Monitor Movie Guide

A year of Monitor movie reviews.

Click column headings to sort. Click again to reverse sort order. MPAA ratings sort alphabetically, not by level of restriction.

Title	MPAA Rating	Review Date
'War Dogs' doesn't have many thrills	R	2016-08-19
'Ben-Hur' is tepid and CGI-heavy	PG-13	2016-08-19
'Imperium' is pulpy but effective	R	2016-08-19
'A Tale of Love and Darkness' is often irretrievably dour	PG-13	2016-08-19
'Little Men' is sweet with powerfully understated acting	PG	2016-08-12
In 'Florence Foster Jenkins,' life is more important than art	PG-13	2016-08-10
'Suicide Squad': Characters are promisingly introduced, fizzle fast	PG-13	2016-08-05
'The Little Prince' has a tedious real-world framing device	PG	2016-08-05
'Hieronymus Bosch: Touched by the Devil' is dry but the art is still astonishing	Unrated	2016-08-05
'Jason Bourne' is one of the better entries in the series	PG-13	2016-07-29
'Gleason' leaves a lot for us to fill in	R	2016-07-29
'Indignation' is uneven but star Logan Lerman is a go-getter	R	2016-07-29
'Star Trek Beyond' is consistently entertaining	PG-13	2016-07-22
'Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You' is a testimonial to an icon	Unrated	2016-07-22
'The Innocents': The subject of the film is more arresting than the movie	PG-13	2016-07-15
'Café Society' is a mixed bag for all its smoothness	PG-13	2016-07-15
In 'Ghostbusters,' character comedy is trampled by effects	PG-13	2016-07-14
'The Infiltrator' lacks novelty but has nail-biting pizzazz	R	2016-07-13
'Our Little Sister' is Chekhov lite but provokes smiles	-	2016-07-08
'Life, Animated' depicts the extent to which love and caring can turn a life around	PG	2016-07-08
Documentary 'Zero Days' is more frightening than anything Hollywood could come up with	PG-13	2016-07-08
In 'The Legend of Tarzan,' Alexander Skarsgård looks at home in the jungle	PG-13	2016-07-01
'Our Kind of Traitor' is diverting but not the best adaptation of Le Carré	R	2016-07-01
'The BFG' never sustains liftoff	PG	2016-07-01
'Free State of Jones' is powerful but lacks nuance	R	2016-06-24
'Wiener-Dog': The central dachshund is more of a linking device than a character	R	2016-06-24
'Les Cowboys' is more ambitious than successful	R	2016-06-24
'Finding Dory' has rollicky moments, but 'Finding Nemo' was better	PG	2016-06-17
'The Music of Strangers' shows how musicmaking can be salvation	PG-13	2016-06-17
'Viktoria' milks its symbolism dry	Unrated	2016-06-10
'Genius': The presentation of a writer's craft is pure Hollywood	PG-13	2016-06-10
'Me Before You' signals its every move a mile away	PG-13	2016-06-03
'Time to Choose': Climate change documentary has a hopeful tone	Unrated	2016-06-03
'The Witness' is enlightening, though occasionally confusing	Unrated	2016-06-02
'Presenting Princess Shaw' is about an improbable pairing that is ineffably right	Unrated	2016-05-27
'Unlocking the Cage' makes a reasonable case for personhood for animals	Unrated	2016-05-27
'X-Men: Apocalypse' storylines would have benefited from major pruning	PG-13	2016-05-26
'Alice Through the Looking Glass' substitutes technological phantasmagoria for genuine wonderment	PG	2016-05-26
'The Nice Guys' has garish violence and few laughs	R	2016-05-20
'Weiner': The protagonist of the documentary remains something of a cipher	R	2016-05-20
'Maggie's Plan': Some of it plays like a generic indie rom-com	R	2016-05-20
'The Measure of a Man' is the powerful story of the quiet desperation of the economically dispossessed	Unrated	2016-05-20
'A Monster With a Thousand Heads' is a political outcry	Unrated	2016-05-20
'Money Monster' becomes an unintentional parody	R	2016-05-13
