The Silence (2013)

A girl vanishes, her bicycle abandoned in the same spot that another girl went missing more than two decades prior.

Gary said “this would’ve made a good miniseries” and he’s right. The characters were rich and the story was involving, but it felt like I was juggling a lot of information and I would’ve welcomed two 1.5 hour installments rather than a 2-hour movie to give things a little breathing room. Definitely would have been great as a “Prime Suspect” type thing.

B+

Extracted (2012)

Utterly original story: man develops technology to explore the memories of others, but agrees to a demonstration before it’s completely ready. Something, of course, goes very wrong.

A hidden gem.

B+

Hollidaysburg (2014)

This is the other film from The Chair -- and I can’t believe it started with the same script that Not Cool did as the two films are complete opposites.

I thought there were quite a few problems with this film, but the main ones are that the story is too fractured to follow and that the two main girls look too much alike, which made it difficult to keep them straight, especially since the character names weren't used enough. Having watched the doc on the movie, I was also annoyed throughout as I found the director to be wishy-washy and I think her lack of confidence showed up on screen -- though, to be fair, it turned out much better than I anticipated.

In the end, it was simply boring and didn't have much to say. I couldn’t figure out who should be together so I didn’t feel invested at all in who GOT together. A waste of time.

C-

Not Cool (2014)

I watched the Starz series The Chair and this is one of the movies that came out of it. I’m older (by far) than the demographic, but this is definitely the kind of movie I would’ve loved 20-25 years ago. It’s raunchy yet sweet with some truly poignant moments.

The bits that didn’t work were the ones with the director in drag. He's a YouTube star and I know the drag stuff was something he was throwing in for his existing fans, but he should’ve respected the film and trusted his devotees more than he did.

C+

Wish You Were Here (2013)

Two couples take a vacation to Cambodia, but one of the men goes missing on the trip and the other three are unraveling once back home. We get pieces of what happened in several flashback scenes, but the deliberate obfuscation of the truth caused my imagination to go wild. Since my imagination is pretty dang good, there was no way the reveal could live up to my guesses, which made it rather a letdown. Great performances and a pretty good story, though.

B

This Is 40 (2012)

Neither person in the lead couple is likable -- one is a child keeping secrets about finances and the other is a child who keeps secrets about her AGE from her DOCTOR. I mean seriously? I'm really tired of married couples being portrayed as two individuals who barely tolerate the other. Or maybe I'm just doing marriage wrong and that's how it really does look...

To sum up: I didn’t like them so it was pretty hard to like the movie.

D+

About Time (2013)

Gary and I both enjoyed the hell out of this. The hook (the men in the family can time travel, though only to their own past moments) is bonkers, but somehow it didn’t overwhelm the realism of the story. It was about family and love and death and pain. It was about cherishing time rather than exploiting it.

Wonderful.

A

Gone Girl (2014)

I’m a fan of the book and was incredibly impressed by its translation to film, especially since so much of the book is told in diary entries written by an unreliable narrator. It’s been quite some time since I was this entertained in a theater by a film that wasn't a comedy or big-budget action. Just a fabulously well-told and acted story.

A