ReelViews for R movies

It's a noteworthy achievement for director Damien Chazelle to infuse a tale about the development of a musician with all the tension and intensity of a top-notch thriller. Whiplash is riveting. At times, it evidences the qualities of a can't-turn-a...

As a satire about the absurdity of war and the way the news media covers it, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot has surprisingly dull fangs. Coming from Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey, this is especially surprising since neither is known for pulling punches. Neverth...

In trying to do too much, White Boy Rick accomplishes too little. During the course of less than two hours, it seeks to be a character drama, a true-life crime saga, and a socially conscious commentary about the disproportionately long sentenc...

Black is white and white is black. It's a clever gimmick, but, ultimately, as depicted in White Man's Burden, that's all it is. Once the premise is set, writer/director Desmond Nakano doesn't know what to do with it. Added to that is the conside...

Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, which won the Golden Palm Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, is the quintessential art film: slow, demanding, and rewarding for those willing to put forth the intellectual effort necessary to puzzle out its a...

The Whole Nine Yards suffers from split personality syndrome - it's a strange hybrid of film noir and comedy. At first, this might not seem like an unusual approach, until you recall that most movies of this ilk are satires. That's not what's goi...

I’m not going to lie. I laughed - just not as frequently or as hard as I would have liked to.  Why Him? contains its share of effective humor, both of the clever and raunchy kinds, but it also suffers from two malaises that infect many mod...

As a comedy, Wicked Little Letters hits many of the right notes, although the satirical elements are often presented too bluntly to lacerate with maximum effect. As a mystery, however, it is less than impressive. The whodunnit? aspect is revealed ...

The Wicker Man is an early '70s British export that criss-crosses genres as easily as it confounds audience expectations. A film that defies categorization, The Wicker Man can be considered to be a horror film, a psychological thriller, a musical,...

Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) is a career criminal – a thief so meticulous that he has operated for thirty years without being caught. He plans each job ahead, writing all the details in a notebook, and leaves nothing to chance. But fate catc...