Movie Reviews

Richard Linklater's daringly experimental Boyhood is Bob Mondello's favorite film of 2014.

Arts

Favorite Films Of 2014: Why Stop At 10?

6:48pm December 31, 2014

by Bob Mondello

Box-office figures were gloomy in 2014, but movie critic Bob Mondello still found a lot to cheer about among the year's quirky offerings — and as usual, his annual 10-best list runneth over.

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'A Most Violent Year' Captures You And Doesn't Let Go

12:12pm December 31, 2014

by Kenneth Turan

The new film A Most Violent Year is written and directed by J.C. Chandor. The crime drama starring Jessica Chastain takes place in New York City in 1981, one of the city's most violent years.

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Arts

'Selma' Manages To Be Both Passion-Inspiring And Measured

5:23pm December 24, 2014

by Bob Mondello

Critic Bob Mondello reviews Selma, Ava DuVernay's film chronicling Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic voting-rights march in 1965. Mondello notes that recent protests make the film resonate today.

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Ellar Coltrane, who plays Mason in Boyhood, was 6 years old when director Richard Linklater picked him for the role. Made over the course of 12 years, the film is David Edelstein's favorite of the year.

Arts

In A 'Depressing' Year For Films, Edelstein Finds Some Greats

2:06pm December 24, 2014

by David Edelstein

Film critic David Edelstein says in 2014 none of the great material came from Hollywood studios. But, he says, it was a "wonderful year" for indie films. He names Boyhood as the best of the year.

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Timothy Spall finds beauty in the unlikeliest places as painter J.M.W. Turner.

Arts

'Mr. Turner' Is A Snuffling, Growling Work Of Art

6:58pm December 19, 2014

by Bob Mondello

Critic Bob Mondello says Mike Leigh's earthy new biopic about the famed British painter J.M.W Turner shows viewers the incandescent beauty of the world as Turner himself must have seen it.

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Arts

The Strange World — And Life — Of 'Mr. Turner'

1:48pm December 19, 2014

by David Edelstein

The biopic of landscape painter J. M. W. Turner depicts a man whose mind is barely engaged by anything other than his work. He's a mystery, and his art is magically indefinite — just like the movie.

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Jamie Foxx and Quvenzhane Wallis star in the latest incarnation of the musical Annie.

Arts

A Different 'Annie,' But Still A Good Kid

12:19pm December 19, 2014

by Linda Holmes

The new adaptation of Annie, starring Quvenzhane Wallis and Jamie Foxx, isn't the same Annie some of us knew in childhood. But on her own terms, she's still a charmer.

Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos in If You Don't, I Will.

Arts

A Married Couple In Decline

5:03pm December 18, 2014

by Tomas Hachard

The film If You Don't, I Will has some strong dialogue and performances, but its tale of a marriage in peril sags too often in its recounting of the journey.

Stalked By A Fiend Worse Than Any Elm Street Nightmare

1:42pm December 15, 2014

by Kenneth Turan

In "Still Alice," Julianne Moore has each thing that defines her — to herself, to her family — devoured by early-onset Alzheimer's disease. It's a splendid performance, says critic Kenneth Turan.

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Arts

Depicting An Unstable Era, 'Inherent Vice' Never Jells, But It's Addictive

1:32pm December 12, 2014

by David Edelstein

The film, based on Thomas Pynchon's novel, is set in 1970 in a beach town south of Los Angeles. With wonderful actors, it's like a gorgeous stoner art object: groovy, campy, dreamlike and funny.

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