The Goods: Film Reviews

A wacky movie that shifts from black comedy to a simultaneous western and courtroom drama pastiche. Very anarchic sense of humor partially indebted to the cheap sex comedies of the era. But Zemeckis’s direction is a lot of fun, with some outstanding set pieces. Slightly less than the sum of its parts, but pretty good nonetheless.

Pretty much the only thing I love in this is Anne Hathaway absolutely chewing through the film with the most outlandish accent you’ve ever heard. The CGI mice are horrible. And there are a few exciting scenes, but they’re frontloaded.

I will need to watch this again to fully process it. As a piece of entertainment, it is astringent and uncomfortable and not especially “good” in the common usage of the word. As a creative exercise of reflecting on a toxic compulsion to create art , a purging of a career’s worth of angst and demons, and an F-U to critics and hard-to-please audiences, it is deeply compelling.

Not the zippiest narrative, nor one that treads much surprising narrative ground, but there’s a lot of pleasure in letting movie stars be movie stars in a throwback period spy drama. Both Pitt and Cotillard are magnetic. This might be Robert Zemeckis’s least characteristic work — the only audacious visual gimmick is a sandstorm that accompanies some car sex.

Zemeckis’s best movie in many years. It’s a caper that doubles as a nifty CGI-driven thriller (recreating the Twin Towers and flying audiences above them) and an artistic confessional by Zemeckis (a creator who must conquer the next obstacle, even if it means potential self-destruction).

I wish I had seen this in 3D.

After a fireworks-filled opening and a middle act that asks tough questions about flawed heroics, the end is a bit of a mess (burn the coda in a fire, please). Compelling work from Denzel and Zemeckis overall.

It’s tempting to defend this because I admire Zemeckis’s gusto in making blockbusters with a new technology and toolkit, but I just don’t have it in me. It truly looks like a Playstation 2 game, and the macho bluster in the the story is eye-roll-inducing. The uncanny mocap just never works for me.

A solid, moody Hitchcock riff (by which I mean it pulls beats from at least 3 Hitchcock films). Pfeiffer is excellent as the heroine. It’s about 20 minutes too long, but the climax is suspenseful enough to make up for it.

Not a typical first contact movie, and all the better for it. This sci-fi epic deeply probes the relationship between faith and science; for Jodie Foster’s Eleanor, it finds the overlap. It’s thoughtful and heartfelt, and it builds to a terrific ending.