Film Reviews
Conceal, Don’t Feel
After 20 years, The Giver finally hits the big screen. Eh.Kristian Lin
Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver famously took 20 years to come to the big screen, and when I caught up to it a few months ago, I could see why there might be problems in adapting it to film. Today’s science-fiction young-adult...
Taken
What If is the year’s best Canadian romantic comedy.Kristian Lin
The romantic comedy What If is adapted from T.J. Dawe and Michael Rinaldi’s play Toothpaste and Cigars. I’ve never seen the play, but somehow I get the feeling that I might have appreciated the film better if I’d seen the...
More Than Meets the “I”
In his sophomore effort, filmmaker Mike Cahill tackles evolution versus creationism.KENNETH KOST
In a fresh look at a tired argument, director Mike Cahill adds his flavor to the ongoing evolution-versus-creationism battle with I Origins, and after a few bites the dish actually tastes pretty good. On the surface it appears ...
12 Years a Child
Richard Linklater plays the long game in the remarkable Boyhood.Kristian Lin
Bless him, Richard Linklater has never been afraid to experiment with the medium of cinema. The revolving protagonists of Slacker, the deliberate formlessness of Dazed and Confused, the episodic quasi-monologues of Waking Life,...
All You Need Is Quill
Guardians of the Galaxy is the funniest Marvel Comics movie yet.KRISTIAN LIN
On the surface of a barren, hostile, alien planet, an Earthman named Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) boogies leisurely across the rocky terrain in his spacesuit, singing along to Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love.” When a small...
Tears in Tinseltown
Zach Braff is stuck in La-La Land in Wish I Was Here.KRISTIAN LIN
I hated Garden State when it came out. I detested its cutesy preciousness, its 10-cent spiritual wisdom, its general air of being pleased with itself, its unearned oh-wow-the-world-is-so-beautiful mysticism. Despite all that, I...
I Need Quarters
Dallas’ Jeremy Snead documents the history of video games.KRISTIAN LIN
“Four years ago, I took my nephews and nieces to Dave & Buster’s,” said Jeremy Snead. “They were playing all the latest shooter games, and I saw this sad, neglected Donkey Kong machine over in the corner. I started ...
Amateur Night
A married couple’s Sex Tape gets out, and hijinks (fortunately) ensue.KRISTIAN LIN
I’m a bit puzzled by the title of Sex Tape. Does anybody still use videotape to film their sexual encounters? The sex farce by that title never really engages that question, but it does engage our sense of humor, which turns ...
Cowboys & Simians
The latest Planet of the Apes movie is a Western in a monkey suit.KRISTIAN LIN
Don’t get me wrong. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is an incredibly skilled piece of work. The latest installment in the series just underwhelmed me. Maybe that’s because the tone of the reviews suggested it was the summer�...
Frozen Glory
Snowpiercer: an ice-cold science-fiction masterpiece.KRISTIAN LIN
When Snowpiercer first hit American theaters two weeks ago, the critical consensus instantly jelled: “This is the year’s greatest science-fiction movie, and all of you who bought tickets to the Transformers sequel are idiot...