Kingsway Films
MOVIE REVIEW
Anti-Social (2015)
You know how when someone means well; and his or her heart is in the right place; but he or she just doesn’t quite get it, right? “Anti-Social” is that, in film form. It wants to be a commentary on the fine line between legal and illegal ways of making a living and ends up being a budget fantasia about both. It doesn’t quite succeed, but it’s a film that’s impossible to hate.
David Dare Parker/A24
MOVIE REVIEW
Son of a Gun (2015)
This Australian crime caper doesn’t quite know what to do with itself. It has Ewan McGregor, perfectly cast as a man who remains a fundamentally decent human being even while murdering villains left and right. It has Alicia Vikander — about five minutes before she becomes a global superstar — as an appealingly vulnerable combination of curdling sexuality and stifled intelligence. It has one of the most inventive settings for a robbery in cinema history. And somehow — somehow — the movie blows it.
Barry Wetcher/Columbia Pictures
MOVIE REVIEW
Annie (2014)
The 1982 “Annie” was my first experience in the cinema. I thought the whole experience was wonderful. Basically I was Annie: I was a little girl, mistreated by the adults in her life, who deserved to be plucked from nothing and set up in the big time. I wanted red hair; I wanted the red dress; I wanted a smelly old dog. And at the big finale — when Annie is chased up the crane and has to be rescued by the Sikh bodyguard — I was so frightened that I had to be removed from the theater in screaming and crying disgrace. We then got the movie on Betamax and I watched it approximately a billion times before I turned 10 years old, without any further disgracing, as I believe. Although I have not seen the original for some time, “Annie,” as was, remains one of the cleverest movies aimed at little girls, who are natural hams perfectly happy to believe that their parents/guardians are big meanies and a better life is waiting for them, if only someone would see how special they are. As a child, the original political satire of the comic strip on which all is based was utterly lost on me. But I never did understand why, when it was obvious Daddy Warbucks had the ability to take all of them on, only Annie was adopted.
The new “Annie,” directed by Will Gluck, time-shifts the story to right now while keeping many of the original elements almost the same. Annie (Quvenzhané Wallis) now lives in the overcrowded apartment of her alcoholic foster mother Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz) in Harlem. Safely in midtown, cell-phone billionaire William Stacks (Jamie Foxx) is running for mayor on a platform of “never drop a citizen” (as if citizens were calls) while definitively not being a man of the people. One day he saves Annie from a traffic accident; the resulting viral video and bump in the poll numbers causes his chief-of-staff Guy (Bobby Cannavale, who has finally made the big time and visibly enjoys every second) propose that he foster Annie to ensure he wins the election. Stacks’ lonely assistant Grace (Rose Byrne, who is quietly carving herself one of the most interesting career paths in modern Hollywood) is of course roped in to do the practical stuff, as she is a woman. And of course spoilers follow: Kids, go play outside or something!
Studiocanal
MOVIE REVIEW
’71 (2014)
The most unusual thing about this thriller is that it exists at all. The situation in Northern Ireland was so tense, fraught and full of horror that an accurate, clear-sighted telling of it has been almost impossible to do. Steve McQueen’s “Hunger” — which many critics loved but this one loathed, did open the doors for a more visceral type of discussion about the Troubles — in the focus on the minds and bodies instead of the politics of the relevant people. Written by a Scot (Gregory Burke), funded with British money and directed by a French-Algerian (Yann Demange), “ ’71” has no apparent interest in sectarian propaganda of any kind. Any of these things is extremely unusual; but the combination is, until now, unheard of. And the result is one of the sharpest British movies in some time.
Universal Pictures
MOVIE REVIEW
The Boxtrolls (2014)
“The Boxtrolls” is a movie aimed at children. It is also disgusting and immoral. It breaches a line that should not have been crossed — and it’s been rated PG in both Britain and the United States. What the hell are the rating boards thinking? Plain and simple, “The Boxtrolls” is propaganda for the war machine. The normalization of torture in cinema — and most especially cinema for children — has got to stop. Someone has to say it.
James Dittger/Summit Entertainment
MOVIE REVIEW
Step Up All In (2014)
The adorable “Step Up” series of movies has made a lot of money by doing something very simple: holding the camera still and letting very good dancers do their thing. They are mostly filmed in wide shots so we can see exactly what they are doing. The camera doesn’t move too much so we can focus on how great the dancers are. The mood and music are upbeat; and nothing is more important than one’s crew. “Step Up All In” doesn’t deviate from this formula — and that’s great.
Sarah Manvel/Critic's Notebook
An outsider to the Irish film industry would be surprised at the depth and breadth of work available at the 26th Galway Film Fleadh. Held over five days and six nights every July in the largest city on Ireland’s west coast, the Fleadh (pronounced “flah,” Irish Gaelic for festival) brings together new and old talent in one place to act as a doorway to the global scene. Since its winning short automatically becomes eligible for Oscar consideration, the festival is able to punch considerably above its apparent weight.
Element Pictures Distribution
MOVIE REVIEW
Glassland (2014)
Kitchen-sink dramas can be very difficult to like. Small movies about unhappy lives can unfortunately sometimes be overwhelmed by their own metaphors. Quite often, directors are also overwhelmed by their own material and don’t know how to let the film breathe. Luckily in “Glassland,” Gerard Barrett makes none of those mistakes. Even better, he has brought in a wonderful cast that is more than capable of making these dim lights shine.
2014 Sundance Film Festival
MOVIE REVIEW
Young Ones (2014)
Some time in the near future, arty teenager Jerome (Kodi Smit-McPhee) lives on a remote farm with his sister Mary (Elle Fanning) and their father Ernest (Michael Shannon). Water is a resource more precious than gold. It hardly ever rains anymore; and the land has always been — in Jerome’s lifetime — a desert. Ernest is a good man, willing to help out the locals and share what little he has, but who is unafraid to kill marauding strangers who threaten his family. The closest threat, of course, comes from Mary’s boyfriend Flem (Nicholas Hoult).
Studiocanal
MOVIE REVIEW
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2014)
When looking back of a century’s worth of escapades in a work of art, the temptation is irresistible to put your hero at the center of the action. But a lot of that depends on who your hero is. When you have a lovable, good-hearted dunce like Forrest Gump at the center, you have an international smash hit and the inability to look at a box of chocolates in the same way ever again. But when you have a murdering pyromaniac at the center of your comedy, then unfortunately much, much more than a spoonful of sugar is needed to send that medicine down.