Director: Woody Allen
Writers: Woody Allen
Stars: Colin Firth, Antonia Clarke, Natasha Andrews

Synopsis: A romantic comedy about an Englishman brought in to help unmask a possible swindle. Personal and professional complications ensue.

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DIRECTION
Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight is an interesting film surrounding magic, spiritualism and sensible logic which plays into the character’s in some fun and compelling ways. Darius Khondji’s cinematography is gorgeous as he captures natural European landscapes that look more like paintings than they do real life. The 1920’s aesthetics is utilized well with beautiful vehicles and stylish clothing, which gave the film a fun appeal. The first half of the film is well paced and engaging, however there’s a turn that happens where Allen loses us a bit, which he does too often in his other work. Despite that, from a direction standpoint, Allen captures the right tone along with great performances, but just needed some more coherency in the back half.

Grade: A-

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SCRIPT
Magic in the Moonlight script can easily be sectioned into two parts. The first half is so endearing and hilarious as Stanley (Colin Firth), a famous touring magician, is provoked to check out a young woman who claims she can speak with the spirit world, which Stanley feels is big hoax. Soon, Stanley and his life long friend Howard (Simon McBurney) arrive to meet Sophie (Emma Stone), which immediately creates this awkward tension as Stanley uses sarcasm to bat down any claims made by Sophie. The interactions between the two is pretty funny at first, but soon Stanley becomes curious as he can’t figure out her “trick”. The two start spending more time alone and romanticism subtly starts to wrap them both although neither of them admit it. Unfortunately, there’s a turn in the second half that feels rushed and manufactured, which can be distracting for some. Firth’s character especially was so grounded and logical, that when the turn does happen, it’s kind of hard to buy. The final twenty minutes are so does ramp back up again, although it’s a bit predictable.

Grade: B-

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RELATED: Boyhood Movie Review

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PERFORMANCES
Colin Firth and Emma Stone carry the film extremely well. Stone’s performance at first will appear kind of weak, but it’s intentional when you understand the context of the situation and see where the story is going. Their chemistry together isn’t on aASM2 level, but it works here. Firth is so likable in a character that is kind of despicable. You just can’t help but laugh and clutch on to his performance. Simon McBurney’s role is small but servicable as is Marcia Gay Harden as Sophie’s mom.

Grade: A

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SCORE
Like all other Woody Allen films, there’s no traditional score but rather other classical compositions that play into the scenes and older pop music from the 1920’s carry the musical beats of the film. It’s not his best work but still pretty descent.

Grade: B+

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FINAL THOUGHTS
Magic in the Moonlight had some potential but gets lost in the middle and was never able to fully recover. Despite those scripting issues, the camera work is impeccable and the performances are endearing. Those by themselves makes this film worth watching at some point, but it’s not one you have to rush out to the theaters to see.

Overall Grade: B

Director: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
Writers: Frank Miller, Frank Miller (graphic novels)
Stars: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin

Synopsis: Some of Sin City’s most hard-boiled citizens cross paths with a few of its more reviled inhabitants.

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DIRECTION
Being a huge fan of print, Sin City is a film that I originally enjoyed as it was a visionary masterpiece that pleased the geek in me with brilliant editing and unique storytelling. In sports it is very hard to achieve success twice, but Frank Miller and Robert Rodriquez show that even in films that is true because Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is shot maybe seven years too late to even make audiences care. Sin City 2 employs a formula so bad that it makes Michael Bay look like an Oscar winner. (Pains me to say that). Miller and Rodriquez’s sequel is all about smashing windows and boobies. The film’s goals are to see how quickly they can get person A through a window and also how many times they can get Eva Green jigglypuffs onscreen. Miller and Rodriquez do bring back their traditional black and white style and I think it helps portray the dark tone of Sin City. In Sin City there are a few splashes of color and each shade of color is used to aim the focus at a particular person or image at that time. Brilliant.

Grade: D

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SCRIPT
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For tells four stories that are interconnected through Marv (Mickey Rourke) and Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a gambler that is out to destroy the Senator at his own game. Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) finds out what happens when are wiped as the beautiful and lusty Ava Lord (Eva Green) shows that not even Thanos can resist a good infinity stone. The last story shows a Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) dealing with the loss of John Hartigan. Overall, the script penned by Miller is solid but the transition onscreen just did not work this time around. The four stories that comprise the film are visually well done but only one actually has any meat to it. The weaker stories are pointlessly used as wraparound material, starting and ending the film. And by stalling and starting these slight stories only brings to the surface that not much goes on within them.

