Birdman

Rating: 9.5

Such an intelligent script and ambitious undertaking!  Beautiful script, acting, cinematography.  Masterpiece.

Interstellar

Rating: 7

Premise is good. Relativity of time stuff, good.  Dialogue, cliched.  Acting, meh.  It got me thinking, though, and I like that.

Nightcrawler

Rating: 9.5

I think it ties with Birdman as my favorite movie of the year (so far.)  It does the job of skewering the media that was semi-successfully attempted in Gone Girl.  Jake G's performance is one of the creepiest characters I've seen on screen. Cinematography is to die for.

Gone Girl

Rating: 6

I feel the same about the book and the movie: trashy, silly fun.

Boyhood

Rating: 9

Pretty mind-blowing to watch a child grow up and his family age on film. I've never seen anything like it. Captivating.

Kill The Messenger

Rating: 6

I wish it was a little more original.

Point and Shoot

Rating: 8

Fascinating story, well done doc.

The Green Prince

Rating: 5

I love documentaries as a rule, but this one left me a little confused and a tad bored.

The Drop

Rating: 8

Delicious!

Living is Easy With Eyes Closed

Rating: 5

Not as good as most Spanish movies, but not bad either.

Walk Among the Tombstones

Rating: 7

Decent Noir.

Calvary

Rating: 9

Loved! Saw twice.

Men, Women & Children

Rating: 6

Best thing in the movie was Ansel Elgort's performance.

This Is Where I Leave You

Rating: 4

Waste of good actors.

Tammy

Rating: 7.5

Actually a lot better than I expected.

Magic in the Moonlight

Rating: 6

Disappointing.  Especially compared with Midnight in Paris.

Lucy

 

Rating: 8

After hearing poor reviews of Lucy I decided to see it anyway because there's no A/C at home and it was 102 degrees outside.   I ended up loving the movie!  The science is junky of course, but isn't most sci-fi?  It's trippy and fun from the get-go, and Scarlett is an excellent ass-kicker.

Begin Again

Rating: 3

This was painfully bad.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rating: 5

The CG is decent. That's about it.

Words and Pictures

Rating: 5

Fun role for Clive but clunky movie. Very clunky.  Good viewing if you're a fan of Clive, which I am.

The Fault In Our Stars

Rating: 8

I know it's corny and I know it's for kids, but it got to me!  Loved the book too.

Only Lovers Left Alive

Rating: 8

I sometimes have trouble with the pacing of Jarmusch movies so I was skeptical about this one. It took a little time to draw me in but it eventually hooked me! The acting: brilliant. The music: exceptional.

Chef

Rating: 6

Enjoyable.  My one complaint is with the casting of Sophia Vergara and Scarlett Johansson as Jon Favreau's love interests.  I know I'm not the first one to say or think it and nothing against these actresses, but how hard would it be to cast some realistic-looking women in these roles?

Finding Vivien Maier

Rating: 9

Such a mysterious story, and stunningly beautiful photographs. By far the best film I've seen all year.

Belle

Rating: 7

Not much in the way of conflict in the story, but it's pretty and the acting is excellent.

Neighbors

Rating: 6

The Robert DeNiro gag was my favorite thing, but that was spoiled in the trailer. The rest of it: meh.

Grand Budapest Hotel

Rating: 8

Charming.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Rating: 6

As superhero/comic book movies go, not too bad.  I wish there was more story and less action, but I'm not a teenage boy and it wasn't designed for me.

The Case Against 8

Rating: 8

It won the documentary audience award at AIFF and it's an HBO documentary so, not exactly "independent."  I might argue that the Aaron Swartz documentary deserved it more.

Not that this film isn't excellent.  It's exactly what you'd expect from an HBO documentary about the supreme court fight against California's Proposition 8 and it's thrilling to meet all the players, especially the two couples chosen as plaintiffs in the case.  The lawyers are fascinating too, and I was surprised to learn a major detail about them that I won't spoil here. There isn't much suspense since we go in knowing the outcome, but it's still great be witness to the four-year process.

Hank & Asha

Rating: 7

I was skeptical about this one that won the jury award at the AIFF, but it won me over.  The reason I was skeptical is that it's basically a love story told in a series of video-selfies, which sounds fishy but turns out feeling original. I really had the sense that these actors were filming themselves, though based on the cinematography credits that wasn't the case.  But I was totally sucked in and charmed.

The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz

Rating: 9

This story of the life and death of a brilliant and kind-hearted young activist is heart-wrenching, but I'm so glad the film exists so more people like me will learn about it. I heard about it in the news but didn't know the whole story.  I hope a lot of people see it.

Just A Sigh

Rating: 8

Ahh, the film festival is looking up!

It feels creepily pretentious to describe a movie as intimate, but I guess that's what it was.  Emmanuelle Devos is one of my favorite French actors. She's just such a conundrum.  And Gabriel Byrne, well....hubba hubba.

Bluebird

Rating: 4

Film festivals are always a bit of a gamble. My first movie at the Ashland Independent Film Festival turned out to be a dud.  All the actors were excellent (the reason I chose it) but the story was painfully slow and went nowhere.  I think they were going for the the tone of the Canadian film The Sweet Hereafter but it didn't make the cut.  Problem script, I think.

 I was a little worried about the rest of the fest.....

Nebraska

Rating: 5

Ugh, I just can't with Alexander Payne.  I liked The Descendants and I love Will Forte but...not so much.

Her

Rating: 8

Science fiction done in a way everyone can relate to, especially right now, when our interaction with technology is so intimate.  This is my favorite Spike Jonze movie so far.

Inside Llewyn Davis

Rating: 5

It's not that I think it's a bad movie, it's just that the experience of watching it was so unpleasant.  Except for the music. That was great.