indieWire

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
B- Silent Night (2021) Christian Blauvelt If "Silent Night" ultimately aces its peculiar tone, it struggles with having anything to say. EDIT
Posted Sep 17, 2021
B Paka (River of Blood) (2021) Siddhant Adlakha Generational violence is rarely presented on-screen, but its specter permeates even the most fun and upbeat conversations. It feels inevitable, and Lukose zeroes in on the spiritual toll it extracts. EDIT
Posted Sep 16, 2021
C- The Good House (2021) David Ehrlich "The Good House" spends so much time trying to flip away from its characters' problems that it becomes hard to notice or care about whatever cracks might be growing in the foundations underneath. EDIT
Posted Sep 16, 2021
B+ DASHCAM (2021) Jude Dry Equal parts confounding, challenging, and insanely fun, "Dashcam" is horror at its most inventive. EDIT
Posted Sep 15, 2021
B Cry Macho (2021) David Ehrlich This dusty little fable tells a story that mines a gentle power from its self-evident weakness, and it only works as well as it does because it makes you worry if Eastwood may have waited too long to tell it. EDIT
Posted Sep 15, 2021
B+ Beba (2021) Robert Daniels "Beba" is a fascinating self-journal, a work about family, isolation, existing within America, and existing as who you are, that takes no prisoners and leaves plenty of casualties. EDIT
Posted Sep 15, 2021
B+ Inu-Oh (2021) David Ehrlich Even if the film sacrifices nuanced character detail and raw emotionality at the altar of its trans-centennial sweep, there's a rare power to the ecstatic way in which Yuasa insists that history can never truly be re-written. EDIT
Posted Sep 15, 2021
A Citizen Ashe (2021) Tambay Obenson It's a compelling life story of a man who refused to be bullied, eschewing use of his early celebrity as a tool in the thick of the civil rights struggle, only to eventually become a leader in the fight for racial justice and equality. EDIT
Posted Sep 14, 2021
B- Earwig (2021) David Ehrlich A film that doesn't want to lull you to sleep so much as it wants to lure you into a place so dark and dreamy that you can no longer be certain that you're still awake. EDIT
Posted Sep 14, 2021
B+ Benediction (2021) David Ehrlich Lowden's clenched jaw of a performance is more filter than focal point, but the actor sets the tone for a film that spends most of its time in the no man's land between repartee and revenge, lovers and frenemies. EDIT
Posted Sep 14, 2021
C The Survivor (2021) David Ehrlich Too much of "The Survivor" is seduced back toward the same atrocities that its protagonist is desperate to escape. EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2021
B Montana Story (2021) Robert Daniels "Montana Story" doesn't reinvent the Western wheel. Rather it offers tender mercies as a sentimental work that explodes in well-earned fury. EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2021
B+ The Forgiven (2021) Ryan Lattanzio [McDonagh] seems wholly amused by tearing asunder a Dionysian display of the rich and bored, gathered for a debaucherous jamboree in the neocolonized North of Africa. EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2021
B+ The Humans (2021) David Ehrlich Karam takes to the genre like a serial killer to a summer camp, setting up jump-scares with a precision that could land him a gig directing the next "Insidious"sequel if he's not careful. EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2021
C+ The Mad Women's Ball (2021) David Ehrlich Laurent's eagerness to confront the barbarism of Charcot's hospital tends to stifle the finer details of a story that hinges on female empowerment. EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2021
C+ The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) Kate Erbland For better or worse, we're on Tammy Faye's side, but the film often embraces the worst bits of a complicated story in order to make Tammy Faye look better. Why not make her look more real, makeup and all? EDIT
Posted Sep 13, 2021
C+ The Starling (2021) Kate Erbland It is... something few contemporary films dare to be: both satisfying and self-contained. EDIT
Posted Sep 12, 2021
B Dug Dug (2021) Siddhant Adlakha Ritwik Pareek's "Dug Dug" asks how a culture might pour its anxieties into a supernatural mystery, and it answers in raucous fashion. EDIT
Posted Sep 12, 2021
A Listening to Kenny G (2021) Christian Blauvelt "Listening to Kenny G" is a quiet elegy for the act of arguing over art on its own terms. EDIT
Posted Sep 12, 2021
B- Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over (2021) Kristen Lopez "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over" is a fun and sweet look into the life of the performer. EDIT
Posted Sep 12, 2021
A Hold Your Fire (2021) Tambay Obenson A searing look into a little-known moment in history with profound repercussions for how we understand policing today. EDIT
Posted Sep 11, 2021
C+ Huda's Salon (2021) Kate Erbland As "Huda's Salon" chugs along to an over-thought ending that does little to reflect the precise stories and people it's trying to chronicle, you can't help but wonder: what is all this for? EDIT
Posted Sep 11, 2021
D America Latina (2021) Kristen Lopez Despite Germano's valiant attempts to hold this movie together, it becomes silly watching him attempt to get at the heart of a mystery that is anything but. EDIT
Posted Sep 11, 2021
C+ A Banquet (2021) Kate Erbland The results are far more famine than feast. EDIT
