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B
|
Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero
(2023)
|
John Fink
|
As far as the music documentary is an extension of a brand experience, Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero provides an illuminating look behind the scenes, demystifying the artist while also existing within the spirit of their on-screen persona.
Posted Sep 25, 2023
|
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C
|
The Convert
(2023)
|
Soham Gadre
|
In the pursuit of a prestige picture, Tamahori leaves The Convert awkwardly stumbling between a swashbuckling action film and a mild-mannered costume drama.
Posted Sep 25, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros
(2023)
|
Rory O'Connor
|
One of the most endearing things about Wiseman’s films, especially of late, is their polite refusal to allow the people in charge, however well-meaning, to define their institutions.
Posted Sep 22, 2023
|
|
C
|
They Shot the Piano Player
(2023)
|
Ankit Jhunjhunwala
|
Despite its narrative inventions, it boils down to a standard-issue talking-heads documentary for most of its duration––complete with onscreen titles to indicate who is speaking.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
|
|
A-
|
Here
(2023)
|
Rory O'Connor
|
Devos’ films can feel overly studied, slick to the point of being contrived, yet with each passing work––each reduction to the most potent flavors––he edges closer to something truly great. Here is his finest yet, an almost-perfect little film.
Posted Sep 19, 2023
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|
B-
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The Promised Land
(2023)
|
C.J. Prince
|
The Promised Land is a brutal, entertaining period piece and another showcase for Mads Mikkelsen’s stone-faced magnetism.
Posted Sep 18, 2023
|
|
B
|
Together 99
(2023)
|
Jordan Raup
|
A reunion that, not unlike the similar gap in Twin Peaks, conjures questions of shattered ideals, rekindled romances, unhealed wounds, and the terrors of aging.
Posted Sep 18, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Sing Sing
(2023)
|
Jordan Raup
|
Beautifully showing the importance of healing through art, Sing Sing skirts the treacly traps of a feel-good crowd-pleaser by providing a detailed, authentic roadmap for restoring a life burdened by trauma.
Posted Sep 18, 2023
|
|
B+
|
A Haunting in Venice
(2023)
|
Dan Mecca
|
A Haunting in Venice is both the best Kenneth Branagh film and the best Agatha Christie adaptation in decades.
Posted Sep 18, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Widow Clicquot
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
So, while the film is still a love story and biography, it's also a process-driven historical document. And Bennett is wonderful as always. Her ability to show strength through vulnerability is unparalleled.
Posted Sep 18, 2023
|
|
B-
|
Thank You For Coming
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
The film intentionally plays with preconceptions and cultural imperatives to shield us from a third and more important conclusion: that happiness isn't dependent on anyone other than yourself.
Posted Sep 18, 2023
|
|
C+
|
Frybread Face and Me
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
Luther therefore deals with some heavy-ish subject matter throughout without shining too bright a light on it. The film is playing with familiar tropes along a formulaic path, but it’s simply too endearing to dismiss outright.
Posted Sep 18, 2023
|
|
C+
|
Sleep
(2023)
|
Ethan Vestby
|
If accomplished in pulling off the kind of tonal shifts and formal precision you’d expect from someone who trained under [Bong Joon Ho], there’s a bit of a lack of a true pulse to the proceedings.
Posted Sep 17, 2023
|
|
B
|
Lee
(2023)
|
Christopher Schobert
|
As tenacious, groundbreaking American war photographer Lee Miller, Winslet appears in nearly every scene, dominates nearly every conversation, and says more with an arched eyebrow than many actors can say across pages upon pages of dialogue.
Posted Sep 15, 2023
|
|
B
|
The Queen of My Dreams
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
The joys and pain of nature vs. nurture arrive in full force as love is defeated by petty grievances born from indoctrination that blinds too many from seeing what truly matters: happiness.
Posted Sep 15, 2023
|
|
C+
|
The Breaking Ice
(2023)
|
Ethan Vestby
|
Ultimately as cold to the touch as its frozen setting, the lack of emotional catharsis speaks to a work high on words and ideas but low on a cohesive vision.
Posted Sep 15, 2023
|
|
D-
|
Wildcat
(2023)
|
Ethan Vestby
|
One hopes Wildcat can disappear into thin air so that it doesn’t have to weigh on Hawke’s legacy.
Posted Sep 15, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Memory
(2023)
|
David Katz
|
Chastain and Sarsgaard are just fantastic, and find an ideal emotional register for Franco’s dramatic somersaults.
Posted Sep 15, 2023
|
|
B-
|
Uproar
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
Save a powerfully cathartic, climactic moment for Josh, Uproar might stop short of getting truly angry, but it doesn't shy from the complexity of what being an outsider means.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
|
|
B
|
Rustin
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
Rustin still has its Oscar-bait moments and doesn't necessarily take any big swings that might risk mainstream appeal, but it's a solid drama and above-average profile, nonetheless.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
|
|
D
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Fingernails
(2023)
|
C.J. Prince
|
It’s impressive to see a film about love only able to generate disdain.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
|
|
C
|
Dream Scenario
(2023)
|
C.J. Prince
|
As misguided as Dream Scenario gets, Cage’s performance saves the film from turning into something much worse.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
|
|
B
|
Remembering Every Night
(2022)
|
Alistair Ryder
|
Yui Kiyohara has succeeded in making a film documenting the pleasures too inconsequential to effectively capture in writing.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Youth (Spring)
(2023)
|
Ethan Vestby
|
What’s eternally moving about the veteran documentarian is his deep earnestness.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
|
|
B
|
Flipside
(2023)
|
Christopher Schobert
|
Ultimately, Flipside is a moving, funny, inventive film that may cause viewers to follow Wilcha’s lead and ask tough questions about their own lives. That is no small feat for a documentarian.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
|
|
B+
|
The King Tide
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
With potent performances and a gorgeous, textured aesthetic, The King Tide proves a mesmerizing experience. The camerawork keeps the horrors that unravel mostly to our imagination so we can continue to look at reactions rather than results.
