Category Archives: Drama

Metallica: Through The Never review

Directed by Nimród AntalWritten by Antal, Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, Robert Trujillo, and Lars UlrichNine years ago Metallica starred in Some Kind of Monster, which, in the history of rock music, gets my vote for the most revealing look inside a band dynamic. Whatever mystique they might have had, it was demolished by the metal godfathers' display of…Read More

Blue Jasmine review

Written and directed by Woody AllenJasmine is actually Jeanette. Somewhere along the way she changed it, because Jeanette didn't have the requisite flair. Jasmine married up, to Hal, a New York one-percenter if there ever was one. Except Hal is crook and when he's arrested, the lawyers take everything. Jasmine, desperate, heads to San Francisco…Read More

Only God Forgives review

Written and directed by Nicolas Winding RefnOnly God Forgives is a bloody and relentless operatic noir set largely in nighttime Bangkok, bathed in neon scarlet, emerald, topaz, and gold. Imagine a film conceived by Gaspar Noe—he's thanked in the credits—written by David Lynch circa Lost Highway, and directed by Stanley Kubrick somewhere between The Shining…Read More

Frances Ha review

Directed by Noah BaumbachWritten by Baumbach and Greta GerwigThe portrait of a hot mess, this is a self-conscious New York indie picture whose charm hinges on the lovely Gerwig. She coauthored and stars in this tale of a 27-year-old woman who can't quite get her act together.It's a treat to look at, Sam Levy's black and…Read More

Behind the Candelabra review

Directed by Steven SoderberghWritten by Richard LaGravenese, based on the book by Alex Thorleifson and Scott ThorsonThis feels like such an unlikely film, a biopic of the legendary entertainer Liberace. He was an extraordinarily private person for someone in the public eye, spending his entire life closeted. I think we can have a lot of…Read More

The Great Gatsby review

Directed by Baz LuhrmannWritten by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce, adapting the F. Scott Fitzgerald novelThe one thing I liked about Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann's last hit feature more than 10 years ago, was how he created this grand period spectacle laced with contemporary music. It was fun identifying the songs being performed by Nicole Kidman and…Read More

To the Wonder review

Written and directed by Terrence MalickCinema as poetry. This is how Malick's last feature, The Tree of Life, was described by some. But that wasn't half of it. To the Wonder takes that descriptor far further. And in doing so, Malick provides an astonishingly beautiful film, but one that demands a lot of attention and…Read More

Stoker review

Directed by Park Chan-Wook | Written by Wentworth Miller and Erin Cressida Wilson | 98 min | On Demand A little like if Dark Shadows was played totally straight, Stoker is a concoction both fluffy and gothic, a self-conscious Hitchcock pastiche that dances on the edge of camp before eventually becoming the thing it pretends to be. Park…Read More