While We’re Young (2015) – Noah Baumbach

The two Noah Baumbach films I’ve seen didn’t inspire much interest in While We’re Young for me. I can remember virtually nothing of Greenberg and I vividly remember strongly disliking Frances Ha. But I also figured it could be something to do with Greta Gerwig. Knowing that she wasn’t in While We’re Young and seeing […]

It Follows (2015) – David Robert Mitchell

Full Disclosure: I know and have worked on set with Michael Gioulakis, the film’s Director of Photography. But like Roger Ebert, I’m confident that I’ll have no problem giving my unbiased impressions of the film. Also, I won’t pretend to be a horror movie buff, so feel free to take these impressions with an additional […]

Furious 7 (2015) – James Wan

I remember how stunned I was when I first heard of Paul Walker’s passing. Later that night, I remember walking into a store and seeing ads for Furious 6’s Blu-ray release and just freezing and staring at Walker’s face. I’m somewhat surprised by how much his death affected me. He’d never been a particularly gifted […]

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) – Matthew Vaughn

I went on a pretty big classic James Bond movie kick when I was in grade school. Like most people, I was drawn to the action, intrigue and the simple coolness that Bond has always exuded. That appeal declined as Pierce Brosnan was nearing the end of his reign as 007 but my interest in […]

Maps to the Stars (2014) – David Cronenberg

If you read the synopsis of David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, you might scoff at the notion of Hollywood making another movie about Hollywood. After all, in the last five years, three of the five winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture went to films where the entertainment industry anchors the narrative. While […]

Insurgent (2015) – Robert Schwentke

I went into Insurgent not having found Divergent (its predecessor) particularly interesting or good. But bearing in mind how pleasantly surprised I was with Catching Fire after being similarly unimpressed by Hunger Games, I decided to give Insurgent a fair shake (the basis for that comparison being that they’re both adaptations of young adult novels […]

Run All Night (2015) – Jaume Collet-Serra

DISCLAIMER: This is going to be my first review where I don’t really worry about keeping it spoiler-free… I’ve found that the people who are very spoiler-sensitive (like me) don’t read reviews anyway. That doesn’t mean I’ll start haphazardly throwing out key plot details and twists… but when I have something to say about one […]

Chappie (2015) – Neill Blomkamp

I didn’t haven’t any expectations going in to see Neill Blomkamp’s directorial debut District 9 (although my hopes were up [I chose to make it my 900th viewed movie]) and I was blown away. I went into Elysium, his sophomore outing, with higher expectations and came away underwhelmed (Blomkamp has said he’d like a shot […]

Focus (2015) – Glenn Ficarra & John Requa

The last Will Smith movie I saw was the troublingly bad After Earth (I don’t really understand how M. Night continues to get opportunities to make movies at this point in his career). While Focus hadn’t been on my radar until a few days ago, I was excited at the chance to wipe away the […]

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) – Sam Taylor-Johnson

Fifty Shades of Grey’s consistent characterization as not much more than “trash romance” didn’t have me exactly anticipating writing its review. However, the notoriety and controversy surrounding it had piqued my interest. When Citizen Kelvin politely declined my offer to review the film, I figured I owed it to the Flim Crickets to break out […]