Janis
The seventh annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival opened with a winner.
music
The Winding Stream
This documentary about a landmark family’s contributions to American music shows the Carter and Cash clans with a long, colorful history, albeit with their share of joy and heartache.
We Are Your Friends
For a film that centers on a San Fernando Valley twenty-something, trying to make it big in the world of spinning music, “We Are Your Friends” never finds the kind of beat to make you move in your seat. It doesn’t help that the film’s non-descript title could basically describe any other movie at the
Ricki and the Flash
Director Jonathan Demme is as unpredictable as when his film “Silence of the Lambs” took best picture at the Oscars by surprise in 1992. Sparse has been the films he has made since then, hits like “Rachel Getting Married”, and misses like “The Manchurian Candidate” remake (also with Streep).
Amy
Amy is a fine documentary by the BAFTA award-winning filmmaker, Asif Kapadia (Senna, The Warrior), chronicling the underbelly of fame in the contemporary world for those with unfillable needs and fragile constitutions. It is alternately sad, funny, entertaining, and ironic; sad and ironic in that from the time when she was very young, she admonished
Dope
Up-and-coming filmmaker Rick Famuyiwa’s Dope is a clever, well written, and directed picture with a fine cast and a plot that is complex and engaging enough to keep the audience pulled right in. Television and film (Joyful Noise) star Shameik Moore as Malcolm nails his character, a young black high school nerd with a high crew cut (I
Love & Mercy
The moment Love & Mercy goes from a moderately interesting film occurs gently. Here I thought the musical biopic had sung its last note, then producer turned director Bill Pohlad offers up something systematically different by way of the editing room and perfect casting. The real strong point of Love & Mercy is the trio
Pitch Perfect 2
2012 seems like forever ago, and in between now and then, Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick has become a global superstar, had a hit single and unfortunately turned her amazing voice into a gimmick. I have grown to admire the tremendous talent that is Kendrick, her dark performance in Cake last year, the gritty indie turn
Danny Collins
Just when I thought Al Pacino was down for the count, he reunites with Christopher Plummer, The Insider co-star, coincidentally his last great film role. Danny Collins and the indie film Manglehorn have proved to be somewhat of a revival for the 74-year old actor. His performance here as a washed up one hit wonder
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Coen Brothers are excellent story tellers and inventors of characters, whether or not you like the film as a whole. Inside Llewyn Davis would fit into that good but not great category. The most impressive elements here are Oscar Isaac’s magnificent voice and “prickly” character performance and the unusually unique minor characters the Coen’s