War Machine is mostly a war comedy of broad strokes, its maximum heft being felt when characters—especially minor ones—utter pithy thesis statements about war and its meaninglessness. But it feels the most insightful when it reveals intimacy, and how close relationships or individual personalities can be altered by war. McMahon's wife's smiling revelation that she hardly ever sees her husband stings more than just about anything else in the film, because it is there that we understand how fully the…

There might be a twist ending to Triple Agent, where it turns out that everything we believed throughout the course of the film, even as we piece together the minor surprises along the way, lead to an incorrect conclusion. The film plays its cards far too close to its vest, however, for Fiodor's story to be exposed in such a manner. In the end, we know that Fiodor's life of secrecy and the guarded manner in which he carries himself…

Visually, Birdman is a beautiful film whose appearance as one unbroken take allows us to understand the complexity of life behind the Broadway stage and the fast-paced nature of the world of theatre. It is this world where we find Riggan Thomson, a washed-up actor who is about to star in a stage adaptation of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love that he both wrote and directed but who struggles with his own descent from fame. Despite…

This is the best 2014 film I have seen so far. For the entire 2 hours and 14 minutes of its runtime, Foxcatcher is riveting and awe-inspiring. This is my prediction to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and as of now, it is my hope that I guess right.

Bennett Miller directed this film with the kind of restraint so rare in modern Hollywood films. The atmosphere is dark and brooding, with an excellent muted color palette and…