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Fly Me to the Moon
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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Thanks to its increasingly wayward plotting and thoroughly distracting manipulation of known history in the pursuit of ever more ridiculous laughs, Fly Me to the Moon winds up more screwy than screwball.
Posted Jul 08, 2024
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Xoftex
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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Deshe’s film should pick up steam on the arthouse circuit, offering an unorthodox, often oblique, but emotionally powerful attempt to recreate onscreen the disorientation of the stateless mind.
Posted Jul 03, 2024
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Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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Great fun and moves like a rocket. Murphy slips back into his role effortlessly, clearly knowing exactly what makes Axel Foley tick.
Posted Jul 02, 2024
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Kalki 2898 AD
(2024)
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Stephanie Bunbury
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So this is how the world ends, not with a whimper but a great many massive bangs, battles and increasingly complicated alliances, betrayals and stirring songs. It is terrific, cathartic fun.
Posted Jul 01, 2024
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Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge
(2024)
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Valerie Complex
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A celebration of life that captures the designer’s ongoing journey of self-discovery and reinforces her belief that there is always more to accomplish.
Posted Jul 01, 2024
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Jazzy
(2024)
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Valerie Complex
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Maltz excels in capturing the small, seemingly insignificant moments that make childhood so magical
Posted Jul 01, 2024
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A Family Affair
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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A smart, character-driven romcom that serves up a delicious cast with a witty script and engaging situation for all.
Posted Jun 28, 2024
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A Quiet Place: Day One
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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The generous use of score suggests even the makers don’t have a lot of faith in the power of silence any more. It delivers enough frights for the time being, though, and the casting of Nyong’o carries it to the finish line.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
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MaXXXine
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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Sometimes clumsily but more often not, MaXXXine has things to say about the objectification and humiliation of women in Hollywood, as actors and directors, and, alongside that, the belittling of horror as a genre too.
Posted Jun 26, 2024
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I Am: Celine Dion
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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This film is ultimately about resiliency in the face of one of life’s cruelest tricks, taking away the engine that drives Dion’s existence.
Posted Jun 21, 2024
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The Exorcism
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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The Exorcism, despite the best efforts of Crowe and the initial promise of taking the familiar into unfamiliar territory, just doesn’t quite jell itself, but I will give it an Amen for the game effort.
Posted Jun 21, 2024
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Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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Overall this is a worthy effort, one that maybe doesn’t tell you a whole lot you didn’t know, but Klein manages to put it all in perspective in a very watchable film.
Posted Jun 14, 2024
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Memoir of a Snail
(2024)
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Stephanie Bunbury
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You don’t have to be mad to do stop-motion animation but, as the saying goes, it helps. Which makes it all the remarkable that Memoir of a Snail, peopled though it is with flawed, unpredictable characters, is so reassuringly sane.
Posted Jun 14, 2024
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Brats
(2024)
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Valerie Complex
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"Brats" is a heartfelt memoir and a reflection on the power of words and perception.
Posted Jun 13, 2024
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Sacramento
(2024)
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Valerie Complex
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Sacramento is an examination of strained friendships, the fear of inadequacy in impending fatherhood, and the importance of mental health conversations are handled with a good balance of care and humor.
Posted Jun 13, 2024
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The Wasp
(2024)
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Valerie Complex
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"The Wasp" is an intense film that showcases the talents of its cast and director. It’s a journey into the dark recesses of the human psyche, and leaves a lasting impression.
Posted Jun 13, 2024
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Group Therapy
(2024)
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Valerie Complex
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Group Therapy is a testament to the power of humor in healing and a call to recognize and address mental health issues openly.
Posted Jun 13, 2024
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Inside Out 2
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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You could be forgiven for thinking that this journey home will be a picaresque riot, a colorful flexing of the collective Pixar imagination, but there’s not much fun in this 13-year-old’s mind.
Posted Jun 12, 2024
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Lake George
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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Coon is magnetic as always, but this is Whigham’s show, and this performance might yet take him to awards season as one of the year’s best.
Posted Jun 11, 2024
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A Mistake
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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Jeffs’ screenplay is as measured as her unflashy direction, perfect for a slow-burning story about a tragic incident with so many tentacles affecting a small circle of human beings caught up in it.
Posted Jun 10, 2024
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McVeigh
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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McVeigh does have something new to say about radicalization, that it’s not about religion or race or mental illness but a way to fill an empty vessel.
Posted Jun 10, 2024
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The Watchers
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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Working from a folk-horror novel by A.M. Shine, Shyamalan takes a simple single-location genre premise and somehow creates a thriller that’s both unnecessarily complex and almost entirely uninteresting.
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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Bad Boys: Ride or Die
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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Plot aside, this movie obviously rests on the chemistry of Smith and Lawrence who have managed to keep it alive now for three decades of these movies and do so here as well, despite being put in some rather ludicrous, but eye popping action sequences.
Posted Jun 04, 2024
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Young Woman and the Sea
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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The crux of the story is seeing the perseverance it took to achieve this milestone, a belief that you never give up. Ridley simply embodies that spirit of this young woman and delivers a memorable performance, including complete authenticity in her quest.
Posted May 31, 2024
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Summer Camp
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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Summer Camp turns out beat-for-beat to be exactly what I thought it was going to be, and even target audiences of a certain age still deserve something, anything a little more surprising to keep the heart going strong.
