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| Saoirse Ronan stars in Brooklyn |
From our friend, Arch Campbell...
Best New Bets > Brooklyn - 4 Stars. Irish girl comes to America in the 1950's, then gets tugged back. Great story of finding your way, and making the right life choice.
Spotlight - 4 Stars. The Boston Globe's investigation of abuse in the church leads to global change. Wonderful celebration of newspaper reporting in its humanity.
Inside Out - 3½ Stars. Pixar examines the emotional life of a young girl. A worthy companion of “Up” and the “Toy Story” series.
Black Mass - 3½ Stars. Impressive gangster epic with Johnny Depp reviving his acting chops and Joel Edgerton as good cop, turned bad cop.
The Martian - 3½ Stars. In the great tradition of rescue movies, likable Matt Damon gets left behind on Mars and must figure out his survival.
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| Arch with Will Ferrell & Zach Galifianakis (r) |
Bridge of Spies - 3 Stars. Tom Hanks stars in solid, true life Cold War drama.
Spectre - 3 Stars. The latest James Bond hits all the winning formula marks, but runs long and sometimes feels predictable. Fans won’t mind.
Steve Jobs - 3 Stars. I wanted to love Aaron Sorkin’s biography of Steve Jobs. I liked this treatment; but it’s awfully talky, feels like a play, and Jobs comes off as even more of a jerk than expected.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - 3 Stars. Works overtime to provide thrills and a twisty plot. Tom Cruise aided by fearless double (or triple) agent Rebecca Ferguson.
Sicario - 3 Stars. Mysterious law enforcement officers join Benicio Del Toro in the Arizona border drug wars. Emily Blunt plays an FBI innocent, tricked into compliance. Put my stomach in a knot for the entire movie.
Suffragette: 2½ Stars. Harsh history lesson of the fight for women to gain the vote in England more than 100 years ago.
The Intern - 2½ Stars. Robert De Niro comes out of retirement to learn and teach Anne Hathaway. Sweet. Sometimes too sweet.
Our Brand is Crisis - 2 Stars. Sandra Bullock’s perky comedy about South American politics tries to turn serious, with mixed results.
Truth - 2 Stars. Producer Mary Mapes tells her side of the “60 Minutes” story, that got her fired and ended Dan Rather’s career. A little less self righteousness would have helped.
The 33 - 2 Stars. True story of miners trapped in Chili, told comic book style.
Burnt - 1 Star. Bradley Cooper channels Steve Jobs, if he were a chef. Too salty for me.
Visit Arch's website for his (unrivaled) take on movies. He remains the only other (we're not self-hating) critic, whose opinion we admire and respect.
