Film Reviews by Hiram Lee
Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods: A lifetime of war
By Hiram Lee, 2 July 2020
Four African-American veterans of the Vietnam War return to present-day Vietnam to recover the remains of a fallen comrade. Buried with him is a cache of gold bars worth millions.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?—A new documentary about Fred Rogers and his television program
By Hiram Lee, 2 August 2018
Fifty years after the debut of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on US public television, a new documentary explores its history and influence.
Call Me by Your Name: Academy Award-winning film from Luca Guadagnino
By Hiram Lee, 19 March 2018
Italian director Guadagnino’s film is beautifully photographed, and the performances are generally very good. Why, then, does the whole thing feel so flat?
Racism and revenge: Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight
By Hiram Lee, 7 January 2016
Tarantino’s latest is a deeply unpleasant work, another in a long line of the director’s blood-soaked revenge fantasies.
Best films of 2015
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 31 December 2015
The most interesting films we saw in 2015, both those that played in a movie theater in the US and those not yet distributed.
The 33: A drama of the 2010 Chilean mine disaster
By Hiram Lee, 2 December 2015
The new film from Mexican-born director Patricia Riggen tells the story of the 2010 mine disaster in Chile, in which 33 miners were trapped underground for more than two months.
Lucy: A little knowledge is apparently a dangerous thing
By Hiram Lee, 16 August 2014
In Lucy, Scarlett Johansson is a super-powered intellect fighting to take down a Taiwanese drug cartel.
Man of Steel: Superman returns…again
By Hiram Lee, 22 June 2013
Summer blockbuster Man of Steel brings Superman back to theaters in the first of a planned trilogy.
The 84th Academy Awards nominations—uneventful, for the most part
By Hiram Lee, 25 January 2012
The 84th annual Academy Awards nominations were announced Tuesday in Los Angeles. Few of the films have anything substantial to say about real life.
Moneyball, and the uneven playing field of professional sports
By Hiram Lee, 28 October 2011
Filmmaker Bennett Miller turns a critical eye on the American professional sports industry in Moneyball.
From Shakespeare to comic books: Kenneth Branagh directs Thor
By Hiram Lee, 26 May 2011
Thor, directed by actor-director Kenneth Branagh, is this year’s first blockbuster comic book movie.
Source Code and Hanna—two new Hollywood thrillers
By Hiram Lee, 3 May 2011
Source Code and Hanna are among the most recent and, unfortunately, most typical of Hollywood thrillers.
Sidney Lumet, director of 12 Angry Men and Dog Day Afternoon, dead at 86
By Hiram Lee, 20 April 2011
American filmmaker Sidney Lumet, director of 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network and Serpico, died April 9 at the age of 86.
Dealing with tragedy and grief in the Rabbit Hole
By Hiram Lee, 19 February 2011
A married couple tries to put their lives back together following the tragic death of their son in John Cameron Mitchell’s new film Rabbit Hole.
True Grit, a revenge tale from the Coen brothers
By Hiram Lee, 25 January 2011
The Coen brothers have returned with a remake of the 1969 western True Grit.
The Tourist, an artist on vacation from serious work
By Hiram Lee, 28 December 2010
The Tourist is the latest film from director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose The Lives of Others won international acclaim in 2007.
Oliver Stone returns to Wall Street
By Hiram Lee, 7 October 2010
In Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, director Oliver Stone once again turns his attention to the crimes of the financial elite, which he first addressed in his 1987 film Wall Street.
No One Knows About Persian Cats: The struggle of young Iranian musicians
By Hiram Lee, 8 May 2010
Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi's latest film No One Knows About Persian Cats tells the story of underground musicians in Tehran who struggle to make their music, which has been outlawed in the country.
On the road to ruin: The Runaways
By Hiram Lee, 27 April 2010
The Runaways tells the story of the all-girl rock band with the same name that began performing in the 1970s and whose rise to fame was as much a tragedy as it was a success.
Repo Men lingers on all the wrong things
By Hiram Lee, 13 April 2010
Repo Men is science fiction set at a time when artificial organs are sold on a payment plan and may be repossessed in the event that a transplant recipient can no longer pay his or her bills.
Armored, but not bulletproof
By Hiram Lee, 27 January 2010
In Armored, a struggling Iraq war veteran gets a job as a guard with an armored car company and agrees to take part in a heist planned by his co-workers.
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