Detroit: Movie Review

Powerful foray into America’s race riots.

Detroit opens with a cartoon detailing a brief synopsis of the racial history of the early to mid 1900s, that leads into Detroit in the 1960s with African Americans milling about on the streets, many out of work, most just going on with their lives despite the unrest, racist cops sputtering their racist ideas, black politicians being the voice for the brewing civil unrest and black cops not wanting to be the voice for every African American in the country. Tensions boil over, race riots ensue.		2017 Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow Screenplay by: Mark Boal Starring: Will Poulter, Algee Smith, John Boyega, Anthony Mackie

Goat: Movie Review

A story of college fraternity, brotherhood and abuse that misses its mark

Goat may or may not have been intended to show the dangers of college fraternities – and the intense damage that it can cause to individuals physically, emotionally and psychologically, but nonetheless that’s what early viewers of the film picked up on and what most audiences are expecting. The story that Goat actually tells really doesn’t accomplish that, and it doesn’t actually accomplish much.		2016 Directed by: Andrew Neel Screenplay by: David Gordon Green, Andrew Neel, Mike Roberts Based on the memoir by Brad Land Starring: Ben Schnetzer, Nick Jonas

Hell or High Water: Movie Review

Action, adventure and an entertaining crime caper.

It’s West Texas. Small towns, dirt roads, dirtier cars and well-traveled criminals. Meet the Howard brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster); they’re about to rob a bank. Hell or High Water is an electrifying good story. Part crime drama, part family relations, part heist movie merged into a film that is pure good story-telling and mesmerizing filmmaking.		2016 Directed by: David Mackenzie Screenplay by: Taylor Sheridan Starring: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges

The Duel: Movie Review

Too many storylines spoil the intrigue and mystery.

The Duel’s description suggested that it was going for a mystery/thriller twist on a classic western. It feels about perfect time for such a send-up of genres. But the movie is actually a collection of about a dozen great ideas, only half thought out, all clashing with one another. There’s a good movie in there somewhere, but it’s hard to find. A Texas ranger is sent to a small community investigating mysterious deaths, and he got lost – or the movie did.		2016 Directed by: Kieran Darcy-Smith Screenplay by: Matt Cook Starring: Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth

Mr. Right: Movie Review

Combining rom-com with murder is funny but also inane nonsense.

A romantic comedy and a hit-man murder-fest. Comedy, sure, and with Anna Kendrick and Sam Rockwell, you’ve got the romance, chemistry, and quirky comedy to boot. If anybody can sell this violent, insane, romantic Mr. Right hero, it’s Sam Rockwell. He is fantastic. It’s just that the plot is so far-fetched and complete nonsense, that it’s just too hard to find him or this story interesting.		2015 Directed by: Paco Cabezas Screenplay by: Max Landis Starring: Anna Kendrick, Sam Rockwell

99 Homes: Movie Review

Making deals with the devil – thrilling, intense, fascinating.

99 Homes is the best film ever made about the housing crisis. It combines the reality (banks foreclosing on homes) with real emotion (option-less people both heartbreakingly giving up and being pushed to their violent limits) surrounding a story about a ruthless villain turning a down-on-his-luck victim into a rising star using the basic film formula of descent-into-madness. It is both a taut, entertaining, comedic thriller and emotional family drama. Or arguably, a Greek tragedy.		2014 Directed by: Ramin Bahrani Screenplay by: Ramin Bahrani, Amir Naderi Starring: Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon

American Ultra: Movie Review

Goes for more action than comedy, but is entertaining.

American Ultra is trying to juggle quite a few ideas, a few genres, and different styles of humour, but it can be a genuinely good time in its earnestness to be entertaining. First it's a stoner comedy and it's a Hollywood-style shoot 'em up action movie, all the while actually being based in reality – albeit a hyper-stylized, uber-violent, way over-the-top form of reality. And you usually can't put those adjectives and the word “reality” in the same sentence, so you can get a sense of the problems that American Ultra is creating for itself.		2015 Directed by: Nima Nourizadeh Screenplay by: Max Landis Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart

Spy: Movie Review

Funny as a spy spoof but does venture into spy action.

Spy is not quite a spy movie nor a spoof of the genre but somewhere in between. Sticking with the latter would have been better, but at least it is funny through-out the entire run-time. Every scene from the Bond-esque opening to the end credits has multiple laughs. Some so funny that you can't help but laugh obnoxiously, probably to the annoyance of fellow movie-goers, except that they're laughing as well.		2015 Directed by: Paul Feig Screenplay by: Paul Feig Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, and Jason Statham

The Voices: Movie Review

A dark comedy that veers too far into a messy horror-comedy.

The Voices stars Ryan Reynolds as a really creepy version of a lonely everyman working at factory and shipping warehouse in a small town. He is just so clearly unhinged that when we see him talking to his pets, and they talk back to him, it's not surprising at all because no part of him lives in any kind of reality. I know the premise of a man who hears his pets talking to him is going to be a weird film, but here they just took things too far.		2014 Directed by: Marjane Satrapi Screenplay by: Michael R. Perry Starring: Ryan Renolds, Anna Kendrick and Gemma Arterton

Selma: Movie Review

The warm, welcoming, commanding presence of Martin Luther King marches forward.

Opening with Martin Luther King Jr winning the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, historical drama Selma focuses on Martin Luther King's leadership of the American civil rights movement and the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in a protest for voting equality. It's an interesting point in King's tenure, as he has already achieved national fame and recognition, essentially has an open door to President Lyndon B. Johnson, but he's still experiencing unrest.		2014 Directed by: Ava DuVernay Screenplay by: Paul Webb Starring: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo and Tim Roth

Horns: Movie Review

Original blending of genres wears too thin.

