Author: Alabama Liberal

This is a tough movie to grade and review because I was left with so many mixed emotions. It has the wild tonal shifts of a Tyler Perry movie (verbal comedy one minute and rage-inducing melodrama the next). It doesn’t quite feel real (I never really bought the odd-couple friendship of Judi Dench’s too gullible character and…

I love Alexander Payne (the director of contemporary classics “Citizen Ruth,” “About Schmidt,” “Election,” and “The Descendants”). So why don’t I love his latest film? It has, once again, gotten him nominated for Best Director. And it has, once again, been nominated for Best Picture. It is also, once again, centered around people we don’t…

Most people know “Her” as “that movie where Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with his computer,” and it may technically be that, but it’s also a terrific movie that has more to say about relationships in general than just an obscure, slightly-sci-fi angle. What Works: Roonie Mara gets the most out of her brittle beauty…

We’ve done foreign film roundups and anti-rom com roundups, and if it seems like I’m really struggling to find a common theme for these movies, well then…it’s because I am. Although technically, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Una Noche could be considered immigrant stories, and, hey, even To the Wonder has a quasi-immigrant story in a French woman…

Everybody is pretty much over and done with this Oscar-ignored Coen Brothers film, so what better time than now to force you to read about it? I mean, what could be better than reading a mixed review of a film that has technically been in theaters for two months and nobody cares about anymore? What…

Did I enjoy this super-slow foreign language movie from the slightly overpraised Iranian director of A Separation? No. Do I think you will? Also no. This is one of those films that’s critically heralded because of its real flaws: it’s slow, it’s almost ludicrously somber and self-serious, every member of the main cast looks like they should…

Yes, I did get a weird kick out of grouping an Oscar-frontrunner for best foreign film (The Hunt) and a nominee for Best Documentary (The Square) with a Paul Walker car chase movie.   The Hunt…This drama stars Mads Mikkelson as an honest small-town teacher whose life is destroyed by a completely-fabricated claim of molesting…

Last year, three independent films stretched out the boundaries of exactly what a romantic comedy could be, and at least two of these movies (the first two reviewed) could more accurately be called anti-romantic comedies. If the winter blues has you feeling not so warm and cuddly, then these three (all available on Netflix) may…