Posted Sep 11, 2021
A Attica (2021) Robert Daniels A harrowing piece of filmmaking, and a fitting, powerful remembrance of those who fought for their humanity. EDIT
Posted Sep 11, 2021
B+ The Last Duel (2021) Ben Croll "The Last Duel" reveals itself as something all too rare on the current Hollywood field of battle: an intelligent and genuinely daring big budget melee that is - above all else - the product of recognizable artistic collaboration. EDIT
Posted Sep 10, 2021
B The Guilty (2021) Kate Erbland The film lacks some of the gritty tension of Moller's original - or, perhaps, just feels too familiar to those who saw it - but Gyllenhaal's explosive performance keeps it fresh and moving along in different ways. EDIT
Posted Sep 10, 2021
C- Malignant (2021) Jude Dry When you're taking this many wild turns, it's better to just lean into the fact that you've made a ridiculous horror movie than to try and make a serious drama. EDIT
Posted Sep 10, 2021
D Dear Evan Hansen (2021) Tina Hassannia Chbosky's poor directorial choices cancel out the rousing success "Dear Evan Hansen" was on stage, with a cascade of glaring distractions that continuously point out the artificiality of the genre. EDIT
Posted Sep 10, 2021
B- The Same Storm (2021) David Ehrlich The sum of Hedges' film is greater than any of its parts, even if its parts are not always worthy of the people who have been hired to play them. EDIT
Posted Sep 9, 2021
C+ Halloween Kills (2021) Ben Croll An almost elemental slasher outing unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. EDIT
Posted Sep 8, 2021
B- Azor (2021) Siddhant Adlakha How effective "Azor" is will likely depend on your appetite for an aesthetically pleasing slow-burn EDIT
Posted Sep 8, 2021
B The Real Charlie Chaplin (2021) Christian Blauvelt "The Real Charlie Chaplin" can serve as a step forward for documentaries about film history and an exemplar for those to come: that you can appreciate art without ignoring the faults of the artist, as so many have tried to do in the past. EDIT
Posted Sep 8, 2021
B+ Procession (2021) David Ehrlich Greene has assembled one hell of a cast here, and each of the six primary subjects in "Procession" is heard and understood with a measure of the clarity they've been denied for so long. EDIT
Posted Sep 8, 2021
B- Spencer (2021) Ben Croll Stewart does terrific work as this royal-turned-scream-queen, but one does get the sense that she could be even better were "Spencer" to allow the character to go as wild as everything else does around her. EDIT
Posted Sep 6, 2021
B+ Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021) Kate Erbland "Marcel the Shell" seamlessly marries big ideas with charm and humor (and inventive stop-motion work to boot). EDIT
Posted Sep 6, 2021
C Becoming Led Zeppelin (2021) Nicholas Barber All "Becoming Led Zeppelin" has to say is that its subjects were virtuoso musicians who enjoyed what they were doing. EDIT
Posted Sep 6, 2021
B- Il buco (2021) Ben Croll The film offers a substantial degree of exploration for those willing to do the work and take the dive. EDIT
Posted Sep 6, 2021
B- C'mon C'mon (2021) David Ehrlich It's as easy to forgive the sleepy and self-effacing "C'mon C'mon" for its missteps as it is to forgive the film's characters for their own. EDIT
Posted Sep 6, 2021
B+ Three Minutes - A Lengthening (2021) Nicholas Barber A reminder of what a magical medium film is - how unique it is in its ability to capture so many moments and so much life. EDIT
Posted Sep 6, 2021
B Sundown (2021) Nicholas Barber One of the pleasures of "Sundown" is that it is impossible to guess where it is heading - and it heads in some bizarre directions. EDIT
Posted Sep 5, 2021
B Official Competition (2021) Nicholas Barber Seeing Cruz and Banderas show off their comedic chops is definitely a pleasure, and the farcical final scenes will leave viewers on a high. EDIT
Posted Sep 4, 2021
A- Last Night in Soho (2021) Nicholas Barber Not all of the jokes are brand new, and not all of the plotting stands up to inspection, but the skill with which Wright navigates between tones and time periods is exceptional. EDIT
Posted Sep 4, 2021
B- Cyrano (2021) David Ehrlich Wright sympathizes with Cyrano's boldness and bluster, and wants so badly for this silver-tongued lovefool to risk falling on his face; he knows that the rewards can be worth it. EDIT
Posted Sep 4, 2021
B- Julia (2021) Kate Erbland It's a delicious meal, but it often feels a touch undercooked. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2021
A- The Lost Daughter (2021) Jessica Kiang The suspense is that of an orange being peeled in a long strip that seems like it must break at any moment. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2021
C- Dune (2021) David Ehrlich Eventually, "Dune" only resembles a dream in that it cuts out on a note so flat and unresolved that you can't believe anyone would have chosen it on purpose. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2021
B King Richard (2021) David Ehrlich The film embodies its namesake's oft-repeated - if increasingly suspect - ethos of making sure that fun comes first. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2021
B- Becoming Cousteau (2021) Kristen Lopez "Becoming Cousteau" is a dazzling dive into the depths of an undersea world. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2021
B- Fauci (2021) David Ehrlich A fittingly sober and unflashy biodoc... EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2021