In the case of this 169-minute 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets Contact epic, it is likely Nolan’s reach exceeded his grasp, much of this otherworldly adventure never gelling together in ways that are comfortable or satisfying. Yet Interstellar is unabashedly thrilling, euphoric and mesmerizing.

I Origins is a beautiful treatise on self, human understanding, religion, science and most of all faith. It moves, shifts and evolves in naturalistic fastidiousness, everything building to a magnificent conclusion.

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.

Whether one believes in this tale as one of gospel or just looks at it as a grandly amazing yarn of sacrifice and salvation, Aronofsky’s Noah is a Biblical epic that transcends easy generalizations becoming a significant achievement worthy of multiple viewings.

Understated, profound, moving and beautiful, Trueba’s latest is a divine examination of the creation process set amidst unimaginable strife and turmoil. In all the ways that matter most, The Artist and the Model is the director’s best film yet.

Clooney’s Monuments Men a Well-Intentioned Disappointment George Clooney’s latest directorial effort The Monuments Men is both too much and too little both at the exact same time. The film is an episodic endeavor attempting to tell a story much larger and more fragmented than its 118 minute running time allows to be easily processed. At […]

Her a Timely Spectacle of Intimacy, Heartbreak and Understanding Spike Jonze is as singular and as original a filmmaker as there is working today. The man behind such iridescent achievements as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, the idiosyncratic filmmaker has outdone himself with the beguiling, multifaceted science fiction-influenced love story Her. Set in a Los […]

By the time the attack commenced my pulse was racing to such a degree I was worried I might be having a heart attack. Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty is a triumph. See it at once.

There is no reason for Red Dawn to exist.