The Beguiled: Sofia Coppola can make a movie, folks. The source material is interesting – injured Civil War soldier found by woman-only group – and what she does with it is awesome, creating a claustrophobic atmosphere that keeps the intensity up. Love a movie where things just don’t seem quite right. ****1/4
Mother!: Love Darren Aronofsky but he’s at a phase of his art where he’s losing me, in that the ideas and techniques aren’t interesting enough to overcome a story that’s difficult to begin with. Jennifer Lawrence is crazy good here and you can’t say Aronofsky can’t create an atmosphere but this just didn’t quite work for me on a movie level or an interesting experiment level. ***1/4
Stronger: First Patriot’s Day, now this … the Boston Marathon bombing made for some affecting films. Jake Gyllenhaal is acting, folks. ***1/2
I Do… Until I Don’t: </Eh. Strong cast, but one of those movies where you’re like: what prompted you to want to make this? *
Too Funny to Fail: A funny, fascinating look back at the inexplicable failure that was The Dana Carvey Show, which boasted a writing staff filled with names who went on to rule comedy. ****
