B+
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Chi-Raq
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Yeah, it's a mess. But what a glorious mess it is.
Posted Dec 04, 2015
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B+
|
Creed
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Creed works better as an actual movie than it does as a Rocky movie, which is quite the compliment, considering that it's an excellent Rocky movie, too.
Posted Nov 25, 2015
|
B
|
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
It's then yet another credit to Lawrence's talent that in the finale of this series, she's probably better than she's ever been.
Posted Nov 20, 2015
|
C+
|
Spectre
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Spectre, perhaps inevitably, is a step backward, an inexorable creep toward the eeeeeeevil, cat-petting, be-monocled, Fallacy of the Talking Killer-abusing Bond franchise we'd all agreed to move on from.
Posted Nov 06, 2015
|
D+
|
Rock the Kasbah
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
A horribly misguided idea that never really gets off the ground yet still finds a way to crash-land, but even criticizing its obvious flaws misses the central, sad point: This movie has too much Bill Murray in it.
Posted Oct 21, 2015
|
C+
|
Crimson Peak
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Crimson Peak is a movie that's all windup and no pitch. It requires a patience of you that I'm not sure it necessarily earns, and a level of patience it doesn't feel obliged to reward.
Posted Oct 16, 2015
|
B
|
Bridge of Spies
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Bridge of Spies is a crackling little thriller, but it's also a safe, conventional one. It feels like an acceptance that he's not a filmmaker for kids, anymore, but rather for their grandparents.
Posted Oct 14, 2015
|
|
Beasts of No Nation
(2015)
|
Tim Grierson
|
This immersive look at the life of an African child soldier has plenty of attributes -- it's stunningly shot, and Idris Elba is terrific as a casually callous commandant -- but it never quite seizes the greatness within its grasp.
Posted Oct 13, 2015
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D+
|
Pan
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
It is difficult not to approach Pan with a deep, weary sigh.
Posted Oct 09, 2015
|
|
Steve Jobs
(2015)
|
Tim Grierson
|
The trick to enjoying an Aaron Sorkin project is to never take it as seriously as he does. With the supremely entertaining "Steve Jobs," the Oscar-winning writer presents us with a Charles Foster Kane-like figure and then goes on a hunt for Rosebuds.
Posted Oct 07, 2015
|
A-
|
The Martian
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
It's a science-fiction movie without chase scenes or shootouts, but it's as thrilling as any I've seen in years. It takes pride in the details. It shows its work.
Posted Sep 30, 2015
|
|
The Walk
(2015)
|
Tim Grierson
|
You should see it on the biggest screen you can find, and be patient until you get to the reason why.
Posted Sep 30, 2015
|
D
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Stonewall
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
It is a movie so baffling and wrong-headed and absurd that I honestly can't believe it exists. I can't fathom what anyone involved could have possibly been thinking.
Posted Sep 23, 2015
|
|
The Intern
(2015)
|
Tim Grierson
|
"The Intern" has more of the sting of real life to it than writer-director Nancy Meyers normally allows. And while it's still packed in her usual gauze, the film isn't just likable and sweet, but also poignant.
Posted Sep 22, 2015
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B
|
Everest
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
The fundamental lesson of Mt. Everest is that it is bigger than humanity, bigger than life. This movie conveys that all too well.
Posted Sep 18, 2015
|
C+
|
Black Mass
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
For all its strengths, Black Mass feels, more than anything, like actors playing dress-up
Posted Sep 18, 2015
|
D+
|
The Visit
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
The sad part isn't that people think The Visit is the best Shyamalan movie in a decade. The sad part is that they're right.
Posted Sep 11, 2015
|
A-
|
Time Out of Mind
(2014)
|
Will Leitch
|
Time Out of Mind is about a homeless man named George wandering the streets of New York City, but the movie's masterstroke is that he is almost always in the background of his scenes.
Posted Sep 10, 2015
|
A-
|
Results
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
The movie is a delight start to finish, but it never sells out its characters for each sentiment or laughs: It sees all three of them as damaged, difficult dreamers who need each other so they'll finally start getting out of their own way.
Posted Sep 02, 2015
|
B
|
American Ultra
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
A film with many pleasures, but the singular one is watching a stoned, utterly baffled Eisenberg stab, shoot, and dismember highly trained madmen bent on his destruction.
Posted Aug 21, 2015
|
B-
|
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
This is a mid-August, end-of-summer, everybody-dial-it-back action movie that requests absolutely nothing from you. Which is sort of fine?
Posted Aug 11, 2015
|
C
|
Fantastic Four
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
The movie is on such sure footing at first that it's a legitimate shock to see it fly so far off the rails.
Posted Aug 06, 2015
|
|
Ricki and the Flash
(2015)
|
Tim Grierson
|
Director Jonathan Demme, writer Diablo Cody and star Meryl Streep have made something quirky and unpredictable. They turn a potentially hackneyed premise into a compassionate look at the roads taken (and not taken).
Posted Aug 05, 2015
|
A-
|
Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
They are massive enterprises that deliver the goods in the manner of an experienced craftsman, no matter who that craftsman happens to be.
Posted Jul 30, 2015
|
D+
|
Vacation
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
This is less a Vacation sequel than a Hangover sequel. And if you've even seen any of the Hangover sequels, you know that is bad news indeed.
