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REVIEW

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

It’s hard to overstate the soaring achievement of Peter Jackson and company in The Return of the King, the third and final chapter of their historic adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. To call it the grandest spectacle ever filmed is no exaggeration; it may also be the most satisfying third act of any film trilogy, completing what can now be regarded as possibly the best realized cinematic trilogy of all time.

 REVIEW

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

From the very first sequence of Peter Jackson’s The Two Towers — a bravura opening that stunningly recalls and continues a central sequence from The Fellowship of the Ring — we feel that we’re in good hands. It’s a promise the subsequent three hours deliver on imperfectly.

 The Lourdes Effect: <em>The Miracle Club</em> director Thaddeus O&rsquo;Sullivan on Irish trauma and miracles ARTICLE

The Lourdes Effect: The Miracle Club director Thaddeus O’Sullivan on Irish trauma and miracles

Laura Linney stars in an Irish comedy set in 1967 about a group of women confronting their past on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. The director talks about the trauma that Irish movies set in this timeframe tend deal with, and what he calls the “Lourdes Effect.”

 Love &amp; Friendship [video] POST

Love & Friendship [video]

Whit Stillman and Jane Austen! I couldn’t limit myself to 60 seconds on this one.

Love and thunder, signifying nothing? Religion and nihilism in recent Marvel movies ARTICLE

Love and thunder, signifying nothing? Religion and nihilism in recent Marvel movies

Recent installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe exacerbate the tension between the franchise’s humanistic ethos and its nihilistic cosmos. Is there still room for God in this universe?

 REVIEW

The Lovely Bones (2009)

Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones paints an unconvincingly ham-fisted, sometimes ridiculous picture of what happens when someone dies. No, I’m not talking about the film’s attempt to portray the afterlife with kaleidoscopic montages of trippy concept art. I’m willing to give the film the benefit of the doubt, there.

 Loving [video] POST

Loving [video] (2016)

So much better and more satisfying than the courtroom drama it could have been.

 Luca REVIEW

Luca (2021)

In Pixar’s Luca, a gentle, overtly Miyazaki-esque coming-of-age period piece struggles under the heavy weight of iron-clad Disney/Pixar formula requirements and story beats. The charming elements work well enough to carry the film, but only just.

 REVIEW

The Lucky Ones (2008)

After running through some pretty contrived paces for much of its running time, The Lucky Ones has some surprises in the last act that ultimately make it more satisfying than it might have been. Honor, sacrifice, and loyalty do count for something, and tough decisions characters thought they would never make turn out to be thinkable after all.