The Grouchy Editor

Weiner

In case you haven’t had your fill of sleazy politics this election season, you can always check out this documentary, in which a film crew tailed disgraced politician Anthony Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin during Weiner’s doomed, 2013 mayoral campaign. Lots of lessons here: why good people don’t want to run for public office, why we as voters get the leaders we deserve, and so on. My takeaway is that we haven’t heard the last from this relatively young power couple — for better or worse. Release: 2016  Grade: B+

**

Sing Street

Sing Street is a minor miracle: a teen romance with minimal snark and cynicism, a feel-good movie with smarts. I wouldn’t have thought that possible in 2016. The story will be familiar to anyone who’s watched teen comedies – outcast Dublin kid starts a band to win the attention of a cute girl – but the characters are so personable, the dialogue so amusing, and the tone so good-natured that any lack of originality is forgiven. Oh, and the music isn’t half bad.  Release: 2016  Grade: A-

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Gringo

If you think selecting a president this year is akin to choosing between having a root canal or a colonoscopy, it could be worse. We could be stuck with Libertarian candidate John McAfee, the software mogul who wound up accused of rape and orchestrating not one but two murders in Belize. Documentarian Nanette Burstein interviewed McAfee’s hired thugs, his victims, and his teenage “girlfriends” who observed as he turned one part of Central America into his own Heart of Darkness.  

It’s hard to say which is more stomach-turning: the way McAfee exploited poor Belizeans, or the way America’s fawning business and tech communities have welcomed him back to the U.S.A.  Release: 2016  Grade: B+

**

Amanda Knox

Amanda Knox is not a particularly likeable woman – but that doesn’t necessarily make her a murderer. After watching Netflix’s new documentary about the Seattle woman’s trials and tribulations in the Italian justice system, I remain as clueless as ever to her guilt or innocence in the death of roommate Meredith Kercher. But I do know this: The movie reaffirms my belief that I never want to find myself on trial in Italy – especially with flamboyant, egotistical prosecutor Giuliano Mignini running the show. Release: 2016  Grade: B+

**

Rams

Two Icelandic farmers – feuding brothers who haven’t spoken to each other in 40 years – find their livelihoods threatened when disease strikes their beloved sheep stock. Rams is one of those “little” films in which nothing much seems to happen – but it’s so unusual that it could stay with you for a long time.  Release: 2015  Grade: B

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High-Rise

To borrow a cliché, watching High-Rise is like witnessing a slow-motion train wreck:  It’s unpleasant, incomprehensible, yet oddly mesmerizing. Tom Hiddleston plays a 1970s doctor who moves into a state-of-the-art high-rise apartment building and gets entangled when the tenants – upper-crust Brits on the top floors, poorer Brits on the lower floors – engage in class warfare that turns violent.  I enjoyed this train wreck. But I’m not sure I’d want to watch it again.  Release: 2015  Grade: B

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The Wave

Norway delivers an exciting disaster movie that more than holds its own against similar fare from Hollywood. A geologist learns that a restless mountain is about to crumble, dumping enough rock into an adjoining fjord to create a 250-foot wall of water that will turn his scenic village into Davy Jones’ Locker – and the populace has just minutes to reach higher ground. It’s a familiar disaster-flick scenario, but director Roar Uthaug beats Hollywood at its own game by making the action and characters more realistic. Also, the special effects are impressive. Release: 2015  Grade: B+

*****

Night Will Fall

If you get off on “torture porn” like The Green Inferno by filmmaker Eli Roth, this disturbing movie might cure you of the affliction, because Night’s raw footage of dead, dying, or decomposing concentration-camp victims is a reminder that gore and brutality aren’t just the province of Hollywood special-effects wizards. Ostensibly, this film is about an unreleased documentary briefly overseen by Alfred Hitchcock in 1945, but what lingers is the horror of Nazi Germany. Release: 2014  Grade: A

*****

Crimson Peak

Mia Wasikowska plays an early-20th-century damsel who marries and then moves to an eerie estate with her British husband (Tom Hiddleston) and his sinister sister, played with venomous relish by Jessica Chastain. This is an old-fashioned ghost story with modern-day special effects and, best of all, the visual aesthetics of director Guillermo del Toro. The gloomy estate hides secrets, the brother and sister harbor secrets … and none of it is particularly scary. As a romance Crimson also falls short, but Del Toro’s gorgeous sets and old-style direction make for a memorable two hours. Release: 2015  Grade: B+

