Category Archives: Recommended

Martha Marcy May Marlene review

Written and directed by Sean DurkinMarcy May (Elizabeth Olsen) is one of many young people working at a farm in what looks like upstate New York. We notice it's a bit weird from the get-go: the women prepare the meals and sit outside the dining room while the men eat first. Then the women get…Read More

Moneyball review

Directed by Bennett Miller | Written by Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, from a Stan Chervin story, adapted from a book by Michael Lewis | on Netflix  The first thing Moneyball taught me is that those armchair loudmouths who call into sports shows are a bunch of know-nothing douchebags. Yeah, that's right. Sports radio is full…Read More

Drive review

Directed by Nicolas Winding RefnWritten by Hossien Amini from a book by James SallisI was so ready for this movie for a bunch of reasons. 1) Ryan Gosling is the King of Hollywood right now. He can do whatever he wants, get any movie made by showing an interest, and he's shown that he either…Read More

The Trip (2011) review

Directed by Michael Winterbottom Weirdly, this film has no credited writer. Maybe not so weird. It's very possible that the picture was entirely improvised by the two leads, Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, both of whom were in Winterbottom's Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. Something else people should know: The film is an…Read More

Captain America: The First Avenger review

Directed by Joe Johnson, Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, adapted from comics by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby In 2011 we've had five big budget superhero movies, going back to January's Green Hornet and including Thor, X-Men: First Class and Green Lantern in order of release. It's understandable that one might be feeling a little Powers Fatigue, a condition…Read More

X-Men: First Class review

Directed by Matthew VaughnWritten by Ashley Miller, Zach Stentz, Jane Goldman and VaughnX-Men: First Class is a bit of a surprise. At this point in the X-Men franchise, we'd been put through the Brett Ratner third movie, X-Men: The Last Stand and the X-Men Origins: Wolverine spin-off, neither of which lived up to the promise…Read More

Hanna review

Directed by Joe Wright Written by Seth Lochhead and David Farr Hanna is a lot of things. On the surface it's what the trailer says it is: Saoirse Ronan is the titular teen, raised since diapers to be a polyglot killer by her father, Erik (Eric Bana) in a shack in the snowbound wastes, hiding…Read More

Source Code review

Directed by Duncan JonesWritten by Ben RipleyI'm enjoying these recent high concept science fiction pictures—though some more than others—including Limitless and The Adjustment Bureau, and now Source Code. This new film is built around another simple premise with a whisper of The Twilight Zone to it, not so unlike the idea of a secret, invisible…Read More