders as Cager Lee, to name just a few. It is hard to not be moved by the events, and the brutality, on screen, and Ms. DeVernay deserves applause for capturing a moment in time so delicately.

Grade: A
3D: N/A
Easter Egg: No. Though the credit music is worth staying to listen to.

Starring: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo
Director: Ava DeVernay
Writer(s): Paul Webb'
RT: 128 min
Rating: PG-13 for disturbing thematic material including violence, a suggestive moment, and brief strong language

American Sniper (2014)

People are going to be so busy wanting to like Bradley Cooper as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (which is a decent performance), and rooting for America, they going to completely ignore how silly this movie is. The acting isn't great, the dialogue is poorly written, and some of the scenes are so outlandish, or overly-sentimental, the only reason for them to exist is to try to force the audience into feeling something. I realize this movie is based on a true story, and my intention isn't to belittle the actual man, because he is indeed a hero, but Hollywood does tend to dramatize these kinds of stories to heighten tension in the plot. Sometimes it is hard to tell where the line gets blurred. If this were not based on non-fictional character, it would be a forgettable action-war film that most people wouldn't have given the time of day. That being said, people are going to cry, and they are going to love this movie, but if you want a well made, non-fictional, modern war flick, check out last year's "Lone Survivor" instead.

Grade: C-
3D: N/A
Easter Egg: No. But the roll at the beginning of the credits was the best thing about the movie.

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writer(s): Jason Hall - Book: Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen, James Defelice
RT: 132 min
Rating: R for strong and disturbing war violence, and language throughout including some sexual references

The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (2015)

Back in Black

Much like its predecessor, "The Woman in Black 2" has a lot of predictable scares, and leans heavily on many of the old horror movie tropes (there was a point when I said, "Cue old man with the cryptic message", and sure enough, he appeared). The only problem is that it doesn't capitalize on these cliches the same way the original did. It has much of the same mood and atmosphere, but relied mostly on jump scares to give the audience the creeps. There is a scene set at an airfield that starts off the film's third act that is effectively creepy, though it didn't go much further than that. However, the story is steady enough to enjoy, and the actors are likable enough to keep you invested. A solid performance from the film's lead, Phoebe Fox, anchors the film well, and it gives it a bit more heart. She helps to build a certain amount of tension when the script fails to create it properly. Overall, this isn't a terrible waste of a cold January afternoon.

Grade: C+
3D: N/A
Easter Egg: No

Starring: Phoebe Fox, Helen McCrory, Jeremy Irvine
Director: Tom Harper
Writer(s): Joe Croker - Story: Susan Hill
RT: 98 min
Rating: PG-13 for some disturbing and frightening images, and for thematic elements

2015 in Film

January 2nd
Leviathan -
A Most Violent Year - A-
[REC] 4: Apocalypse -
The Search For General Tso - B
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death - C+

January 9th
Beloved Sisters -
It's All So Quiet -
Predestination - A-
Taken 3 - D

January 16th
Blackhat - D
Escobar: Paradise Lost -
Little Accidents - B
Match - B+
Paddington - A-
Son of a Gun - C
Spare Parts - B
Vice - D
The Wedding Ringer - F

January 23rd
Against the Sun - B
Black Sea - B
Cake - B-
The Boy Next Door - D-
The Duke of Burgundy -
Mommy -
Mortdecai - F
R100 -
Red Army -
Song One - B+
Strange Magic - D-

January 30th
Amira & Sam - A
Black or White - D+
Coming Home -
Girlhood -
The Loft - D+
Project Almanac - C-
Timbuktu -
Wild Card - B

February 6th
Ballet 422 - A
Jupiter Ascending - C+
Seventh Son - C
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water - C

February 13th
Fifty Shades of Grey - D
Kingsman: The Secret Service - B+
The Last Five Years - A-
Old Fashioned -
What We Do in the Shadows - A

February 20th
All the Wilderness - C-
The DUFF - B-
Gloria -
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 - D
Kung Fu Elliot -
McFarland, USA -
Queen & Country -
Wild Tales -

February 27th
'71 - A
Deli Man -
Ejecta -
Everly - B
Focus - C
The Lazarus Effect - D+
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's 'Island of Dr. Moreau' - B+
Maps to the Stars - B+
My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn - B
The Salvation - B+

