“If you spend as much time hanging out in bars as I do you’ll probably find it delightful. Fegan favors straight-on shots from a patron’s point-of-view, occasionally interrupted by afternoon customers. It’s a relaxed, unassuming picture that breezes by in a slight 75 minutes, pausing once in awhile for a song before heading out for another pint in another town.” – North Shore Movies, 10/23/2014
CAMP X-RAY * * *
Starring Kristen Stewart, Peyman Moaadi, Lane Garrison, Julia Duffy and John Carroll Lynch. Written and directed by Peter Sattler.
FURY * *
Starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, John Bernthal and Michael Pena. Written and directed by David Ayer.
“Jeremy Renner is, at heart, a weirdo character actor whose live-wire performance in The Hurt Locker resulted in Hollywood mistakenly shoving him into leading man parts for which he’s ill-equipped. Whether flinging arrows as the lamest Avenger or starring as The Bourne Lazenby, he feels strait-jacketed in straight roles.” – North Shore Movies, 10/15/2014
“Writer-director Alex Ross Perry’s Listen Up Philip is a rueful, remarkable film about how success can still feel like defeat. I first saw it at Sundance back in January and haven’t shut up about it since. It’s funny as hell, but funny in that way where the laughs catch in your throat. A literary cousin to Llewyn Davis, Philip finds the melancholy in misanthropy.” – Movie Mezzanine, 10/13/2014
THE JUDGE * 1 / 2
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio and Billy Bob Thornton. Screenplay by Nick Schenk and Bill Dubuque. Directed by David Dobkin.
WHIPLASH * * 1 / 2
Starring Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist and Paul Reiser. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle.
“Cage bottoms out big-time with this chintzy reboot of a Christian movie franchise that previously starred noted Stephen Hawking-debunker and evangelical pest Kirk Cameron. Left Behind has the flimsy sets and tinny synthesizer score (not to mention the character names) of a 1980’s porn flick. and Nic’s embarrassment comes through in his performance.” – North Shore Movies, 10/05/2014
GONE GIRL * * * 1 / 2
Starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens and Tyler Perry. Screenplay by Gillian Flynn. Directed by David Fincher.
“A hysterical treatise about how that insidious collection of tubes called the Internet has destroyed our family values and ruined everybody’s lives, this has got to be the crotchetiest, most alarmist movie ever directed by a 36-year-old man. Men, Women & Children would probably be the worst film released all year, had Jason Reitman not also made Labor Day.” – Movie Mezzanine, 10/02/2014
SPLICED PERSONALITY 