It’s taken until the middle of November but I’ve finally awarded a 2016 movie four stars. It’s a Swedish dramedy entitled A Man Called Ove. The story is simple: a very grumpy old man called Ove (Ralf Lassgård) is fed up […]
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Arrival (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
This movie presents a real conundrum for me. I love science-fiction and Arrival is the best kind of sci-fi, an intellectual invasion tale with smart people attempting to make contact with a truly mysterious species before our human capacity for self-destruction […]
Continue reading »Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) ☆ ☆
Generally the same type of film as The Accountant, the second Jack Reacher adventure tries very hard to entertain, but it cannot match The Accountant‘s wit, charm or payoff, not to mention those of its own predecessor, Jack Reacher. In the first JR film […]
Continue reading »The Accountant (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
It’s nice to see an unusual, fresh take on a familiar story, and that is what we have with The Accountant. The title character is an odd bookkeeper (Ben Affleck) who attends to a dangerous clientele, and who suddenly finds himself […]
Continue reading »Denial (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
I was completely unaware of the true history behind this story, and I am glad that a movie has been made to convey it to a wide audience, for there are among us people who stubbornly refuse to accept historical […]
Continue reading »The Girl on the Train (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
This film, like the book upon which it is based, has garnered acclaim, some of it deserved. And yet I am not a fan of the film, for two reasons I will detail below. But first, the good. Tate Taylor’s film […]
Continue reading »Deepwater Horizon (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
The 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig led to the worst oil spill in U. S. history; it was in the news for months, with consequences that are still being felt in the Gulf Region. While it was […]
Continue reading »Masterminds (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Like Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Masterminds takes a dramatic situation and plays it for laughs. A terrific comic thriller could have been made from this real-life caper; what we have instead is a slapstick comedy of errors. The movie makes […]
Continue reading »The Dressmaker (2015) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
We stay in the South Pacific (following New Zealand’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople) with a quirky tale from Australia entitled The Dressmaker. It is comic, dramatic, mysterious, troubling, heartrending and beautiful — one of the best films of the year. Dress […]
Continue reading »Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
Movies can succeed in many ways, one of which is taking a dramatic story with troubling aspects and making a wacky comedy out of it. That is what has occurred with Hunt for the Wilderpeople, a New Zealand production. An […]
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