Slate

A little of Deadpool's incessant winkiness goes a long way, and by the time the movie was over, all I felt was sore.

Posted May 17, 2018

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

A corporate directive made flesh, a quarterly earnings report in a vest and black leather boots.

Posted May 15, 2018

Revenge (2018)

Though the film makes a valiant effort to subvert a sexist formula by shrouding itself in French art film trappings and pseudo-empowering femininity, it ultimately falls prey to its exploitative roots.

Posted May 11, 2018

Mapplethorpe (2018)

This zoetrope-esque blurring ultimately lends Mapplethorpe its edge, as audiences will feel unable to tear themselves away from its protagonist's lavish self-destruction.

Posted May 8, 2018

Overboard (2018)

The new paint job is nice, but the insides may be too creaky to salvage.

Posted May 3, 2018

Roll Red Roll (2018)

Documentaries don't usually horrify the oxygen out of me, but I found myself gulping for air more than once during Roll Red Roll.

Posted May 3, 2018

Tully (2018)

You can see in Theron's overly caffeinated eyes and slumped back the layers of loneliness and self-loathing that finally burst through, demanding change. Their truth, if taken seriously, could reorganize millions of lives.

Posted May 2, 2018

RBG (2018)

Dahlia Lithwick

This is more than just the predictable story of who Ginsburg was and who she has become. It's also a monument to the formal written legal legacy that transcends her own life story and changed a nation.

Posted Apr 30, 2018

Duck Butter (2018)

If you can step outside of your comfort zone, like Shawkat and Costa demonstrate with their brazen performances, this is worth a watch.

Posted Apr 27, 2018

The Rachel Divide (2018)

It's devastating to see so many innocent people torn down by Dolezal's deceit, and The Rachel Divide benefits immensely by highlighting their voices, including those of some of the NAACP members she worked with.

Posted Apr 27, 2018

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Sitting through its 2 hours and 30 minutes is like gorging on tapas: You wind up both overstuffed and unsatisfied.

Posted Apr 24, 2018

Knight Rider (2008)

Troy Patterson

If you're looking to see the sci-fi Cheese Whiz of your youth transformed into something compelling, then you're probably already watching Battlestar Galactica.

Posted Apr 24, 2018

The Seagull (2018)

Josephine Livingstone

When [Saoirse] Ronan's face appears for the first time it is a glowing orb that fills the screen. She seems to emit sunshine from inside her white dress.

Posted Apr 24, 2018

Disobedience (2018)

June Thomas

Disobedience provides a sensitive portrait of immigration by showing the precise ways returnees can feel like foreigners in places that were once their homes... But other beats are delivered with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Posted Apr 24, 2018

I Feel Pretty (2018)

Unfortunately, those shades of meaning get mangled up in nonsensical plot contrivances and tired running jokes. If it's offensive, it's because of its blandness, not its political incorrectness.

Posted Apr 19, 2018

The Rider (2018)

A vista-worshipping, socially observant, and altogether moving exploration of how difficult it is to be wise even when the alternative is statistically guaranteed death.

Posted Apr 11, 2018

Elvis Presley: The Searcher (2018)

Jack Hamilton

The Searcher may be a bit of a whitewash in a number of respects, but that shouldn't negate the film's accomplishments, to say nothing of those of its subject.

Posted Apr 10, 2018

A Quiet Place (2018)

But there are moments when the movie takes us firmly by the hand and escorts us down a darkened path, and they lead to one of the most profound of communal pleasures: the sound of a movie audience screaming as one.

Posted Apr 9, 2018

Lean on Pete (2018)

Jeffrey Bloomer

This is not a movie about a boy and his horse. It is something far more grueling and merciless, and as the film reveals itself in an increasingly jaw-dropping series of vignettes, it's likely to leave you in tatters.

Posted Apr 7, 2018

Blockers (2018)

Blockers is about as funny and heartfelt as studio comedies get (which isn't meant as a backhanded compliment), while smart and insightful enough to double as a guide to raising teenage girls.

Posted Apr 5, 2018

You Were Never Really Here (2018)

Dana Stevens

You Were Never Really Here may be something of a blunt instrument. But it still managed to knock me out.

Posted Apr 4, 2018

Ready Player One (2018)

Ready Player One has no obligation to be a rigorous intellectual exercise, even if it amounts to a wasted opportunity...it doesn't have to be so facile, either. Maybe next time the screenwriters shouldn't set the difficulty mode to easy.

Posted Mar 28, 2018

Unsane (2018)

But the movie denies her any subtext, any personality beyond the boundaries of her trauma. She's a rat in a maze, and while we're rooting for her to escape, we don't have any idea what's outside it.

Posted Mar 20, 2018

Isle of Dogs (2018)

Dana Stevens

Isle of Dogs boils over, not just with kinesthetic fur, but with visual details, cinematic references, and, in a relatively new development for this filmmaker, topical political ideas.

