Funny thing is, even with so much more going on, even with so many pieces vying for attention, The Raid 2 is every bit as relentless as its predecessor, Evans staging scene after scene of epic action fireworks overflowing in imagination and enthusiasm.

Plot tangents involving long-lost family members, environmental devastation, human greed and learning that home is indeed where the heart is all fall flat, none of these disparate threads close to weaving together into a cohesive whole.

Under the Skin doesn’t apologize for being difficult, everything inside its cinematic shell a rollercoaster of emotional tumult worthy of being ridden multiple times.

Insightful Anita a Rousing Call to Action In just 77-minutes, Academy Award-winner Freida Lee Mock (Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision) manufactures an absolutely essential piece of documentary cinema with Anita. More than just a two-plus decades later recounting of the events that made Anita Hill a household name, the movie is a magnificently effective […]

If it had been 20 minutes shorter, had the filmmakers not been so encumbered by the need to maintain fidelity to the MCU, I think it is safe to say Captain America: The Winter Soldier would be the best Marvel movie thus far.

a SIFF 2013 review Nothing Cheap About These Bleakly Satirical Thrills Cheap Thrills is the best movie you are likely going to be too scared to see. An eviscerating satirical assault on financial disparity and the smug, narcissistic tendencies of a seemingly uncaring elite coupled with the anything-goes neediness of a working class oftentimes willing […]

The Wolf of Wall Street showcases Martin Scorsese at the height of his cinematic powers, and as difficult as the movie can be at times, and as long as it is, this is still an uncompromising, deeply fascinating satirical black comedy I’m certain to be revisiting multiple times in the very near future.

But the central dynamics remain strong throughout, and when you add Peña’s magnificent performance and Luna’s concentrated direction in the equation Cesar Chavez ends up being a far more invigorating and informative biography than it probably should have been.

Beauteous Ernest & Célestine C’est Magnifique France’s Ernest & Célestine was up against both Disney’s Frozen (the eventual winner) and Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. I had not seen it before the Oscars had been handed out so I couldn’t really say whether or not it deserved […]