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3.5/5
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Longlegs
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Perkins’ greatest and most stomach-churning achievement is in a slow shift of perspective, leading the audience from the bleak and eerie serial killer thriller.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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3/5
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Fly Me to the Moon
(2024)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
Fly Me to the Moon doesn’t take itself very seriously, and in the end, neither did I.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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3/5
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National Anthem
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
It’s not a grand landscape but a small portrait of wistfulness and wanting in the West, fluttering and touching.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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2/5
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Dandelion
(2024)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
The story, alas, is colorless and flat: a terribly earnest picture of two sad people looking for somebody or something to jump-start their battery.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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2/5
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Last Summer
(2023)
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Richard Whittaker
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The narrative is too flat, too drily filmed by César-nominated cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie to induce much emotion or debate about Anne’s hypocrisy and abuse of power.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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3/5
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Kill
(2023)
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Richard Whittaker
|
The destination may seem inevitable, but the twists, turns, and merciless bloodshed make Kill a trip well worth taking.
Posted Jul 03, 2024
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4/5
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MaXXXine
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
The pleasures are in watching Maxine navigate through the bloodshed to the denouement she deserves, and watching West cut into the seductive allure of cinema.
Posted Jul 03, 2024
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2/5
|
Despicable Me 4
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Feels like a stack of B-plots stapled together rather than a full story.
Posted Jul 03, 2024
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2/5
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Kinds of Kindness
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
The experience is like watching a pretentious reboot of Tales From the Darkside.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
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3.5/5
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Daddio
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
The seated dance between Johnson and Penn is witty, earnest, honest, and overflowing with kindness, making Daddio a remarkable story of two strangers opening up to each other.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
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2/5
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Janet Planet
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
If you grew up in the 1990s post-hippie Massachusetts performance arts scene (as Baker did), Janet Planet may tug on your nostalgia, but you may not feel otherwise drawn to its ethereal qualities.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
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3.5/5
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Tuesday
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
It’s such a simple story but told with such grace, tenderness, compassion, and wonder, that all its strangeness seems familiar and welcome.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
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2.5/5
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Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Bellocchio should be credited for shining a light on a forgotten pivotal event, but the real Mortaras deserve that light to be a little less dull.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
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3/5
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In Our Day
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
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A film that feels like a worthy addition to an existing exhibition, rather than the opening of a whole new gallery wing.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
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3.5/5
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Ghostlight
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
The final performance, the final healing, is as heartwarming and heartbreaking as anything that has gone before.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
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3/5
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Thelma
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Under the gimmick, Squibb's charm, her gutsiness, and her sharp, subtle humor fill the movie with warmth and veracity.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
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4/5
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Robot Dreams
(2023)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
It leaves a lot of room for interpretation – depending on how you come to it, you could read Dog and Robot’s relationship as platonic or romantic, straight or queer – but the takeaway is all tenderness.
Posted Jun 13, 2024
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3/5
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Inside Out 2
(2024)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
A utility belt kind of film, Inside Out 2 gets the job done, which is exactly as inspiring as it sounds.
Posted Jun 12, 2024
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3.5/5
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Bad Boys: Ride or Die
(2024)
|
Matthew Monagle
|
If 'Bad Boys for Life' shocked audiences and critics with its relevance, then 'Bad Boys: Ride or Die' proves that the window for this franchise is, despite all odds, very much still open.
Posted Jun 06, 2024
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3.5/5
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In A Violent Nature
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
To paraphrase Paul Schrader on ["slow cinema"], you can take forever as long as the payoff is worth the wait. That’s where Nash diverges from the other “slow” filmmakers: Put simply, Kore-eda doesn’t do this many decapitations.
Posted May 31, 2024
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3/5
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Wildcat
(2023)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
Wildcat will be a far richer experience for audiences already familiar with O’Connor’s work. For neophytes, there’s still much to enjoy, but the thematic resonance between story and storyteller gets a little lost.
Posted May 31, 2024
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2/5
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The Garfield Movie
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
It’s not that it’s unfunny or completely without charm: it’s that the script feels like an abandoned The Secret Life of Pets sequel into which Garfield has been crowbarred.
Posted May 24, 2024
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4/5
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Hit Man
(2023)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
You think you’re watching a breezy-seeming comedy, then you’re seduced by two expert flirts, and then suddenly you’re genuinely stirred by a carpe diem monologue on the malleability of identity.
Posted May 24, 2024
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3.5/5
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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
When that gleaming war rig rumbles through sky pirates, and war boys shriek as they head to Valhalla, it’s still a lovely day.
Posted May 24, 2024
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3.5/5
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Babes
(2024)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
Generous and warm and howling funny, there is such a light touch to Babes, you might not even clock the depth of its observations – its inspections – of body and heart both.
Posted May 19, 2024
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2/5
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Back to Black
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Working from Matt Greenhalgh’s script, Taylor-Johnson vaults through significant moments in her life without giving them any real significance.
