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Fire Through Dry Grass
(2023)
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Concepción de León
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It’s a powerful reminder of how defining and devastating the pandemic was, and gives space to those whose voices were long ignored.
Posted Sep 30, 2023
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Trick Baby
(1973)
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Roger Greenspun
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Larry Yust indulges in too much flashy sound montage and in the obtrusive cross-cutting into sequences that seems the curse of the newer movies. But he and Isidore Mankofsky have a lovely sense of place and perspective for the camera frame.
Posted Sep 29, 2023
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Saw X
(2023)
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Beatrice Loayza
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This is the most well-groomed “Saw” movie to date. The story mostly makes sense and Greutert pulls back on the frenetic editing techniques that made the older movies look like the blood and guts equivalent of white noise.
Posted Sep 29, 2023
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Flora and Son
(2023)
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Amy Nicholson
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This is Carney’s saltiest ode to creative expression — and, peculiarly, his most relatable
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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Reptile
(2023)
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Natalia Winkelman
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Once the film gets around to revealing the culprit, we have already lost interest, enervated in the face of a movie that, like an overeager snake, bites off far more than it can swallow.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie
(2023)
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Claire Shaffer
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If you can imagine your kiddo enjoying an animated car-chase scene featuring puppies and kittens, set to Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” they’ll probably be thrilled with “The Mighty Movie.”
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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Nowhere
(2023)
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Teo Bugbee
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It’s hard to care about Mía’s efforts to survive when coincidence drives the plot, and the production looks and feels cheap.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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Mami Wata
(2023)
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Brandon Yu
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Manages to distill themes that are at once primal and complex with virtuosic simplicity via the film’s arresting score, its refined story and dialogue and its black and white cinematography, which is more striking than most any modern Technicolor fantasy.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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Story Ave
(2023)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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The film is cleareyed about Kadir’s artistic values and the potentially dangerous outcomes of his decisions.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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The Kill Room
(2023)
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Glenn Kenny
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The premise rests upon a tired and philistine notion about modern art, here iterated by an indignant criminal’s protest, “My five-year-old makes better paintings than that with his fingers.”
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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Carlos
(2023)
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Chris Azzopardi
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This controlled documentary captivates as a soulful personal history, even if it doesn’t exactly transcend.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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Dancing in the Dust
(2003)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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“Dancing in the Dust” shows Farhadi’s early confidence with using framing and cutting to create tension and parallels — skills that would serve him later.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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The Creator
(2023)
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Nicolas Rapold
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Above all, the film’s tone is uneven: Edwards pushes the relatable ordinariness of the androids and hybrid “simulants,” but the potential menace of A.I. inescapably looms.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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The Origin of Evil
(2022)
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Beatrice Loayza
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This decadent murder-movie takes the online credo, “be gay, do crimes,” and runs with it — to delicious results.
Posted Sep 22, 2023
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Expend4bles
(2023)
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Amy Nicholson
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The film’s last reel is so awful — so sneeringly contemptuous of our good-faith efforts to play along with these shenanigans — that we leave the theater still thinking of that shot of a corpse's middle finger. It sure seemed pointed at us.
Posted Sep 22, 2023
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Paul Robeson: I'm a Negro. I'm an American.
(1990)
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Lisa Kennedy
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The athlete-performer-activist’s achievements are well known (gridiron great, Columbia University Law graduate, first Black Othello on Broadway), but in this film, their roots and meaning go mostly unexplored.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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My Sailor, My Love
(2022)
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Amy Nicholson
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Grace’s resentment is an astute twist. Imagine Disney’s singing teapot enrolling in primal scream therapy, except when Grace attends a support group for women who’ve given too much, she can’t let out her steam.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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The Trial
(2023)
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Nicolas Rapold
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Crafted entirely out of the televised 1985 trial of Argentina’s military junta, “The Trial” lays bare horrific crimes while showing the courage of victims, survivors and their families.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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The Storms of Jeremy Thomas
(2021)
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Claire Shaffer
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You may come away from “The Storms of Jeremy Thomas” thinking of him as a fascinating man, but perhaps not as the cinematic prince that Cousins insists on crowning him.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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Neither Confirm nor Deny
(2020)
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Nicolas Rapold
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[A] neat and steadily paced documentary...
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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It Lives Inside
(2023)
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Brandon Yu
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It’s a promising debut from Dutta, who offers a fresh premise that proves a natural fit for the genre.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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Something You Said Last Night
(2022)
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Erik Piepenburg
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One can only watch Renata, and this film, do so little for so long before yearning for more than naturalism and tenderness to drive the slice-of-life story.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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26.2 to Life
(2022)
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Calum Marsh
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The in-prison material also has a lo-fi look that’s a refreshing change from the glossy style of many recent docs, and the various off-site interviews with family members of the inmates expand the scope of their stories in an enriching way.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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Cassandro
(2023)
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Natalia Winkelman
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A biopic that sometimes feels like passable stage fighting: elegantly executed but drained of danger.