Grade: D

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RELATED: Boyhood Movie Review

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PERFORMANCES
Mickey Rourke is fantastic as Marv, hardly recognizable but does a great job of being an enforcer in Sin City. Jessical Alba shows a little more depth here than the first time around, especially in the final sequences of the film. Eva Green, while naked a lot, is evil and sells her character well, despite some bad writing around it at times. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is really good although he doesn’t have as much screen time, but is solid when he’s there.

Grade: C

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SCORE
The score is okay and fills the space nicely in some areas but like most of the film, it’s nothing you’ll remember.

Grade: C

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FINAL THOUGHTS
The third story of the film, properly titled A Dame to Kill For, was the most intriguing part of the entire film. The story ran for about 45 minutes and showed Eva Green’s wonderboobs more times than the WWE plugging their 9.99 network. The scene had a nice premise but had so many logic flaws and Miller ruined the strong femme fatale of Ava Lord by making her topless in over 90% of her screen time. If Miller had focused more time on the story, then I think the film would have been more enjoyable as it’s was filled with sex and violence. However, the blatant sexism in this story is going to be a huge turnoff for most movie goers.

Overall Grade: D+

Director: R.J. Cutler
Writers: Shauna Cross (screenplay), Gayle Forman (novel)
Stars: Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Jamie Blackley

Synopsis: Life changes in an instant for young Mia Hall after a car accident puts her in a coma. During an out-of-body experience, she must decide whether to wake up and live a life far different than she had imagined.

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INTRO
I am very fond of Chloe Grace Moretz as she has had the pleasure of working with some major talent at such a young age. Moretz roles usually are very eccentric in nature. I’m sure every young girl dreams of falling in love with a guy that is perfect ten and says lines so great, even Tony the Tiger is jealous. Moretz finally gets chance to experience that in the properly titled If I Stay.

DIRECTION
In feeding off the teen girls of the world obsession with falling in love with the perfect guy, Warner Bros thought long and hard about a film that will help generate buzz that The Fault in Our Stars did earlier this year. I’m just joking of course about Warner Bros thinking hard about a film, when in doubt pick a Young Adult novel. R.J Cutler was working on a script penned by Shauna Cross and I could have not been more bored watching this film. The whole idea of the film is for the main character, Mia, to decide if it’s worth living or simply letting go. Cutler’s flashbacks are used to help Mia decide her fate. I have no issue with that and the premise sounds interesting but the way the director handles each flashback was more terrible than Kristen Stewart’s acting. Most of the flashbacks show the great time she had with Adam and pretty much her life is a perfect Disney fairytale. As we watch each flashback it becomes pretty obvious what’s going to happen, meaning this film offers zero real drama.

Grade: F

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SCRIPT
If I Stay is a young adult novel by Gayle Forman published in 2009. Before I get into this review further, a few words of advice: Just because something is great on paper doesn’t mean it will be great in reality (look at the San Francisco 49ers). If I Stay offers nothing new to this genre and, Chloe, I am sorry but you can do better than this. Moretz stars as 17-year-old cello prodigy Mia Hall. Mia dreams of Julliard and a musical romance with a young man named Adam (Jamie Blackley). A car accident leaves Mia, her bohemian parents (Mireille Enos and Joshua Leonard) and younger brother (Jakob Davies) fighting for their lives. Mia experiences an out-of-body-experience where she must decide to stay or go. Most of the film alternates between Mia running around the hospital (with no shoes or socks) to terrible flashbacks with her time with Adam and her love for the cello. Adam and Mia relationship is very unbelievable and they make it appear as if their love is on that Hazel and Augustus level, when in actuality it is more forced than Clary and Jace’s relationship.

Grade: D

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RELATED: Boyhood Movie Review

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PERFORMANCES
Moretz as always did a fantastic job as Mia, it was refreshing to see her play a normal character for once. Blackley was a bad choice for the role of Adam and I’m not sure if it was him or how the character was written, but that ruined the movie. Mireille Enos and Joshua Leonard were great in their limited roles as Mia parents.

