Bill Newcott
Tomatometer-approved critic
Bill Newcott is the award-winning film critic for The Saturday Evening Post, SaturdayEveningPost.com and MoviesForTheRestOfUs.com and producer/host of the Saturday Evening Post's "Movies For The Rest Of Us" YouTube series. He is the creator of AARP's Movies For Grownups franchise, where he reviewed films for 16 years. His most memorable movie moment was co-hosting an evening of films with Robert Osborne on Turner Classic Movies.
Movies reviews only
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The Lost King (2022) |
In its own way compelling; simmering at a comfortable slow burn thanks to an endearing cast and a whimsical script.
- The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Mar 24, 2023
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Moving On (2022) |
Most of all, this is the Jane and Lily show. Have any two stars since Bob and Bing ever had so much fun together? - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) |
EEAAO is that insufferable child whose parents trot her out in tap shoes, then watch to make sure you register adequate amazement at her Buffalo turns and Bombershays. You appreciate the kid’s skill and preparation — but gawd, how you wish it were over. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Mar 11, 2023
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iMordecai (2022) |
I’ll spare you the litany of the many truly awful films wrought under similar circumstances, but Samel — who says he studied filmmaking by watching online Master Classes — has birthed a lovingly crafted, sweetly nuanced tale of familial love. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Linoleum (2022) |
A strikingly original work; an outrageous meditation on the meaning of lives that, on the face of it, don’t seem to have much meaning at all. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Feb 23, 2023
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Maybe I Do (2023) |
A movie that’s more Aaron Sorkin than Nora Ephron. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jan 28, 2023
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The Son (2022) |
When your profoundly depressed son comes to you and says, 'Hey, I noticed that gun you’re hiding in the laundry room,' you’d think even the most numb-skulled parent on the planet would think, 'Hmm. Maybe I should move that thing.' - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jan 21, 2023
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A Man Called Otto (2022) |
Touches on the same weighty themes as 'Ove' — isolation, suicide, and mortality among them — but from the start, director Marc Forster...pulls back the drapes to brighten what in the original version was a decidedly murky room. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jan 21, 2023
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Women Talking (2022) |
Were there an Oscar category for Truth in Advertising, this year’s award would most certainly go to Women Talking, a film that...somehow creates as compelling a cinematic experience as you’ll have this year. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jan 16, 2023
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) |
Utterly without subtext, completely uninterested in raising anyone’s consciousness about anything, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is refreshingly focused — in its own, lazy laser sort of way — simply on being fun and frolicsome. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Dec 16, 2022
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The Whale (2022) |
The Whale...offers few moments of hope and no truly happy resolutions (but) you stick with this guy through thick and thicker, simultaneously repulsed and intrigued thanks to a fierce performance of a lifetime by Brendan Fraser. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Dec 08, 2022
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) |
It’s taken 140 years and about 20 screen incarnations, but del Toro has finally gotten Pinocchio’s secret sauce just right. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Dec 02, 2022
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The Fabelmans (2022) |
Without question a bona fide Spielbergian crowd pleaser from its sentimental opening to its fabulously funny blackout. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) |
The joke played hilariously 12 years ago...in a memorable fake movie trailer. Spinning the gag out to nearly two hours cannot help but yield extended periods when even the most devoted Weird Al fans have to ask themselves: Is this trip necessary? - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Nov 11, 2022
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My Policeman (2022) |
Lushly photographed, epic in scope, populated by six supremely appealing actors — and calibrated to break your heart like a bad boyfriend. You couldn’t ask for much more than that in a weepie. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Nov 04, 2022
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Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues (2022) |
An unprecedented look at a man who endured blind hatred, crushing poverty, and bitter misunderstanding — yet who could, at the end of his life, sing with convincing authority, “What a Wonderful World.” - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Oct 27, 2022
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Moonage Daydream (2022) |
Bowie is the man who sold the world on radical individuality in its rock stars — and even for the casual Bowie observer, Moonage Daydream sells us on appreciating a too-short life, lived to the hilt. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Oct 26, 2022
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The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022) |
Farrelly seems to have thought Beer Run would float along on its frothy premise, punctuated by the occasional explosion of wartime violence. Instead, the film stumbles tipsily along, from lamp post to lamp post, uncertain of its way home. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Oct 26, 2022
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A Jazzman's Blues (2022) |
There’s no denying the power of Perry’s commitment to the endeavor. His passion for A Jazzman’s Blues is palpable, and it shows in the performances and the care with which his set pieces unfold. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Sep 30, 2022
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The Good Boss (2021) |
Spot-on as corporate satire, infused with humanity thanks to a funny and committed cast, The Good Boss draws its inspiration from classic workplace comedies like Office Space and The Devil Wears Prada - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Sep 21, 2022
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The Woman King (2022) |
All you need to know about The Woman King: There’s Viola Davis, buff as an Olympian, a blood-stained panga machete slung over her shoulder, and an expression on her face that says, “Who’s next?” - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Sep 21, 2022
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The Hotel (2022) |
Years from now, film historians will...identify the Cinema of COVID: Stories that involve forced isolation, or helplessness in the face of an invisible foe, or solemn re-assessment of life’s priorities...elements (that) vex the characters in this film - Movies For The Rest Of Us
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| Posted Sep 10, 2022
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Living (2022) |
Delicate as the head of a good stout, sentimental as an old Scottish love song...the film at the very least stands as the crowning performance in Bill NIghy’s long and illustrious career. - Movies For The Rest Of Us
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| Posted Sep 10, 2022
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Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues (2022) |
With this tuneful, tender documentary, director Sacha Jenkins convincingly makes the case that there was no more significant music figure in the entire 20th century than Louis Armstrong. - Movies For The Rest Of Us
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| Posted Sep 10, 2022
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I Love My Dad (2022) |
