The Gambler (2014)
Dir: Rupert Wyatt
It was an uphill climb but Mark Wahlberg’s new film may place him into the most improbable on-screen profession of his career. That’s right, The Gambler has overtaken high school science teacher (The Happening) and inventor (Transformers 4: We’ll Keep Making These As Long As You Keep Paying) in terms of incredulity as it asks you to believe that Mark Wahlberg’s character Jim Bennett is a tenured English professor. (more…)
The Interview (2014)
Dirs: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Sometimes it’s difficult to separate a movie from the story surrounding its making. When filmmakers tackle controversial subjects like religion (The Last Temptation of Christ, The Passion of the Christ), murder (A Clockwork Orange, Natural Born Killers) or sex (Basic Instinct, Blue Is the Warmest Colour) someone’s ire is sure to be raised. (more…)
Top Five (2014)
Dir: Chris Rock
Chris Rock might as well be talking directly to his critics when the line “sometimes a movie is just a movie” is said during Top Five. (more…)
Mr. Turner (2014)
Dir: Mike Leigh
“Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt and remain silent.” J.M.W. Turner was a wise man who opted to say little and express himself in other ways, becoming one of England’s most famous painters. (more…)
The Theory of Everything (2014)
Dir: James Marsh
Renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is given the full-on biopic treatment in James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything, delving into a life rich with conflict and thematical resonance: theology vs. physics, whether to follow the heart or the head, and exuberant love mixed with deeply felt loss. (more…)
The Imitation Game (2014)
Dir: Morten Tyldum
“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” That’s a refrain heard a few times in the historical thriller The Imitation Game and, much like that quote, the movie itself is well-meaning but a little unwieldy. (more…)
Citizenfour (2014)
Dir: Laura Poitras
Citizenfour plays like a modern paranoid thriller about the erosion of our civil liberties and rise of the global surveillance state, but gains considerable impact from the fact that it’s a documentary about what’s happening here and now, in our lifetimes. (more…)
The Babadook (2014)
Dir: Jennifer Kent
Let’s get this out of the way – The Babadook is terrifying. Both the movie and the title character are so well-realized, so full of dread, that The Babadook will linger with you long after the final credits roll. (more…)
The Skeleton Twins (2014)
Dir: Craig Johnson
Saturday Night Live co-stars and professional funny people Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader reunite on the silver screen in Craig Johnson’s melancholic and touching comedy The Skeleton Twins. (more…)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)
Dir: Francis Lawrence
Mockingjay Part 1 continues to introduce subversive themes and ideas in the strangest and most politically-charged modern blockbuster series outside of The Planet of The Apes. The dystopic setting of Panem is opened up to reveal the ramifications of the last two Hunger Games and its effects on the participants, as the seeds of rebellion take root and an uprising is fomented. (more…)
Glen On Film 