The Dispatch (Lexington, NC)

The Dispatch (Lexington, NC) is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Matthew Lucas
Rating Title/Year Author
3.5/4 Da 5 Bloods (2020) Matthew Lucas Not only a powerful, elegiac tribute for the black soldiers who served in Vietnam, but a haunting and complex examination of the war's dark legacy, both for America and for people of Vietnam. EDIT
Posted Jun 15, 2020
3.5/4 The King of Staten Island (2020) Matthew Lucas Disarmingly strong; a perceptive and smartly written love letter to Davidson's family that feels like a comedic revelation. EDIT
Posted Jun 9, 2020
2.5/4 Fourteen (2019) Matthew Lucas Consistently filled with wise insights into the nature of human connections and the general ennui of millennial life, seeking stability where there is none to be found. EDIT
Posted Jun 9, 2020
3/4 AKA Jane Roe (2020) Matthew Lucas As fascinating, as frustrating, and as full of life as she was. It's a moving, must-watch experience. EDIT
Posted Jun 1, 2020
3/4 Spaceship Earth (2020) Matthew Lucas A mildly diverting documentary that makes for some intriguing quarantine viewing, painting a big picture but ultimately failing to ask big questions. EDIT
Posted May 12, 2020
2/4 Downhill (2020) Matthew Lucas Takes a troubling and uncomfortable study of human relationships and turns it into mildly entertaining sitcom. EDIT
Posted May 8, 2020
3/4 Bad Education (2019) Matthew Lucas An engaging tale of corruption, vanity, and hubris that gives Jackman one of his meatiest roles to date. EDIT
Posted Apr 28, 2020
2/4 Wendy (2020) Matthew Lucas A film of muddled mythology and listless characterization, burying its sense of childhood magic in drab new trappings that feel bland and uninspired. EDIT
Posted Apr 21, 2020
3.5/4 The Wild Goose Lake (2019) Matthew Lucas Diao wraps his scathing indictment of Chinese state capitalism in a package of sensationally choreographed action and nearly operatic violence. EDIT
Posted Apr 14, 2020
3/4 Onward (2020) Matthew Lucas There's something strangely comforting in this time of national uncertainty to be found in this film about rediscovering simple magic in a world governed by technology. EDIT
Posted Apr 7, 2020
2.5/4 Stargirl (2020) Matthew Lucas Its themes of being unique and true to yourself feel lost in a film that's trying so desperately to fit in. EDIT
Posted Mar 31, 2020
0/4 The Hunt (2020) Matthew Lucas This one's not worth risking the spread of coronavirus - stay home and avoid this film like the plague. EDIT
Posted Mar 16, 2020
3.5/4 Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Matthew Lucas Sciamma seems to be inventing love anew, giving us something at once familiar, like the lingering memory of lovers long past, and vibrantly, thrillingly new. EDIT
Posted Mar 9, 2020
3.5/4 The Invisible Man (2020) Matthew Lucas As Whannell builds tension past the point where other films would have offered a cheap payoff, he instead continues to turn the screw, resulting in a film that's not only scary, but genuinely surprising. EDIT
Posted Mar 2, 2020
2.5/4 The Call of the Wild (2020) Matthew Lucas An old school adventure about a big dog with an even bigger heart that feels tailor-made for the old cliché - "they just don't make 'em like this anymore." EDIT
Posted Feb 24, 2020
2/4 Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) Matthew Lucas The epitome of soulless studio product, a paint-by-numbers action comedy that feels like the reheated leftovers of an early 2000s buddy comedy. EDIT
Posted Feb 17, 2020
3.5/4 Gretel & Hansel (2020) Matthew Lucas Feels right at home amongst the work of such Italian masters as (Dario) Argento and Mario Bava, whose films often felt like they took place inside a nightmare where plot didn't matter so much as atmosphere and mood. EDIT
Posted Feb 3, 2020
2/4 Dolittle (2020) Matthew Lucas Everything about it feels bland and conservative, a made-by-committee Hollywood product that's about as generic and flavorless as movies get. EDIT
Posted Jan 20, 2020
3/4 Just Mercy (2019) Matthew Lucas Buoyed by strong turns by Jordan and Foxx, Just Mercy treats stock characters like human beings, centers the victim's story, and refuses to ignore the collateral damage of wrongful convictions. EDIT
Posted Jan 10, 2020
3/4 1917 (2019) Matthew Lucas Its technical aspects are so uniformly remarkable that one almost becomes so caught up in the nail-biting high-wire act on display that it's easy to miss the more human elements of the story it sought to illuminate in the first place. EDIT
Posted Jan 5, 2020
2/4 Bombshell (2019) Matthew Lucas Doubles down on many of the issues that plagued Trumbo, in many cases substituting "Saturday Night Live" style caricatures for real people in such a way that distances the audience from the human elements of the story. EDIT
Posted Dec 12, 2019
3.5/4 Uncut Gems (2019) Matthew Lucas The Safdies have designed Uncut Gems with knife's edge precision to tear audiences' nerves to shreds, and the results are as gripping as they are exhausting. EDIT
Posted Dec 11, 2019
3/4 Richard Jewell (2019) Matthew Lucas Paul Walter Hauser is a revelation, turning in a truly extraordinary performance that lifts him up into a new realm. EDIT
Posted Dec 9, 2019
4/4 The Irishman (2019) Matthew Lucas In Scorsese's masterful hands it becomes an American tragedy writ-large, a sweeping portrait of great potential cut down by greed and corruption, and a road to hell paved by the best of intentions. EDIT
Posted Dec 2, 2019
3/4 Frozen II (2019) Matthew Lucas Tackles real world issues in a way that's both entertaining to children and palatable to adults. In short, Frozen II is Disney's best film of 2019. EDIT
Posted Nov 25, 2019
1.5/4 Ford v Ferrari (2019) Matthew Lucas Bloated, over-long, and celebrates the achievements of men only as they live to serve the capitalist machine, leaving anything resembling actual human drama in the dust. EDIT
Posted Nov 18, 2019
