Rating: RRuntime: 2 hours, 9 minutesDirector: Steve McQueen Quick Impressions:British director Steve McQueen (Shame, Twelve Years a Slave) and American writer Gillian Flynn (Sharp Objects, Dark Places, Gone Girl) each use horrific, graphic violence in really different ways, so I was shocked and intrigued when I learned the two had …
Rating: PG Runtime: 1 hour, 30 minutes Directors: Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier Quick Impressions: The Grinch is pleasant (the movie, I mean). Whoville looks like an elaborate, multi-tiered gingerbread village nestled cheerfully inside the most heart-warming holiday snow globe you can possibly imagine. Seriously, it’s probably sitting on some …
Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 2 hours, 14 minutes Director: Bryan Singer Quick Impressions: Bohemian Rhapsody is far from a flawless film, but it sure knows how to win over an audience. After sitting in a dark theater listening to Queen hits for two hours, I dare you to leave in a …
Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 1 hour, 52 minutes Director: Ruben Fleischer Quick Impressions: “Best movie I’ve seen in a while,” was our fifteen-year-old’s verdict on this darkly funny, action-packed popcorn flick. And his nine-year-old sister chimed in, “Now I want to watch it again!” I agree with both of them, though …
Rating: R Runtime: 1 hour, 46 minutes Director: Marielle Heller Quick Impressions: I loved this movie. I keep accidentally calling it Sorry to Bother You (my husband’s favorite of the year), and in fairness to my addled brain, Can You Ever Forgive Me? does sound like an ideal sequel to that …
Rating: RRuntime: 2 hoursDirector: Felix Van Groeningen Quick Impressions:During the end credits of Beautiful Boy, we hear Timothée Chalamet read Charles Bukowski’s poem “Let it Enfold You” in its entirety. As I listened appreciatively, part of me wished we had come in (very) late and caught only this part of …
Rating: PG-13Runtime: 1 hour, 33 minutesDirector: David Lowery Quick Impressions:I was so excited to hear that Robert Redford is generating some (quiet) Oscar buzz for a movie with dialogue. I want good things for Redford but don’t much enjoy films about a man lost alone at sea who only speaks …
Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 2 hours, 21 minutes Director: Damien Chazelle Quick Impressions: Whiplash was by far my favorite Best Picture nominee of 2014. (I liked La La Land, too, though it’s possible I liked the Ryan Gosling Saved Jazz meme even more.) But those two films are so music driven. …
Rating: RRuntime: 2 hours, 15 minutesDirector: Bradley Cooper Quick Impressions:I love Lady Gaga. It amazes me that not everyone feels the same way. Her immense talent is so self-evident. I remember first listening to her stuff around the time my nine-year-old was born, and I was drawn to her music …
Rating: PG Runtime: 1 hour, 36 minutes Directors: Karey Kirkpatrick, Jason Resig Quick Impressions: “I see,” my mother remarked five minutes into this movie, “so they’re going to subtly undermine the Ten Commandments” (the words on the tablets, not the film). I couldn’t completely agree with her. I mean, yes, …
