Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively & Steve Carell riffing a Wood Allen script that entertains from credits to credits.

Bérénice Bejo & Cédric Kahn are magnificent in this delicately observant French film about a married couple with kids approaching divorce.

Nicolas Winding Refn directs this cynical psychological horror film that is never afraid to get intensely strange… verging on the insane.  

I delayed seeing this movie because I presumed it wasn’t much of anything.  Spurpisingly, it turns out, “WTF” is frequently funny and occasionally profound.

A gorgeous sci-fi about the importance of communication, juxtaposed with an intimate character study of a grief-stricken mother played by Amy Adams.

A very young girl is bullied in school until a new girl shows up becomes her friend.  Amazing child performances all around — especially from Choi Soo-In.

Adam Driver plays a bus driver called Paterson, in a town called Paterson, in a film called “Paterson”.  This is a poetic gem — zen and peaceful.

Asghar Farhadi is one of the great directors in the world today.  He adds another entry to his magnificent filmography.  Acted to perfection.

Real life couple, Jamie Chung and Bryan Greenberg, star in what is essentially a rip off of the classic, “Before Sunrise”.  However, it is a very good rip off.  The couple walk and talk their way around Hong Kong nightlife.  And it even throws a one year break into the middle of their engrossing and believable convo.

Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichen are mesmerizing in this wistful, melancholic and bittersweet tale of lifelong, unrequited sapphic love and friendship. 

Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine are stand-outs in this bank-robbery manhunt thriller.  There are some nice underlying messages about Wall Street here.

A lovely film with spectacular cinematography.  It is not the masterpiece that some critics jumped the gun in announcing.  Get back to me in twenty years.

This tragic story is riveting to watch because of two superb performance from Affleck and Williams.  It is not the kind of film I would ever watch again.

A low-budget, independent thriller with an admittedly contrived premised… It won me over with some nice twists and a terrific ending.

A stunning documentary about the wrongfully convicted American caught up in an antiquated Italian legal system.  A fascinating case!

Any film with a corpse that can double as a jet-ski and a chainsaw — and still manages to be profoundly moving — is a winner in my books.

A nicely made thriller about American hero, Edward Snowden, as he exposes the NSA’s terrible technology.  It is exciting and revealing.

What happens when one out of a group of stand-up comedians makes it onto “Saturday Night Live” — to the jealousy, the friendships, the loyalty etc?

Song Kang-ho stars in this Korean – Japanese historical espionage drama.  It is gorgeously shot and will have you on the edge of your seat.

Ricky Gervais brings back his legendary “The Office” managerial character, as he sells toiletries and heads out on ‘tour’ with a hired band.  Hilarious & Sad.

A good old-fashioned WWII espionage and assassination thriller.  It is a true story and is a gripping story with tremendous action and excitement.

Son Ye-jin gives a beautiful performance as Princess Deokhye — “The Last Princess” of Korea before the annexation by Japan.  It is a tragic story.

When a film features a “rogue CIA agent”, you know what you are in for.  However, as far as those types of movies go, this one is fast paced and entertaining.

An infuriating situation, captured with great acting and assured direction, with an old man struggling to acquire governmental assistance.

Not my favorite genre… but this one really managed to spook the hell out me.  It takes its time and sent shivers down my spine.

Mel Gibson has directed three masterpieces… This is not quite up to that standard, but it is still thoroughly worth watching.

For fans of the great director, this is a special treat as “De Palma” discusses his films and career in a simple, but fascinating documentary.

The strength of the film is the direction and the ominous mood.  The story is hard to swallow and the resolution is shaky… but it had tons of style.

This Iranian psychological thriller is one of the most effective examples in its genre over the past few years.  It was chilling!

Emma Watson stars as a woman voluntarily entering a horrific cult in order to rescue her boyfriend.  Set in 1973, this is a tense thriller.

This claustrophobic thriller in the “Cloverfield” universe delivers some nerve-wracking moments and some solid performances. 

I didn’t expect much going in, but “The Finest Hours” was an exciting true-story rescue in rough seas.  Holliday Grainger is a star.

The entire cast, especially Woo-sung Jung, is fantastic in this extraordinarily brutal Korean gangster flick about political corruption.  Bloody fun.

Ava DuVernay directs an infuriating look at the ridiculous and horrific American prison system and the racial politics that shape it.