*****

Wildlike

Here’s a small gem with a larger-than-life setting. Ella Purnell plays a 14-year-old runaway who flees an abusive uncle and finds a reluctant ally in a backpacking, grumpy widower played by Bruce Greenwood. The movie begins as a total downer but transitions into a touching, odd-couple dramedy thanks to memorable turns from Greenwood, young Purnell, and the beauties of Alaska. Release: 2014  Grade: A-

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Spotlight

It’s easy to see how Spotlight won the Best Picture Oscar: It’s an “important” movie, well-produced, well-written, and well-acted. It’s also easy to see why it grossed only $45 million at the American box office: Unlike, say, another newspaper movie called All the President’s Men, Spotlight is cerebral and clinical, more documentary and less Hollywood thriller. It’s not the kind of movie you can say you “enjoy,” because the subject matter — priests molesting kids — is so unpleasant. But you won’t be bored. Release: 2015  Grade: A- 

*****

The Invitation

Director Karyn Kusama conducts a graduate course in suspense and — if you’ve had it with what passes for “horror” these days — you’d be wise to attend. The plot: A man accepts a dinner-party invitation from his ex-wife and her new husband at their secluded house in the Hollywood Hills. Old friends of the former couple are also among the invitees, but aside from the hosts’ expensive wine and fancy digs, something feels a little … off … from the moment guests walk in the front door. You might guess where things are headed, but Invitation has creepiness galore on its way to a nasty little twist-ending. Release: 2016  Grade: B+

*****

No Escape

For an hour, No Escape is everything you could ask from an action-thriller: It’s relentlessly exciting and has heroes who behave in a believable manner – until they don’t. Owen Wilson and Lake Bell head an American family newly arrived to a Southeast Asian country when the prime minister is assassinated, unleashing violence in the streets and forcing the Americans to run, claw, and fight for survival. But after that thrilling first hour, the screenwriters resort to action-flick clichés and downright silliness. Release: 2015  Grade: C+

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Kilo Two Bravo

Here’s a tense, realistic slice of war in which a small band of British soldiers in Afghanistan gets trapped in a riverbed littered with active landmines. This is the rare thriller in which the gore is not gratuitous, the special effects are actually special, and the term “nail-biter” can be taken literally — I was certainly biting mine. Release: 2014  Grade: A-

**

Victoria

Victoria has a gimmick, sure. It’s a 138-minute movie shot in one long take — no edits, no breaks. But once you stop marveling at the technical skill of the filmmakers, the single-shot gimmick actually aids the story, pulling you along with young Victoria as she impulsively hangs out with some bad boys on a night when things go horribly wrong in Berlin. The movie artfully transitions from playful lark to exciting heist to, most surprisingly, a touching finale. Release: 2015 Grade: A-

 **

Everest

We’ll never know exactly what transpired atop Mt. Everest on May 10, 1996, the day that eight climbers expired while attempting to scale the peak, because survivors dispute the details. But I do know two things about 2015’s Everest: 1) as an adventure movie, it boasts climbing scenes that are spectacular and harrowing, and 2) as a human drama, the film is somewhat lacking. When people die every day somewhere on the planet from poverty, natural disasters and senseless violence, it’s hard to muster empathy for a bunch of rich adventurists who perished in pursuit of bragging rights.  Release: 2015  Grade: B

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Neighbors

For a comedy, Neighbors has a decent premise: New parents Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne find their neighborhood peace and quiet disrupted when noisy, chaotic fraternity boys move in next door. But what follows is 90 minutes of adolescent humor, nonsensical plot developments, and off-putting gross-outs. If you make a movie this lame, you’d best not reference better comedies like Meet the Parents and Animal House, which only reminds us of what we’re missing.  Release: 2014  Grade: D

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Trainwreck

Comedian-screenwriter Amy Schumer and director Judd Apatow try to please fans of modern gross-out humor — the twist is that, these days, it’s more often the girls than the boys who are delivering the gross-outs — and lovers of more traditional, fairy-tale romantic comedies with this movie about a cynical party animal (Schumer) who falls for a nerdy sports doctor (Bill Hader). The end product is a bit uneven, but the film’s heart is in the right place, its characters are likeable, and there are enough funny bits to make for an enjoyable two hours.  Release: 2015 Grade: B

**

Dark

This psychological thriller about a New York model’s gradual descent into madness bears a strong resemblance to Repulsion, the 1965 classic from director Roman Polanski. But following an opening, steamy sex scene between stars Whitney Able and Alexandra Breckenridge, Dark’s slow-burn suspense dwindles to a snail’s pace, taking a long time to reach the climax. On the plus side, Able is quite good as the paranoid model, and it’s refreshing to absorb horror that takes place in the mind rather than in some blood-spattered setting.  Release: 2015  Grade: B-

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