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3/4
|
Aloners
(2021)
|
Simon Abrams
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The bittersweet Korean drama “Aloners” works best when it’s a character study about an isolated thirtysomething’s behavior instead of whatever her creators think should be done about it.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
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3/4
|
Scarlet
(2022)
|
Matt Zoller Seitz
|
The movie's stubborn insistence on going where inspiration takes it is fascinating.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
|
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3.5/4
|
Blue Jean
(2022)
|
Monica Castillo
|
Oakley’s care and McEwen’s intense performance make “Blue Jean” one of this year’s most impressive movies.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
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3/4
|
Brooklyn 45
(2023)
|
Sheila O'Malley
|
Ghosts and spirits appear, and weird things are indeed summoned, but "Brooklyn 45" is really a meditation on grief and the unfinished business of war as experienced by a group who struggle with adjusting to peacetime.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
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1.5/4
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Persian Lessons
(2020)
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Marya E. Gates
|
A contrived triumph-of-the-human-spirit narrative where the Jewish character at the center is rendered a cipher for suffering while his Nazi tormentors are unconsciously humanized.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
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2.5/4
|
Dalíland
(2022)
|
Glenn Kenny
|
The movie’s commonplaces don’t serve its singular subject—love him or hate him—all that well.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
|
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3/4
|
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
(2023)
|
Peyton Robinson
|
In a tight 92-minute runtime, the film takes us through a community as a microcosm of culture, delivers shivering gore, and crafts characters worth caring about.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
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4/4
|
Shooting Stars
(2023)
|
Matt Zoller Seitz
|
Every moment and image is so perfectly shaped and presented, and rings so true, that you can imagine the same story being told, beat-for-beat, with a cast of invented characters and being every bit as satisfying.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
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2.5/4
|
Users
(2021)
|
Christy Lemire
|
Because “Users” is so captivating from a technical perspective, it’s frustrating to discover how scattered it is narratively.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
|
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3.5/4
|
Shin Kamen Rider
(2023)
|
Simon Abrams
|
“Shin Kamen Rider” remains thrilling and thoughtful, both as an expression of Anno’s instantly recognizable style and a weirdly moving expression of the title hero’s restless spirit.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
|
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2/4
|
Flamin' Hot
(2023)
|
Monica Castillo
|
“Flamin’ Hot” is more cheesy than spicy.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)
(2022)
|
Glenn Kenny
|
Before the heartbreak, there are outlandish and often funny stories about iconic album covers.
Posted Jun 07, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
(2023)
|
Christy Lemire
|
It’s still a movie about giant space robots talking trash and smashing into each other, but “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is better than most offerings in the franchise.
Posted Jun 07, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Flash
(2023)
|
Matt Zoller Seitz
|
The movie puts a lot of thought into what it wants to say and not enough into how it says it.
Posted Jun 07, 2023
|
|
|
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
(2023)
|
Isaac Feldberg
|
Audaciously raw, revealing, and excruciatingly funny.
Posted Jun 03, 2023
|
|
|
The Book of Solutions
(2023)
|
Isaac Feldberg
|
Tempers Gondry's trademark naiveté and lack of narrative discipline with a self-critical examination of his strengths and weaknesses as an artist if only to salute the survival of his child mind in the film industry as its own little wonder.
Posted Jun 03, 2023
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|
|
The Sweet East
(2023)
|
Isaac Feldberg
|
A thoroughly pungent, scabrously funny kind of nightmare picaresque.
Posted Jun 03, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Roundup: No Way Out
(2023)
|
Simon Abrams
|
"The Roundup: No Way Out” does not improve on the slightly refined formula of “The Roundup,” but it goes down a little smoother and is notably slicker.
Posted Jun 02, 2023
|
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3.5/4
|
Rise
(2022)
|
Peter Sobczynski
|
The dance sequences are put together so beautifully that most viewers will easily forgive the story's more cliched aspects.
Posted Jun 02, 2023
|
|
1.5/4
|
Simulant
(2023)
|
Simon Abrams
|
[A] bargain bin sci-fi pastiche.
Posted Jun 02, 2023
|
|
1.5/4
|
Padre Pio
(2022)
|
Brian Tallerico
|
A dull slog, an oil-and-water hybrid of two different films, both with interesting ideas that never cohere into interesting filmmaking.
Posted Jun 02, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Lynch/Oz
(2022)
|
Glenn Kenny
|
Among the many things this picture illuminates is how the fanciful worlds of “Oz” and Lynch illuminate the pain and splendor of the world.
Posted Jun 02, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Anonymous Sister
(2021)
|
Marya E. Gates
|
[Puts] a uniquely human face to what could easily be viewed with the cold distance of history.
Posted Jun 02, 2023
|
|
4/4
|
Past Lives
(2023)
|
Monica Castillo
|
A masterclass in storytelling.