March 6th
Chappie - B-
Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank -
Merchants of Doubt -
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - B+
Unfinished Business -

March 13th
Cinderella - B
The Cobbler - C-
It Follows - A-
Run All Night - C
Seymour: An Introduction -
The Wrecking Crew - B+

March 20th
Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police -
Danny Collins -
Do You Believe -
The Gunman -
Insurgent -
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter -
Spring - B+

March 27th
Cupcakes -
Get Hard - F
A Girl Like Her -
Home - C
Man From Reno -
The Riot Club - B-
Salt of the Earth -
Serena -
While We're Young -
White God -

April 3rd
5 to 7 -
Effie Gray -
Furious 7 - B
Lambert & Stamp -
Last Knights -
Superfast! - F
Woman in Gold - A-

April 10th
Clouds of Sils Maria -
Desert Dancer -
Ex Machina - A
Kill Me Three Times - C+
The Longest Ride -

April 17th
Alex of Venice -
Beyond the Reach -
Child 44 - B+
The Dead Lands -
Felix and Meira -
Monkey Kingdom -
Monsters: Dark Continent -
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 - D-
True Story -
Unfriended -

April 24th
Adult Beginners - B-
After the Ball - C-
The Age of Adeline - B-
Little Boy -
Misery Loves Comedy - B
Water Diviner - B-

May 1st
Avengers: Age of Ultron - B+
Days of Grace -
Far From Men -
Far From the Madding Crowd - B
Hyena -
Iris -
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared -
Ride -
Tangerines -
Welcome to Me - B+

May 8th
5 Flights Up -
The D Train - B
Hot Pursuit - D
I am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story - A
Maggie - B
Noble -
Saint Laurent -
The Seven Five -
Skin Trade - C+

May 15th
The Connection -
The Film Critic -
Good Kill -
I'll See You in My Dreams -
Mad Max: Fury Road - A
Pitch Perfect 2 - C-
Where Hope Grows -

May 22nd
Aloft -
Chocolate City -
The Farewell Party -
Poltergeist - B-
Sunshine Superman -
Tomorrowland - B-
When Marnie Was There -

May 29th
Aloha - D
Gemma Bovery -
Heaven Knows What -
Results -
San Andreas - C-

June 5th
Entourage - C
Hungry Hearts -
Insidious: Chapter 3 - D
Love & Mercy - A
A Pigeon Sat On a Branch Reflecting on Existence -
Police Story: Lockdown -
Spy - B-
A Testament of Youth -

June 12th
The 11th Hour -
Jurassic World - C+
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - A
Set Fire to the Stars - B
Soaked in Bleach - B+
Wolfpack -

June 19th
Burying the Ex -
Dope - A
Eden -
Gabriel -
Infinitely Polar Bear -
Inside Out - A
Manglehorn -
The Overnight - A-
The Tribe -
What Happened, Miss Simone - A

June 26th
Batkid Begins -
Big Game - B-
The Little Death -
Max - B
A Murder in the Park -
Ted 2 - D+

July 3rd
Amy - A-
Cartel Land -
Faith of Our Fathers -
Jackie & Ryan -
Jimmy's Hall -
Magic Mike XXL - C+
Mala Mala -
Terminator Genisys - D

July 10th
Boulevard -
Do I Sound Gay? -
The Gallows - F
Meet Me in Montenegro -
Minions - D-
Nowitzki: The Perfect Shot -
Self/Less -
Tangerine -

July 17th
Ant-Man - B+
Irrational Man - B-
Lila & Eve -
The Look of Silence -
Mr. Holmes - A
The Stanford Prison Experiment -
Trainwreck - B+

July 24th
Big Significant Things -
Paper Towns - B-
Phoenix -
Pixels - D
Samba -
Southpaw - B-
Unexpected -
The Vatican Tapes -

July 31st
Best of Enemies - A
The End of the Tour -
A LEGO Brickumentary - B+
Listen to Me Marlon -
Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation - A-
That Sugar Film -
Vacation - F

August 7th
Cop Car - A
Dark Places - B
The Diary of a Teenage Girl - A-
Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' -
Fantastic Four - D
The Gift - B
Harbinger Down - D-
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet -
Ricki and the Flash -
The Runner - C-
Shaun the Sheep Movie - A

