John Lithgow and Alfred Molina are completely lovely as a longtime couple who finally enjoy the opportunity to get married legally in New York after 39 years together. It should be the happiest time of their life — but it’s just the beginning of their troubles. Ira Sachs’ drama is...
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What the Flick?! — The One I Love
Alonso and I did an all-spoiler review of the extremely inventive drama “The One I Love,” starring Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss as a couple struggling to save their marriage. Seriously, do not watch this review ’til you’ve seen the movie. It’s twisty. (But FYI, we both really liked...
Read moreWhat the Flick?! — The Giver
Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep add heft to this derivative but well-made sci-fi thriller based on Lois Lowry’s Young Adult novel. In a rigid and seemingly perfect futuristic society, one plucky teenage boy dares to shake up the status quo. It’s beautifully shot but it goes off the rails in...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Step Up All In
Certainly you don’t go to a “Step Up” movie for the glittering repartee. But alas, one must endure banal dialogue and a flimsy plot in order to enjoy the gravity-defying, acrobatic extravaganzas. It’s enough to make you wish they’d called this fifth film in the franchise “Step Up and Shut...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — The Hundred-Foot Journey
With its feel-good themes about exotic food triumphing over closed-mindedness in a quaint French village, this is essentially a remake of “Chocolat” — and it happens to come from that film’s director, Lasse Hallstrom. Helen Mirren is the uptight owner of an elegant and esteemed French restaurant. Om Puri is...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — 4 Minute Mile
All the underdog sports-movie cliches are in place in this drama about an aging, alcoholic track coach who trains a troubled but talented sprinter to run a mile in four minutes. And yet there’s an efficiency of storytelling, and Richard Jenkins elevates the familiar material simply by showing up and...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — War Story
Catherine Keener stars as a photographer shattered by her experience in Libya in “War Story.” Director and co-writer Mark Jackson’s drama is minimalist to the point of being stultifying, and it squanders Keener’s considerable earthy appeal in a dour role. My RogerEbert.com review. Read the review here...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — And So It Goes
“And So It Goes” does what it needs to do for its target audience in totally mediocre ways. Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton are nothing if not total pros in Rob Reiner’s comedy, trying their best to breathe life into strained material. It’s fine. It’s just not good. It’s not...
Read moreBoyhood
IFC Films R for language including sexual references, and for teen drug and alcohol use. Running time: 162 minutes. Four stars out of four. Simply as a piece of experimental filmmaking, “Boyhood” would have been fascinating. What Richard Linklater did was so inspired, so risky, and it could have gone...
Read moreBegin Again
The Weinstein Co. Rated R for language. Running time: 101 minutes. Three stars out of four. It’s been out for a couple of weeks now, but I didn’t want to let too much more time pass before I wrote a little something about “Begin Again.” This movie charmed me so...
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