'The Lobster' asks too much of viewers	R	2016-05-13
'Dark Horse' is a slight but winning tale of unlikely success	PG	2016-05-06
'Dheepan' is hard-hitting but has a contrived ending	R	2016-05-06
'Captain America: Civil War' is too much of a pretty good thing	PG-13	2016-05-05
'The Family Fang,' the story of an eccentric family, features impressive performances	R	2016-04-29
'Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt' presents naysayers and supporters of the philosopher	Unrated	2016-04-29
'The Man Who Knew Infinity' is tepid and disappointing	PG-13	2016-04-29
'The Jungle Book' has extraordinary effects and wonderful voice talent	PG	2016-04-15
'Notfilm' is a manic and meditative look at one of the great curiosities in film history	Unrated	2016-04-15
'The Boss' is not worthy of star Melissa McCarthy	R	2016-04-08
'Demolition' is a tour de force for Jake Gyllenhaal but the film isn't a success	R	2016-04-08
'Francofonia' is occasionally juvenile but has a sinuous grace	Unrated	2016-04-08
'My Golden Days' is too knowingly coy for its own good	R	2016-04-01
'Miles Ahead': The biopic confuses anguish with artistry	R	2016-04-01
'Born to Be Blue' is unsatisfying and fragmented	Unrated	2016-03-25
'Fastball': The documentary could win over audiences who aren't baseball fans	Unrated	2016-03-25
'Remember' is preposterous but Christopher Plummer brings pathos and dignity	R	2016-03-18
'Sweet Bean' is a delicate little fable held together by actress Kirin Kiki	Unrated	2016-03-18
'Lolo' is mildly enjoyable but meant to be funnier than it is	Unrated	2016-03-11
'Marguerite' asks viewers to take a passion for music as a value in itself	R	2016-03-11
'Knight of Cups': Director Terrence Malick's movies have become increasingly somnolent	R	2016-03-04
'The Wave' has familiar disaster movie tropes in a Scandinavian setting	R	2016-03-04
'Embrace of the Serpent': Director Ciro Guerra's technique can be meditative but also just vaporous	Unrated	2016-02-26
'A War': The issues at stake are more complex than the film	R	2016-02-19
'Deadpool' is less irreverent than self-congratulatory	R	2016-02-12
'Mountains May Depart': The film's final section doesn't hold up to the rest	Unrated	2016-02-12
'Hail, Caesar!' is sharp and amusing but a minor work by the Coen brothers	PG-13	2016-02-05
'Rams' is a one-of-a-kind movie because of its unusual subject and shape-shifty tone	R	2016-02-04
'Rabin, the Last Day' would be better without stiff reenactments	Unrated	2016-01-29
'The Finest Hours' is a seafaring story that's resolutely old-fashioned	PG-13	2016-01-29
'The Messenger': Its worthy ecocentric message can't hold a candle to the film's beauty	Unrated	2016-01-22
'13 Hours' keeps the action at full throttle – for better or worse	R	2016-01-15
'Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art' could have used more debate on what is truly art	Unrated	2016-01-15
Orson Welles' 'Chimes at Midnight' is likely the greatest Shakespearean film ever	Unrated	2016-01-06
'45 Years' has terrific acting, directing, and writing	R	2015-12-30
'Anomalisa': Puppets are invested with a full range of human emotion	R	2015-12-30
'The Hateful Eight' is overscaled and underfelt	R	2015-12-24
'Concussion' doesn't have enough to say about the national obsession with football	PG-13	2015-12-24
'The Revenant': The ultra-violent catalogue of horrors is over-the-top	R	2015-12-24
'Joy' is full of whiplash changes in mood	PG-13	2015-12-24
'Where to Invade Next' is kinder, gentler Michael Moore	R	2015-12-23
The 10 best movies of 2015 – our critic's picks	-	2015-12-18
'Son of Saul' has powerful sequences but is too hypercontrolled	R	2015-12-18
