Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin star as beautiful, young people in love — and in danger — in “Adrift.” Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur’s drama is based on the true story of survival aboard a storm-tossed yacht in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I knew this would be a prime...
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Reviews
RogerEbert.com — A Kid Like Jake
“A Kid Like Jake” handles a complicated topic with sensitivity and grace. This is not an after-school special. In depicting the life of a Brooklyn couple (Jim Parsons and Claire Danes) whose kindergarten-bound son, Jake (Leo James Davis), enjoys dressing in tutus and pretending he’s a Disney princess, director Silas...
Read moreChristy by Request — Who Framed Roger Rabbit
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” — probably since it came out 30 years ago. I fondly recall watching it with my dad at the now-defunct UA Warner Center in Woodland Hills, the location of so many of my Valley Girl movie memories. But...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Show Dogs
I’m no film snob. I’m down for a good live-action, talking-animal movie, and it doesn’t even need to be something Oscar-worthy like “Babe.” But “Show Dogs” is terrible. It’s essentially “Miss Congeniality” in the dog show world, with cheesy visual effects, hackneyed gross-out gags for the kids and lame jokes...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Revenge
Watching a brutal, bloody rape-revenge fantasy may not be your cup of tea. And I get that. But “Revenge” is the film we need right now from a filmmaker we need right now: French writer-director Coralie Fargeat, making her stunning feature debut. She upends your expectations of the genre and...
Read moreChristy by Request — Cradle Will Rock
All art is political in some way. This is especially true of Tim Robbins’ theatrical drama “Cradle Will Rock,” itself inspired by a play that was so provocative in the late 1930s, the U.S. government shut it down before its first performance. I’d never seen Robbins’ film, the Christy by...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Tully
In the same vein as 2007’s “Juno” and 2011’s “Young Adult,” “Tully” unearths uncomfortable truths in a wry, wise way. The latest collaboration between director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody features Cody’s hyper-verbal brand of snark, cynicism and subtle poignancy, but it’s tinged with the wistful perspective that comes...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Mrs. Hyde
A timid high school physics teacher gets zapped by lightning in a freak lab accident. When she comes to, she finds she has acquired strange new abilities and a burst of confidence that allow her to seize control of her life like never before. It’s the stuff of a 1980s high-concept,...
Read moreChristy by Request — Local Hero
Don’t let the title fool you: There’s nothing remotely heroic or even vaguely dramatic about “Local Hero.” And that’s what makes it so charming. Writer-director Bill Forsyth’s 1983 film sneaks up on you. It takes its time. It reveals its characters through snippets of conversation and casual interactions. It’s the...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — I Feel Pretty
I have mixed feelings about “I Feel Pretty,” a high-concept, modern-day fairy tale. Amy Schumer stars as an insecure woman who suffers a head injury and believes she’s been magically transformed into the gorgeous bombshell she’s always dreamed of becoming — even though she’s unchanged on the outside. It’s a lot...
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