The Japanese versions are always a million times superior to any of the American remakes.  This is no exception.  Satomi Ishihara is great here.

I have to say, despite all of his shortcomings, that Anthony Weiner would have been one of the great politicians of our time.  This doc is tragically great.

This is a cold-hearted, chilling thriller about creepy neighbors and family tensions.  It effected me emotionally to merit a solid thumbs-up.

What a bizarre documentary!  It follows a tickle fetish culture perpetrated by a truly mysterious figure.  Genuinely uncomfortable viewing.

Obvious trying to capitalize on the “Gone Girl” success, it never quite matches that level.  However, Emily Blunt & Haley Bennett are both superb here.

Mark Duplass & Sarah Paulson star in a B/W small-town relationship story.  It’s a film that requires patience and attention, and it rewards in the end.

A supernatural horror from South Korea, this movie is cinematic and scary and consistently intriguing.  It is good, if a tad over-long and self-serious.

Here is an example of film you watch specifically for one tour-de-force performance.  Natalie Portman is outrageously good as Jackie O.

A tremendously popular Anime, “Your Name” is gorgeous to behold and highly original.  Unfortunately, it drags in the second half and stumbles to a close.

Daniel Radcliffe is great as an FBI agent who goes undercover in a white-supremacy group.  It has some very tense scenes, but feels like a TV movie.

Every years seems to bring one quirky indie road-trip movie with likable characters.  Paul Rudd, Selena Gomez and Craig Roberts are all good here.

Over the past decade, most of Cage’s films have been atrocious.  This is a rare exception, co-starring Elijah Wood.  It is cheap, fun entertainment.

Jessica Chastain is a cutthroat lobbyist who decides to take on the gun lobby.  The message is fantastic.  The film is decent.  Chastain is brilliant.

A cute film with nice characters doing nice things with minimal drama or conflict.  Susan Sarandon and Rose Byrne are cute as Mom & Daughter.

A Korean disaster flick that sees a man driving home to his family, when a mountainside tunnel collapses and traps him in his car  Really effective.

Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Alison Brie, Leslie Mann are tons of fun in what I would classify as a “perfect airplane movie’.  Easy to watch.

A huge cast all do good work in this “Training Day”-lite version of good cops, bad cops and worse criminals.  Perhaps a tad manic, but does the job.

A Norwegian disaster flick about a small town in the path of a Tsunami.  Everything before the disaster is great stuff… but it stumbles to a conclusion.

“Olympus Has Fallen” was an awesome guy action flick.  “London Has Fallen” is a far weaker, much less believable, but still watchable version.  

The sole reason to watch this is the privilege of seeing Blake Lively majestically wearing a bikini for 90-mins.  The shark stuff is mildly exciting too.

Even though it is the weakest of the “Bourne” franchise, it still delivers enough action and thrills.  Unfortunately, character is severely lacking.

Hailee Steinfeld & Woody Harrelson deliver some occasionally great scenes in an intermittently intelligent and observant film about teenage struggles.

What could have been a pathetically patriotic and all-too-soon movie about the Boston bombing, actually turned out to be pretty watchable.

Better than “Return of the Jedi” and any of the ‘prequels’, “Rogue One” is one of the better entries in the tired franchise’s history.  It actually had emotion.

A very strong central performance can’t quite elevate this film to a recommendation.  Isabelle Huppert is amazing.  The story is hard to believe.

Ron Howard and Tom Hanks re-team, yet again, with another cinematic sudoku… It is absurd silly nonsense that will entertain at the simplest levels.

A slick looking sci-fi that makes the cardinal error of giving us all the information up front.  Had we been in the dark, this would have been a fine mystery.

An intimate slice of life movie about a handful of poor friends whose companionship gets them through the struggle of life.  Well acted, but vacant.

Not nearly as terrible as reported by the fanboys… this adaptation was as middle-of-the-road as a film can get.

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Son Ye-jin is one of my favorite actresses, but even her valiant efforts cannot save this disjointed, poorly edited thriller.  At no point does the plot feel real.

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This is every bit as dumb as the original.  Is it any wonder, after having chosen to pass on the opportunity to call it, “Now You Don’t”?

I am a big fan of SBC… But this was one of the most painfully unfunny comedies ever made.  It left me utterly stone-faced.  Dreadful.