An Honest Liar (2014)

Documentary about James Randi, aka "The Amazing Randi." He became very popular as an illusionist, escape artist and prognosticator, appearing on television for decades. He became a particular favorite of Johnny Carson, especially when, in his later career, he concentrated his efforts on exposing those using magic to perpetrate fraud on the public.

A really fascinating man who did so much good, but it goes on a bit long. The final scenes focus on legal troubles concerning his boyfriend's citizenship, which let the wind out somewhat.

B

Happy Christmas (2014)

After a break-up, Jenny moves in with her brother and his family until she can figure out what to do next. She almost seems like more trouble than she's worth: she embarrasses a friend by getting black-out drunk at a party, sleeps through a commitment to watch her nephew, and fills the house with smoke in the middle of the night when she forgets about the pizza she put in the oven. But she's also the catalyst to remind sister-in-law Kelly that she doesn't have to put her happiness on the back burner just because she's a mother now.

The story's not bad, but the mumblecore of it all makes it feel super thin, especially because neither Anna Kendrick nor Lena Dunham is any good at improvisation. The best actor in the whole dang thing is the toddler son -- but that's probably due to the cheat that his actual father is playing his fictional father.

D+

Non-Stop (2014)

Neeson's an alcoholic air marshal trying to figure out which of the people on his plane is demanding $150 million to stop people from dying every 20 minutes. There are more stupid decisions than there are red herrings and, trust me, that comes out to "a shit-ton."

A complete waste of a pretty stacked cast.

D+

Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014)

Hector and Clara live in a gorgeous apartment, have great jobs, and a close relationship. But therapist Hector's started to wonder if he's being at all helpful to any of his patients and it's resulted in a case of "what even IS happiness?" So, he decides to travel the world to see if he can figure it out.

He enjoys some hedonism, travels to a remote monastery, pitches in at a medical outreach, enjoys some home cooking in a small village, meets and helps a drug lord, gets kidnapped, and even reconnects with an old lover. All along the way, he asks everyone what their idea of happiness is and dutifully records their answers in his travel notebook. Meanwhile, his calls home feel more and more distant, as though Clara is mentally moving on.

I don't know what this movie was trying to be, but I don't think it achieved the goal. Hector just seemed like a dude with too much looking for even more. Basically, "I'm having a midlife crisis but I've got enough money to make an IMPORTANT SOUL JOURNEY out of it."

C

Frank (2014)

Jon is an aspiring musician who finds himself in the right place at the right time to play the keyboards for a band's gig. The band is avant garde, both in sound and personnel, but the most noteworthy thing about the group is that the lead singer wears an oversized paper mache head, which he never takes off, even when not on stage.

The aggressive weirdness of the set-up probably would've been alright with me if anything else about the story made sense or even if the music was any good. I just didn't really get any of it and the ending, especially, was a letdown; it just made me feel like I'd been tricked. I'm flabbergasted to learn that the Frank character is based on an actual person.

C

The Double (2014)

Simon James is a sad sack who generally goes unnoticed; even the security guard at his work can never remember that he's a long-time employee. But then his impressive and impossible-to-ignore doppelgänger James Simon gets hired on and things start to change. At first possibilities seem to open in ways they hadn't before, but then things go off the rails -- like when James starts taking credit for Simon's work and begins wooing the girl of Simon's dreams.

This is one of those movies where everything is deliberately depressing. It's set in a grey future of constant loneliness. But why? The storyline would've been at least as interesting in a bright office with a mix of happy, scared, inefficient, overachieving, kind and cruel denizens AND it probably wouldn't have taken me more than a week to finish. This needed some relief from the aggressive grimness.

D

Willow Creek (2014)

A couple set out to make a documentary about the lore of and search for Bigfoot. First: I'm not sure who would watch such a banal documentary. What we see being shot is boring, amateurish, and well-trod subject matter. 

I was assuming that the action would pick up once they actually got to hiking and camping in the woods, but nope! All of the action takes place outside of the tent during the night so what we get is 15 minutes or so of them reacting and whispering about how scared they are of whatever's out there. A complete waste of time for me and everyone involved in making this.

D

Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)

Adam and Eve are a married couple who've been living apart for several years. But, since they're vampires, I imagine that a decade is a bit like a weekend away. When Eve picks up on Adam's depression, she gets on a plane to join him in Detroit where they hang out, deal with an annoying visit from a family member, and generally enjoy each other's company.

This movie is such a mood. And, really, that's just about all it is. Don't mistake that proclamation as a complaint, though.

A-

As Above, So Below (2014)

Fearless Scarlett is following in her father's footsteps, searching for the Philosopher's Stone. She's venturing into the catacombs of Paris to chase her latest lead and enlists a camera operator, her old friend George, and a catacombs expert (who comes with a couple of friends) to join her.

The darkness and claustrophobia work well with the tension of the story. I don't know Dante's work, but I'm familiar with the concept of the circles of hell and understand that's what's being evoked here. It pretty much works: there's a lot of smart stuff mixed into the jump scares. But, ultimately, it kind of devolved into a messy haunted house storyline.

I really liked these characters and would probably watch a sequel if they made one.

B-

The Railway Man (2014)

Eric, a middle-aged British man, is still suffering from his time as a prisoner of war. In effective flashback, we get to know the younger Eric and witness his bravery in coming forward to take the sole blame for a contraband radio receiver. When he discovers decades later that his torturer is still alive, he feels driven to make the trip to confront him.

