Category Archives: Drama

Reviews: Creative Control, Misconduct, The Benefactor, Queen of Earth, MI-5

May 16, 2016 flawintheiris

Creative Control Directed by Benjamin Dickinson | Written by Dickinson and Micah Bloomberg | 97 min. | ▲▲▲▲△ | On DVD, Blu-Ray, and VOD May 17 My first impression of Creative Control was that star/director/writer Dickinson is a narcotized Noah Baumbach. Not a terribly generous thought, but that's what I was thinking. As I went deeper into his…Read More

Money Monster review — The Medium Short

May 14, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Jodie Foster | Written by Jamie Linden, Alan DiFiore, and Jim Kouf | 98 min | ▲▲▲△△ Money Monster seems to aspire to a kind of edgy, media-in-the-crosshairs comedy/drama mix. It wants to be like The Big Short, Broadcast News, or even Network. It isn't at all, but that doesn't mean it doesn't deliver some fun for your…Read More

The Meddler review — Sarandon shines as shameless mom

May 5, 2016 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria | 100 min | ▲▲▲△△ Marnie Minervini (Susan Sarandon) is a newcomer to Los Angeles. She's originally from New Jersey, but her husband died about a year back and since her daughter, Lori (Rose Byrne), works in Hollywood as a writer, Marnie figured she would go out there, too. But…Read More

A Hologram For The King review — Pleasantly meandering dramedy of midlife rediscovery

May 1, 2016 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Tom Tykwer, adapting the book by Dave Eggers | 98 min | on Netflix I've been dubious of recent movies where Americans go to the Middle East to find themselves, a dustier Eat Pray Love formula through a skewed western lens. At its best we get something like A Mighty Heart, and at…Read More

Knight Of Cups review — Hypnosis Agog

April 11, 2016 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Terrence Malick | 118 min | ▲▲▲▲△ I really tend to resist this kind of observation when writing about the movies, but with the new films from legendary director Terrence Malick, I have to say it: I think in a certain mood, they're hypnotic, beautiful, and moving. In other moods, your mileage may…Read More

Reviews: Sleeping With Other People, Match, The Signal, Mojave

April 6, 2016 flawintheiris

Sleeping With Other People Written and Directed by Leslye Headland | 101 min. | ▲▲▲▲△ As a culture, we're missing a lot in this time of so few romantic comedies. These kinds of movies used to show up on a regular basis, and, when they were good as this, allowed for frank reflection of our urban…Read More

Touched With Fire review — Polar Bared

February 18, 2016 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Paul Dalio | 110 min. | ▲▲▲△△ Carla (Katie Holmes) and Marco (Luke Kirby) meet while both are institutionalized for bipolar disorder. They spark, their visions of the world feed on each other, their mania increasing with their love. Out of the hospital, they continue their relationship, navigating the challenges of mental…Read More

45 Years review — The chasm between the spoken and unspoken

February 11, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Andrew Haigh, written by Haigh adapting a short story by David Constantine | 95 min. | ▲▲▲▲△ We open long and wide on an English village. It holds for what feels like minutes, plenty of time to absorb details—the fields, the houses, a dog, running. It's the stillness that resonates. Stillness continues throughout this…Read More

Youth review — The Artist as an Old Man

January 14, 2016 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino | 124 min | ▲▲▲△△ Sorrentino's last film, the sumptuous Italian drama The Great Beauty, was something to see (it had everything from orgies to a giraffe) but a little hard to care about. It featured Toni Servillo as a 65-year-old writer unable to come to terms with the…Read More

10 Best Under-the-Radar Films of 2015

December 31, 2015 flawintheiris

As I mentioned the other day in my look back at 2015 in the cinema, my Top 10 of 2015 will be coming soon, once I've caught up on a few more pictures. In the meantime, here's another list to consider. As per usual, plenty of the year's best cinema found their way to us on…Read More