La La Land (Summit Entertainment, PG-13)
It’s a thrilling combination of musical theater, energetic filmmaking, pageantry, and just about every other thing you need to make a movie downright “fabulous.”
Emma Stone
Aloha (20th Century Fox Film Corporation, PG-13)
The glimmer of hope in the film is likely enough to make me forget how bad this movie was by the time Crowe’s next film rolls around.
Birdman (Fox Searchlight, R)
It’s so good it’s distracting, and in this case, that isn’t a bad thing.
The Croods (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., PG)
The cast is all terrific, especially Emma Stone, who continues to prove that there isn’t anything she can’t do.
Gangster Squad (Warner Bros. Pictures, R)
Sean Penn is basically the male equivalent to Meryl Streep in the Academy’s eyes, and costar Ryan Gosling is perhaps the best young actor to pop up in the past decade.
The Amazing Spider-Man (Columbia Pictures, PG-13)
I’m sick of movies that exist to set up franchises.
The Help (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, PG-13)
Taylor does nothing to try to honor the real women whose lives are reflected in the film. Instead, he sketches each maid as nothing more than one side of the “Mammy” character.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (Warner Bros. Pictures, PG-13)
Not that it’s perfect, but it is considerably better than most Hollywood romantic comedies ever even try to be, which is saying something.
Easy A (Screen Gems, PG-13)
I’m pleased to report that Easy A is a smart, genre-aware satire of high school comedies and of the suburban high school experience in general.