Jeremy Renner, apparently tiring of his second-tier superhero status as Hawkeye in The Avengers, takes a page from the more glamorous Captain America (better living through chemistry). Also a page from his franchise predecessor (ruggedly handsome sandy-haired super-agent seeks refuge from government baddies with a fetching female). But this time, …
Documentarian Frederick Wiseman's sustained gaze into the interior of Lord's Boxing Gym in Austin, Texas. There is no narrative to speak of, and besides proprietor Richard Lord, there are hardly any characters. Instead, you get a profound sense of what has to be done to a body to ready it …
A child's animated primer on the chicanery, skullduggery, and social gamesmanship so dear to the heart of the grownup world, and a gentle affirmation of genuine family life as the antithesis of and antidote for same. Ben Kingsley is simply great as Archibald Snatcher, a noisome, ill-bred schemer who dreams …
When conservatives bash Hollywood, it's for films like this, with their trashy, lurid, depictions of extramarital sex between lusty moms (Jennifer Lopez, fit and flaunting at 45) and hunky high-school boys (Ryan Guzman, 27 playing 19). When liberals bash Hollywood, it's for films like this, with their themes of inevitable …
In case you hadn’t been paying attention during the preceding two hours and 15 minutes, director Robin Campillo’s unblinking tale of gay love and AIDS activism in ‘90s Paris culminates by cutting between dramatic political protest and emotionally intense lovemaking. Because for the members of ACT UP, the personal is …
A lighthearted/darkhearted romp through modern misery, frontloaded with imagination and light on the finish. Theodicy — the contrasting of a supposedly all-good, all-powerful God with the manifest evil in the world — is a matter for theologians (or at least Lex Luthor in Batman vs. Superman). Jaco Van Dormael’s cuddly-caustic …
Breathe In contains no surprises, but still gets points for its sustained mood (thwarted) and careful story mechanics. Plus, of course, the parted-lip glamour of Bright Young English Thing Felicity Jones (seen recently as the object of adulterous desire in The Invisible Woman). She plays English exchange student Sophie, the …
The late Paul Walker stars in an aggressively stupid parkour demonstration that at least has the lowbrow moxie to actually chain a pretty girl to a rocket with a bomb attached to it. Or maybe she's chained next to it; it's not entirely clear, and it doesn't entirely matter. All …
A trust fun kid needs to get married to get at his money, and needs his money to take on his father in the business world. A pretty girl needs rent money to keep her family off the street. Maybe they can work something out! Like, she pretends to be …
Call it Mr. Donovan goes to East Berlin. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks team up for a handsome piece of very pointed nostalgia (with help from the Coen Brothers and Matt Charman, who handled the script, and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, lens set to "stately."). Hanks is private citizen and shrewd …
A movie about storytelling that succeeds by keeping its focus on the storyteller. James Pope (Kyle Mooney, who also co-wrote) is a young man who discovers that his entire life has been a fiction. In response, he latches onto the one thing that was “real” — the children’s TV show …
At one point in Alison Klayman’s documentary on political provocateur Steve Bannon’s doings following his departure from the White House, the populist proselytizer turns to the camera and says, “I’m gonna get so crushed in this film.” He says it because he’s a supposed friend of the working man, and …
A young black man in a hoodie, shot and killed under questionable circumstances. A powerful politician looking for a quick economic fix that he swears favors both the rich and the poor, but definitely the rich. A secret gay love affair that could end a man's career. Another story ripped …
All guts, no heart. The opening gag — a former gymnast desperately masturbating to video of her own medal-winning heroics years earlier — has the virtue of a kind of double honesty. First, it’s an accurate indicator of the film’s tone and content: a steady drumming of deadpan, joyless vulgarity …
If you're a fan of "Oh no she din't!" sex talk/antics and grade-A deadpanning from basketball superstar LeBron James, you're in for a treat. Otherwise, this is a deeply lazy and sentimental raunch comedy from director Judd Apatow and writer-star Amy Schumer. Basically, a marshmallow covered with bodily fluids. Lazy: …