Posted May 19, 2024
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3/5
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Gasoline Rainbow
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
In a drama that depends on its organic structure, the constructed nature is a little too visible under the skin.
Posted May 19, 2024
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3.5/5
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Evil Does Not Exist
(2023)
|
Josh Kupecki
|
Lingering shots of nature set to Ishibashi’s beautiful, often unnerving score reinforce the idea of two converging forces, not necessarily in conflict, but independent nonetheless, the music imbuing emotional layers while maintaining its discreteness.
Posted May 09, 2024
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3.5/5
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I Saw the TV Glow
(2024)
|
Alejandra Martinez
|
It’s a powerful depiction of what media can do for us, especially as young people.
Posted May 09, 2024
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4/5
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The Fall Guy
(2024)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
Leitch’s latest, The Fall Guy – a joyful gong announcing the summer movie season’s arrival – still delivers jokes, but this one’s all heart.
Posted May 02, 2024
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3/5
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Humane
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
An eco-drama about how the rich have become convinced that even the end of the world won’t affect them.
Posted Apr 25, 2024
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3.5/5
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We Grown Now
(2023)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
We Grown Now has precisely two, pint-sized aces up its sleeve, its astonishingly expressive little-man leads.
Posted Apr 25, 2024
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2/5
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The Beast
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
[Bonello] comes nowhere near achieving anything as insightful in two and a half hours that James manages in 30 pages.
Posted Apr 25, 2024
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1/5
|
Challengers
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Double fault after double fault.
Posted Apr 25, 2024
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3.5/5
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Deep Sky
(2023)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
Narrated by Michelle Williams with a just-right mix of gravitas, wonder, and soothingness, this journey into deep space is ripe for existential musings.
Posted Apr 18, 2024
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2.5/5
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The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
(2024)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
Thing is, there aren’t a lot of stakes to relentless hyperviolence where every character more or less moves through the movie with an air of supreme confidence. You know what’s a boring note to play for two hours? Nonchalance.
Posted Apr 18, 2024
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3/5
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Sasquatch Sunset
(2024)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
Sasquatch Sunset offers some of the same draws of a first-rate nature doc – stunning vistas, intimate access to creatures picking nits and other preverbal cooperative behavior, an unprecious attitude about the cycle of life.
Posted Apr 12, 2024
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2.5/5
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The People's Joker
(2022)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Drew is an intriguing artist, but The People’s Joker is most interesting as a legal case study.
Posted Apr 12, 2024
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3/5
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Wicked Little Letters
(2023)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
Whether itching for suffrage or to say whatever filthy fucking thing that springs to mind, rebellion is in the air, and it gives this likably goofy whodunit a light tang of the subversive.
Posted Apr 04, 2024
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4.5/5
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La Chimera
(2023)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
O’Connor is a first-class Jean-Paul Belmondo-like brooder, until he something trips him up and he beams like a little boy.
Posted Apr 04, 2024
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3/5
|
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Jude drops the sometimes overly broad comedy of the first two hours for something more acerbic, angry, and intriguing.
Posted Apr 04, 2024
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3.5/5
|
The First Omen
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Kudos to the suits for backing a horror film this provocative and spine-chilling.
Posted Apr 04, 2024
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2/5
|
Lousy Carter
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Even by Byington’s lo-fi standards, Lousy Carter feels ramshackle. It’s got traces of the familiar warm bathos of his sardonic best work. However, like Lousy’s cardigan, it’s all a little threadbare.
Posted Mar 28, 2024
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3/5
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In the Land of Saints and Sinners
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Neeson’s quietness doesn’t simply come across as tough guy silence. Instead, there’s a maudlin introspection that bears surprisingly meaningful fruit.
Posted Mar 28, 2024
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|
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DogMan
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
With Jones, it’s a weirdly moving, even charming depiction of a man refusing to rail at God but instead using his broken gifts for redemption.
Posted Mar 28, 2024
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|
|
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus
(2023)
|
Kimberley Jones
|
Filmed in magnificent monochrome with the kind of richness that reminds you black and white are colors too, Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus will put you in a contemplative place.
Posted Mar 28, 2024
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3.5/5
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Shayda
(2023)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
It’s an understated performance in many ways, but in those quiet moments, whether it be a new haircut or a tapping foot, Ebrahimi provides an astonishing education of what it means to be a woman fleeing an abusive relationship.
Posted Mar 25, 2024
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3/5
|
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
Grace captures the confusions of being 15 and out of sorts, and she provides more than enough of an emotional through line to pull the film together, especially when complimented by the eternally charming Rudd.
Posted Mar 21, 2024
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|
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The Idea of You
(2024)
|
Richard Whittaker
|
The fact that you’ll care so much proves yet again that Showalter has perfected the modern rom-com.
Posted Mar 19, 2024
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The Greatest Hits
(2024)
|
Marjorie Baumgarten
|
Perhaps it’s asking too much for a time-travel romance to conform to rules of logic, but The Greatest Hits never strikes the right chord.
Posted Mar 18, 2024
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