Five Second Reviews

Broadway play adaptions to the big screen can often be awkward, but here the performances are beyond good enough to make up the difference. One of the problems of plays being on the big screen is it often seems that characters are in their own soliloquies, completely oblivious to the presence of other actors/characters beside them. In other words you know how Tarantino films hyper-realistic dialogues? His screenplays are made for the big screen. This isn't the case here and several times I was very aware that I was watching a play instead of a...

My heart still hurts from having seen this movie. It took hours for it to feel a bit better, and even now it still aches. This is one HEAVY movie. I can't say enough good things about Casey Affleck's performance. He is so obviously going to win best actor this year for this at the Oscars. I liked him before and now I LOVE him. What a deep character to try and master, and he does so with great skill. Michelle Williams is great, and that one scene of them together on the street is...

This was everything I was hoping Force Awakens would be. A true Star Wars movie for true original Star Wars fans. It's not like they just threw in the occasional references just for kicks, all of the throw-back moments make a ton of sense to the storytelling. For instance, Gold Leader would still be Gold Leader, Red Leader would still be Red Leader since the events of Rogue One did not happen a long, long time before A New Hope (episode IV). So everytime we see continuity and things that make sense, my heart just...

This movie, it make-a me cry! I took my five-year old daughter to see this on Sunday thinking it would be a sure-fire homerun for her. This movie ended up surprising me in many ways. 1. I liked it far more than she did. She also is probably the only kid in the world who didn't love Frozen (she prefers Inside Out, Shaun the Sheep). 2. I never thought I'd enjoy the music and songs as much as I did. I thought they were great. ...

I'm not sure where to even start with this one. There are so many scenes done in such a unique way that I haven't seen before. It's a tough movie to talk about since I went in not knowing a single thing other than the title, so I wouldn't want to spoil any plot surprises. It's weird that I saw this in the same year I saw Closet Monster because this is the perfected version of the other. It is almost as good as Boyhood and follows the same idea of...

Really fun feel-good movie that has a couple of highly impactful scenes. This being a chess movie might turn non-chess fans off but it doesn't get deep into game theory at all, but it will still delight chess players just the same. It covers the real-life story of a young girl growing up in a Uganda slum who develops a knack for chess. Sounds simple in a nutshell but there's some really great scenes (the slumkids sleeping on the floor of a local fancy school hit me light a freight train). ...

Fantastic. Great crime drama starring Chris Pine and the always amazing Jeff Bridges as a Texas Ranger trying to outwit some small-time bank robbers. Pretty boy Chris Pine takes a bit of time to grow into the role of a mastermind bank robber, but don't worry. He does. All the characters are remarkably deep. Even just a random waitress is explored to a surprising amount. The cinematography is beautiful. You really feel the big sky of Texas and it's great. Note that this isn't an action movie at...

A French and Polish film set in a convent in liberated 1945 Poland. Countries liberated by the Red Army found themselves with a bunch of unwanted pregnancies resulting from gross and rampant sexual assault by undisciplined soldiers. You can imagine the unique situation of a convent finding itself with a bunch of pregnant nuns and how they would have to deal with that. Soliciting the help of an atheist medical professional, Mathilde, the brave nuns try to balance their shame with their faith. Look, it's not an easy movie. Mathilde's lover and...

Much like Match Point, Woody Allen explores the allure of infidelity and the simple nature of man. Jesse Eisenberg gives a commanding lead performance but it simply takes too long for co-star Kristen Stewart, cute as she is, to catch up. Her initial character is just simply hard to believe as an actual person. Where's this confidence coming from? Also, some of the casting is tough to swallow as goofy Steve Carrell is a Hollywood agent but takes too long to warm into the role. It's always tough for audiences to...

Incredible animated film that loses some points the more you think about it. From the studio that brought us the superior Coraline, here we have young Kubo, voiced by the young Stark son that barely gets more screentime in the entirety of Game of Thrones than he does here, who after forgetting to follow Gremlins-like rules of not feeding koalas after midnight, finds himself on an epic Zelda-like quest to acquire three or four magical items, including the legendary Sword Uncomfortable. Each one is naturally guarded by a dungeon boss, leading to some epic ...