Reviews

  Director Noah Baumbach alternately loves and hates hipsters, pseudo hipsters and millennials; in 2010’s “Greenberg” he ambivalently charted the course of lost soul Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) as he

  Anyone fed up with inequity, heartbreak, bureaucratic incompetence, road rage and corruption will love this fabulous anthology from Argentine director Damian Szifron. There’s six short stories involving distressed people.

  Brooklyn hit man turned drunk Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) has to defend his estranged son and family from local mob boss Shawn Maguire’s (Ed Harris) henchmen when Conlon’s son

  Neill Blomkamp’s forte is pitting outsiders against mainstream society, the unrepresented against the privileged, ethics versus entrenched self-interest (in the spectacular “District 9” in 2009 and the so-so “Elysium

Here’s an overlooked gem — a low-budget Australian end-of-the-world drama that kind of mixes “On the Beach” with a taste of “Mad Max.” After an asteroid lands in the North

At 84 years old (he turns 85 on May 31), Clint Eastwood is still cranking out enjoyable films and, like another elderly statesman of American film, Woody Allen (who turns

“Leviathan” is a modern Russian take on the Book of Job, pitting a simple, honest man against — not God or the Devil — but the corruption of current Russian

  Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice” is the first ever film adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel and thus should be a cause for celebration. Unfortunately for this reviewer —

  “Fury” is a post-modern war film (meaning no heroes, lots of realistic special effects blood and guts, and an existential storyline) that revolves around the crew of a Sherman

  “The Judge” is a straight-ahead, old-fashioned, well-written and well-acted melodrama about a snarky, hotshot big city lawyer (Robert Downey Jr.) who returns to his small Indiana town for his

  From “La Femme Nikita” to “Leon: The Professional” to “The Fifth Element,” writer-director Luc Besson has created some of the most memorable female action heroes in recent cinema. Now

  “The Boxtrolls” is a quirky stop motion animated fantasy-comedy film set at the beginning of the 19th century that revolves around a group of mischievous and good-hearted trolls who

  Finally, a mean and nasty villain to yearn for. The folks at Disney have twisted around the 1959 classic “Sleeping Beauty” by putting the whole fairy tale — in

  The latest big-screen adaptation of a John Le Carre spy tale is a complicated, involved, cerebral and at times confusing thriller redeemed by Anton Corbijn’s (of Depeche Mode, U2

  This masterful action spectacular by South Korean horror-specialist director Bong Joon Ho (“The Host,” “Mother”) takes place entirely on a train and follows a revolt pitting passenger against passenger

  Writer-director-producer James DeMonaco’s sequel to his summer 2013’s sleeper hit takes place in a near-future Los Angeles as citizens once again get ready to prepare for the country’s yearly

  Here’s a time-loop sci-fi adventure that really works, one that not only gives us plausible scenarios, lots of military action and terrific special effects, but also a fine performance

  Seth MacFarlane chose this junky send-up of Western films as his follow-up to the brilliant and funny “Ted” and struck out his second time at bat: The three strikes

  After helming one giga-budget film after another (the first two “Iron Man” outings and the bomb “Cowboys & Aliens”) writer-director-producer Jon Favreau returned to his indie roots (“Made,” “Swingers”)

  Not being a big fan of films spun off from comic books or toys, I was pleasantly surprised with “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” the next chapter in the never-ending

  This overlooked gem is a gritty and violent drama set 10 years after a global economic collapse where food and gasoline are expensive and life is cheap. The film

  “Godzilla” makes a spectacular return in this reimagining of the original, 1954 Japanese “Gojira,” which had the gigantic sea reptile awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation and embarking on

   “Marvel’s The Avengers” is a tough act to follow, but “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” sure as heck gives that film a run for the money, upping the super-hero

  Ho-hum. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” continues the rebooting of the Spider-Man saga, with Andrew Garfield again reprising his role as “Spidey” and Emma Stone co-starring as Parker/Spider-Man’s girlfriend Gwen

  For Aaron Paul’s first starring vehicle after five years of “Breaking Bad,” the just-turning-35-year-old actor choose a role certainly familiar to the TV series’ fans: an angst-ridden, existential hero

  All hail Lionsgate. First the company gave us “The Hunger Games,” parlaying Suzanne Collins’ novels into multi-million dollar boxoffice bonanzas. Now they’ve handed us “Divergent,” the first movie in

  Director Darren Aronofsky kicked up quite a storm with his semi-revisionist take on the biblical tale of Noah and the Ark. Much to the chagrin of bible-thumpers, Aronofsky humanized

  “Transcendence” is a failed sci-fi morality tale by first-time director Wally Pfister (Christopher Nolan’s cinematographer). Johnny Depp stars as a researcher in the field of artificial intelligence who is

  You’ve got to love Arnold Schwarzenegger. After giving up a flourishing acting career for politics, the muscle-bound man was elected governor of California, whereupon he screwed the state by