Good acting, good drama / “The interrogation scenes, between Alice and a detective played by Elizabeth Banks, explore the social disadvantages of a fat woman with a stark bluntness that’s unheard of in a popular cinema” writes Chuck Bowen.
Cast: Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, Dakota Fanning, Danielle Macdonald
Director: Amy Berg
Screenplay: Nicole Holofcener
Novel: Laura Lippman
Director of Photography: Rob Hardy
Editor: Ron Patane, Billy McMillin
First feature / Characters are too caricatural to create empathy, most dialogues sound unnatural and forced, and at times just poor
Cast: Whitney Cummings, Sofía Vergara, Toby Kebbell, James Marsden, Lucy Punch
Director: Whitney Cummings
Writer: Neal Brennan, Louann Brizendine, Whitney Cummings
Cinematographer: Bradford Lipson
Editor: Peggy Eghbalian
Composer: Jeff Cardoni
First feature / A Woody Allen (the artist not the dirty old man) in a liberated female way!
Cast: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffman, Gabe Liedman, David Cross, Richard Kind. Polly Draper, Paul Briganti, Cindy Cheung, Stephen Singer
Director: Gillian Robespierre
Screenplay: Gillian Robespierre
Music by Chris Bordeaux
Cinematography by Chris Teague
Film Editing by Casey Brooks
Some good moments, but at times clumsy script and direction / Jenny Slate sounds often fake, and the dialogues do not fit the period.
Cast: Jenny Slate, Edie Falco, Abby Quinn, Jay Duplass, John Turturro, Finn Wittrock, Amy Carlson
Director: Gillian Robespierre
Writer (story): Elisabeth Holm, Gillian Robespierre, Tom Bean
Writer: Gillian Robespierre, Elisabeth Holm
Cinematographer: Chris Teague
Editor: Casey Brooks
Composer: Chris Bordeaux, Jordan Cohen, Clyde Lawrence
Excellent acting, fantastic camera, great dynamics in dialogues and music…
Cast: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C.K., Jack Huston, Michael Pena, Elisabeth Röhm
Director: David O. Russell
Screenplay by Eric Singer
Music by Danny Elfman
Cinematography by Linus Sandgren
Film Editing by Alan Baumgarten, Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers
Cast: Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Written by Scott Z. Burns
Music by Thomas Newman
Cinematography by Steven Soderbergh
Film Editing by Steven Soderbergh
First feature / Excellent performance, fine soundtrack, strong message on the consequences of child abuse among others
Cast: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ryan Simpkins, Sam Bottoms, Giancarlo Esposito
Director: Laurie Collyer
Writer: Laurie Collyer
Music by Jack Livesey
Cinematography by Russell Lee Fine
Film Editing by Curtiss Clayton, Joe Landauer
A world of dysfunctional families in which men are assholes and woman have to fight to survive / A critical non-judgmental view on American society and those left behind by the American Dream
See also “The Florida Project” by Sean Baker
Cast: Naomi Watts, Matt Dillon, Norman Reedus, Tess Harper, Antoni Corone
Director by Laurie Collyer
Screenplay by Laurie Collyer
Music by J. Mascis
Cinematography by Igor Martinovic
Film Editing by Curtiss Clayton
Like in Sherrybaby – a convicted woman and her child – but set in a comedy
Funny but a few scenes are way too far-fetched
Cast: Tessa Thompson, Anna Paquin, Whoopi Goldberg
Director: Laurie Collyer
Writer: Barry Strugatz
Music by Jeff Cardoni
Cinematography by Berenice Eveno
Film Editing by Jesse Gordon
Variation on a theme already found in Shana Feste’s The Greatest: a family mourns their deceased son / love introduced by a new personage brings the mourning process to a conclusion
Some good moments in an otherwise syrupy and predictable movie
Cast: Alex Pettyfer, Gabriella Wilde, Bruce Greenwood, Joely Richardson, Rhys Wakefield, Robert Patrick, Dayo Okeniyi, Emma Rigby, Anna Enger
Director: Shana Feste
Writer: Shana Feste, Joshua Safran
Music by Christophe Beck
Cinematography by Andrew Dunn
Film Editing by Maryann Brandon