February 2015 Movie Reviews

The Good Lie
Director: Philippe Falardeau
Warner Home Video
Street: 12.23.14
Where it would be easy to use this film as a platform for all manner of different agendas, director Philippe Falardeau, instead simply brings the focus in on four young Sudanese refugees—from their harrowing childhood to their experiences acclimating to American society. The film’s principal actors (Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal and Kuoth Wiel) are all Sudanese refugees themselves, which makes their emotional performances all the more engrossing. The Good Lie also avoids the Hollywood trap of painting their white actors as the heroes of a story that really isn’t about them. Reese Witherspoon and Corey Stoll offer solid supporting performances, but the film keeps its focus on the relationship among the four refugees and their reconciliation with the childhood struggles that shaped their adult lives. Though the performances are all great, the film was plagued with a few pacing issues that made the immigration process appear to be much less frustrating than it actually is—though it’s difficult to fault a film for leaving out the miles of red tape that legal immigration is known for. All in all, The Good Lie is a tight little film that is definitely worth checking out. –Alex Springer

Inherent Vice
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Warner Brothers
In Theaters: 12.12.15
I’m not angry, Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights)—I’m just disappointed. I guess I have myself to blame for putting you on a pedestal for so long, talking you up to all my friends and loving everything you’ve done. I knew that there would eventually be a swing and a miss. Inherent Vice, adapted from the book of the same name, tells the story of Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), a private investigator and fulltime pothead, who takes a job where he helps prevent a wealthy real-estate developer from being committed to an insane asylum by his scheming wife. The movie was long, confusing and a boring mess. One of the drawbacks was the fact that you need to watch every second so you’re not completely lost, as new characters are introduced every fifteen minutes to further complicate the plot. If you have to go to the bathroom, good luck keeping up with it. The lengthiness makes it all the more frustrating, considering the movie is two and a half hours. With an all-star cast that includes Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon and Benicio del Toro, I was expecting something better than what the excellent trailer alluded to. –Kenny Tadrzynski

A Most Violent Year
Director: J.C. Chandor
A24
In Theaters 01.31
This is going to be one of those films that a lot of people aren’t going to like—not because it’s a bad movie, but because the title and trailer make it sound more violent than it actually is. J.C. Chandor (All Is Lost) directs a movie that would be better suited for the decade that the film takes place—the ’80s. I fear that the film will be lost in the instant-gratification era that we live in. Set in 1981 New York City during one of the highest years of crime on record, Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) plays Abel Moralles, a sharp-dressed family man who has inherited a heat & oil company. Life is going great until unknown assailants begin to hijack his oil trucks and send him threats. His wife, played by Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), only complicates things as his company’s bookkeeper and all-around ball buster, constantly belittling him for not taking matters into his own hands. This is a quiet, thinking man’s movie—all the more reason most people will be turned off by it, as it’s being marketed as something more violent. –Kenny Tadrzynski