★★☆☆☆ A loose remake of the 1973 José Giovanni film of the same name, Rachid Bouchareb’s Two Men in Town (2014) transplants the original’s critique of the French judicial system to New Mexico. Starring Forest Whitaker as a Muslim ex-con struggling to carve out an honest life, Bouchareb’s latest livens Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Dr. Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is a linguist, someone who has made language acquisition her life’s work; she has literally written the book on the subject. She lives in New York with her busy doctor husband John (Alec Baldwin), teaches at Columbia, has a brood of adult children and Continue Reading
★★★★★ Mona Lisa, released in 1986 and written/directed by Irish poet and novelist Neil Jordan, shines out as a rough diamond, a masterpiece of British cinema undeniably worthy of its classical title. In one of the most powerful roles of his career, the late great Bob Hoskins stars as George, Continue Reading
★★★★☆ From the moody opening – a beautifully orchestrated slow-motion (and mostly silent) attack on a neon-lit nightclub – it’s immediately clear that Hyena (2014) is a film which is reaching for something outside of the usual overcooked efforts from a largely saturated genre. It offers the kind of brooding, Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Lo and behold: Hollywood has produced the death knell in the slicker-than-a-baby-seal Focus (2015). It’s a good-looking genre piece, but the only con this film manages to pull off successfully in its 105-minute runtime is allowing the audience to think they’re watching worthy cinema. In reality, they’re just another Continue Reading
★☆☆☆☆ The inclusion and modern interpretation of literary classics like Homer’s The Iliad and tales of Oedipus the King juxtaposed with the detrimental dialogue present throughout the entire film is just one of many reasons as to why Rob Cohen’s The Boy Next Door (2015) will be remembered as one Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Diao Yinan’s noir tale Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014) bagged him the Golden Bear award at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. For his portrayal of a boorish, obsessive cop haunted by an old case, who spends his days in a freezing cold northern town in China pestering a Continue Reading