'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' is the best movie in the series since 'Empire Strikes Back'	PG-13	2015-12-16
'In the Heart of the Sea' is serviceable but mostly unstirring	PG-13	2015-12-11
'Boy & the World' is a wonderment	PG	2015-12-11
'The Big Short' is entertaining but has a kid-glove attitude toward amorality	R	2015-12-11
'Macbeth': Director Justin Kurzel is big on bluster and broadsword battles	R	2015-12-04
'Youth': Director Paolo Sorrentino's magic is all smoke and mirrors	R	2015-12-04
'The Lady in the Van' is a showcase for a great performance by Maggie Smith	PG-13	2015-12-04
'The Danish Girl': The protagonist remains something of a mystery	R	2015-11-27
'In Jackson Heights' is a marvelous look at the clash and glory of human diversity	Unrated	2015-11-27
'The Good Dinosaur': The script is functional, the animation is not memorable	PG	2015-11-25
'Carol' is carefully appointed outside, chilly inside	R	2015-11-20
'Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words' is a comprehensive portrait of the actress's life	Unrated	2015-11-20
'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2': Actress Jennifer Lawrence is still formidable	PG-13	2015-11-19
'The 33' unearths several thousand tons of clichés	PG-13	2015-11-13
'By the Sea' is a snooze that doesn't do its co-stars any favors	R	2015-11-13
'Song of Lahore' doesn't acknowledge musicians' sacrifices	PG	2015-11-13
'Frame By Frame' is an excellent look at how photojournalism can change the world	Unrated	2015-11-13
'Spotlight' is hard-hitting but has too many journalism tropes	R	2015-11-06
'Spectre' references old Bond movies without a fresh spin (+video)	PG-13	2015-11-06
'Brooklyn' is wonderfully heartwarming and vibrant	PG-13	2015-11-04
'Top Spin': The movie is charming because of the table tennis competitors' intensity	Unrated	2015-10-30
'The Armor of Light' is gripping and a dual portrait in courage	PG-13	2015-10-30
'Suffragette': Actress Carey Mulligan is a fiercely intelligent performer	PG-13	2015-10-23
'Heart of a Dog' is a confounding, transfixing mélange	Unrated	2015-10-21
'Bridge of Spies': The best aspect of the movie is the friendship between a lawyer and Soviet spy	PG-13	2015-10-16
'Truth' is worth seeing for Cate Blanchett's firebrand performance	R	2015-10-16
'Beasts of No Nation' turns up the temperature too far on atrocities	Unrated	2015-10-16
'Steve Jobs' is an old-school movie in new-style camouflage	R	2015-10-09
'The Martian' is entertaining but lacks awe	PG-13	2015-10-02
'Freeheld' is ponderous but Michael Shannon is a standout	PG-13	2015-10-02
'The Walk': The film does nothing to analyze Philippe Petit's psyche	PG	2015-09-29
'Becoming Bulletproof' is haphazard but moving	Unrated	2015-09-25
'Labyrinth of Lies' is stiff but examines a historically neglected subject	R	2015-09-25
'Black Mass': Johnny Depp holds the screen as pure malevolence	R	2015-09-18
Toronto Film Festival 2015: Actors in 'The Danish Girl,' 'Legend' are better than their movies	-	2015-09-18
'Pawn Sacrifice': The real story overwhelms its dramatization	PG-13	2015-09-16
'A Brilliant Young Mind': Star Sally Hawkins gives a performance of remarkable grace and sensitivity	Unrated	2015-09-11
'Breathe' is an increasingly compelling psychological thriller	Unrated	2015-09-11
'Time Out of Mind' has a forlorn mood that is evocative when it's not wearying	-	2015-09-09
'Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine' amply demonstrates why Jobs' strategies were revolutionary	R	2015-09-04
'Rosenwald' provokes gratitude for the deeds of its subject	Unrated	2015-08-28
'The Second Mother' enters interesting terrain then pulls back	R	2015-08-28
'No Escape' amps the action and keeps the terror taut	R	2015-08-26