Grade: C (only cause Chloe)

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SCORE
The music is terrible. That’s all I need to say about that.

Grade: F

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FINAL THOUGHTS
If I Stay is a film that had no business being made as it has terrible dialogue with way too many pointless flashbacks.

Overall Grade: F

Director: Richard Linklater
Writers: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater

Synopsis: The life of a young man, Mason, from age 5 to age 18.

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DIRECTION
I’m sure by now you’ve all heard that it took 12 years for Richard Linklater to shoot and finish Boyhood, which is truly unique and something we’ve never seen before. However, the best part about it, is that it never feels like a gimmick but rather a natural and authentic way of reminiscing in nostalgia over childhood. You may not connect with every piece of this specific story, but Linklater’s achieves something that is magical and rich, engaging us in elements we’ve all experienced on some level. The transitions are smooth and eased by the use of popular music, creating a fluid watching experience that is just riveting. The film takes subtle brushstrokes as it paints memories and emotion, but it’s not until the end credits roll that you see the entire portrait and just how wonderfully crafted it is.

Grade: A+

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SCRIPT
The story centers around Mason (Ellar Coltrane), who is six years old when the film begins, and it’s his boyhood that we get to experience, while drawing parallels to our own. Mason lives with his single mom (Patricia Arquette) and his sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater), and move to Austin, TX when Mason’s mom decided she wants to go back to school. Soon after, Mason and Samantha’s dad (Ethan Hawk) enters the picture to be around his kids more, which Mason gravitates to, asking his dad questions that Linklater uses to wink at the audience in a creative way. As the story progresses, we see more life changes happening around him, mostly out of his control, but we also see the ramifications it has on him and his sister. As Mason gets older, we see his interest in girls spike, how art starts to grab him and how his relationship with his dad starts to mature. His teen years are marked by provoking questions and living in uncertainty of what he wants to accomplish in life. The story here may feel mundane throughout much of it, but that’s the point. As much as we live in the dramatic, we also live in the mundane, but those moments still shape us and give us time to reflect. Regardless of how you personally connect with it, the blend of drama and subtleness feels so real and natural, that it mirrors real-life possibly closer than anything else we’ve ever seen before on film.

Grade: A

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RELATED: Wish I Was Here Movie Review

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PERFORMANCES
Ellar Coltrane’s performance can almost be divided into two parts, pre-high school and high school. His younger years are innocent, with little dialogue and realistically portrays how a six year old would react to bigger things happening around him. He’s not sure how to react to certain situations, and for an introvert, those mannerisms make a lot of sense. His high school years, however, feel very different. Coltrane lacks the charisma he had as a younger kid, perhaps because of the writing, but the character lost it’s appeal in some ways in the latter third of the film. Ethan Hawke on the other hand is brilliant. Perhaps it’s another shade of Jesse from the Before Trilogy, but it works and it works really well. Hawke is incredible and endearing in every possible way. The best performance of the film arguably goes to Patricia Arquette though. Her character suffers a great deal but she never claims the victim trope. Arquette manages to her emotion well, which is pivotal to the film, especially towards the end of the film. There are a few scenes here and there that felt incomplete but overall, she’s fantastic. Lorelei Linklater is really good in the first half of the film, but her character slowly dissipates in the second half, leaving her with little to do. She’s not outstanding but very servicable.

Grade: A-

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SCORE
The music is one of the biggest pieces to the film, almost working as another character. There’s no traditional score but Linklater uses pop music in the given year the story is taking place which creates fluid transitions as well as stimulate our nostalgia throughout the film. The music is perfectly placed with each song purposely chosen to give a certain tone or feel, which was superbly well handled. One of the best soundtracks of the year.

Grade: A+

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FINAL THOUGHTS
Boyhood was an incredibly risky project but the end product feels so genuine and we are wrapping ourselves in a blanket of our own nostalgia and memories. Whether or not you grab onto this specific story is irrelevant, it’s more about placing yourself in the elements presented and reflecting on a time in our lives that still holds a special place in our hearts, in some way or another. Growing up isn’t easy for a lot of people, since we are powerless as children, things happen to us and it has an influence on our lives. We see that happen in Mason’s life in what is one of the more realistic, powerful films you’ll ever see.

Overall Grade: A