Movie Reviews

Movie Reviews

Whiplash

By Michael Snyder

Virtuosity is more than just a fancy word suggesting excellence in one’s field. It’s a life goal for many aspiring, dedicated musicians. As such, the drive to be great ... Read More
Movie Reviews

Fall movie preview

By Michael Snyder

Fall arts previews in the media are almost as inevitable as autumn itself — and they usually include a look at coming attractions in cinema, so here’s one for the Marina Ti... Read More
Movie Reviews

The blockbuster burden

By Michael Snyder

The movie business has undergone radical changes in the past decade. That would be the movie business, not the film business. The industry is still producing moving pictures, but l... Read More
Movie Reviews

‘Boyhood’

By Michael Snyder

In an astonishing feat that echoes and even trumps some aspects of his time-spanning Before trilogy, filmmaker Richard Linklater has produced Boyhood, a thoroughly engaging, often ... Read More
Movie Reviews

‘We Are the Best!’ and ‘Cold in July’

By Michael Snyder

There are so many different genres in the world of cinema and such a wide range of quality (with mediocrity being the rule) that it’s downright gratifying when a filmmaker ta... Read More
Movie Reviews

‘Belle’: Breakout role for Mbatha-Raw as Dido

By Michael Snyder

Even if you’re suffering from docudrama fatigue or are skeptical of the assertion (or disclaimer) “inspired by a true story” that precedes so many films these day... Read More
Movie Reviews

Oscar aftermath and ‘Finding Vivian Maier’

By Michael Snyder

I’m on the record as detesting award competitions in the arts, though I do like the idea of merit rewarded. It’s just the concept of narrowing down a field to a handful of ost... Read More
Movie Reviews

‘One Chance’

By Michael Snyder

Get ready for a shock. A jaded reviewer prone to cynicism is about to recommend an earnest dock-drama about a sad sack who enters a reality-TV talent competition. To be fair, I did... Read More
Movie Reviews

‘Tim’s Vermeer’

By Michael Snyder

You could call inventor and digital-tech engineer Tim Jenison obsessive. You could call him self-indulgent, too. But his fixation on the beautiful, hyper-realistic paintings of 17t... Read More
Movie Reviews

2013 in film

By Michael Snyder

Even though I can’t abide awards competitions in the arts, I still find myself reflecting on the cultural highlights and lowlights of the previous 12 months at the turn of th... Read More
Movie Reviews

Christmas on screen

By Michael Snyder

Christmas movies are part of the fabric of Western culture. And no matter how much you hope the season will be about “peace on Earth and good films to all men (and women),... Read More
Movie Reviews

Big Sur

By Michael Snyder

As someone fascinated by the Beat Generation, its auteurs and their Bay Area haunts, I’m probably the ideal target for director-screenwriter Michael Polish’s faithful-t... Read More
Movie Reviews

Herb and Dorothy 50×50

A story of art and giving
By Sharon Anderson

“What we did then is now art history.” — Herbert Vogel In 2008, film director Megumi Sasaki released the film Herb and Dorothy, a story of two unlikely art collectors... Read More
Movie Reviews

A terrifying top 10 for Halloween

By Michael Snyder

With Halloween shambling toward us, October is an ideal time for movie-lovers to seek cinematic encounters of the frightening kind, whether supernatural or science-fictional. Let m... Read More
Movie Reviews

‘The World’s End’

By Michael Snyder

As an avowed Anglophile and a major devotee of that peculiarly British brand of comedy couched in discomfort (e.g., Channel 4’s sitcoms Peep Show and Fresh Meat; anything inv... Read More


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