Search for 2015

In the pantheon of YA ("Young Adult") dystopian book-turned-movie series, if The Hunger Games occupies the pinnacle then The Maze Runner sits in the basement. After an encouraging and engaging first half of the first film, The Maze Runner h...

The gold standard for inspirational teenage sports movies is unquestionably Hoosiers and, although McFarland USA falls short of the mark set by the iconic '80s film, it comes closer than most would expect. The reason is simple: McFarland USA, lik...

At first glance, one could assume this is just another "cancer romance", but such a glib description does Me and Earl and the Dying Girl a disservice. As brought to the screen by director Alfonso Romez-Rejon and writer Jesse Andrews (adapti...

The Despicable Me duology, one of the best non-Pixar animated series to reach the silver screen in recent years, was successful with kids and adults for different reasons. Older viewers appreciated its tongue-in-cheek wit and satirical aspects. Child...

2015 has been a banner year for action-oriented spy movies. One early entry, Kingsman: The Secret Service, was a Valentine to '60s British titles. A similar claim could be made about the upcoming The Man from U.N.C.L.E. In November, James Bond wi...

Despite clocking in at a skinny 84 minutes, Mistress America overstays its welcome. Directed by Noah Baumbach and co-written by Baumbach and ex-mumblecore goddess Greta Gerwig, the film is characterized by long passages of self-conscious dialogue tha...

It's increasingly unusual that a thriller can claim to maintain its intensity for the entirety of its running length. No Escape is masterful at keeping the stakes high without confounding our so-called "suspension of disbelief." Unlike ...

Our Brand is Crisis is about an election but in many ways it plays out like a boxing movie told from the perspective of the trainer. The cynical, satirical edge is entirely appropriate for the world of politics in which style trumps substance and the...

The Overnight plays like the pilot of a sitcom developed for Netflix or premium cable. A hit-and-miss affair that deals in a sporadically amusing fashion with many of the mundane (and a few not-so-mundane) tribulations of long-term monogamy in marria...

How's a studio to proceed when it wants to do something with a classic, family-friendly property but believes a straightforward remake to be redundant? The solution, as recently explored by several would-be franchises, is to expand the canvas. Ma...