Category D+ Reviews
Like Crazy (Drake Doremus, 2011)
Like Crazy the Grand Jury Prize winner at 2011’s Sundance Film Festival is an actor’s piece. Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin, who play the couple Anna and Jacob, improvise all of their dialogue and do a pretty good job with inhabiting it. It’s more than a little sappy, but it’s also the type of “butterflies […]
The Machinist (Brad Anderson, 2004)
The psychological thriller: If it is well made, it typically does three things. First, it quickly creates tension and throws you a mystery that you feel part of; second, it demands your attention if you want to “get it” right when you’re supposed to; and third, it tempts you to re-watch it not just to […]
A Dangerous Method (David Cronenberg, 2011)
David Cronenberg has spent decades making films that explore the body and play with sexuality and gender, from men turning into flies to women sucking blood with an orifice in their armpit to people getting off on car crashes that mangle bodies. With that in mind, a movie about the thinkers who have become household […]
Citizen Ruth (Alexander Payne, 1996)
Citizen Ruth (1996), following the titular, drug-addicted pregnant woman (Laura Dern) being used by pro-lifers and pro-choicers, was the first feature by Alexander Payne. I often get the impression that Payne dislikes his own characters, but he especially hates those in Citizen Ruth. There is not an ounce of sympathy for Ruth, who is not […]
Forrest In Focus: Critical Film Reviews 