New York Times

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
Rembrandt's J'Accuse (2008) Manohla Dargis [A] generally absorbing if sometimes fog-inducing feature-length documentary investigation. EDIT
Posted Apr 20, 2021
Red Moon Tide (2020) Natalia Winkelman Its transfixion is contagious. Indeed, I was hesitant to move during the experience for atavistic fear of disrupting the trance. EDIT
Posted Apr 20, 2021
The Marijuana Conspiracy (2020) Jeannette Catsoulis "The Marijuana Conspiracy" is worse than inert: It's shallow and tone-deaf. EDIT
Posted Apr 20, 2021
C+ Arlo the Alligator Boy (2021) Amy Nicholson Long before the motley crew crashes the Met Gala, it's clear that director Ryan Crego is bolting wacky gee-gaws onto a rote plot. Still, several gags pay off: wearable puppies; random lederhosen; rhyming references to the Jason Statham movie The Meg EDIT
Posted Apr 17, 2021
Monday (2020) Glenn Kenny A sharply observed, well-acted picture with a lot of tart detail and a few real stings in its tail. EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
We Broke Up (2021) Teo Bugbee The film is tense through scenes that might have been funny and maudlin when addressing the emotional stakes for the former couple. The overwhelming impression is that of shrillness. EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
En Route pour le Milliard (2020) Devika Girish The film sometimes flags in energy as it cuts between these different strands, but its pace feels faithful to just how halting the fight for justice can be when democracy becomes impenetrable to those it serves. EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts (2019) Glenn Kenny This documentary, directed by Jeffrey Wolf, is a plain, sincere, nourishing account of the artist. EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
In The Earth (2021) Ben Kenigsberg If the bigger picture of "In the Earth" doesn't appear fully realized... it would be difficult, this year, for at least some of its atmosphere of isolation-induced madness not to inspire a chill. EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
Beate (2018) Beatrice Loayza Finocchiaro's feisty performance is sabotaged by a script that scrambles her character's motivations, while an out-of-left-field personal dilemma dulls the climactic fallout (and the entire point of the movie, really). EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
Why Did You Kill Me? (2021) Calum Marsh Just because a crime is true doesn't mean it's interesting. And as "Why Did You Kill Me?" makes clear, without substance, a dash of style won't do. EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
Hope (2019) Jeannette Catsoulis Raw, melancholy and unquestionably mature, "Hope" understands that some wounds may never be healed. EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
The Banishing (2020) Jeannette Catsoulis "The Banishing" never finds its groove. EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
Ride or Die (2021) Natalia Winkelman A frustrating experience as much as a sentimental one. EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
Flashpoint (1984) Janet Maslin Mr. Tannen's strength is his ability to grab his audience's interest quickly and to hold on to it, even by the most superficial means. Even when the movie doesn't entirely make sense, it manages to be effective. EDIT
Posted Apr 15, 2021
Our Towns (2021) Ben Kenigsberg As enjoyable as their writing can be, the filmmaking around them - aerial shots, time lapse photography, cuts to the couple looking engrossed - is less inspired than their project. EDIT
Posted Apr 13, 2021
Future People: The Family of Donor 5114 (2021) Natalia Winkelman Although "Future People" struggles to break through to the kids, an engaging family portrait emerges nonetheless - of a group clustered by biology, but bonded by a singular shared experience. EDIT
Posted Apr 9, 2021
Thunder Force (2021) Jeannette Catsoulis The jokes are juvenile, but how many youngsters will recognize Lydia's mimicry of a 1994 Jodie Foster in "Nell"? EDIT
Posted Apr 9, 2021
Shiva Baby (2020) Jason Bailey Sennott is a revelation, and that matters; she carries much of the picture's weight on her face, and its ability to express the mounting levels of stress and deadpan reactions. EDIT
Posted Apr 8, 2021
Moffie (2019) Glenn Kenny In depicting the horrific specifics of this particular man's awful military experience, Hermanus delivers in abundance. EDIT
Posted Apr 8, 2021
The Tunnel (2019) Beatrice Loayza [A] formulaic, but sufficiently diverting thriller... EDIT
Posted Apr 8, 2021
Slalom (2020) Teo Bugbee The writer and director, Charlène Favier, had previous experience as a competitive skier, and she is attentive to the textures of mountainside sports and how abuse plays out in this setting. EDIT
Posted Apr 8, 2021
The Power (2021) Kristen Yoonsoo Kim The film stumbles in delivering a cohesive vision. EDIT
Posted Apr 8, 2021
Voyagers (2021) Jeannette Catsoulis Essentially a zero-gravity "Lord of the Flies," Neil Burger's "Voyagers" nevertheless plays like a CW sci-fi pilot for those who find "The 100" too unsanitary. EDIT
Posted Apr 8, 2021
Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (2019) Nicolas Rapold At least for the uninitiated, the drift of the filmmaking seemed to fall short of the transcendence envisioned by its story. EDIT
Posted Apr 8, 2021
Giants Being Lonely (2019) Ben Kenigsberg Nothing concrete emerges from this haze of oblique editing and barely written scenes, acted by cast members who are not up to making the dialogue sound convincing or filling the voids left in place of their characters. EDIT
Posted Apr 6, 2021
