DAY 5 OF FILM YEAR IN REVIEW: MODEST ACHIEVEMENTS

MOVIES I LIKED MORE THAN I SHOULD HAVE

• Creep – The under-reviewed horror movie that’s not about teen sex.
• Entourage – Never watched the TV show. Straight bro fantasy surprisingly watchable.
• The Kingsman – The most Tory film ever. It even won over this Whig.
• Lambert & Stamp – Sweaty, bizarre The Who producer doc peters out because no one ODed.
• What We Do in the Shadows – An hour long, great New Zealand SNL sketch that, despite barely reaching feature length still drags on too long because there's not enough Jermaine. 

THE YEAR’S MOST TOLERABLE ROMCOM - Brooklyn

The Story of New York, with a touch of humor and a genuine love of America’s brand: the immigrant experience, the American Dream, but I repeat myself. So it’s not Shakespeare; it’s still right in my wheelhouse: Irish + Italians = The best combo since PB&J.

MOST FOREIGN MOVIE OF THE YEAR: The Assassin

A two hour haiku

Eastern Philosophy wuh?

Where’s all the kung fu?

MOVIES I WANTED TO LIKE MORE THAN I DID

• Child 44 – Because of uncomfortable associations between Hollywood, Stalin, and Blacklists we have shockingly few worthwhile movies about the Soviet Union – the gulags, the Ukranian Famine, the Captive Mind. Child 44 tries to rectify all of this at once, and the result is about as good as trying to fit Schindler's List, The Great Dictator, Inglorious Basterds, and Every World War 2 Movie Ever into one.
• Good Kill – Someone will make a good drone ethics movie. It won’t be Ethan Hawke.
• Merchants of Doubt – Pitches itself as Thank You For Smoking but really just wants to be Another Inconvenient Truth.
• Minions – It takes a hard heart to say this…it’s not that funny
• Shaun the Sheep – See also Minions. I’ve been in this game for years, it made me an animal.