Ex Machina

The Gist: A young programmer wins a contest to spend a week at his programmer-genius boss' remote estate. The real reason behind the invitation is for the boss to have the employee test whether his new, secret, and groundbreaking humanoid AI could pass for a human being.

Prepare to have your mind blown. Ex Machina is a really well put together thriller that asks some serious questions about what our future as a species might look like if when AI becomes a reality.

Domhnall Gleeson and (the ever present is seems) Oscar Isaac do an excellent job in two roles they seem perfectly suited to inhabit. Alicia Vikander, Oscar winner this same calendar year for The Danish Girl, turns in another memorable performance, overlooked only because of the sci-fi undertones.

Ex Machina won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and was nominated for Best Screenplay as well.

The Bottom Line: This is a very well written thriller, expertly edited and directed to maximize suspense, all leading up to a scary good ending. Definitely recommended.

Grade: 8

Trainwreck

The Gist: A very independent and commitment-phobic woman has to face her own fears head on when she unexpectedly meets a man she might actually want to have a long-term, monogamous relationship with.

I love Amy Schumer. I think she's incredibly funny and self-deprecating, and she doesn't seem to mind getting down in the gutter if the joke requires it.

Bill Hader joins her here as her love interest, and they seem perfectly suited to play off one another. Brie Larson, Jon Glaser, and Colin Quinn all do a good job, but the one who steals the show is the always excellent Tilda Swinton, here playing a magazine editor so morally corrupt she is outrageously and funnily good.

The Bottom Line: Trainwreck is not a great comedy in the classical sense, but if you're just looking for a couple hours of mindless laughs, then look no further.

Grade: 6

Green Room

The Gist: A band of young musicians, on the road in search of paying gigs, ends up at a neo-Nazi bar. When it's time to leave, one sees something he wasn't meant to see, and things take a very dark turn for all of them.

Patrick Stewart is one of my all-time favorite actors and here he plays the bad guy with incredible gusto. The other lead is the recently, prematurely lost Anton Yelchin, who was such a promising young actor.

Green Room tells a very simple story, but the tone is as dark as it gets and the pace is quite taut. You'll definitely feel tension, fear, and anxiety as the events progress, but it's more than worth it.

The Bottom Line: The movie might not be for the squeamish or frightful out there, but if you think you can stand the tension, the payback is well worth the ride down this particular hell.

Grade: 8

Inside Out

The Gist: When Riley's family moves to San Francisco, the young girl's emotions, used to the tranquil life of the Midwest, are thrown for a loop and have to figure out how to adapt to this much wilder and unpredictable environment.

Inside Out, winner of a Best Animated Feature Oscar, is one of the best movies I've ever watched. No question.

The animation is superb and the voice actors do an incredible job, but it's really the story itself and the wonderfully written script (nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar) that make this a memorable film.

It's really an instant classic that belongs in the highest echelon of Pixar's wonderful oeuvre.

The Bottom Line: Inside Out will make you laugh and cry and smile and hope, and a lot more. It's a completely original movie that you never want to end. A must see for the whole family for generations to come.

Grade: 10

Lucy

The Gist: Accidentally ensnared by an international drug trafficker to be a mule, Lucy ends up overdosing on a new and very powerful drug that results in her gaining superhuman abilities.

I was looking forward to watching Lucy because I generally like Luc Besson's work and the idea of a strong female lead in a field generally dominated by males sounded like progress. I also really like Scarlett Johansson.

Unfortunately, the end result is largely underwhelming and even disappointing. The storytelling pace is too fast and the runtime too short to effectively establish 3D characters, so what you get are really just placards.

Furthermore, the very premise that she would survive such an overdose and that it would then do to her what it does is a stretch. And the breakneck pace at which she becomes a near-godlike entity is just too artificial.

The Bottom Line: A good performance, a lot of cool action, and pretty nifty visual effects don't save Lucy from being a botched cinematic dud.

Grade: 4

Straight Outta Compton

The Gist: The birth and rise of NWA, the first superstar hip-hop group, amid the simmering racial tensions of Los Angeles, California, in the 80s.

I'm not a rap or hip-hop fan, and I didn't even know what NWA was (I still lived in Italy back then, and they never made it big there). I was curious because of the rave reviews Straight Outta Compton got and I often enjoy watching dramatized versions of some historical event in order to advance my own knowledge (like when I decided to watch American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson to find out more about the O.J. Simpson debacle).