Posted May 30, 2024
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The Great Lillian Hall
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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The strength here is that Lange never goes the easy route with this portrayal. She really imbues her with the sense of disbelief this could be happening to the great Lillian Hall, who seems to be a person not aware of life’s clock ticking.
Posted May 30, 2024
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Blue Sun Palace
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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This is ultimately about longing, loneliness, grief, and finding a place in a challenging environment. It is indeed also about the need to feel, yes touch, but not in obvious ways we might expect.
Posted May 28, 2024
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Simon of the Mountain
(2024)
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Stephanie Bunbury
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[A] moving, puzzling and wholly original debut feature.
Posted May 28, 2024
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All We Imagine as Light
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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At a time when so much attention is being paid to the lives of the haves and the have-nots amid such financial imbalance worldwide, it’s refreshing to see the spotlight on ordinary women caught somewhere in the middle, living just enough for the city.
Posted May 28, 2024
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The Most Precious of Cargoes
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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At a brisk 81 minutes, it’s all over very quickly, and it’s to Hazanavicius’s credit that he doesn’t equate length with importance: the power of his film derives very much from its clarity and simplicity.
Posted May 28, 2024
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Le Royaume
(2024)
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Stephanie Bunbury
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Despite its pace, The Kingdom doesn’t feel like the thriller it resembles. It feels like epic drama. It isn’t glamorous, but it does look glorious.
Posted May 28, 2024
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Motel Destino
(2024)
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Valerie Complex
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However, despite its gripping start and lush cinematography, the film ultimately loses its way, bogged down by a sluggish middle act and narrative inconsistencies.
Posted May 25, 2024
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Atlas
(2024)
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Valerie Complex
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Atlas often feels like a missed opportunity, hampered by sluggish pacing and a lack of depth in character development for everyone else except the main character.
Posted May 25, 2024
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The Seed of the Sacred Fig
(2024)
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Stephanie Bunbury
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There are moments so vertiginously heightened that they become laughable. Cutting through that excess, however, is the undoubted power of immediate currency -- this is news; this is right now -- and the impressive collective commitment of cast and crew.
Posted May 24, 2024
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Nasty
(2024)
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Joe Utichi
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Nasty is an infinitely watchable pop doc, but it might have dug a little deeper here and there.
Posted May 24, 2024
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Beating Hearts
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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A romantic banlieue opera that delivers all the gritty, vicarious thrills of the now-standard post-Goodfellas gangster movie but also burrows into issues of class and gender in refreshingly unpredictable ways.
Posted May 24, 2024
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The Count of Monte-Cristo
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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Delaporte and de la Patellliere have made something fresh and exciting from one of the oldest stories around, the kind of movie quite frankly Hollywood should be making.
Posted May 23, 2024
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September Says
(2024)
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Stephanie Bunbury
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There are flashes in September Says of truly original accomplishment, but the tussle between July and September doesn’t amount to more than a summer fling.
Posted May 23, 2024
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Being Maria
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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[Fits] squarely in the Lifetime TV Movie of the Week formula... Fortunately, it is all lifted tremendously by its talented and intriguing star, Vartolomei, who is utterly convincing in the role of Maria without turning it into a beat-for-beat impression.
Posted May 22, 2024
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Grand Tour
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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Gomes has enough admirers now that there’s a small but dedicated audience for his sophisticated meditations on history and culture... For the rest of us, though, it all seems a little too much like hard work.
Posted May 22, 2024
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Parthenope
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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Porta is a real find in the title role... The rest of the cast, including Oldman’s brief but moving turn and Sandrelli’s lovely work at the end, deliver lots of flavor.
Posted May 21, 2024
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Marcello Mio
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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The whole conceit is oddly spiritual, not sad or depressing to watch someone you think might have gone over the edge. It is much lighter on its feet than that.
Posted May 21, 2024
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Anora
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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The star of the show is the fearless Mikey Madison, who gives her all as the dazed and confused Ani.
Posted May 21, 2024
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The Shrouds
(2024)
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Stephanie Bunbury
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Whatever else you may expect of Cronenberg as a distinctive auteur -- wry humor, a measured pace, exultant wallowing in foul goo -- you’re not expecting the narrative to explode into bits. That really is a new kind of ick.
Posted May 20, 2024
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The Apprentice
(2024)
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Pete Hammond
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Stan eases into the role, suggesting the young Trump without venturing into an SNL-like impersonation. He captures him precisely and believably throughout.
Posted May 20, 2024
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Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
(2024)
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Valerie Complex
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Ernest Cole, Lost and Found is a necessary tribute that ensures Ernest’s contributions are recognized and remembered for generations.
Posted May 20, 2024
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Caught by the Tides
(2024)
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Joe Utichi
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Zhao can do so much with her eyes that she holds our attention in spite of her character’s stoicism... Hers is the performance that anchors the film.
Posted May 20, 2024
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Armand
(2024)
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Damon Wise
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Reinsve shines as a striking anti-heroine, playing a brittle, broken woman with a marshmallow interior.
Posted May 20, 2024
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The Surfer
(2024)
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Stephanie Bunbury
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If the risks were more frequent and the obstacles insuperable, if the whole thing snapped along faster so that there was no time to feel the suspension of disbelief sagging, the sense of peril would steamroller its absurdity into the sand.
Posted May 20, 2024
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The Balconettes
(2024)
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Stephanie Bunbury
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None of these characters is developed enough to be likable; they are just moving pieces in a very bloody, somewhat didactic game. The point is that the men are so much worse.
Posted May 20, 2024
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