This based on fact story was truly affecting. I was blown away by the long arm of pain -- how it can persist through decades -- as well as the power of honest confession and true forgiveness. The truth that we are all human and often on the wrong side of things (especially when it comes to nationalism and religion) is highlighted to great effect here. It's a thoughtfully-made and hopeful film.

B

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

There are some decent action sequences, but it mostly just gave me eyesprain from all the rolling. The subplot of "jealous girlfriend follows spy boyfriend to Russia" was particularly ridiculous, especially when she's immediately given clearance and a temporary job as spy arm candy.

C-

The Pirates (2014)

A group of bandits on the run are rescued at sea by pirates. Eventually they join forces... and I'm sure there was a reason, some kind of mission, but I just can't be bothered to remember.

The fight sequences were pretty good, but it's way too long and the plot is (obviously) forgettable.

C-

A Long Way Down (2014)

Four different people have the same idea: jump off the top of a building known for suicides on New Year's Eve. But when they encounter the others on the roof, they form a kind of support group instead. The quartet have nothing in common: there's a locally famous disgraced talk show host, a manic daughter of a politician, a middle-aged woman who's a caretaker for her disabled son, and a pizza delivery guy -- but their bond is real and they each come to depend on it.

Though diverting, there's very little depth of character.

C

The Signal (2014)

Three college friends (Nic, Haley, and Jonah) are traveling cross-country to help Haley relocate. Along the way, they discover that a hacker who compromised some of their work at MIT is nearby, so they take a detour to confront him. I was enjoying this story: it was one about an imminent break-up, a kid trying to figure out how to navigate his life in the wake of a recent diagnosis affecting his legs, and the excitement of an encounter with a hidden foe.

But then this turns into some other movie. Nic wakes up in a bare-bones medical facility and is being handled by people in HAZMAT suits. Haley's in a coma, and -- though Jonah is supposedly not in the facility -- Nic is able to communicate with him through the vents. And there's something weird going on with his legs.

I wound up pretty frustrated and in need of an explanation.

C-

Horns (2014)

Ig's girlfriend has been murdered and he's the prime suspect. When he sprouts horns, everyone who sees them cannot help but tell him what's on their mind -- like, literally. As in, his mother wonders why he won't just go away because she and his father would be so much happier with him out of their lives.

This film is right in-between "I liked it" and "eh, not for me." While I was pretty interested in what was going on, it ultimately didn't make much sense. Was he a devil suddenly? If so, why? I just needed either a reasonable explanation or something so amazing that I wouldn't care that it was nonsense. As it stands, I was entertained for the most part, but the lack of payoff really hurts it.

C

The Rover (2014)

I recorded this because it stars Robert Pattinson, an actor that has surprised me with his ability to choose interesting projects. This generalization excepts the Twilight franchise, of course.

The story is set "10 years after the collapse" in the depressing Australian nothingness. Guy Pearce is a loner whose car is stolen while he's getting a drink. The entirety of the movie, until the final scene, is him attempting to get it back. Along the way, he encounters the simple brother of one of the thieves, with whom he joins up in order to expedite the search.

This felt like a billion other dystopian-future films. Human life isn't worth much and joy is non-existent. That the two leads managed to make me care about them was a pretty decent trick. The eye-rollingly silly reveal for the "hero's" commitment to finding his car (hint: check the title) was not.

C+

Gloria (2014)

Gloria is a middle-aged divorcee with a cubicle job, a noisy upstairs neighbor, and grown kids who seem to not particularly want her in their lives. She also really loves spending her evenings in dance halls -- kind of quieter clubs for older people. It's in the club where she meets Rodolfo, a recent divorcee, who has yet to disentangle himself from his wife and his too-dependent-on-him grown daughters.

The set-up seems normal enough, but Rodolfo's behavior is super-weird. He abandons Gloria during a family party without any warning and doesn't pick up her calls for the rest of the evening. When he succeeds in begging her back and whisking her away on an overnight trip to the seaside, he abandons her again. I found it to be unbelievable and wound up judging Gloria as pathetic for allowing herself to be bamboozled by a crazy person.

In the end, I was left with feelings of distaste and pity. 

C

The Normal Heart (2014)

This movie concerns the first 5 years or so of the AIDS crisis in America. We follow Ned Weeks and a small group of friends who found the Gay Mens Health Crisis hotline and who work to get funding for medical research. The story is heartbreaking and frustrating, but the movie is not.

Though Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer give it their all, the movie is simply boring. It's basically cry and yell and cry and yell. Julia Roberts purses her lips, Taylor Kitsch tries to do something other than look pretty, and Jim Parsons may as well slip in a "Bazinga" or two.

C+

The Interview (2014)

A producer on a low-stakes celebrity talk show wants to do more important work. When they find out Kim Jong-un is a fan, they chase and land an interview. This, in turn, gets them recruited by the CIA to assassinate the North Korean leader.

James Franco is truly hilarious as the impressionable host Dave Skylark. Easily the funniest segment is the first one, in which Eminem casually reveals his homosexuality on the show. But Franco delivers consistently, even though the movie eventually runs out of ideas.

B-

Archipelago (2014)

A mother and her two adult children arrive at a country cottage ahead of the father for a two-week family holiday that is to serve as a send-off for the son, who is heading off to volunteer in Africa for a year. There's a hired cook and a hired art teacher (I think??) who are around quite a bit.

The family sits around moodily or eats moodily or goes on moody outings and gets more and more annoyed that the patriarch isn't showing up. Can't say I blame him, though. His family is the worst. And this movie is a big ol' pile of nothing but scenery and birdsong and brooding.

F