Associated Press

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
2/4 Voyagers (2021) Lindsey Bahr It's the kind of premise that you can imagine would have been better served by a limited series with time to get to know and like at least some of the characters so that there are some stakes. EDIT
Posted Apr 9, 2021
3.5/4 Moffie (2019) Jake Coyle It's an usual perspective for an apartheid film, something the director - who is gay and mixed race - has acknowledged initially recoiling from. But that point-of-view only makes Hermanus' mission all the more laudable. EDIT
Posted Apr 9, 2021
0.5/4 Thunder Force (2021) Mark Kennedy The trailer for the film is way better than sitting through it. It's a tedious mess to endure and seemed like way more fun making than watching. EDIT
Posted Apr 9, 2021
2.5/4 Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) Jake Coyle A rock 'em-sock 'em monster-movie revival with all the requisite explosions, inane plot twists and skyscraper smashing to satisfy most lovers of gigantic amphibians. Vive le cinéma! EDIT
Posted Mar 30, 2021
3/4 French Exit (2020) Lindsey Bahr Pfeiffer is flawless in her most delicious performance in years. EDIT
Posted Mar 30, 2021
2.5/4 The Courier (2020) Lindsey Bahr While it might not be on the same level as "Bridge of Spies," it's solid, well-acted and enjoyable nonetheless. Just don't use it as the text for any history reports. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
2/4 Happily (2021) Jocelyn Noveck The film progresses in horror-film mode before, in its third act, tying things up in a somewhat clever, unexpected way. By then, though, you may have given up on this group. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
2.5/4 Six Minutes to Midnight (2020) Lindsey Bahr Rarely do you ever wish for something to be longer, but "Six Minutes to Midnight" probably would have benefitted from 30 extra minutes of character development and scene setting. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
3/4 Tina (2021) Jake Coyle But marveling at Turner sing Ann Peebles' "I Can't Stand the Rain," you also realize - despite the filmmakers' best efforts - how unknowable she is. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
0.5/4 Nobody (2021) Mark Kennedy There's nothing new in this pointless, misguided mess. And violence as an aphrodisiac is not really what we wanted in 2021. Nobody comes out good in "Nobody." EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
3/4 Bhaji on the Beach (1993) Linda Deutsch The unique script, written by Meera Syal from a story conceived by Chadha, gives each actress a chance to shine. EDIT
Posted Mar 18, 2021
Clueless (1995) David Goodman Heckerling has filled the screenplay with snappy and perceptive comments on today's pop culture. EDIT
Posted Mar 16, 2021
2/4 Yes Day (2021) Jake Coyle "Yes Day" slides too often into contrived, loudly scored montages of "fun" that don't transfer to those of us watching. And while Garner and Ramirez are both very fine actors, neither of them is funny. EDIT
Posted Mar 11, 2021
2.5/4 Come True (2020) Lindsey Bahr For as frustrating as it sometimes is, "Come True" is hard to resist, not unlike a dream itself. EDIT
Posted Mar 11, 2021
1.5/4 Cherry (2021) Mark Kennedy Cherry's decision making at the end is very cool visually, but hard to understand and never explained. EDIT
Posted Mar 11, 2021
2/4 Coming 2 America (2021) Jocelyn Noveck It all feels like a 30th reunion - maybe because it IS one - ... and by the end you're happy to have gone but feel no need to be at the next one. EDIT
Posted Mar 9, 2021
4/4 The Truffle Hunters (2020) Jake Coyle Wonder and whimsy is back in the forest. "The Truffle Hunters" - surely among the greatest dog movies - even wryly occasionally shifts to a dog's point of view. EDIT
Posted Mar 5, 2021
3/4 Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) Lindsey Bahr It's also the best kind of feminist film in that it's one that doesn't clobber you with the message. Raya is allowed to be awesome without the script shouting about it all the time and it's better for it. EDIT
Posted Mar 5, 2021
2.5/4 The Father (2020) Jake Coyle To see Hopkins play all these ever-fluctuating turns of mood is riveting... Yet "The Father" often feels like a clinical puzzle to work out. EDIT
Posted Feb 26, 2021
2.5/4 The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021) Mark Kennedy A film that desperately needs to be taut is anything but, making space for over-the-top dog funerals, distractions like Roy Cohn and Holiday's friendship with Tallulah Bankhead. And yet there are moments of brilliance. EDIT
Posted Feb 26, 2021
2.5/4 Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry (2021) Lindsey Bahr This does not come across as a vanity project that's been intensely controlled by the star or the machinery around her, either. It's refreshing. It's also probably one of the last times we'll all be invited into her life in this way. EDIT
Posted Feb 26, 2021
4/4 Nomadland (2020) Lindsey Bahr McDormand disappears into Fern, which is no small accomplishment for an actor as recognizable as she is. EDIT
Posted Feb 18, 2021
3/4 I Care a Lot (2020) Jake Coyle "I Care a Lot" has ultimately no way of resolving its fairly ludicrous plot. But it's strong, gripping, unpredictable pulp, and Pike pulls something off that few else could as a protagonist. EDIT
Posted Feb 18, 2021