August 14th
10,000 Saints -
Final Girl -
Fort Tilden -
The Man from UNCLE - B+
Mistress America - B+
People Places Things -
Straight Outta Compton - B+
Underdogs -
Unity -

August 21st
American Ultra - C+
Digging for Fire -
Grandma -
Hitman: Agent 47 - D
Learning to Drive -
She's Funny That Way -
Sinister 2 -
6 Years -

August 28th
No Escape - B-
Queen of Earth -
The Second Mother -
War Room -
We Are Your Friends - D
When Animals Dream -
Z for Zachariah - A-

September 4th
Before We Go -
Un gallo con muchos huevos -
The Transporter Refueled - D+
A Walk in the Woods -

September 11th
90 Minutes in Heaven -
Coming Home -
The Perfect Guy -
Sleeping With Other People -
Time Out of Mind -
The Visit - D
Wolf Totem -

September 18th
About Ray -
Black Mass - B+
Captive -
Everest - B-
Katti Batti -
The Maze Runner: the Scorch Trials -
Pawn Sacrifice -
Sicario - A-

September 25th
99 Homes - A-
Before I Wake -
A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez  Story -
The Green Inferno - F
Hotel Transylvania 2 - C-
The Intern - C
The Keeping Room -
Labyrinth of Lies -
Mississippi Grind -
The Reflektor Tapes -
Stonewall -

October 2nd
Addicted to Fresno -
Freeheld -
He Named Me Malala -
The Martian - A
Partisan -
Shanghai -
The Walk - B

October 9th
Big Stone Gap -
The Final Girls -
Ladrones -
Pan - D
Steve Jobs - A-
Trash -
Victoria -

October 16th
All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records -
Bridge of Spies -
Crimson Peak - B+
Goosebumps - C+
Momentum -
Room - B
This Changes Everything -
Truth -
Woodlawn -

October 23rd
Burnt -
Difret -
I Smile Back -
Jem and the Holograms -
The Last Witch Hunter -
Nasty Baby -
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension -
Rock the Kasbah -
Suffragette -

October 30th
Carter High -
Freaks of Nature -
Love -
Our Brand is Crisis -
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse -
Tab Hunter Confidential -
The Wonders -

November 6th
Brooklyn -
Miss You Already -
The Peanuts Movie - A
Spectre - B+
Spotlight - A
Theeb -
What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy -
Trumbo - A-

November 13th
The 33 -
By the Sea -
Entertainment -
Ingrid Bergman in Her Words -
James White -
Kilo Two Bravo -
Love the Coopers -
My All American -
Prem Ratan Dhan Payo -

November 20th
#Horror -
Carol -
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 -
Legend - B+
Mediterranea -
The Night Before -
Secret in Their Eyes -

November 27th
Creed - A-
The Danish Girl -
The Good Dinosaur - A-
Killing Them Safely -
Janis: Little Girl Blue -

December 4th
Chi-Raq -
Christmas Eve -
Hitchcock/Truffaut -
Krampus - C
The Letters -
Life -
MI-5 -
Macbeth -
A Royal Night Out -
Victor Frankenstein -
The World of Kanako -
Youth -

December 11th
Bleeding Heart -
Boy & the World -
Don Verdean -
In the Heart of the Sea - B-
The Lady in the Van -

December 18th
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip -
Extraction -
The Lady in the Car With Glasses and a Gun -
Noma My Perfect Storm -
Sisters -
Son of Saul -
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - A-

December 25th
45 Years - B+
The Big Short - A
Concussion - B
Daddy's Home -
The Hateful Eight - B+
Joy - B
Point Break -
The Revenant - A

Into the Woods (2014)

Rob Marshall has made the most well shot movie musical in the modern era. It is an absolutely stunning film to watch. Every shot is carefully crafted by Director of Photography Dion Beebe, and the eyes of the audience are never once given anything static to look at. The film is polished, yet still has a feel of grit and grime, not as grimy as Tom Hooper's Les Miserables, but still pretty grimy. There are some pacing issues with some of the cuts they made from the stage version, and the two names they brought in to draw audiences both fall pretty flat in their scenes. Streep does have some shining moments, but mostly she becomes a bit of an annoyance as The Witch.

