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3.5/5
|
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
There’s nothing terribly wrong about Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. But when your animation studio sets the bar so high, “nothing terribly wrong” is quite a disappointment.
Posted Dec 08, 2023
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3.5/5
|
Wonka
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Though it never reaches the heights of either Paddington film, Wonka delivers family friendly and fun without any of the scarring side effects of the last two efforts.
Posted Dec 08, 2023
|
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4.5/5
|
The Boy and the Heron
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
The Boy and the Heron may represent Mahito’s coming of age, but as he turns his back on the imaginative world he leaves behind, it’s hard not to feel as if Miyazaki is likewise waving goodbye.
Posted Dec 07, 2023
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3.5/5
|
The Sacrifice Game
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
The film looks fantastic, and though the storyline itself is clearly familiar, Wexler’s script, co-written with Sean Redlitz, feels consistently clever.
Posted Dec 05, 2023
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|
3.5/5
|
Where the Devil Roams
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
It’s a gorgeous movie, the filmmakers creating the beautifully seedy atmosphere ideal to the era and setting.
Posted Dec 01, 2023
|
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4/5
|
Dream Scenario
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Dream Scenario becomes an unnervingly accurate portrayal of our whole cultural attention span.
Posted Nov 29, 2023
|
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3.5/5
|
Saltburn
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
It’s tough to watch a film that asks you to empathize with, much less pity, the grotesquely wealthy. Luckily, Fennell doesn’t.
Posted Nov 21, 2023
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2.5/5
|
Wish
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Unfortunately, the balance doesn’t emphasize storytelling and the result is middling.
Posted Nov 20, 2023
|
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3/5
|
Leo
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Sandler’s soft-hearted comedic presence feels perfectly at home in the classroom, while Burr’s patented “get off my lawn” crankiness offsets things nicely.
Posted Nov 20, 2023
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3.5/5
|
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Davis and Dinklage are characteristically wonderful, Davis a particular delight in a weirdly sinister role while Dinklage offers a mournful, broken soul for the film.
Posted Nov 17, 2023
|
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4/5
|
May December
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
It’s a morally ambiguous, gorgeously realized character study. It’s so good to have Todd Haynes back.
Posted Nov 15, 2023
|
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3.5
|
It's a Wonderful Knife
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
It is wryly funny, though, and often quite sweet. It’s not as raucous as Kennedy’s Freaky nor as badass as MacIntyre’s Tragedy Girls, but it is a bloody slice of Christmas fun.
Posted Nov 09, 2023
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3/5
|
Butcher's Crossing
(2022)
|
Hope Madden
|
Polsky’s script and cast can’t quite match the visual clarity he gives the tale.
Posted Nov 07, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
The Marsh King's Daughter
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Burger remembers the strength of his opening when father and daughter return to the woods in the last third, and it’s worth the wait.
Posted Nov 03, 2023
|
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3.5/5
|
Fingernails
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
The trajectory is rarely in doubt and the film leaves much to mine when it comes to its premise. But whatever the weaknesses of Fingernails, Ahmed and Buckley and their thrilling rapport more than overcome.
Posted Nov 02, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
Rustin
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
That’s much thanks to a soaring performance by Colman Domingo. A character actor known for decades of memorable performances, Domingo takes the lead in Rustin and owns the film from frame one.
Posted Nov 01, 2023
|
|
2.5/5
|
Five Nights at Freddy's
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Willy’s Wonderland was a weak, predictable, dumb film but at least it had Nicolas Cage.
Posted Oct 26, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
Suitable Flesh
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
A game cast and a bit of 80s inspired lunacy ensure a good time is had by all. Plus, that’s a great title.
Posted Oct 24, 2023
|
|
2.5
|
Night of the Hunted
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
There’s tension and some smart moments, although Night of the Hunted is still just another horror movie made by men in which the female lead has no purpose or value until she finds her maternal instinct.
Posted Oct 19, 2023
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3.5/5
|
Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
What follows is kind of a Scooby-Doo episode, if Scoob and the gang were active occultists seeking league with Satan.
Posted Oct 17, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
Mami Wata
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Mami Wata is a spectacle of water and light. Raindrops on a forehead, seashells in a braid, sea spray as day turns to night – Obasi builds an otherworldly atmosphere from moments like these.
Posted Oct 12, 2023
|
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3.5/5
|
15 Cameras
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
There’s nothing groundbreaking about 15 Cameras, but what it does, it does well.
Posted Oct 10, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
When Evil Lurks
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
This is a magnificently written piece of horror, and Rugna’s expansive direction gives it an otherworldly yet dirty, earthy presence.
Posted Oct 05, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
V/H/S/85
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
This is the strongest set of shorts in a V/H/S installment in a while. It’s fun, gory, creepy and bite sized – ideal for the season.
Posted Oct 04, 2023
|
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3/5
|
The Exorcist: Believer
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Believer spends two full hours telling the story, and it needs those 121 minutes. But Green doesn’t spend them where he should.
