Author: Alabama Liberal

So the first three films were all nominated for the Independent Spirit Awards this year (and all in the same category that honors ultra-indies that were made for 500,000 or less), but the fourth film should have been as well. Even though it wasn’t technically nominated, it sure captures the independent spirit. Test…It’s about a gay male…

Two animated films currently in theaters; two (tonally) different options battling for dollars…But what if they’re both good options? Big Hero 6…This is a much more serious movie than “Penguins,” and my gut feeling is that adults might like it more while children might like “Penguins” more. I liked the film’s focus on science and…

This movie sucks too. Sure, it’s not as brazenly offensive (to me and my sensibilities) as “Above the Lights” but it is a film that starts off with the novel idea of doing a feminist Western and then betrays that premise completely by the time the credits roll. What Works: It starts out as a…

If a film is really good, it holds my attention completely as I’m watching it. If it’s not, I start mentally writing the review before the end credits. Firmly in the latter category is “Beyond the Lights” (the black pop star saved by a black bodyguard/cop movie that’s getting rave reviews and white critics saying…

I didn’t expect this film to be as good as the first or even a very good movie, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this outright bad either… What Works: Did you like the trailer? Because all the funniest parts are in the trailer. I’d say about 90 percent of the jokes that actually…

Better late than never…even though it came out in the middle of October, this “Brad Pitt WWII tank movie” is still kicking around in some theaters so it’s worth a review. What Works: I wasn’t big on the movie as a whole, but there were some knockout standalone sequences like a climactic tank battle and…

Three thrillers (two docs, one scripted) that all cover real-life incidents… Devil’s Knot…Skip this mess of a film. The tale of the West Memphis Three (the three innocent teenagers in Arkansas that were arrested and convicted for the murders of three small boys solely because the cops mistakenly thought they were satanists) has been covered…

Two indie thrillers from January of this year, two very different experiences…[And a non-thriller, oddball pick I didn’t have a place for.] Open Grave…A zombie-type thriller wherein Sharlto Copeley wakes up in, you guessed it, an open grave filled with dead bodies. There’s not many scares or compelling moments. The opening sequence is one of the few…

Two different films about nefarious doubles, and even though both were critically acclaimed, I can really only recommend one of them… The Double…Jesse Eisenberg plays a ridiculously stilted office worker in a drab, gray existence who’s upstaged by a more confident, aggressive version of himself (it’s a double that only Eisenberg seems to notice looks…

Today’s theme: movies about the elderly, which we rarely see. These are various portraits that show growing old doesn’t necessarily mean slowing down. Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me…A documentary on the great actress Elaine Stritch. If you’ve ever seen her Broadway work or—more likely—as Alec Baldwin’s mother on 30 Rock, you’ll realize about what you’re in…

5 films that deal with different types of educational debates, and the many different types of education someone can get… Ivory Tower…A documentary that attempts to ask the question “Is a college degree still worth it?” It brings up student loan debt, spiraling tuition costs (tuition has gone up more than any other good or…

Two fairly acclaimed sports docs that are available on Showtime now. One received a theatrical release and a lot more buzz, but I found myself a little more captivated by “Glena.” “No No: A Dockumentary”…This documentary currently has an astounding 100 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which kinda makes me want to pan it…