Tag: Film lover

Film: A Place at the Table

A Place at the Table | Directors Kristi Jacobson & Lori Silverbush | Score: 6.3 If you’re feeling up to it, you could pretty effectively encapsulate the neglect this country heaps on its children via a punishing double-feature of societal…

Film: Life Itself

Life Itself | Director Steve James | Score: 7.4 Over the last few years of his life, his body ravaged by cancer to the point where he couldn’t eat, drink or speak, Roger Ebert went from porcine, preening TV icon…

Film: Tim’s Vermeer

Tim’s Vermeer | Director Teller | Score: 5.8 There is in human beings the desire to believe in the direct power of an almighty, in ways that go far beyond the strict tenements of faith and consecration. After all, you…

Film: In Secret

In Secret | Director Charlie Stratton | Score: 4.7 I had to smother my amusement when a fellow film critic companion, after a long, hard day at TIFF, slogging though difficult, archly depressing films, decided to join me for this…

Film: Gloria

Gloria | Director Sebastián Lelio | Score: 6.5 There is a moment late in Sebastián Lelio ‘s film where our titular heroine, a 50-something divorcee played exquisitely by Paulina García, wakes up on a beach outside Santiago, hung over, bewildered…

Film: Labor Day

Labor Day | Director Jason Reitman | Score: 2.5 Bad prose commits many offenses, but its worst sin is one of trite convenience: Things happen not because they make character sense, they happen because they make things easier on the…

Film: Her

Her | Director Spike Jonze | Score: 7.8 So for once, we have a vision of the near future that doesn’t involve a dystopian, post-nuclear holocaust, or filthy beggars in dirty shrouds preaching about the new god they made. No,…

Film: Out of the Furnace

Out of the Furnace | Director Scott Cooper | Score: 5.0 Here’s a helpful tip for all you burgeoning film directors who would dearly love some big names for your next low-budget indie: Just make sure your last film —…