Vera Farmiga

Higher Ground Review

Higher Ground Review

RATING: (2.5 STARS) 2011 featured a number of stellar directorial debuts. I’ve sung the praises of Sean Durkin’s masterful Martha Marcy May Marlene for months now, but J.C. Chandor’s Margin Call, Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block, and John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard were all varying degrees of intriguing and entertaining. Another of last year’s directorial […]

Source Code Review

Source Code Review

RATING: (3 STARS) With 2009’s Moon, Duncan Jones offered us one of the better directorial debuts in recent memory. With Source Code, his follow-up, he gives us a solid genre film with a higher budget, bigger stars, and some wild ideas. While it doesn’t reach the heights of his last, it’s akin to something like […]

The Departed Review

The Departed Review

RATING: (4 STARS) “The Departed” is director Martin Scorsese’s best work since “Taxi Driver.” Yeah, I said it. I think this film is better than “Goodfellas” and “Raging Bull.” In fact, for a long time, this film was my standard answer for the dreaded “What’s your favorite movie?” question. I no longer hold it in […]

Up in the Air Review

Up in the Air Review

RATING: (4 STARS) Sometimes a film comes along and does more than simply entertain; it speaks to people, sends them a clear message. Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” is such a film. It so perfectly captures the zeitgeist of American today, it’s almost scary. It says to those millions of unemployed Americans “It’s OK. […]