And then there is the rest of the cast. James Corden is hard not to love as the Baker, and Emily Blunt is strong and steady as his wife. Anna Kendrick plays Cinderella with an unbelievable amount of sentiment that it makes me wonder if she could do anything wrong on screen. I was most shocked with Chris Pine as Cinderella's Prince, with his cocksure attitude and impressive vocals during "Agony", matched beat for beat with soon-to-be mega-star Billy Magnussen as Rapunzel's Prince. However, the real show-stealers were Lilla Crawford as Red Riding Hood and Daniel Huttlestone as Jack. Both were entertaining and superbly talented. This cast makes up for more than enough of the film's flaws, and they make you fall in love with it.

Grade: B+
3D: N/A
Easter Egg: No

Starring: Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden
Director: Rob Marshall
Writer(s): James Lapine - Music and Lyric: Stephen Sondheim
RT: 125 min
Rating: PG for thematic elements, fantasy action and peril, and some suggestive material.

Two Sentences:

Wild (2014) - Reese Witherspoon puts in her best performance as Cheryl Strayed, a woman trying to clean up her life, by walking 1100 miles, in the wake of her mother's death. The editing, and non-sequential story telling, make the story feel vibrant and heartbreaking.

Grade: A-

Unbroken (2014) - The true story of Olympic Runner, and war hero, Louis Zamperini is moving, but never quite rises above the same-old, same-old war biopic feeling. Not that Jolie did a bad job with it, but it makes you wonder what the Coen Brothers, co-writers of the script, could have made of it.

Grade: B

Mr. Turner (2014) - Mike Leigh makes wonderful historic biopics, and "Mr. Turner" doesn't fall short of that. It is evenly paced and amusing, and Timothy Spall gives a performance so spectacular, it would be sad to not see him gain some dark horse nominations for it.

Grade: A-

The Interview (2014)

If the North Korean Sony hack was just a marketing ploy on the part of the company, as some have suggested, than it was a brilliant one, because this movie was not worth any commotion. It may have a pretty risky premise, involving the assassination of North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, but nothing that happens in the story is anything above silly, sophomoric hijinks resulting in a violent third act that misses the mark completely. James Franco puts in a somewhat earnest performance as a TV show host who Jong-un is a superfan of, and Seth Rogen, as Aaron, his producer and best friend, plays Seth Rogen (again). The two just ad lib their ways through a film that is mediocrity parading as political satire, but never really finds the appropriate rhythm to be effective as one. A couple of good belly laughs, and a wonderful performance by Randall Park, playing Kim Jong-un, keep this from being an absolute bore. Feel free to skip this movie. Despite how you feel about freedom.

Grade: C
3D: N/A
Easter Egg: Yes. And it was my favorite part of the movie.

Starring: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Randall Park
Director: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Writer(s): Dan Sterling (also story with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg)
RT: 112 min
Rating: R for pervasive language, crude and sexual humor, nudity, some drug use and bloody violence

Two Scentences:

Annie (2014): This updated version is oddly charming in some ways, but deeply flawed in so many others: some actors can't sing, some of the new songs are boring, and the way they use the old songs feel like they're just throwing them away. Quvenzhane Wallis does manage to carry the film just fine, and makes her character very relatable.

Grade: B-

The Pyramid (2014)

I thought after "Willow Creek" that maybe my dislike for found footage films had finally subsided, and maybe someone had shown the world that they don't have to suck. I was proved so, so wrong. So wrong. "The Pyramid" starts with text explaining that the film is all footage found at the site, only to give up on the found angle half way through the film, and added more than the two established cameras. While taking a more traditional approach to the horror genre, it still spliced in the found footage. WHY?! The plot falls apart as soon as the characters get into the catacombs of the pyramid, and dialogue always feels like it was slapped together from a book of cliches that the writers found in a public library. The performances never feel involved, and most of the actors just seem bored. However, it never feels like it's bad enough to please the fan of the worst horror films in existence. This is just a forgettable dud.

Grade: D-
3D: N/A
Easter Egg: No

Starring: Ashley Hinshaw, James Buckley, Denis O'Hare

Diretor: Gregory Levasseur

Writer(s): Daniel Meersand and Nick Simon

RT: 89 min

Rating: R for some horror violence and bloody images

Two Sentences:

Are You Here (2014):  This is a very lukewarm dramedy that involves a lot of very talented people. There isn't much that is actually funny about it, and Owen Wilson is extremely unlikeable as the movie's lead.

Grade: C