Malmkrog (2020) A.O. Scott Imagine a Chekhov play without drama, an Oscar Wilde farce without humor, a Visconti film without desire, or a very long party at the home of a distant acquaintance, and you will have some idea of "Malmkrog," Cristi Puiu's latest film. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
The Unholy (2021) Jeannette Catsoulis Playing the evil entity with convulsive movements and a killer manicure, the contortionist Marina Mazepa turns in the movie's most entertaining performance. That's if you don't count Morgan looking genuinely baffled as to what he's doing here at all. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
Roe v. Wade (2021) Devika Girish Featuring turns by Stacey Dash, Jon Voight, Tomi Lahren, Milo Yiannopoulos and other prominent conservatives, the film lobs a series of "gotcha" moments at the abortion rights movement. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
Every Breath You Take (2021) Kristen Yoonsoo Kim The movie coasts on so many tropes that you almost expect it to subvert them, but the plot remains equally foreseeable. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
The Human Voice (2020) Glenn Kenny Almodóvar's sense of cinema design - the décor simulates a luxe apartment and lays it bare as a soundstage illusion - is acutely keyed to Swinton's performance here, which projects mercurial emotion with Swiss watch precision. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (2021) Ben Kenigsberg The movie relays a fast-paced, entertaining saga of WeWork's relentless self-selling and what it portrays as a cultlike corporate atmosphere. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
Malni - Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore (2020) Beatrice Loayza It refreshingly centers the Native perspective, and beckons audiences onto its wavelength by tapping into something more intuitive, the stuff of dreams. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
Concrete Cowboy (2020) Glenn Kenny The movie's convincing accretion of detail and its affectionate fictionalization of an actual subculture are disarming. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
Amundsen: The Greatest Expedition (2019) Jeannette Catsoulis "Amundsen" tries in vain to make us care about its unprepossessing subject, a man who seems to extract little joy from his staggering successes. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2019) Nicolas Rapold Lesotho-born director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese shoots his film as a kind of living legend, with a mix of warm-hued tableaus and hillside portraits in defiance. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020) Nicolas Rapold A prickly cautionary tale of exploitation and commodification. EDIT
Posted Apr 1, 2021
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) A.O. Scott It isn't pretty, and it doesn't mean much, but "Godzilla vs. Kong" turns its limitations into virtues and makes stupidity into its own kind of ingenuity. EDIT
Posted Mar 30, 2021
C- A Week Away (2021) Amy Nicholson This is a film as tidy, transparent and kid-friendly as a square of Jell-O salad, and so squishily eager-to-please that it doesn't engage with its religious themes so much as tuck them into song lyrics to hover in the narrative like grapes. EDIT
Posted Mar 26, 2021
Six Minutes to Midnight (2020) Glenn Kenny The double-crosses are depicted by the director Andy Goddard with better-than-average craft, but the more the movie leans into old suspense conventions the more interest it loses, alas. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
Miracle Fishing (2020) Ben Kenigsberg A unique and harrowing record. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
Francesco (2020) Ben Kenigsberg Judged strictly as a movie, "Francesco" comes across as shapeless and secondhand - a missed opportunity to present a closer look at the daily work of being pope and perhaps to demystify elements of the papacy. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
Tina (2021) Glenn Kenny The grace she shows here is almost overpowering. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
Senior Moment (2021) Glenn Kenny "Senior Moment" presents actors from four significant and still-well-regarded TV shows in a picture that's significantly less-well-written than any random episode of any of those shows you could name. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
Shoplifters of the World (2021) Jeannette Catsoulis This is a tender story of teen ennui that almost anyone can enjoy. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
Bad Trip (2021) Jeannette Catsoulis However effortful, the movie's tricks are more likely to activate your gorge than your funny bone. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
Nobody (2021) Jeannette Catsoulis As slick as a blood spill and as single-minded as a meat grinder, "Nobody" hustles us along with a swiftness that blurs the foolishness of its plot and the depravity of its message. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
Nina Wu (2019) Beatrice Loayza This startlingly evocative, complex and confrontational new film is not interested in justice or didacticism. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
Violation (2021) Lena Wilson This female-centered story manages to be gutsy while resisting exploitation - a welcome and nuanced addition to a genre often hobbled by didacticism. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
The Good Traitor (2020) Nicolas Rapold Rosendahl's framing complicates any "great man" narrative of the period, and shows how the energies of public and private worlds course back and forth. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021