My Own Little World

Manchester by the Sea makes me grieve. This is a powerful tale of emotion, a tale of life being so relentlessly brutal in the blows it deals – and in how often a single man can be reminded of those blows. It is a real film – real in the way it portrays the process of grief, the desensitization it causes to the outside world, real in the motivations and reactions its characters have. It all starts with Kenneth Lonergan. The writer-director shows here his uncanny intuition for sculpting characters in respectful, complex, and subtle ways. Manchester does not have one scene out of place: every moment has purpose and builds something into the story. Sometimes films like this one can become bloated due to their complicated character building and the many necessary subplots for doing so, but that is not the case here. In fact, as the film went on and introduced more elements I longed for all of them to be explored more – which does happen – just because these characters became s...

I've taken a little more time in prepping my year-end wrap-up this year, mostly because I was making sure I had seen everything I wanted to in theaters before publishing. Like last year, I've written mini-reviews on all the films that I either saw too far into their theatrical run to do a full review on or after their home video release. Without further ado, I present to you Part 4 of the Rest of 2015... Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - Buy it.  How can a franchise be this good in its fifth installment? M:I shows no signs of stopping with Rogue Nation , and neither does Tom Cruise, as he performs some of the most dangerous stunts of his career. The rest of the returning and new cast members make sure we don't lose the team dynamic that was so essential to Ghost Protocol . McQuarrie also has some great helming of the many action scenes, particularly the motorcycle chase. This is a thrill ride that keeps you on edge the whole time. Grade: 92 The Martian...

You know, I was going to begin this review with some little quip about Interstellar 's similarities with 2001: A Space Odyssey  or some note about why I love Christopher Nolan's film-making. And, to be fair, those would have been perfectly sufficient ways to capture your interest in this film. However, both of these methods don't seem very fitting after seeing it, so I'll start by saying this:  Interstellar  is, quite honestly, the best movie-going experience I have ever had. There are so many things about it that make it great, but it all comes down to this: it melds its impressive visuals perfectly with its emotional impact. This is so important for many films today, as they repeatedly entice us with their stellar visuals while sometimes falling a hair short on the emotional front (or vice versa). Let's start with the story. Interstellar 's plot largely operates around a 2001 -type setup: multiple movements in the same grand symphony. However, the move...