Posted Jun 01, 2023
|
|
|
How to Have Sex
(2023)
|
Isaac Feldberg
|
This is fresh, passionate, and remarkably assured filmmaking, made with ample energy and even more exhilarating clarity of vision.
Posted May 31, 2023
|
|
|
The Delinquents
(2023)
|
Isaac Feldberg
|
A consistently playful, gradually beguiling existential dramedy on the multitudinous subject of work and freedom.
Posted May 31, 2023
|
|
|
The New Boy
(2023)
|
Isaac Feldberg
|
Thornton conjures the otherworldly power of Australia’s scorched red earth and its strange, vivid sunsets; in this story of spiritual resilience and communion with the divine, the landscape is an abiding, almighty presence.
Posted May 31, 2023
|
|
4/4
|
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
(2023)
|
Brian Tallerico
|
A smart, thrilling piece of work that reminded me of other great part twos like “The Dark Knight” and “The Empire Strikes Back."
Posted May 31, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
Elemental
(2023)
|
Isaac Feldberg
|
Replete with computer-generated inhabitants and generic modernist structures, its milieu feels more like concept art, to be further detailed at some point in the animation process, than a fully thought-through, lived-in environment.
Posted May 29, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
About My Father
(2023)
|
Matt Zoller Seitz
|
De Niro, bless his heart, gives the movie more than it gives him.
Posted May 26, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets
(2022)
|
Nell Minow
|
A meditation on time, loss, and connection, and almost a century later, those themes are just as vital as they were when Eliot wrote them.
Posted May 26, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Close to Vermeer
(2023)
|
Sheila O'Malley
|
A gentle, thoughtful documentary, populated by knowledgeable individuals.
Posted May 26, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Being Mary Tyler Moore
(2023)
|
Nell Minow
|
Mary Tyler Moore knew how to play confident, happy, honest women early in her career, and it is good to see how she finally learned how to be one.
Posted May 26, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Reality
(2023)
|
Sheila O'Malley
|
An impressive and unnerving piece of work.
Posted May 26, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Influencer
(2023)
|
Brian Tallerico
|
[Influencer] is smartly crafted, well-written, and strongly performed.
Posted May 26, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
Blood & Gold
(2023)
|
Peter Sobczynski
|
This unabashedly trashy project from director Peter Thorwarth has its moments of invention and excitement in the early going, but the constant spray of bullets and body parts proves numbing.
Posted May 26, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
Kandahar
(2023)
|
Glenn Kenny
|
Not particularly juicy or, you know, action-packed.
Posted May 26, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
You Hurt My Feelings
(2023)
|
Christy Lemire
|
Holofcener finds both humor and wisdom within the complexity of her cringe comedy, providing rich fodder for conversations afterward.
Posted May 26, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Boogeyman
(2023)
|
Nick Allen
|
“The Boogeyman” is packed with familiar beats and little personality, the horror equivalent of a rising music star making a fan-friendly Christmas album as their biggest project yet.
Posted May 25, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
L'immensità
(2022)
|
Glenn Kenny
|
[Penelope Cruz's] luminance is arguably worth the price of admission.
Posted May 25, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
Victim/Suspect
(2023)
|
Nick Allen
|
A document of superb journalism but is unfortunately told in a sludgy, distracting fashion.
Posted May 24, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
The Starling Girl
(2023)
|
Monica Castillo
|
“The Starling Girl” lives and breathes through Scanlen’s stellar performance.
Posted May 24, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Moon Garden
(2022)
|
Nick Allen
|
A horror/fantasy that puts every bit of its imagination on the screen and constantly impresses with its DIY spectacle.
Posted May 19, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Stay Awake
(2022)
|
Matt Zoller Seitz
|
For the most part, "Stay Awake" stays low-key and believable, particularly when the actors move through real-world locations while living their lives.
Posted May 19, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
The Night of the 12th
(2022)
|
Sheila O'Malley
|
There's more going on here than meets the eye.
Posted May 19, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
Love to Love You, Donna Summer
(2023)
|
Peyton Robinson
|
“Love to Love You, Donna Summer” is thorough in its insight into the woman beneath the spotlight.
Posted May 19, 2023
|
|
1/4
|
White Men Can't Jump
(2023)
|
Robert Daniels
|
The film is as unimaginative as it is corny, as dull as it is cheap, and as unfulfilling as any cash grab for a well-known property could be.
Posted May 19, 2023
|
|
0/4
|
Buddy Games: Spring Awakening
(2023)
|
Peter Sobczynski
|
Spectacularly awful in every imaginable aspect.
Posted May 19, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
Outpost
(2022)
|
Brian Tallerico
|
A film that’s too choppy and ridiculous for too long for its gut-punch of a final act to really connect.
Posted May 19, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future
(2022)
|
Christy Lemire
|
"The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future” might be too slow of a slow burn—and there’s not much to [its] characters beyond a few barely sketched traits.
Posted May 19, 2023
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