Movie Reviews

Sundance Review: Sebastian Silva-Michael Cera Thriller 'Magic Magic' A Misfire For Both of Them

Sundance Review: How 'V/H/S' Sequel 'S-VHS' Shows That Brutal Horror Can Be Fun

Last year's anthology horror production "V/H/S" was a revelation mainly because it took the overly familiar found footage genre and exploited it to the fullest extent. The sequel, "S-VHS," achieves a similar goal with more frightening extremes. Containing only four spectacularly gory shorts directed...

Sundance Review: Was 'The Way, Way Back' Worth the $10 Million Fox Searchlight Paid For It?

Fox Searchlight's generous offer calls to mind a similar movie the distributor famously purchased for the same hefty price tag at the festival seven years ago -- "Little Miss Sunshine." But where "Sunshine" generated unique chemistry, "The Way, Way Back" exclusively relies on familiar tropes.

Sundance Review: Sundance Porn Star Biopic 'Lovelace' a Limp Melodramatic Affair

Linda Boreman, née Linda Lovelace, took the porn world by the storm with her breakthrough performance in 1972's seminal blue movie "Deep Throat," but few audience members cared about her life offscreen. That's technically the focus of "Lovelace," a tame look at the actress' rise and the abuse she fa...

Sundance Review: 'Cutie and the Boxer' Illustrates the Struggles of An Artistic Genius

"Art is a demon that drags you along," says 80-year-old visionary painter Ushio Shinohara in first-time director Zachary Heinzerling's delicate portrait "Cutie and the Boxer," but neither Shinohara nor his supportive wife and fellow artist Noriko are looking for a cure. Heinzerling's beautifully sho...

Sundance Review: Why Zal Batmanglij's 'The East' Is Fascinating and Illogical at the Same Time

Suspenseful, ludicrous, fascinating, and utterly unsubtle, Zal Batmanglij's "The East" plays like an unholy mash-up of "Martha Marcy May Marlene" and "Alias." The film builds on the themes of cult and identity that Batmanglij and his star Brit Marling explored artfully in their breakout debut "The S...

Sundance Review: Is the Hilarious 'Computer Chess' a Change of Pace for Andrew Bujalski?

There is an immediate sense of change afoot in "Computer Chess," Andrew Bujalski's fourth feature as writer-director, visible to anyone familiar with his previous work. While Bujalski's influential "Funny Ha Ha" -- along with follow-ups "Mutual Appreciation" and...

Sundance Review: Why Shane Carruth's Provocative 'Upstream Color' Will Baffle You in the Best Ways

Shane Carruth's 2004 time travel drama "Primer" provoked endless scrutiny for its heavy reliance on tech speak that the director refused to dumb down. His long-awaited followup, "Upstream Color," also maintains a seriously cryptic progression that's nearly impossible to comprehend in precise terms, ...

Sundance Review: Tonally Odd 'Prince Avalanche' Combines Two Tendencies of David Gordon Green's Career

David Gordon Green's career since his acclaimed 2000 debut "George Washington" has followed one of the more bizarre pathways of contemporary American filmmakers. At first heralded as an emerging Malickian poet southern life -- a quality that continued with follow-ups "All the Real Girls," "Undertow...