4/4 Minari (2020) Lindsey Bahr One of the great triumphs of "Minari" is its presentation of authentic childhood. These kids are not saints or stand-ins or mouthpieces. They are their own persons. EDIT
Posted Feb 16, 2021
3.5/4 Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Jake Coyle It's a balance reflective of King's film overall. "Judas and the Black Messiah," resurrecting a painful saga of police racial injustice, is a self-evidently timely film without stating its contemporary resonance literally. EDIT
Posted Feb 16, 2021
2.5/4 The Mauritanian (2021) Jocelyn Noveck Luckily, "The Mauritanian," directed by Kevin Macdonald, gets one thing very right: Tahar Rahim's masterful central performance. EDIT
Posted Feb 13, 2021
2.5/4 Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021) Mark Kennedy The film nicely sends up spy capers, Broadway and buddy movies and is a lot like its two leading characters: Kindly, a little silly and as sweet as a candy-colored drink at the pool bar. EDIT
Posted Feb 11, 2021
2/4 Malcolm & Marie (2021) Jake Coyle As much as its two performers have dedicated themselves to the material... never convinces that it's an ego trip worth sticking around to listen to. EDIT
Posted Feb 5, 2021
3.5/4 Palm Springs (2020) Lindsey Bahr This breezy, irreverent, oddly violent and charming entry into this increasingly robust genre stands solidly on its own. EDIT
Posted Feb 5, 2021
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) Jay Sharbutt "Profoundly moving" is a tattered cliche those in the TV review racket use when a serious show doesn't put them to sleep in 10 minutes. It's the only description that seems to fit this production. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
2.5/4 Saint Maud (2019) Lindsey Bahr With "Saint Maud," Glass firmly establishes herself as a filmmaker to watch. EDIT
Posted Feb 2, 2021
2.5/4 Palmer (2021) Lindsey Bahr It'd be an insult to real Oscar-bait to even call this Oscar-bait. And yet, compelling performances make "Palmer" watchable and fairly affecting despite the fact that we've seen this kind of thing so many times before. EDIT
Posted Jan 29, 2021
3.5/5 Supernova (2020) Mark Kennedy It's a tiny story of two men that somehow adds up to all of us, like stardust. EDIT
Posted Jan 27, 2021
2.5/4 The Little Things (2021) Jake Coyle "The Little Things" was always locked in the '90s, but it's also already a relic. EDIT
Posted Jan 27, 2021
3/4 The White Tiger (2021) Jake Coyle Watching Gourav pull off such a balancing act is the best reason to see "The White Tiger." EDIT
Posted Jan 22, 2021
2/4 No Man's Land (2021) Lindsey Bahr Conor Allyn is clearly a talented director and has a lot of reverence for the Western genre, but for as good and lofty as it's intentions are, "No Man's Land" comes up short. EDIT
Posted Jan 21, 2021
Locked Down (2021) Jake Coyle "Locked Down" is inevitably, and intentionally, of the moment. But I hope some of its off-the-cuff spirit lasts after the pandemic. EDIT
Posted Jan 19, 2021
3.5/4 One Night in Miami (2020) Jake Coyle As the dialogue surges, the movie crackles. EDIT
Posted Jan 14, 2021
3.5/4 The Dig (2021) Lindsey Bahr It's very easy to get swept away by it all. EDIT
Posted Jan 13, 2021
Out of Africa (1985) Bob Thomas There comes a time in movie addicts' lives when their souls cry out for the kind of film that can fill the screen with magnificent vistas, grand passions and charismatic actors. That's why the arrival of Out of Africa is cause for cheering. EDIT
Posted Jan 12, 2021
3/4 MLK/FBI (2020) Mark Kennedy "MLK/FBI" has a different feel than traditional documentaries, eschewing the usual pattern of old footage punctuated by talking heads, in favor of just footage and soaring songs. EDIT
Posted Jan 12, 2021
3.5/4 The Dissident (2020) Jocelyn Noveck It should be required viewing for anyone who cares about free speech and democracy. EDIT
Posted Jan 12, 2021
2.5/4 Herself (2020) Jake Coyle Some of the major beats in "Herself" verge on cliché but everything in between rings true thanks to Dunne's steadfast performance and the film's delicate sense of humanity. EDIT
Posted Jan 12, 2021
3.5/4 Soul (2020) Jake Coyle The meaning of "Soul" also comes through in the pointillist realism of Pixar. As delightful as its imagery of the afterlife is, the best stuff might be back on Earth. EDIT
Posted Jan 12, 2021
3/4 News of the World (2020) Mark Kennedy Helena Zengel is a marvel. She can be wild in one scene, defiant later, curious the next and emotionally shut down in another. She speaks volumes even without dialogue. EDIT
Posted Jan 12, 2021
2.5/4 Sylvie's Love (2020) Lindsey Bahr Thompson and Asomugha have undeniable chemistry and are best when in each other's company on screen, but there's a bit too much going on around them. EDIT
Posted Jan 12, 2021
2.5/4 Let Them All Talk (2020) Jocelyn Noveck A clever and absorbing film that feels, alas, a little unfinished and a touch too improvisational. EDIT
Posted Jan 11, 2021
3.5/4 Promising Young Woman (2020) Jocelyn Noveck Startling - the only way to describe Fennell's vision and execution in this, her directorial debut. And, sensational - a word that only begins to capture Carey Mulligan's lead performance. EDIT
Posted Jan 11, 2021
3/4 Pinocchio (2019) Lindsey Bahr It has the makings of a stealth classic. EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2020
The Blues Brothers (1980) Bob Thomas The Blues Brothers contains enough energy for 10 movies. Much of it is misdirected, but enough remains to please less demanding movie patrons. EDIT
Posted Dec 18, 2020