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Friday, September 9, 2016
Movie Reviews: Sully, I Am Not a Serial Killer, The Wild Life, Our Little Sister
For the Love of Spock, Phantom Boy
Posted By Scott Renshaw on September 9, 2016, 11:01 AM
It's the dead zone between summer blockbusters and Oscar season, with a few interesting stragglers drifting into theaters in the interim.
There's a solid pedigree behind Sully (pictured), with director Clint Eastwood's finding a portrait of everyday heroism in an account of the airline pilot (Tom Hanks) who managed a miracle landing on the Hudson River. For the Love of Spock finds Adam Nimoy crafting a documentary about his father, Leonard, that's more focused on compiling a mountain of information than telling a cohesive life story. Utah author Dan Wells' novel I Am Not a Serial Killer becomes a solid supernatural thriller anchored by a perfectly-cast lead performance by Max Records. The animated Phantom Boy—from the makers of the Oscar-nominated A Cat in Paris—loses its compelling metaphor about an ill child in a goofy comic-book adventure.
MaryAnn Johanson finds The Wild Life's animated retelling of Robinson Crusoe suitable only for the most undiscriminating of young audiences.
Eric D. Snider comments the poignant slice-of-life drama in Hirokazu Kore-eda's Our Little Sister.
Also opening this week, but not available for review: A couple's surrogate mother becomes the antagonist in the old-school "[fill-in-the-blank] from hell" thriller When the Bough Breaks; the true story of the man who brought Adolph Eichmann to justice in The People vs. Fritz Bauer; and a family finds a haunted history in their new rural home in The Disappointments Room.
There's a solid pedigree behind Sully (pictured), with director Clint Eastwood's finding a portrait of everyday heroism in an account of the airline pilot (Tom Hanks) who managed a miracle landing on the Hudson River. For the Love of Spock finds Adam Nimoy crafting a documentary about his father, Leonard, that's more focused on compiling a mountain of information than telling a cohesive life story. Utah author Dan Wells' novel I Am Not a Serial Killer becomes a solid supernatural thriller anchored by a perfectly-cast lead performance by Max Records. The animated Phantom Boy—from the makers of the Oscar-nominated A Cat in Paris—loses its compelling metaphor about an ill child in a goofy comic-book adventure.
MaryAnn Johanson finds The Wild Life's animated retelling of Robinson Crusoe suitable only for the most undiscriminating of young audiences.
Eric D. Snider comments the poignant slice-of-life drama in Hirokazu Kore-eda's Our Little Sister.
Also opening this week, but not available for review: A couple's surrogate mother becomes the antagonist in the old-school "[fill-in-the-blank] from hell" thriller When the Bough Breaks; the true story of the man who brought Adolph Eichmann to justice in The People vs. Fritz Bauer; and a family finds a haunted history in their new rural home in The Disappointments Room.
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