Peter Jackson’s money-making machine concludes with a series of indecipherable superficial CGI-driven battle sequences.
Big Hero 6
Disney’s BIG HERO 6 delights in the creation of utopian hybrid metropolis San Fransokyo and huggable robot Baymax, but its promise of originality fails to be met by its descent into an overly formulaic superhero narrative.
The One I Love
Charlie McDowell’s directorial debut is an independent feature that truly feels like successful collaboration, featuring a compelling and inventive screenplay by Justin Lader and two very assured performances from Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss.
Particle Fever
Though not as compelling as it perhaps should have been, Mark Levinson’s documentary about the Large Hadron Collider is informative and often amusing.
Nightcrawler
Dan Gilroy’s directorial debut is a bold piece of pulp crime that glances at media satire but focuses much more on character, featuring a very impressive lead performance from Jake Gyllenhaal.
Let’s Be Cops
LET’S BE COPS is an awkwardly timed and ill-conceived film that despite some laughs is too forgettable to really offend.
Serena
Susanne Bier’s widely maligned SERENA is a sadly misjudged romance drama that inspires laughter more than sympathy.
The Drop
An underwhelming and weakly constructed crime drama, THE DROP amounts to very little, clumsily feigning its sense of place and character.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
The third instalment of The Hunger Games delivers a solid and satisfying mediation on the mediatisation of war and revolution within the constraints of its Young Adult and relatively weak source material.
Maps to the Stars
David Cronenberg’s latest, MAPS TO THE STARS, is an hilarious dark comedy about the madness among Hollywood’s elite, less interested in satire than outright excess, and it’s all the better for it.