The story of a young man determined to get to the truth behind his girlfriend's murder, Horns adds elements of fantasy, comedy and horror to the mystery. Daniel Radcliffe stars as Ig Parrish. Ig was hopelessly in love until the death of girlfriend Merrin (Juno Temple). And then he was instantly pegged as the prime suspect, thrust into the media spotlight and banished into the hells of reality as an evil-doer.		2013 Directed by: Alexandre Aja Screenplay by: Keith Bunin Based on the novel by Joe Hill Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Max Minghella

Nightcrawler: Movie Review

Immorality drives this tale of crime journalism to the end.

Nightcrawler is what Jake Gyllenhaal’s Lou Bloom is. He’s a thief, a beggar, a student of life, a journalist, a wannabe business man, and a man driven for work. He’s lured into the business of nighttime crime journalism and learns how to make a quick buck, and more importantly to him, respect. The fact that he’s making money off of other people’s death and misery (and in essence undermining the police) doesn’t faze him in the slightest.		2014 Directed by: Dan Gilroy Screenplay by: Dan Gilroy Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo

Stretch: Movie Review

A wild ride but couldn't put a story together.

Stretch starts with a drunk, coked-out gambling addict getting launched through a car window and then before he lands on the pavement, meets a girl and falls in love. And then the movie just gets crazier after that. The lead character, who calls himself Stretch, gets a job as a limo driver after hitting what he perceives as rock bottom, and then getting clean, getting sober and intending to pay back gambling debts.		2014 Directed by: Joe Carnahan Screenplay by: Joe Carnahan Starring: Patrick Wilson, Jessica Alba

Snowpiercer: Movie Review

All aboard the Snowpiercer for a revolution.

Set in 2031, 17 years after a climate change experiment went awry and froze the entire world, all that is left is a technologically advanced train called the Snowpiercer and its occupants. It’s a post-apocalyptic movie, and yet it’s historically accurate. Take any revolution in history, place it on a train in the future, and you have Snowpiercer. It’s an action movie, but it’s also a thoughtful character piece.		2013 Directed by: Joon-ho Bong Screenplay by: Joon-ho Bong Based on Le Transperceneige Starring: Chris Evans, Jamie Bell and Tilda Swinton

Devil's Knot: Movie Review

An affecting film of injustice, corruption and hopelessness in Arkansas 1993 (or Salem 1693).

“Devil’s Knot” is the story of the West Memphis Three. Three young boys murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas, and the three teenage “devil worshippers” hung out to dry, oh, I’m sorry, I mean accused of the crime. It’s an unfortunate story and an odd movie and one that doesn’t let go until you’re convinced that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.		2013 Directed by: Atom Egoyan Screenplay by: Paul Harris Boardman, and Scott Derrickson Based on book by Mara Leveritt Starring: Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon

A Million Ways to Die in the West: Movie Review

Funny when it's parodying the west, less funny when the plot drags on.

This time, Seth MacFarlane has decided to adventure out in front of the camera as Albert Starks, a guy who does not belong in the American west in 1882. And, indeed, the funniest jokes in “A Million Ways to Die in the West” stem from the point of view of somebody from modern times who couldn’t understand why anybody would even want to try living in western times, because there probably really is a million ways to die.		2014 Directed by: Seth MacFarlane Screenplay by: Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Giovanni Ribisi and Charlize Theron

Squatters: Movie Review

Simplistic and convenient writing of unsympathetic characters.

Squatters features a pair of homeless hippies, Jonas (Thomas Dekker) who likes sticking it to the man by robbing anything and everything, and Kelly (Gabriella Wilde) who is so strung out on drugs she wouldn’t know who or where she is. Like in real life, these characters are despicable people and don’t deserve our sympathies. Jonas’ newest target is a filthy rich family leaving for vacation; sympathy for these characters isn’t introduced until much later.		2014 Directed by: Martin Weisz Screenplay by: Justin Shilton Starring: Gabriella Wilde, Thomas Dekker

Favor: Movie Review

Well-written characters debating success, friendship and murder.

Friends help friends get rid of dead bodies, right? Or, so asks the film “Favor”. Kip (Blayne Weaver) is a successful, happily married man (or at least a married man) who has been seeing a waitress and after a disagreement, he accidentally kills her. Kip calls on his old friend Marvin (Patrick Day) to help him out. Things don’t go very well, but that’s mostly based on the characteristics of these two men.		2013 Directed by: Paul Osborne Screenplay by: Paul Osborne Starring: Blayne Weaver, Patrick Day

Dom Hemingway: Movie Review

Jude Law attempts to carry a structurally problematic comedic crime film about the 

vulgar and crass Dom Hemingway.

Jude Law opens “Dom Hemingway” with a monologue about his male member. Apparently, it’s exquisite. He’s in prison, or more accurately, was in prison, and he’s now getting out after twelve years. He has scores to settle and after some intense violent rages, we don’t know what else Dom Hemingway is going to get up to.		2013 Directed by: Richard Shepard Screenplay by: Richard Shepard Starring: Jude Law, Richard E. Grant

Lone Survivor: Movie Review

Hilarious dialogue and ridiculous war scenes make an odd mix.

A war movie starring actors who belong in a war movie (Mark Wahlberg and Taylor Kitsch) and an actor who’s better off not being in a war movie (Emile Hirsch), is released during awards season and getting major attention for its screenplay (WGA nomination). There are just so many things that don’t fit together with “Lone Survivor”, and that sums up the movie exactly.		2013 Directed by: Peter Berg Screenplay by: Peter Berg Based on the book by Marcus Luttrell Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch