Film Review: Sleeping with Other People

When Jake met Lainey: Headland’s smart, funny rom-com worth seeing

Lainey (Alison Brie) and Jake (Jason Sudeikis) discuss their relationship status over Ben & Jerry’s.

If you don’t like romantic comedies, you might as well stop reading right now, since Leslye Headland’s new film Sleeping with Other People is, without a doubt, a bona fide rom-com. But, if you are open to the category, then you’re in for a real treat here – Headland’s film is smart, funny, and true, and one of the best and brightest pictures the genre has seen in years.

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Film Review: A Walk in the Woods

Go take a hike: Redford, Nolte lead us on pleasant enough Walk

Bill (Robert Redford, left) and Stephen (Nick Nolte) wonder what they’ve gotten themselves into.

A Walk in the Woods, based on Bill Bryson’s popular 1998 memoir of attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail, is inevitably going to be compared to Wild, last year’s film of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, on the opposite side of the country. Aside from similar plots, though, the two films have little in common; Wild is the better picture by far, but A Walk in the Woods holds its own as a sort of lightweight, droll counterpart. What Wild did for solo women hikers on the PCT, A Walk in the Woods might do for the grandfather set on the AT.

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Film Review: Learning to Drive

Clarkson and Kingsley reason to see slight but likable picture

Darwan (Ben Kingsley) and Wendy (Patricia Clarkson) get to know each other during a break from her driving lesson.

Spanish director Isabel Coixet (Paris, je t’aime; My Life Without Me) must have enjoyed working with Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley in her well-received 2008 film Elegy, since she’s collaborating with them again here in Learning to Drive. While this vehicle (no pun intended) is more lightweight than Coixet’s earlier picture, its characters are equally compelling, and it makes for a pleasant enough end-of-summer movie outing.

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Film Review: Grandma

Tomlin’s feminist Grandma takes to the road in sharp black comedy

Sage (Julia Garner, left), and her grandmother Elle (Lily Tomlin) are unhappy participants in an impromptu road trip.

At 75, Lily Tomlin has had such a long, varied acting career that few may not realize she hasn’t actually had a leading role in a film since the 1988 comedy Big Business. Thanks to writer/director Paul Weitz, though, who directed Tomlin as Tina Fey’s mother in 2013’s Admission, Tomlin returns to brilliantly helm a picture in Weitz’s smart and engaging Grandma, which opens widely today after rightfully garnering much praise at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

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Film Review: Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four is short and to the point, but pointless.

Four horsemen of the apocalypse, without the horses, and with one woman.
Four horsemen of the apocalypse, without the horses, and with one woman.

If you were clamoring for a reboot of the Fantastic Four movie franchise ever since 2007’s Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, you can probably assume that you’re in a small minority. I can safely say that not many people were interested in a new Fantastic Four movie, nevermind watching an attempt to relaunch the franchise in a more dark, gritty, and “character driven” storyline, a la X-Men: First Class and just about every superhero movie these days. Not all super hero movies need to follow the same exact formula again and again and again. It’s getting tiresome. The new Fantastic Four is no different. Even considering its weak editing and laughable story structure, it still manages to fall victim to comic book adaptation formula. I will concede one small victory to it—a reasonably short running time of 1 hour 45 minutes. It was nice to see a comic book film stay under 2 hours, though it was quite apparent that the F4 editors had no idea how to keep the pace and plotline efficient within that timeframe. In the end, Fantastic Four is not strong enough to stand on its own few merits, nor is it able to push a disappointing franchise forward.

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Film Review: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

Rogue Nation keeps the pedal to the metal to deliver exhilarating action, while losing some of its franchise identity.

Basically a much better version of Mission:Impossible 2.
Basically a much better version of Mission:Impossible 2.

