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This Is the End 2013
Gleefully offensive and loads of fun. This far exceeded my expectations (and then some).
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Jumpin' Jack Flash 1986
I know this is not a great film, but goddamnit it makes me laugh. This was the 2nd R-rated movie I was allowed to watch (after RUNNING SCARED) and Whoopi's profanity helped to shape my cursing abilities.
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Frances Ha 2013
Will there be a better film in 2013? I seriously doubt it. I could watch it on an endless loop.
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Story of Women 1989
Isabelle Huppert's haunting performance as a woman in Nazi-era Germany who starts assisting women with abortions in her home earned her the Best Actress prize at Venice in 1988. A powerful bummer.
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Identity Thief 2013
Don't get me wrong, this is not a great movie. But, oh how I laughed. It's gleefully offensive and Melissa McCarthy is, once again, in full-on go for broke mode. Everything about the story is absurd, but that almost made it more fun to me.
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Star Trek Into Darkness 2013
I still wish JJ Abrams would cool the fuck out with the lens flares (which get completely obnoxious in the last hour), but this was a legit blockbuster that rocked me to the core. The IMAX footage was incredible, quite a sight to behold.
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In the House 2012
Clever premise and strong performances are undone by an ending that felt, at best, disingenuous. Fabrice Luchini is terrific as always.
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Smashed 2012
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is remarkable as a young woman coming face to face with her alcoholism and a partner who is clearly not willing to face his own demons. Flawed, but dynamic. When the end credits start to roll, the film is only at 1 hour and 15 minutes, a blessing and a curse. It feels like the perfect spot to end the story and simultaneously does not feel like it's dug deep enough.
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Renoir 2013
Director Gilles Bourdos recreates the sunkissed summer of 1915 for this biopic of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet in a remarkably understated performance).
Renoir refrains from being a full retrospective of a man who was once at the forefront of the Impressionist movement. It takes us instead to only a few months of his later years, where he's ravaged by arthritis and mourning the death of his wife. Two of his sons are off at war and he's living in the…
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Fun Size 2012
This comes closer than any film that I've seen in the last decade to capturing the fun of Can't Hardly Wait. Sure, parts of it are completely obnoxious and the ending is pretty stupid, we laughed our asses off for most of the movie.
Cameos abound - Ana Gasteyer & Kerri Kenney as Roosevelt's moms made the entire movie (the shot of them weaving a quilt of Obama on a loom made me fall off the damn couch).
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Venus and Serena 2013
Despite an obnoxiously comical score by Wyclef Jean, this doc provides a fascinating behind the scenes view into the world of the Williams sisters. Anybody who has followed their careers should find elements to enjoy here. It's not groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination, but there are a lot of great home movies/unedited news clips from when they were kids. The filmmakers were also given what appears to be unfettered access to film them over the entire year of…
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Beyond the Valley of the Dolls 1970
Viewed in its entirety with Roger Ebert's commentary track.
