Fairly typical manic American comedy of the last decade or so with a group of moms deciding they are going to stop pretending to be perfect, to delegate more of the chores around the house and to live it up a bit. Soon they come into conflict with the perfect moms and the battle for control of the PTA starts.
There are plot holes galore and you have to suspend your belief but there are plenty of laughs and a surprising amount of sharp observations about modern life, education, gender roles and the like. Mila Kunis holds the centre very well as Amy, the leader of the bad moms,
and has two excellent sidekicks, the superb Kathryn Hahn as the raunchy Carla
and Kristen Bell.
The other camp
is led by Christina Applegate as Gwendolyn in a stereotypic but highly entertaining role as the tyrannical bitch who wants to control everything. A raft of other characters flesh out the film with Jay Hernandez 
playing the love interest and Jada Pinkett as one of the perfect moms. Good acting from the kids too. No classic but a good means of getting a laugh.
★★★+
, whose specialty is alienating people with his ego, from his publishers to girlfriends. It takes a lot to get into the film especially as there are some cruel scenes early on which make him out as a real shit. We get to see him over a year as he breaks up with Ashly (excellent Elisabeth Moss) 
who he has lived with and abused and used in Brooklyn and befriends an older version of himself, successful author Ike Zimmermann, who is now living upstate. Ike gets him a job in a local university and they explore their friendship, which is a sort of pillar for both of them, arrogant and friendless. Ike’s daughter Melanie 
sees through all this but is no happier than the two men. Jonathan Pryce does a good turn as the older academic.
With so much unpleasantness, it is a wonder that Alex Ross Perry actually produces something that is watchable but it has a good script and does make you think. Wouldn’t really want to see it twice though.
(excellent Paula Beer) after some initial resistance and they are avid for news of their son’s last months in France. 
But then Adrien reveals the real relationship he had with Frantz and returns to Paris in disgrace. After a down period Anna decides to track him down in France and discovers that even more things are not as they seem. 
The film is about the expectations we have of others and the lies we tell ourselves and others. It is beautifully photographed (Pascal Marti) largely in black and white and well-acted with Ernst Stotzner 
and Marie Gruber
adding weight as Frantz’s parents. Perhaps not quite a great film but a very pleasing and competent work.
It works and word gets around so they get calls from other elderly people both in the home and outside for the same service.
This undercover action brings up all sorts of personal dilemmas especially for the main couple Yehezklal, (excellent Ze’ev Revach) and Levana (Levana Finkelstein). 
There are some very good moments of black humour
but mostly the film has that rather forbidding mood of “we’re all heading down the same terminal path feel”.
Still, brave of the Israeli directors to take on the topic and make a thoughtful movie about it.
The running joke is that he is invading these countries to steal this idea for home. 
He looks at women’s rights in Tunisia and Iceland, prisoner rehabilitation in Norway, school lunches in France
, free university education in Slovenia, 
worker participation in companies in Germany and various other topics. Very interesting material and a wake-up call to those countries who are not trying to solve problems in these areas. But the format is a bit samey after a couple of visits and the faux naïve touch of Moore gets a bit tired.
Nonetheless, a valid contribution to a comparison of cultures in this moment.
and the mafia and full of low-class housing. Various directors since Pasolini have used it as the setting for their films with Suburra, being the latest in a line of mafia themed movies that seem to be an Italian specialty just now. This film was made before Suburra and is the second and last movie of Claudio Cagliari. It received a slew of nominations in the Italian Oscars and has had a lot of critical acclaim at home.
two young layabouts Cesare and Vittorio who do odd jobs transporting stolen goods for a local boss
and try to make money on drug deals. Lots of lying and violence and kidnapping. After Vittorio starts having hallucinations on drug trips and decides that coming clean and work are a better option, Cesare, who has a very sad home life with a dying niece, hurtles down into hell with Viviana his girlfriend powerless to act.
and excellently supported by Alessandro Borghi. But you have to be in the mood to watch it.
As the French would say it is a coup de foudre and Theo and Hugo, who realize that this connection is something more than the habitual in such a club go out into the Parisian early morning to cement this new relationship. Typical gay scenario, screw first and find out about who later. In all this Hugo insists that Theo goes to A and E because they have had unprotected sex and Hugo is HIV+.
What a way to start a relationship! Although some found this part and the subsequent meander around unknown parts of Paris by night somewhat weak and undirected, I think it does provide a natural and valid counterbalance to the power of the opening scene. We see all the first steps, the sizing up, the fears and the excitement that a new relationship can bring 
and I think this is handled very well and in a very human way. Geoffrey Couet is sweet as Theo but it is Francois Nambot 
who really provides us with a depth of character that is fascinating. Some of the encounters with locals work (the doctor and the lady on the metro), some don’t (the wacko in the A and E and the kebab seller).
Good music and photography and a sensitive handling of several delicate issues. The real time nature of the movie adds another plus. Maybe not film of the year but a valuable addition to the archives of films portraying gay relationships.
Oddly enough, director and scriptwriter Jeff Nichols takes a very intimate and personal view of the story. No big court scenes and most of the political and civil rights stuff takes place off screen. What we see is the impact on their daily lives.
Richard is a dour taciturn man who seldom speaks, while Mildred is somewhat more forthcoming. However, quite a lot of screen time passes without much action. I found that the film began to drag after a while and although it is technically well-made and represents the time well, this underwhelming couple does not really grab our attention. 
Joel Edgerton gives a very good performance as Richard, he’s just zero charismatic. Ruth Negga 
has a luminous look and in her own languid way appeals more. So, good but not great and less perhaps than what this landmark historical legal victory deserved.
Christine is the story of a socially ill-adept woman,
who desperately wanted love, had a difficult relationship with her mother (excellent J Cameron Smith)
, had a bipolar personality and was stressed from a cyst in an ovary. Sadly, the harder she tried, the more she put people off and thus the downward spiral ending in her shocking act.
Hall is particularly magnetic in the role. Well supported by her boss (Tracy Letts) 
and co-reporter Jean (Maria Dizzia) this is the other side of life to Mary Tyler Moore’s screen creation Mary Richards who was a go-getter single woman reporter on a TV show in another city. A reasonable movie all round with a standout turn from Hall.
But the two are competitive and fight from the word go, which is not great. However as we speed on to an eventual happy ending, one (Aimee Teegarden) falls in love with the banker who is supposed to do the foreclosure (Ward Horton, typical US blond hunk),
the other, Chloe (a more interesting Krysta Rodriguez) falls for her boss, a telegenic Spanish TV chef (Aitor Luna)
who hasn’t got a clue about cooking. A subplot about a designer (Blanca Suarez)
who is doing up a house for an old suspicious couple 
and is being followed around by the lovelorn Ian, a cousin of the protagonists seems to have little point as does Uncle Dave and his readings of Dostoiyevsky with a real Russian immigrant. So, it all smacks of magic reality and has plot holes galore but the camerawork is good even if Gustavo Ron’s script creaks somewhat. It has some nice humour and goodwill too but only if you have nothing better to watch.
passionfilm 