Posted Oct 04, 2023
|
|
3.5
|
Saw X
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
It’s not the reawakening it may want to be, but for fans of the franchise, it’s finally an installment worth watching.
Posted Sep 29, 2023
|
|
2.5/5
|
The Re-Education of Molly Singer
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Director Andy Palmer delivers a hodgepodge of moments from Eighties comedies, each one drawn out to a painful length. Molly Singer feels too traditionally staged, almost like a reimagining of Revenge of the Nerds, minus the homophobia and rape.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
|
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3.5/5
|
Nightmare
(2022)
|
Hope Madden
|
Harboe’s understated turn, particularly in a handful of breathtaking scenes, helps Rasmussen blisteringly articulate an everyday horror women face.
Posted Sep 26, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
Dumb Money
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Dumb Money is a crowd pleaser, partly because the writing team keeps the script simple, and partly because Gillespie keeps the energy high. But mostly because it’s never not fun to see somebody stick it to the man.
Posted Sep 20, 2023
|
|
2.5/5
|
Elevator Game
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
There’s an effective backstory explaining the origins of the 5th Floor Lady and an occasionally impressive use of shadow. But McKendry’s network TV style staging and drama leach all tension from the story.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
|
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4/5
|
Cassandro
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
The entire ensemble shines, but Bernal owns the screen, his ever present smile a heartbreaking and beautiful image of the resilience and determination that fueled an icon of wrestling and LGBTQ culture.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
|
|
2.5/5
|
The Inventor
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
The Inventor, a beautifully animated lesson on the life and times of Leonardo da Vinci (voiced by Stephen Fry), offers a lot to digest, and I’m not sure who they think is eating.
Posted Sep 13, 2023
|
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3/5
|
A Haunting in Venice
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
It’s a Spooky Season movie for those who don’t like things too scary, and an Agatha Christie tale for those who’d rather not think so hard.
Posted Sep 13, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
Satanic Hispanics
(2022)
|
Hope Madden
|
But the collection absolutely boasts some inspired talent having a blast, and when is that ever a bad thing to witness?
Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
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3/5
|
The Nun II
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
It’s fine. It’s rated R, so that’s a start, although I’m not certain how it was deemed so problematic as to deserve the “keep the kids away” rating. There are a few creative deaths, almost elegantly macabre.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
|
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3.5/5
|
8 Found Dead
(2022)
|
Hope Madden
|
8 Found Dead, the Airbnb etiquette horror from Travis Greene, brings the goods when it comes to villains.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
|
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4/5
|
Bottoms
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Seligman’s tone, her image of high school and high school movies, is wildly, irreverently funny and fearless. It’s hilarious, raunchy, and so much fun.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Astrakan
(2022)
|
Hope Madden
|
Astrakan is an impressive, moving slice of life that understands what turns a child into something troubling.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
As religious metaphor, Nandor Fodor delivers a tale far more empathetic and compassionate than you might expect.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
Peppergrass
(2022)
|
Hope Madden
|
Tense, surprising and delightfully unusual, Peppergrass is a gem of a thriller worth seeking out.
Posted Aug 29, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Perpetrator
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Perpetrator swims in blood and gore and humor and terror and feminism galore.
Posted Aug 29, 2023
|
|
2.5/5
|
Golda
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Mirren’s appropriateness is not the problem with this film. Her performance certainly isn’t. The problem with Golda is how inexplicably bland it is.
Posted Aug 23, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation
(2022)
|
Hope Madden
|
Simultaneously pessimistic and hopeful, grim and beautiful, Ashkal is a meditation on modern times.
Posted Aug 22, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
Blue Beetle
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
The plot may not break new ground, but the film itself feels revolutionary. Like Nana.
Posted Aug 17, 2023
|
|
2/5
|
Strays
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
There’s a Point A (the scary city block where Doug abandoned his dog) and Point B (Doug’s penis), but those steps in between are random skits about red rockets and chew toys. And those moments are just not funny enough to merit a full feature.
Posted Aug 17, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
birth/rebirth
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
The film amounts to a profound parenting nightmare, and each actor takes on the role of parent to create an unnerving dynamic again guided by authenticity.
Posted Aug 16, 2023
|
|
2.5/5
|
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Turns out there may be a reason no one’s told this part of the story before. There’s just not that much to say.
Posted Aug 11, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Jules
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
While Jules is a lovely film, its big-hearted take on mental health and science fiction made me just want to watch Colin West’s somewhat similar but vastly superior Linoleum again.
Posted Aug 10, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Shortcomings
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
It’s smart humor, one that recognizes the defensiveness and fear at the heart of Ben’s disdain for anything that swings for the fences, and for anyone who puts themselves in the vulnerable position to try and fail.
Posted Aug 01, 2023
|
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4/5
|
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
(2023)
|
Hope Madden
|
Rogan and Goldberg bring the sophomoric but undeniable wit they always do, and Lowe channels that into something inventive, giddy and family-friendly.
Posted Aug 01, 2023
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