‘Ready or not, here I come.’ No, I’m not just quoting the classic song by The Fugees remixed for the M:I5 trailer. I’m saying this because its how the near 20 year old franchise is approaching audiences today, July 31st 2015. With so many action films coming out these days (many of which are quite sub-par), it’s hard to get super excited for another one, nevermind a fifth entry in a franchise. But here’s the thing—the folks behind Mission:Impossible-Rogue Nation know they’re delivering something better than the rest (or most of the rest). After the first ten minutes of Rogue Nation, you’ll realize how much the marketing of the movie has duped you, but in the best way possible. Director Christopher McQuarrie has created a smart action flick so loud and ridiculous that it’s hard to catch your breath. But although Rogue Nation delivers the smarts and the thrills, it doesn’t stick to the formula that has separated (and benefited) the Mission:Impossible franchise from the rest of the spy pack. While no one was saying that the Mission:Impossible franchise was dead, especially after a $209 mil domestic box office take with 2011’s Ghost Protocol, each new installment is met with speculation whether this will be the final outing or not. Rogue Nation all but directly acknowledges this speculation when Jeremy Renner’s William Brandt says, “This may very well be our last mission. Let’s make it count…” Ha! We all know you’ll be back! I’ll put all the speculation to rest—it’s not the final outing. Rogue Nation is as energetic and exhilarating as the franchise has ever been while at the top of its game.

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Film Review: Irrational Man

Irrational movie goer: Watch Woody Allen contemplate the meaning of life. Again.

Abe (Joaquin Phoenix) and Jill (Emma Stone) overhear a conversation that will change both their lives.

Your interest in seeing Irrational Man, Woody Allen’s newest film, will largely depend on your level of interest in existential philosophy. Allen does give us fair warning as to what he’s up to, though; his chosen title shares the same name as William Barrett’s seminal 1958 book Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy, an introduction to the philosophy’s basic concepts and major thinkers. So if you were on the edge of your seat during your Philosophy 101 days, then this film’s for you; if not, then you might want to skip this class – er, film.

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Film Review: Southpaw

Southpaw throws a flurry of clichéd punches

Melodrama make Jake —ANGRY!
Melodrama make Jake —ANGRY!

Southpaw was not what I expected. I believed and hoped that I was walking into a Rocky type fable, or maybe a modern day Raging Bull. There have been a few strong entries into the sport fighting genre in recent years, including Rocky Balboa (2006), Warrior (2011), and hopefully the upcoming Creed (2015). Sure, there are twice as many sub-par entries between the aforementioned titles, but with a superb cast headlined by limitless Jake Gyllenhaal and under the consistently solid (if not above average) direction of Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer), Southpaw seemed destined to be the strong sports drama entry that comes along every handful of years. Alas, it is not. The sure bets going into the final product still shine—Gyllenhaal is superb and Fuqua’s direction is effective—but the story is formulaic and surprisingly, subtly, unnervingly, kinda racist.

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Film Review: Trainwreck

Schumer/Apatow collaboration delivers lots of laughs

Sports medicine doctor Aaron (Bill Hader) is intrigued by magazine writer Amy (Amy Schumer).

Amy Schumer, who in the past year has become comedy’s reigning it girl, breaks on to the big screen today with Trainwreck, the Judd Apatow-directed film that she both wrote and stars in. The Apatow-Schumer combination is as powerful as comedy fans would hope; the film is filled with Schumer’s no-holds-barred, brilliantly edgy funny bits, tempered by the same down-to-earth sweetness Apatow brought to pictures like The 40-Year-Old Virgin. The result is a refreshing, raw romantic comedy that will charm and delight even the most jaded rom-com fans.

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Film Review: Boulevard

Williams makes unimaginative picture worth seeing

Leo (Roberto Aguire) accepts a ride from Nolan (Robin Williams).

Boulevard is a tough movie to review, and an even tougher movie to watch, and not because it’s exceptionally good or exceptionally bad; it’s neither of those, but is a decent, if somewhat unoriginal, follow up by director Dito Montiel to his much lauded 2006 picture A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints. What makes the film hard to look at objectively is that it features Robin Williams in his last dramatic role, and it’s very difficult to see Williams’s performance here and not think about what he was going through when this film was made, only a year or so before his tragic suicide.

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