Posted Mar 15, 2018

Tomb Raider (2018)

An obligatory setup for a sequel slows down the final moments, but until then, Tomb Raider feels like a perfectly paced trio of espresso shots, with a shot of adrenaline to the heart as a chaser.

Posted Mar 14, 2018

The Task (2018)

Watching The Task is an exercise in frustration, as exhaustive dissections of process turn inward and eventually feast on themselves...But eventually you realize the movie is studying you as well, or allowing you to study yourself.

Posted Mar 13, 2018

The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018)

The movie's biggest mistake is indulging conventional horror-movie reality, where characters live or die according to their fortitude and our sense of the world's rightness is conservatively reaffirmed.

Posted Mar 8, 2018

A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

Stumbles in its world building and can't quite find its groove.

Posted Mar 7, 2018

It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

Forrest Wickman

And though the animation, sound, and special effects were all done by one man slaving away at his home, It's Such a Beautiful Day is realized with remarkable inventiveness and technical sophistication.

Posted Mar 6, 2018

90th Academy Awards (2018)

Willa Paskin

At the end of the evening Dunaway and Beatty presented the Oscar, with no hiccups, to The Shape of Water, an undramatic end to an undramatic evening.

Posted Mar 5, 2018

Red Sparrow (2018)

Destroy the patriarchy, it declares, while ogling this naked body of a woman who's just had her head bashed in.

Posted Feb 28, 2018

Game Night (2018)

The back and forth between McAdams and Bateman is what makes Game Night sing (which is not to slight Horgan's dry wit or Magnussen's elegant idiocy or Morris' magnificent Denzel Washington impression).

Posted Feb 23, 2018

Mute (2018)

It's like watching a magician spend several minutes on elaborate flourishes and then drawing your card from a deck of one.

Posted Feb 23, 2018

Annihilation (2018)

But I spent more time in the theater debating whether I wanted to know more or less about Area X than being invested in what happens to the protagonist. In both the Earthlings and the aliens, there's just too much blankness.

Posted Feb 22, 2018

Badlands (1974)

Steve Erickson

If a portion of American cinema is going to remain devoted to violence, it could learn a lot by revisiting Malick's thoughtfulness.

Posted Feb 20, 2018

Black Panther (2018)

Jamelle Bouie

Black Panther could have been just another Marvel romp-a fun but ultimately disposable entry in the studio's catalogue. But Ryan Coogler and company had the power, and perhaps the responsibility, to do much more. And they did.

Posted Feb 15, 2018

Early Man (2018)

If you've already devoured the Wallace and Gromit canon, as well as Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep, Early Man is a wonderful way of extending their giddy glow, even if it feels like a small step backward.

Posted Feb 14, 2018

Chris Rock: Tamborine (2018)

The energy is different, but Rock is still very funny and occasionally still provocative, if only because the culture has shifted in recent years.

Posted Feb 14, 2018

Fifty Shades Freed (2018)

Jeffrey Bloomer

These movies are derivative, often ridiculous, and, in the case of Fifty Shades Freed, unquestionably hilarious, but they're also the overheated comfort food I crave.

Posted Feb 12, 2018

The 15:17 to Paris (2018)

Whatever its obvious limitations, the gambit of casting nonactors in the lead roles at least brings the movie a certain authenticity, but it's torpedoed by the tin-eared backstory laid out by Dorothy Blyskal's script.

Posted Feb 8, 2018

C+

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

It's a horror movie one moment, a comedy the next, as if Netflix were streaming several different titles at once.

Posted Feb 5, 2018

A Fantastic Woman (Una mujer fantástica) (2018)

It's a reminder that as much as a film can open doors, there are places we're allowed into only by the grace of our hosts, and that permission can be withdrawn at any moment.

Posted Feb 1, 2018

A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2017)

Ellin Stein

There's a sense that the filmmakers have bitten off more than they can chew by trying to cram both the biography and the panoramic overview into one feature.

Posted Jan 29, 2018

Please Stand By (2018)

Marissa Martinelli

It's a pleasant journey to take with Fanning, and one that should be required viewing for anyone who has ever ridiculed the labor of love that is writing fan fiction.

Posted Jan 25, 2018

Mary and The Witch's Flower (2018)

The world is not so full of beauty that one can wave away Mary's visual majesty, especially now that its hand-drawn style is nearly a thing of the past. But the flaws in its writing are harder to overlook.

Posted Jan 17, 2018

The Commuter (2018)

[Liam] Neeson lands plenty of punches, but the movie works best when he's fighting shadows or fighting himself.

Posted Jan 12, 2018

Phantom Thread (2018)

Dana Stevens

This devilishly funny and luxuriantly sensuous film is so successful as entertainment that it's hard to stop and notice the extreme degree of craft that went into its construction.

Posted Dec 20, 2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)