Posted Sep 13, 2023
|
|
B+
|
The End We Start From
(2023)
|
Christopher Schobert
|
The End We Start From is a success because its focus is not on the tropes of post-apocalyptic cinema. Instead it zeroes in on the love between a mother and her child, and that makes all the difference.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
C
|
Knox Goes Away
(2023)
|
Christopher Schobert
|
With a little more Keaton charm, a sharper script, and a bit more filmmaking verve, Knox may have succeeded.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B+
|
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
(2023)
|
David Katz
|
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is an action film with words, its cutting and command of space as sharp and rhythmic as the continuity edits splicing wides and close-ups in his car chases.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B
|
His Three Daughters
(2023)
|
C.J. Prince
|
Barring some divisive final-act choices, it’s a powerful work with a smart screenplay and three terrific performances that capture the messy nature of families going through a grieving process.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
C
|
Wicked Little Letters
(2023)
|
Jordan Raup
|
This 1920-set tale of a town turned upside-down when insulting letters start mysteriously arriving moves in the kind of amiable fashion that ensures no laugh is too daring, no emotional beat too deep, no shot anything but pleasantly lit.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B
|
The Tundra Within Me
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
Opens a window onto a culture that deserves recognition both on an international scale where environmental concerns lie and a human one where the desire for progress is too often wrongly confused with a denial of tradition.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
Despite its darkly supernatural package, however, Louis-Seize's film adheres to its idiosyncratic tone of purposeful excitement for a future that’s hardly assured. Because death can be a beginning too.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B-
|
Next Goal Wins
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
It's not going to win any awards, but it should do very well at the box office. Because despite there being zero surprises as it fulfills its mass-marketed for-profit formula, Next Goal Wins never talks down to us.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B-
|
Yellow Bus
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
The real standout out, however, is the acting. Chatterjee and Alloush are both fantastic with Sial’s frustration and fatigue lending a necessary counter to their volatility.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B
|
Dear Jassi
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
By letting the horrors to come unfold in all their uncensored brutality, Dear Jassi forces those who would rather dismiss such situations as not being their problem to experience the violence being done in God's name first-hand.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Days of Happiness
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
What initially feels like a solid drama lifted by its soulful lead performance actually proves a slow burning crescendo of catharsis wherein Emma must find the strength to cut the strings that have been leading her forward.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B
|
The Teacher
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
There's no vagueness here to the fact that a clandestine war is being waged by rebels as opposed to terrorists. That's not to say it condones their actions either. It merely contextualizes them.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B-
|
Kill
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
Just let the rage unleash in whatever convenient way is necessary to get the blood flowing faster. What's good enough for John Wick should be good enough for Kill, so wake the boogeyman up and let him loose.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
C
|
Finestkind
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
There's no better Father's Day gift than streaming an example of their stunted emotions and stubborn failures via a thriller-adjacent plot that ultimately lets them off the hook to rousing fanfare.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
B
|
The Holdovers
(2023)
|
Ethan Vestby
|
For how it captures the ambiance of walking out of a liquor store and down a wintry street a few days after Christmas, The Holdovers makes for the ideal annual holiday revisit.
Posted Sep 11, 2023
|
|
B
|
Woman of the Hour
(2023)
|
Jordan Raup
|
Shot by Barbarian and The Eyes of My Mother cinematographer Zach Kuperstein, Woman of the Hour boasts an impressively cohesive visual schema that smartly helps bind the disparate tones.
Posted Sep 10, 2023
|
|
C
|
North Star
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
Sometimes personal stories like this just don't quite translate to formulaic mainstream-appeal storytelling. Craft and intent simply couldn't quite push it across the finish line.
Posted Sep 09, 2023
|
|
B
|
Lost Ladies
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
It's a progressive story without being preachy. A rom-com/mystery hybrid weaving its themes into the fabric of its plot to avoid talking down to an audience that understands its motives all too well.
Posted Sep 09, 2023
|
|
C+
|
Dicks: The Musical
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
[Lane and Mullally] are the real draw, leaving all shame at the door to debase themselves for chuckles and guffaws alike. It’s enough to recommend Dicks, even if you find yourself regretting it too.
Posted Sep 09, 2023
|
|
B
|
Silver Dollar Road
(2023)
|
Soham Gadre
|
If Silver Dollar Road feels familiar, like a story you’ve heard a million times before, that’s because it painfully is––you don’t have to wonder how many more versions of this same kind of story are out there untold and yet to be reported.
Posted Sep 09, 2023
|
|
B+
|
The Boy and the Heron
(2023)
|
Ethan Vestby
|
What defines The Boy and the Heron is its wistful feeling of looking back.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
|
|
B
|
Coup de Chance
(2023)
|
David Katz
|
Rather pleasurable in and of itself: a parlor game for long-suffering Woodyheads to tick off the typical tics and reflexes while marveling at how consistent and industrious his story-construction skills (if not other literary faculties) remain.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
|
|
B-
|
Copa 71
(2023)
|
Jared Mobarak
|
Along with these first-hand accounts, the footage of the games themself amazes too. Add some stunning still photography and a wealth of newspaper headlines and COPA 71 becomes an archival treasure trove of sports history.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
|
|
B-
|
The Royal Hotel
(2023)
|
C.J. Prince
|
A tense yet uneven thriller that sensationalizes its source material in almost all of the right places.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
|
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