ReelViews for R movies

JT LeRoy, Justin Kelly’s adaptation of Savannah Knoop’s memoir, strives to be more than a run-of-the-mill biopic about two women who perpetrate a con on the literary world. It wants to address issues of gender fluidity and hypocrisy. It wa...

To what extent has the narrative surrounding the Black Panthers been developed by government and law enforcement agencies whose impartiality has been, to put it mildly, suspect? Although it’s beyond question that the Panthers weren’t compr...

One hallmark of great cinema is that, even when the story is tragic, a viewer can leave the theater both reflective and satisfied. Jude, Michael Winterbottom's ambitious, big-screen adaptation of Thomas Hardy's heartbreaking classic, Jude the ...

Some two decades ago, Sylvester Stallone actually did a little acting in a movie called Rocky. Since then, he's pretty much strutted his way through film after film, grunting convincingly and occasionally uttering a line or two of dialogue. He pr...

Two words that come to mind when considering The Judge are generic and predictable. It's also well-intentioned and earnest (perhaps to a fault). There are some good scenes and instances of strong acting but the project as a whole is so familiar tha...

What’s in a name? It would be disingenuous to assume that Nick Hornby was ignorant of the titillation value of calling something “Juliet, Naked.” However, to be clear, there’s nothing prurient about the movie. The title refers to a son...

The first encounter with the family of a spouse (or would-be spouse) can be a daunting experience, especially when their world is not yours, and vice versa. For his feature debut, director Phil Morrison (from a script by Angus MacLachlan) takes us...

The first encounter with the family of a spouse (or would-be spouse) can be a daunting experience, especially when their world is not yours, and vice versa. For his feature debut, director Phil Morrison (from a script by Angus MacLachlan) takes us...

Like David Lynch, Miranda July populates her films with quirky characters and her narratives peel back the veneer of normalcy to show what’s underneath. That’s where the similarities end, however. While Lynch gravitates toward darkness and...

Kandahar is one of those movies that exists without having a compelling reason for doing do. As a war movie, it’s not especially insightful or gut-wrenching. As an action film, it lacks energy, momentum, and consistency. As a drama, it feels art...