About chrisreedfilm
Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator. He is the lead film critic at hammertonail.com, an online magazine devoted to independent cinema; a regular film critic at filmfestivaltoday.com; the host of Dragon Digital Media’s award-winning "Reel Talk with Christopher Llewellyn Reed"; a regular film commentator for the "Roughly Speaking” podcast with Dan Rodricks at "The Baltimore Sun"; an occasional writer for the magazine bmoreart.com; and the author of "Film Editing: Theory and Practice."
The Glass Castle (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2017) 2 out of 4 stars. The third feature film from Destin Daniel Cretton (director of the very fine Short Term 12), The Glass Castle comes with a strong literary pedigree in the form … Continue reading →
Posted in Breaking, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Reviews
|
Tagged Brie Larson, Chandler Head, chrisreedfilm, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Destin Daniel Cretton, Ella Anderson, Jeannette Walls, Max Greenfield, naomi watts, The Glass Castle, Woody Harrelson
|
Atomic Blonde (David Leitch, 2017) 2½ out of 4 stars. As you watch Atomic Blonde, it should come as no surprise that its director, David Leitch, is a stuntman and stunt coordinator with a career going back over 20 years. … Continue reading →
Posted in Breaking, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Reviews
|
Tagged 1989, andrei tarkovsky, Antony Johnson, Atomic Blonde, Berlin, charlize theron, chrisreedfilm, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, David Leitch, Eddie Marsan, James McAvoy, John Goodman, John Wick, Sofia Boutella, Stalker, The Coldest City, The Neon Demon, The Usual Suspects, Toby Jones
|
Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017) 2½ out of 4 stars. Christopher Nolan’s latest epic – this one grounded in actual historical events, for once – has received such near-unanimous praise from other film critics that it was with some disappointment that I … Continue reading →
Posted in Breaking, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Reviews
|
Tagged chrisreedfilm, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk, Fionn Whitehead, Hans Zimmer, Hoyte Van Hoytema, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy
|
A Ghost Story (David Lowery, 2017) 2½ out of 4 stars. Director David Lowery’s haunting A Ghost Story gives us the spirit life from the perspective of the phantom. Time has no meaning when you’re dead, however, and so the … Continue reading →
Posted in Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Reviews, Specialty Releases
|
Tagged 4:3 aspect ratio, A Ghost Story, Casey Affleck, chrisreedfilm, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, David Lowery, ghost, ghosts, Rooney Mara
|
Posted on July 7, 2017
Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed
Spider-Man: Homecoming (Jon Watts, 2017) 3 out of 4 stars. With every further installment in the current iteration of the “Marvel Cinematic Universe,” I feel ever more compelled to preface my review of the film just released with a recap … Continue reading →
Posted in Breaking, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Reviews
|
Tagged Captain America: Civil War, chrisreedfilm, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, iron man, Jacob Batalon, Jon Watts, Laura Harrier, Marisa Tomei, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Avengers, Tom Holland, Tony Revolori, Tony Stark, Uncle Ben, with great power comes great responsibility, Zendaya
|
Posted on July 6, 2017
Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed
The Big Sick (Michael Showalter, 2017) 4 out of 4 stars. Co-written by real-life romantic partners Emily V. Gordon (Comedy Central’s The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail) and Kumail Nanjiani (same show, plus HBO’s Silicon Valley, and many more), The … Continue reading →
Posted in Breaking, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Reviews
|
Tagged Adeel Akhtar, Anupam Kher, chrisreedfilm, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, comedy, Emily V. Gordon, Holly Hunter, immigrants, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Showalter, Pakistan, Pakistani-Americans, Ray Romano, romantic comedies, romantic comedy, SXSW, The Big Sick, Zenobia Shroff, Zoe Kazan
|
Despicable Me 3 (Eric Guillon/Kyle Balda/Pierre Coffin, 2017) 1 out of 4 stars. To be honest, I cannot remember much about the plots of the first two films in this series, nor of its spinoff, Minions (even though I wrote … Continue reading →
Posted in Breaking, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Reviews, Mainstream Films
|
Tagged chrisreedfilm, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Despicable Me, Despicable Me 3, Eric Guillon, Kristen Wiig, Kyle Balda, Minions, Pierre Coffin, Steve Carrell, Trey Parker
|
[NOTE: My Film Festival Today colleague Jay Berg will soon post his own Top 5 list, complete with a more detailed history of the festival] The American Film Institute (AFI) exists, as its website proclaims, “to train filmmakers and preserve … Continue reading →
Posted in Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Featured, Festivals, FFT Festival Coverage
|
Tagged ACORN and the Firestorm, AFI DOCS, AFI DOCS 2017, Amanda Lipitz, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, An Insignificant Man, Atomic Homefront, Bonni Cohen, Brian Knappenberger, Cara Mertes, Chris Shellen, chrisreedfilm, Christina Clusiau, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Cine São Paolo, City of Ghosts, David Byars, Felipe Tomazelli, Gethin Aldous, Guggenheim Symposium, Jairus McLeary, Jay Berg, Jeff Malmberg, Jennifer Brea, Jon Shenk, Khushboo Ranka, Laura Poitras, Matthew Heineman, No Man's Land, Nobody Speak: Trials of a Free Press, Rebecca Cammisa, Reuben Atlas, Ricardo Mareasen, Samuel D. Pollard, Shaul Schwarz, Spettacolo, Stefan Avalos, Step, Strad Style, The Work, Trophy, Unrest, Vinay Shukla
|
The Hero (Brett Haley, 2017) 2½ out of 4 stars. A pleasant enough diversion, The Hero – starring Sam Elliott (Grandma) as Lee Hayden, an aging star of Westerns – nevertheless sinks into a mire of clichés from which it never … Continue reading →
Posted in Breaking, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Reviews, Specialty Releases
|
Tagged Brett Haley, chrisreedfilm, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Katharine Ross, Kristen Rytter, Laura Prepon, Nick Offerman, Sam Elliott, The Hero, Westerns
|
The Book of Henry (Colin Trevorrow, 2017) 1 out of 4 stars. To be brief: there is nothing wrong with The Book of Henry that a good script could not fix. Given what we have, however, courtesy of screenwriter Gregg … Continue reading →
Posted in Breaking, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Film Reviews
|
Tagged chrisreedfilm, Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Colin Trevorrow, Dean Norris, Gregg Hurwitz, Jacob Tremblay, Jaeden Lieberher, Kalina Ivanov, naomi watts, The Book of Henry
|