3/4 Harriet (2019) Matthew Lucas There's something undeniably rousing about the way Lemmons directs this, as if she's directing a superhero film with Tubman as the hero. EDIT
Posted Nov 11, 2019
2.5/4 Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) Matthew Lucas You have to give them credit for taking on relevant themes...but in the context of a bright and sunny family-friendly Disney film, it never really has the chance to dig down as deep as its ideas require. EDIT
Posted Oct 19, 2019
2/4 Gemini Man (2019) Matthew Lucas There are parts of Gemini Man that look so tangible and real that it's as if we could reach out and touch Will Smith - but this fidelity to absolute realism seems to erase the cinematic artistry. EDIT
Posted Oct 14, 2019
3.5/4 Parasite (2019) Matthew Lucas Bong masterfully blends these divergent genre elements into one wildly original whole, crafting an incisive indictment of income inequality and the wide gulf between the classes that is as bitterly funny as it is achingly sad. EDIT
Posted Oct 11, 2019
2/4 Downton Abbey (2019) Matthew Lucas Downton no longer feels like a window into a bygone world from which we've progressed, but a regressive longing for a simpler time when people knew their place and never asked for more. EDIT
Posted Sep 18, 2019
3.5/4 Ad Astra (2019) Matthew Lucas Whether it's over the rainbow or beyond the reaches of Neptune, Gray can't help but remind us that nothing is so grand and mysterious and worth our time as love. EDIT
Posted Sep 17, 2019
2/4 It: Chapter Two (2019) Matthew Lucas Goes off the rails in the second half, featuring a loud, garish extended climax that's so bathed in CGI effects that it becomes numbing, an unpleasant visual assault rather than than a creepy funhouse. EDIT
Posted Sep 6, 2019
3.5/4 The Nightingale (2018) Matthew Lucas An uncompromising howl of righteous fury anchored by a haunting performance by Franciosi, whose grim determination comes to represent the plight of all oppressed peoples who have at long last had enough. EDIT
Posted Sep 1, 2019
3/4 Ready or Not (2019) Matthew Lucas A delightfully demented comic romp, short, sweet, and nasty - a gleeful fantasia of over-the-top gore and outlandish action that takes direct aim at the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy. EDIT
Posted Aug 27, 2019
3/4 Good Boys (2019) Matthew Lucas While Good Boys doesn't exactly feel like a comedy classic in the making the way Superbad did, it's got a lot of heart and plenty of laughs thanks to the talent of its young cast. EDIT
Posted Aug 20, 2019
3.5/4 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) Matthew Lucas Øvredal turns the film's creepy funhouse aesthetic into a surprisingly adept commentary on our national obsession with clinging to false narratives about of our past. EDIT
Posted Aug 9, 2019
3/4 Maiden (2018) Matthew Lucas It's an inspiring tale, to be sure. But without its strong emotional core it would likely be just another sports documentary. EDIT
Posted Aug 6, 2019
3.5/4 Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (2019) Matthew Lucas Easily Tarantino's most deeply felt film to date. Beneath his instantly recognizable sense of dark humor, it's a pensive and haunted reverie of the fading shadows of old Hollywood." EDIT
Posted Jul 30, 2019
2/4 The Lion King (2019) Matthew Lucas For a film full of such breathtakingly real images, the musical numbers are often flatly staged, the realism constantly undercutting the story's vibrant emotions and narrative drive. EDIT
Posted Jul 23, 2019
3/4 Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) Matthew Lucas Rather than wiping out half of all life in the universe, this villain seeks to wipe out truth itself. And in 2019, there's nothing more terrifying, or more relevant, than that. EDIT
Posted Jul 9, 2019
3/4 Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) Matthew Lucas These are surprisingly strong but incredibly relevant themes for a children's movie, and Yuh continues to relay them with humor and grace. EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2019
3.5/4 Anomalisa (2015) Matthew Lucas It's deceptively simple for a Kaufman film, but there's a devastating sense of truth in its melancholy portrait of mid-life ennui. EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2019
2.5/4 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) Matthew Lucas Bay handles the action sequences well, but his sense of patriotism often trumps his sense of moral complexity -- something that is sorely missing amid all the explosions in 13 Hours. EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2019
4/4 Carol (2015) Matthew Lucas A major work by a major filmmaker, working at a level of narrative grace and elegance that is almost unmatched in contemporary cinema. EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2019
4/4 The Revenant (2015) Matthew Lucas A bold, brutal, beautiful movie and an impeccably directed work of art. EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2019
3/4 The Danish Girl (2015) Matthew Lucas A work of tremulous beauty buoyed by two of the most powerful screen performances in recent memory. EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2019
3/4 Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) Matthew Lucas Hums with the constant energy of a film trying desperately to please, and while it doesn't always hit every note perfectly, it hits them with such gusto that it makes up for its faults. EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2019
3/4 Room (2015) Matthew Lucas An undeniably moving experience that finds incredible beauty in the midst of unspeakable evil. EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2019
3/4 The Good Dinosaur (2015) Matthew Lucas It works fine on its own and is an entertaining and occasionally moving children's film, it just feels a bit more anonymous than the high quality we've come to expect from Pixar. EDIT
Posted Jul 5, 2019