It’s not often that you walk out of a cops-and-robbers yarn and can’t stop thinking about how sweet it was. David Lowery’s The Old Man & the Gun takes a bizarre true story and turns it into an elegant swan song to the charming scr...
Writer/director David Lowery’s ‘A Ghost Story’ shouldn’t work. It’s an existential exploration of life, death, love, loss, memory and time, in which the main character is a ghost covered by a bed sheet. That should be silly and di...
For the fourth year in a row, the Independent Spirit Awards gave the top trophy to the same movie that would win a Best Picture Oscar on the following night. For the first time in possibly ever, the Razzie Awards did something kin...
When Oscar time comes around, it’s sometimes useful to remember that the nominees haven’t always been associated with the type of work that gets awards. Honestly, many of them have churned out some real crap in their day. In antic...
‘Manchester by the Sea’ is unquestionably a good movie, at times even a great one. However, it’s also incredibly difficult to watch. Not that there are any horrible images to send viewers fleeing from their screens or anything lik...
John Hillcoat is a talented filmmaker. All of his movies so far (‘The Proposition’, ‘The Road’ and ‘Lawless’) show that he has a gritty voice and a certain skill with actors. However, his films all feel like they’re lacking someth...
Based on a remarkable Massachusetts Coast Guard rescue mission from 1952, ‘The Finest Hours’ is an attempt to revive old-timey adventure movies. It’s not just a period piece in terms of the costumes and props; the characters are a...
It’s that time of year again. The Sundance Film Festival has released its lineup of films that will screen during the festival in January. I’ll be there covering the festival, but just so you can get as excited as I am, let’s take...
Michael Winterbottom’s uncompromising crime thriller ‘The Killer Inside Me’ is a micro-budgeted indie that has stirred up controversy for its shocking depiction of violence. It was probably my favorite thing that I saw at this yea...
