Kill the Messenger
Kill the Messenger is based on a true story, and what a story it is! It is the tale of a journalist/whistleblower who had the guts to publish the truth…
Dracula Untold
Another Dracula movie you ask? Haven't we had enough vampire movies yet? Well, maybe not. Dracula Untold gives the traditionally evil bloodsucker his back story and makes him a more…
The Trip to Italy
I did not see the first of this series, but it is now on my list. In the first one, called simply The Trip (2010) the same two men, comedian/actors…
Mood Indigo
Writer/director Michel Gondry brought us Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , one of the more strangely inventive stories of the 21st century. With Mood Indigo he returns with a…
Lucy
I generally like Luc Besson movies -- The Fifth Element, Leon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita. He writes some pretty interesting female characters who frequently have to fend for themselves…
Boyhood
Boyhood, the new film from Richard Linklater (Before Midnight, Bernie, Dazed and Confused) is getting a lot of accolades because of the way it was shot, over the course of…
Venus in Fur (La Vénus à la fourrure)
Theater lovers rejoice! And run to see this film. It is a fantastique adaptation of a play about a playwright/director and the mysterious woman who just may be the perfect…
A Most Wanted Man
There is really just one reason to go see A Most Wanted Man -- Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film, while good on its own terms, mainly serves as a reminder…
Snowpiercer
I really wanted to like this movie. It has a top notch cast with Chris "Captain America" Evans, Tilda "Chameleon" Swinton, Octavia "Oscar" Spencer, John "Gravitas" Hurt and Ed "Reliable"…
Me and You (Io e te)
There are a handful of directors whose names lead me to expect greatness. Bertolucci is definitely one of them. He has written and directed some of the most successful and…
Begin Again
Begin Again is all about the transformative power of music. In it a down on his luck, alcoholic ex-record company executive discovers a down on her luck songwriter and the…
Land Ho
Land Ho is a road movie, in which a couple of 60ish ex-brothers-in-law named Colin and Mitch head to Iceland to, as Mitch puts it, "Get their groove back." That…
AFI DOCS 2014 (Days 3&4)
The last two days of the festival I spent in AFI's Silver Spring theaters. All the films were shown in both the downtown DC venues and at the AFI home…
Ida
Ida is one of those extremely beautiful but ultimately depressing films. It is the story of an 18-year-old Polish orphan who was brought up by nuns and is about to…
AFI DOCS 2014 (Days 1&2)
As Arty Chick, I am a great lover of the documentary genre and this year's AFI DOCS in Washington, DC sated my docu-hunger quite well. As with any festival, there…