Posted Jul 28, 2015
|
D+
|
Pixels
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Adam Sandler and his crew are the only people who could put less thought and effort into a 100-minute feature film than the original filmmaker put into a two-and-a-half-minute short.
Posted Jul 23, 2015
|
C
|
Ant-Man
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
A fairly straightforward, conventional superhero story, where a mere mortal gathers the ability to be extraordinary and then becomes a hero. This is no way to sell me on a story about a guy who can make himself the size of an ant.
Posted Jul 17, 2015
|
B+
|
Wild Tales
(2014)
|
Will Leitch
|
Deliriously unhinged and uproarious, it'll make you feel wretched about the world around you ... but you'll be having too much fun to care.
Posted Jul 07, 2015
|
A
|
Timbuktu
(2014)
|
Will Leitch
|
The movie makes sure to never forget that these are all people, stupid, flawed people; the banality of evil is so prevalent here that you'll occasionally laugh just to keep from cry.
Posted Jul 07, 2015
|
A-
|
The Nightmare
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Unerring in how it puts us in sufferers' positions, making us feel their terror in palpable, convulsive ways.
Posted Jul 07, 2015
|
A-
|
It Follows
(2014)
|
Will Leitch
|
An artful-but-still-terrifying metaphor for the alien world of adulthood, that sense you have as a teen that the world is out to get you, and no one is going to help you.
Posted Jul 07, 2015
|
A-
|
Ex Machina
(2014)
|
Will Leitch
|
Inventive and challenging without ever forgetting to entertain, Ex Machina is smart artificial-intelligence science fiction at its absolute best.
Posted Jul 07, 2015
|
C
|
Terminator Genisys
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Terminator Genisys seems specifically designed to give you a headache.
Posted Jul 01, 2015
|
D+
|
Ted 2
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
How sincere is Sincere Seth MacFarlane? I know I'm a dope for even asking-associating a genuine emotion with such a sniggering clown is a sucker's bet-but I really do want to know.
Posted Jun 25, 2015
|
B+
|
Inside Out
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Considering how many Pixar films seem designed solely to trigger your tear ducts, it's fitting that the studio has finally made a film that is specifically about sadness.
Posted Jun 19, 2015
|
B
|
Dope
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Dope is a movie about '90s hip-hop and black culture, but it feels like a throwback in other ways too.
Posted Jun 18, 2015
|
|
The Tribe
(2014)
|
Tim Grierson
|
This movie won't let you sit back -- instead, you lean forward, utterly involved in what you're seeing.
Posted Jun 16, 2015
|
C+
|
Jurassic World
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
The grandeur and the excitement level are not quite high enough to overcome all the junk that surrounds it.
Posted Jun 10, 2015
|
B-
|
San Andreas
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
San Andreas doesn't hit a single beat you don't expect, and there's comfort in that.
Posted May 29, 2015
|
|
Aloha
(2015)
|
Tim Grierson
|
At a time when franchises run rampant, we need someone like Cameron Crowe to help restore a little balance. But this movie's bad buzz isn't just gossip: It's fair warning.
Posted May 28, 2015
|
C-
|
Tomorrowland
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Every minute of Tomorrowland, when you think about it later, starts to feel like a scold.
Posted May 22, 2015
|
C-
|
Pitch Perfect 2
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
The good cheer from the first film is oddly curdled this time. Everything you like from the first film is back ... just not quite the same.
Posted May 15, 2015
|
A
|
Mad Max: Fury Road
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
You leave the theater still shaking, everything still pumping and throbbing, a treadmill stopping on a dime and sending you careening through the back wall.
Posted May 14, 2015
|
C
|
The D Train
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Black might have been game for a dive into obsessive pathology, a look at a man who is broken for reasons having nothing to do with his circumstances, but the film doesn't have much interest in that.
Posted May 08, 2015
|
|
Maggie
(2015)
|
Tim Grierson
|
This affecting, understated drama probably won't inspire Schwarzenegger to give up making Terminator movies. But it'll stand as proof that he didn't always have to do those to hold our attention onscreen.
Posted May 06, 2015
|
A-
|
Avengers: Age of Ultron
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Age of Ultron is part of a franchise that's going to make a billion dollars by Monday. But it still feels like one of Whedon's little sandboxes, blown up to a massive scale without losing any of its intricate resolution.
Posted May 01, 2015
|
B+
|
Furious 7
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
This is the pinnacle, people. This is everything they've got.
Posted Apr 01, 2015
|
B-
|
While We're Young
(2014)
|
Will Leitch
|
Baumbach, in what's easily his most conventional and commercial film, gives the film a fun rhythm and fills it with some legitimately good gags. The film is less wise than it thinks, though.
Posted Mar 26, 2015
|
|
Get Hard
(2015)
|
Tim Grierson
|
"Get Hard" wants to be a brash, unapologetic look at race and class but only wrings a few laughs from those topics, mostly spending its time floundering around in a dumb plot.
Posted Mar 25, 2015
|
C
|
The Gunman
(2015)
|
Will Leitch
|
Penn has pumped himself up to absurd dimensions for the role, but it doesn't make him look like a badass; it just makes him look like a movie star who's trying too hard.
Posted Mar 19, 2015
|