Posted Sep 21, 2023
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Night Games
(1966)
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Bosley Crowther
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[Mai Zetterling] has skill and an eye for color in creating visual images. But she takes us through a chamber of horrors without shedding any real light in Night Games.
Posted Sep 20, 2023
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Around the World Under the Sea
(1966)
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Bosley Crowther
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A deplorable lack of imagination is apparent in Around the World Under the Sea.
Posted Sep 20, 2023
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The Saint of Second Chances
(2023)
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Glenn Kenny
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Mike is an engaging onscreen presence in this story, whether appearing as himself or as played in re-enactments by Charlie Day.
Posted Sep 19, 2023
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Superpower
(2023)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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Penn appears to have one eye in the mirror, but at least he’s taking some sort of action.
Posted Sep 18, 2023
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El Conde
(2023)
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Amy Nicholson
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While the filmmaker has the gall to caricature tyranny, he’s too cynical, or too honest, to wrap up “El Conde” with a satisfying resolution. Larraín has finally faced his monster — but he can’t bring himself to drive a stake through his heart.
Posted Sep 15, 2023
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Rebel
(2022)
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Beatrice Loayza
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It’s too bad the filmmakers seem to think that the bigger the spectacle, the more powerfully communicated this whirlwind of politics and emotions. The opposite is the case.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Radical Wolfe
(2023)
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Devika Girish
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Richard Dewey’s staid, by-the-book documentary can hardly match the flair with which Wolfe lived and wrote.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Outlaw Johnny Black
(2023)
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Brandon Yu
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The laughs are lost within an overly long, meandering plot and scenes that miss visual polish or comedic concision.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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A Million Miles Away
(2023)
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Concepción de León
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It’s hard not to be moved by the enormity of the challenge he undertook and conquered. But the grit narrative at times becomes a bit heavy-handed...
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Remembering Every Night
(2022)
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Austin Considine
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This is pensive, slow-slow cinema, like Bela Tarr with color but less compositional heft or, sometimes, clarity.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Love at First Sight
(2023)
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Natalia Winkelman
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What are the odds that a premise as unimaginative as this one should emerge as a sturdy little romantic drama?
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Lift
(2022)
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Claire Shaffer
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Petersen’s bare-bones, on-the-ground production works well for a story like this, highlighting how vital these small workshops in homeless shelters and community centers can be.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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The Inventor
(2023)
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Lisa Kennedy
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“The Inventor” is rife with somewhat didactic lessons — about power, innovation, curiosity — yet a presumably unintended one might be that lessons themselves, however insightful, are not always captivating.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Invisible Beauty
(2023)
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Teo Bugbee
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At times, the film is hampered by the sheer amount of information there is to condense from across a 50-year career, but Hardison is never less than a fascinating subject — an artist whose medium is industrial disruption.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Mr. Jimmy
(2019)
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Glenn Kenny
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[Sticks] to Mr. Jimmy's career travails in the States before landing with a "Spinal Tap"-redolent happy ending.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Canary
(2023)
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Nicolas Rapold
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A documentary that patiently traces... groundbreaking efforts extracting ice cores from tropical mountaintops.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Satanic Hispanics
(2022)
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Erik Piepenburg
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This anthology of films from five Latino filmmakers sadly doesn’t live up to the promise of devilish short-form horror that its title foreshadows.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Dumb Money
(2023)
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Ben Kenigsberg
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It’s hard not to root for Gill, in his dorky headband, to take down people who have staked vast sums against the stock he loves. Who cares if what the movie itself is selling is played out?
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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A Haunting in Venice
(2023)
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Jason Zinoman
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In straddling genres, “Haunting” can get stuck in the middle. But there’s fun to be had there.
Posted Sep 13, 2023
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Traffic
(2000)
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Stephen Holden
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Steven Soderbergh's great, despairing squall of a film, Traffic, may be the first Hollywood movie since Robert Altman's Nashville to infuse epic cinematic form with jittery new rhythms and a fresh, acid-washed palette.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
(2023)
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Amy Nicholson
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The script functions like a recipe for its own opening shot of baklava; flattened and bland, Toula exists only to constrain the nuts.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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The Nun II
(2023)
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Claire Shaffer
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Scene after scene builds fear and tension, and then a monster appears, and then … not much else, in most cases.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
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The First Year
(1972)
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Devika Girish
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Guzmán’s documentary is a people’s microhistory of a nation in transition.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
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Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind
(2022)
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Beatrice Loayza
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This documentary is so fixated on enshrining Oates within the canon of American literary giants that it skirts around the peculiarity and provocation of her ideas.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
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Amerikatsi
(2022)
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Nicolas Rapold
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The setup eloquently symbolizes the predicament of many who, like Charlie, left their homelands very young.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
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Rotting in the Sun
(2023)
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Elisabeth Vincentelli
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By the end, it’s the film’s point that has turned murky.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
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