MovieSorter

loading Title loading Tws summary loading Trust ▼ loading Year Viewable
Mud
Really Great 86 Points 2013

Joe Morgenstern declared Mud an instant classic in the Wall Street Journal. Not sure why, but hell yes.

You almost want to ding Mud for being such a classically terrific movie, but damn if it doesn’t play out as monumentally cinematic yet nearly natural. Kind of a crime caper involving b…

Full Review »
WikChip Image Leading men, now & then: Matthew & Tye
2 Replies
  • Wick – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
  • Wick – Regarding "Tripod's Review":http://www.viewguide.com...
Barney's Version
Very Good 83 Points 2010

I find self-loathing shmucks more annoying than interesting. So Barney’s Version – about a dissolute TV exec played by the redoubtable Paul Giamatti – surprised me by deepening into an affecting and intriguing drama in its third reel. Based on Mordecai Richler’s final novel, its literary pedig…

Full Review »
WikChip Video Solid acting enlivens a solid novel
Nebraska
Great 83 Points 2013

Nebraska is a triumph of character development and acting. Good thing, since the plot only goes from A to B – or from Billings to Omaha, which is further than A is from B, but not by much.

It dyspeptically portrays Middle-American lives lived as nasty and brutish. Short too? No, long and …

Full Review »
WikChip Image The toughest of them all: June Squibb
1 Reply
  • Wick – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
Dawn of the Pla...
Really Great 83 Points 2014

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a superior successor to 2011’s Great Ape Movie, the terrific Planet of the Apes reboot. An upgraded human cast rectifies the origin movie’s one significant flaw, while the ape acting – previously Bogart quality – has become downright Brando-esque. *#DawnOfA…

Full Review »
WikChip Image Hail Caesar! The Great Ape Autocrat
1 Reply
  • Wick – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":http://www.viewguide.c...
Jurassic World
Really Great 83 Points 2015

Dinosaurs rule the summer 2015 multiplex some twenty years after they first conquered the silver screen. Fact is, no one leaves un-entertained after experiencing Jurassic World, in 3D or not. No wonder then that it’s the biggest movie ever, or at least is off to the biggest opening ever, on its…

Full Review »
WikChip Video Chris Pratt runs in high heels.
Wonder Woman
Really Great 83 Points 2017

Miss Israel kicks ass as Wonder Woman. But that’s not all, not by a long shot. Wonder Woman is a perfect superhero movie, deeply of the genre, yet soaring above it. That puts it in the small pantheon of DC movies, deadly earnest in the DC tradition, a la The Dark Knight

Full Review »
WikChip Video That's right, the women are smarter.
The Immigrant
Great 83 Points 2014

Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner form a tortured romantic triangle at the heart of The Immigrant, a touching period drama. Cotillard, the immigrant of the title, enters America with her sister through Ellis Island. Traumatized back in Poland, she gets beset with new problems…

Full Review »
WikChip Image Why so sad? She has her reasons.
Smart People
Great 82 Points 2008

Very funny ensemble piece about a man and his family struggling to move beyond the long-ago death of his wife, Smart People deftly skewers the low EQ of some high IQ people.1

Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker are perfectly serviceable in not very likable roles. Good thing Thomas Haden C…

Full Review »
Summer Hours
Great 66 Points 2008

A finely observed familial drama about siblings dealing with the death of their mother and the disposition of their museum-like childhood home, Summer Hours disdains standard movie drama. It’s edgeless, a film for two mature cohor…

Full Review »
WikChip Image Mother and Daughter of Privilege
Black Widow
Really Great 66 Points 1987

Genre movies get no better than Black Widow, a noirish crime drama that delivers just what its title promises. A stunning woman seduces rich men to marry her, kills them, absconds with their fortunes and finds her next mark. You hardly want her caught, especially if you’re a guy and she’s not…

Full Review »
WikChip Image Black Widow in Bridal Mode