Review: “La La Land”

4.5 out of 5 stars. “La La Land” opens with a long tracking shot, the camera moving along bumper-to-bumper traffic on a Los Angeles freeway, a cacophony of sounds and different music emanating from each vehicle—a fairly typical scene, until, one by one, people leap out of their cars, jumping on top of them and […]

Review: “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (with spoilers)

WARNING: The following review contains spoilers for “Rogue One.” Read at your own risk. 4 out of 5 stars. With “The Force Awakens,” the first new installment of the “Star Wars” series since 2005 and the first since the Walt Disney Company acquired the franchise, the goal was to draw audiences back into that galaxy […]

Review: “Loving”

4 out of 5 stars. Loving was their name, and they were persecuted for doing the exact same thing. In “Loving,” writer/director Jeff Nichols tells the true story of the landmark 1967 court case Loving v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for states to prohibit interracial marriage. It’s a […]

Review: “Moana”

4.5 out of 5 stars. Walt Disney Feature Animation has had a remarkable past several years, turning out amazing film after amazing film, from the cultural phenomenon “Frozen” to the record-breaking hit of this spring, “Zootopia.” But even among such illustrious titles, “Moana” may be the studio’s crowning achievement of this era. “Moana,” which is […]

Review: “The Edge of Seventeen”

4.5 out of 5 stars. Awkward people and fans of teen comedies, rejoice. Writer and director Kelly Fremon Craig’s “The Edge of Seventeen” is a wonderful medley of everything that’s great about the John Hughes teen films of the eighties, and the quirky indie comedies of the last decade, a la Juno—in fact, this movie […]

Review: “Moonlight”

5 out of 5 stars. “Moonlight” is one of those films that it’s hard to believe even exists– it tells a type of story with a type of character that hasn’t been done before, and does so in an exceedingly heartfelt and poetic way that earns it the title of one of the year’s best […]

Review: “Arrival”

4 out of 5 stars. What would the people of Earth do if our planet was suddenly invaded by an alien race? It’s a question that has been asked by hundreds of science fiction films, with “Arrival” now joining the bunch. But “Arrival” isn’t an action movie. It isn’t about people fighting the aliens; in fact, the story […]

Review: “Hacksaw Ridge”

4.5 out of 5 stars. It has been ten years since Mel Gibson’s last directorial effort, “Apocalypto,” was released to mixed reviews. But controversial figure though he may be, Gibson makes a soaring comeback with his new film, “Hacksaw Ridge,” based on the true story of World War II hero Desmond Doss. In the opening of […]

Review: “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”

4 out of 5 stars. 2016 is shaping up the be the year of Harry Potter: five years after the last movie came out (and almost ten since the last book), we’ve gotten not only a play and published script of an all new story following those characters, but a new spinoff film as well. […]

Review: “Manchester by the Sea”

5 out of 5 stars. Usually there’s at least one movie every year that bowls me over with its honest and unflinching character studies, a film that I know I love even as I’m watching it for the first time. It looks like this year, director Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea” is that movie. […]