Twisted as the story is, it all comes from a good place — and Patton and Morosini are just sweet enough to let us swallow the whole thing without gagging. Too much. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Sep 02, 2022
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The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021) |
I’m frankly a little ticked off at the good people in Australia, who have apparently for decades been keeping the astonishingly talented actor/director/writer Leah Purcell all to themselves. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Aug 18, 2022
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Mack & Rita (2022) |
For more than a century, Hollywood has inflicted upon moviegoers countless stories of young women crushing on older men. If nothing else, Mack & Rita deserves credit for not only flipping that narrative, but doing so with effortless charm. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Aug 13, 2022
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Resurrection (2022) |
An exquisitely calculated story of mounting madness; a portrait of a seemingly perfect life that proves to be a carefully constructed façade, behind which sprawls a hellscape straight from the canvas of Hieronymus Bosch. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Aug 05, 2022
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Mr. Malcolm's List (2022) |
Mr. Malcolm learns that true love cannot be found by ticking off boxes. Which is ironic, because even at its most engaging, his movie is one exhaustive Austenian checklist. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jul 29, 2022
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Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) |
A sweetly cheeky tale...a story of people with hidden hearts, and the woman who inspires them to bring those hearts into the sunlight. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jul 15, 2022
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Jerry & Marge Go Large (2022) |
Both Cranston and Bening have been denied Oscars for great work...Jerry and Marge Go Large is anything but what you’d call Oscar bait. Still, there is an undeniable thrill in seeing two pros give everything they’ve got to a slight, sweet tale. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jul 07, 2022
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Charlotte (2021) |
Charlotte — bold, colorful, vibrating with life — is a fitting memorial to an indomitable spirit - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jun 27, 2022
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The Phantom of the Open (2021) |
Tight-jawed and soft-spoken, Rylance’s Flitcroft doesn’t have to work hard to earn our unbridled support...Hawkins never lets Jean become a caricature, painting a fully rounded portrait of a woman in love with a quirky, confusing man. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jun 27, 2022
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Benediction (2021) |
From Goya’s “Disasters of War” to Picasso’s Guernica, anger over the nature of war has always yielded great art. The only shame of Benediction is that, unlike those masterpieces, there’s no way to hang this one in a museum - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jun 27, 2022
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Rise (2022) |
Even if you don’t know a layup from a ledgie, with its charismatic cast, brisk pace, and stand-up-and-cheer finale, Rise...proclaims, with unreasonably convincing assurance: With hard work, good intentions, and a mother lode of faith, anything is possible - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jun 27, 2022
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Our Father (2022) |
Cline comes off as utterly unrepentant — a defiant cross between Gregory Peck’s true believer in The Boys from Brazil (“You are the living duplicate of the greatest man in history!”) and Alec Baldwin’s imperious surgeon in Malice (“I am God!”) - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted May 27, 2022
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Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022) |
Here Violet (Maggie Smith) is again, still dying, yet peppery as ever, holding court in the parlour and hurling droll Violetisms that stick to their targets like clumps of warm figgy pudding. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted May 27, 2022
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Memory (2022) |
You’re never wasting your time with Liam Neeson (nor with Guy Pearce, who starred in the granddaddy of memory-based thrillers, "Memento"). Strong performances and classy production go a long way to keeping "Memory" from being forgettable. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted May 05, 2022
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The Duke (2020) |
As he did throughout his illustrious filmography, in RogerMichell...again peels back the layers of British culture and class, introducing us to characters who are comfortable with the nations stubbornly staid ways and those chafing against it. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Apr 25, 2022
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Dual (2022) |
Despite its low burn, Dual has a lot to say about the comfortable numbness of todays world, and how in the end we are the products of the lives we build for ourselveswhether were Sarah or Sarahs Double. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Apr 15, 2022
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Aline (2021) |
Lemercier is not the first French filmmaker to remind us, over and over, that its only a movie. Jean-Luc Goddard has been doing that since the Sixties. But seldom has a director been so jovially good-natured in the pursuit.
- The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Apr 09, 2022
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Mothering Sunday (2021) |
An exquisitely realized film...that finds delicacy, and sometimes the devil, in the details. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Mar 25, 2022
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Ultrasound (2021) |
Even as it detonates any hope of relying on the frailty of human recollection, Ultrasound burrows into the subconscious, an earworm of haunting moments and eerie revelations. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Mar 21, 2022
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Gold (2022) |
'Waiting for Godot' meets 'Mad Max'...a poison dart of a film: precisely pointed and gratifyingly lethal. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Mar 10, 2022
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Munich: The Edge of War (2021) |
A pulse-pounding tale of espionage, ambition, and friendship. It's a human drama, told with finely tuned intimacy, in which the stakes could not be higher. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jan 30, 2022
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American Underdog (2021) |
American Underdog (finds) a comfy medium where faith and football take their rightful places - and the story of a good man simply being true to himself provides all the drama you need. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jan 30, 2022
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The Lost Daughter (2021) |
It is possible to admire a film like The Lost Daughter - the meticulous vision, the earnest performances, the profound themes - and not like it very much. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Jan 17, 2022
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Don't Look Up (2021) |
You can't completely ruin a great concept, and McKay has hit on one...This is the way the world ends; not with a bang, but a bluster. - Movies For The Rest Of Us
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| Posted Jan 10, 2022
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The French Dispatch (2021) |
Bundles everything admirers love most about (Anderson's) work and presents it to us, warm and inviting, like an apple tarte tatin soaked in gin and dappled with juniper. Dig in. C'est magnifique. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Dec 17, 2021
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The Power of the Dog (2021) |
One of the finest screen performances of this or any year. - The Saturday Evening Post
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| Posted Dec 17, 2021
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