Very well deservedly nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar, the movie is well written, well acted, and well directed.

The Bottom Line: If you like the genre of music, I would say you can't go wrong. And if you were a fan, you should be satisfied. All in all, a pretty solid product that shines a light on the issue of racism and the standoffish nature of the relationship between African Americans and the police force in the U.S. that still persists today.

Grade: 8

Trumbo

The Gist: In post-war America, Dalton Trumbo, one of Hollywood's top screenwriters, is accused of being a communist sympathizer and subsequently blacklisted by powerful anti-communist interests in the industry and Congress. Unwilling to cave to political pressures encroaching on his constitutional rights, he'll be jailed, his career all but over. He will have to find clever workarounds to keep earning a living and weather the storm.

Nominated for a Best Lead Actor Oscar for his portrayal, Bryan Cranston perfectly inhabits the character of a man whose life is ruined by corrupt political agendas, a topic all too current in our current political environment.

He is surrounded by an excellent cast that includes Diane Lane, Michael Stuhlbarg, Louis C.K., and John Goodman. Above all, however, towers Helen Mirren, here playing the villain with such gusto she is utterly despicable.

The Bottom Line: Given the charged political times we live in, Trumbo is a great cautionary tale of what can happen when unscrupulous politicians decide what's best for you and what you should think. The excellent acting and great period reconstruction make it a must watch.

Grade: 8

The Danish Girl

The Gist: Einar Wegener is a famous painter. His wife Gerda also paints, but her work doesn't seem to break through, until she finds an unlikely and unusual muse when her husband transitions to Lili.

Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne earned his second consecutive nomination for playing this pioneer transgender woman. Alicia Vikander won the Oscar on her first nomination for playing the hurt but caring wife of a man who suddenly isn't who she thought he was anymore.

The movie also showcases excellent production design, costumes, cinematography, and soundtrack.

The Bottom Line: The Danish Girl is a wonderfully acted film that is a real pleasure to watch, from beginning to end. A must see.

Grade: 8

Steve Jobs

The Gist: Always concerned with maintaining the strictest control over his creative vision, no matter the costs, financial or otherwise, Steve Jobs never seemed to mind putting his creations over his personal relationships or the company's interests.

Steve Jobs, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle, is quite fast paced, as one would expect given the two names just mentioned, but that actually helps understand the breakneck pace at which Jobs' mind likely ran.

Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet both earned Oscar nominations for their portrayal of the big man and his trusted assistant.

Seth Rogen as the scorned business partner, Jeff Daniels as the scorned mentor, Michael Stuhlbarg as the scorned top developer, and Katherine Waterston as the scorned former lover all do a great job.

The Bottom Line: Steve Jobs is a really well put together film that opens a window on the personality, vision, and life (warts and all) of one of the most iconic figures of the last few decades.

Grade: 8

Son of Saul

The Gist: In a Nazi concentration camp, selected prisoners are forced to dispose of the bodies of the murdered Jews that keep streaming into the camp. One of them, one day, sees a young boy's cadaver and, saying he's his son, decides to secretly have a Rabbi give him a proper Jewish burial.

Given the topic, I thought I would have really, really liked this movie. And I wanted to. I really did. The problem is that the story is just not believable.

We all know what was going on in those concentration camps, and Son of Saul, winner of a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, starts out very strong, dropping us into the action and keeping us locked into a sense of dread about what will happen next. Needless to say, what we do get to see is very disturbing, but so is what is left to one's imagination.

But when the protagonist suddenly decides to go to literally any lengths to ensure that the body of this young Jew is properly buried, in spite of the dangers and horrors those still living are constantly subjected to, is just too unbelievable. It might be morally uplifting for him to want to do that for the little kid, but not if he jeopardizes the always-hanging-by-a-thread lives of those around him.

The Bottom Line: I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but halfway through I had pretty much already checked out, so-to-speak, and was just waiting for a merciful end. The final grade is still pretty high because Son of Saul is a solid directorial debut for László Nemes, and Géza Röhrig turns in a fantastic performance. I just wish the script didn't veer so suddenly and deeply into unacceptable territory.

Grade: 7