Search for 2014

The Book of Life represents Guillermo del Toro's most hands-on foray (to date) into the realm of family friendly entertainment; this is closer in tone and sensibility to one of Tim Burton's offbeat animated films than one of Pixar's more "vanilla" ...

The Boxtrolls represents the best animated movie to reach theater screens since The Lego Movie exploded on the scene in February. A British-flavored, 3-D stop motion affair, The Boxtrolls channels more than a little Monty Python in telling its Tarz...

One thing becomes clear upon watching Boyhood: director Richard Linklater is fascinated by the concept of following a fictional character through real time. Most filmmakers lack the patience to attempt something like this. In spirit, if not in the ...

As cynical as it may sound, it's probably true that the death of actor Paul Walker gave life to Brick Mansions. A D-grade action flick with nothing to recommend it beyond a cacophony of mind-numbingly generic action sequences, Brick Mansions can be...

Captain America: The Winter Soldier represents the first film from Marvel Studios since The Avengers to capture the true superhero spirit: plenty of derring-do, action, adventure, and an ending that doesn't fall apart. A sequel to 2011's Captain Am...

It's hard to actively dislike Cesar Chavez, Diego Luna's bio-pic of Cesar Chavez, the co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association. Chavez looms large in the pantheon of 1960s/70s Civil Rights activists and the movie gives him his due, attem...

Spoiler Alert: This review contains spoilers related to a plot point that occurs late in the film. You have been warned. Thematically, The Clouds of Sils Maria is a close cousin to Birdman, although the former is weaker in both narrative thrust an...

Love and dance have been linked together for as long as there have been movies. Cuban Fury is the latest member of this proud tradition but it's not likely to cause many viewers to forget the classics (or even some of the not-so-classics) of the ge...

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is not only a solid dystopian-flavored science fiction film in its own right but it elevates the stock of its immediate predecessor in the Planet of the Apes franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. By adding to th...

The historical events referenced in Volker Schlondorff's 2014 film Diplomacy (based on the stage play by Cyril Gely) are real but the details have largely been fudged, imagined, or fictionalized. To quote Mark Twain, "Never let the truth get in the...