Directed by: Ang Lee “Is it possible that there are no coincidences?” Mel Gibson’s character, a former priest, asks in the M. Night Shyamalan film Signs. The priest says people break down into two groups: group one sees something unexplainable as more than luck, as a...

Directed by: Steven Knight Sometimes a movie’s makers take the chance to do something innovative in the form of their film. They use strange camera angles or they employ a distinctive color palette. The really audacious ones take chances with a different plot...

Directed by: John Michael McDonagh “Self–sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed.” -Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead My favorite film from last year was an independent movie, written and directed by John Michael McDonagh...

Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu Alejandro Iñárritu does not make movies about trivialities. Biutiful, Babel, and 21 Grams to name just a few of his triumphs deal with subjects like the ambiguities of terrorism, the psychological dance some people enter into...

Directed by: Alex Garland What an extraordinary performance by newcomer Alicia Vikander. The way she is able to control her expressions: just the hint of a smile indicating thorough delight, or the tiny down-turning of the edges of the mouth indicating confusion. And...

Directed by: Brad Bird Sadly, Tomorrowland was as disappointing as most critics said it was. Many things about the movie are commendable; I genuinely liked it, and, when I left, couldn’t really figure out at first why I was vaguely disappointed. George Clooney was...

Furious Seven, Directed by: James Wan Begin Again, Directed by: John Carney Furious Seven is a bad movie. It’s bad because the characters are wooden, the plot hackneyed, and the writing insipid. The evidence for these allegations is so fulsome that it seems a waste of...

Directed by: George Miller The critical hullabaloo over Mad Max: Fury Road is completely mystifying to me. I liked it, but goodness! No less a critic than A.O. Scott of the New York Times ends his review with the following: ‘“Mad Max: Fury Road,” like its namesake...

Directed by: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Me and Earl and the Dying Girl has been called “heavily hyped” by Vulture, and so it is. But it’s been heavily hyped by those who have seen it for one very good reason: it is just a superb piece of filmmaking for all the right reasons....

Directed by: Richard Linklater In our last “Of Note” we discussed the Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Birdman, starring Michael Keaton and written and directed by Alejandro Iñárritu. Most people believe that the only challenger to Birdman’s Oscar triumph...