|
5/5
|
Good One
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
[A] terrific, deceptively simple, warm-hearted indie.
Posted Aug 09, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
It Ends With Us
(2024)
|
Tim Appelo
|
The frothy romance comedy lands better than the dark parts about men’s scary tempers, but on the whole, it’s one of the year’s more satisfying films.
Posted Aug 09, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
The Fabulous Four
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
The movie doesn’t give the fabulous stars quite the vehicle their talents deserve. But we’re happy to see them gathered together, knowing the fab four could run circles around the premise if given half a chance.
Posted Jul 26, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Deadpool & Wolverine
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Rowdy, raunchy and gooey gory, Deadpool & Wolverine delivers the action-comedy thrills that will attract Marvel acolytes and civilians seeking belly laughs.
Posted Jul 26, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Touch
(2024)
|
Tim Appelo
|
It’s romantically melodramatic, but in a quiet way that is quite touching.
Posted Jul 19, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Twisters
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Sparks should fly, but the desperation to insert a romantic rivalry subplot only gets in the way of the majestic ferocity of Mother Nature. The lovey-dovey stuff stirs up no breeze. Bring on the flying trucks and people!
Posted Jul 19, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Widow Clicquot
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Though the movie shifts uneasily back and forth in time, cluttered with breathy voice-overs, the cinematography seduces. It evokes the luscious paintings of Ingres, and Stanley Kubrick’s use of natural light in Barry Lyndon.
Posted Jul 19, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot
(2024)
|
Tim Appelo
|
It’s likely less fictionalized than the controversial Sound of Freedom. But it plods, and lacks that film’s propulsive plot. Still, it definitely is heartwarming.
Posted Jul 12, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
June Zero
(2022)
|
Tim Appelo
|
The parts don’t quite cohere, but they resonate, and it makes you think.
Posted Jul 12, 2024
|
|
5/5
|
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
A movie master class for the price of a movie ticket.
Posted Jul 12, 2024
|
|
5/5
|
Sing Sing
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
With a layered performance, graceful, compassionate and angry, [Colman Domingo] finds a form of release within the reality of his confinement.
Posted Jul 12, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Fly Me to the Moon
(2024)
|
Thom Geier
|
The film celebrates science as well as stargazing -- and what better place to start than the luminous Johansson?
Posted Jul 12, 2024
|
|
2/5
|
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
(2024)
|
Thom Geier
|
At three hours, the film feels both overwrought and undercooked.
Posted Jul 05, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Despicable Me 4
(2024)
|
Thom Geier
|
There's nothing very original here -- the adorable, scene-stealing infant Gru Jr. is a dead ringer for Jack-Jack from Pixar's The Incredibles films -- but it's hard to resist all the madcap energy and throwaway visual jokes.
Posted Jun 28, 2024
|
|
5/5
|
Copa 71
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Gooooaaaallll!
Posted Jun 28, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Kinds of Kindness
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos... crushed it at the Oscars when his muse Emma Stone won best actress. But, oof, this nearly three-hour triptych fable trips.
Posted Jun 28, 2024
|
|
5/5
|
Thelma
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
[June Squibb], the lively actor on the verge of another Oscar nomination, has been liberated to be a leading lady for once in a 40-year career. The thieves may have grabbed this grandma’s stash, but Thelma steals the audience’s hearts
Posted Jun 21, 2024
|
|
5/5
|
The Bikeriders
(2023)
|
AARP Staff
|
Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer and Austin Butler could be cast in anything and sizzle. But, dressed in black leather, the trio delivers the most explosive, immersive motorcycle movie in years.
Posted Jun 21, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Inside Out 2
(2024)
|
Thom Geier
|
This toon may get stuck in your head -- in a good way. A great one to treat the grandkids to.
Posted Jun 14, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Firebrand
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Law, one moment charming, the next threatening, and the radiant Vikander make Firebrand a fascinating, if choppy, feminist chapter in the voluminous Tudor film archives.
Posted Jun 14, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
The Commandant's Shadow
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
A film that is both fraught and elevated by the slim hope of reconciliation, through facing the past with clear eyes and the present with compassion.
Posted Jun 07, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
A sloppy stew of action sequences punctuated by chuckles. But in a summer movie schedule short on combustive comic action, there’s a place for Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
Posted Jun 07, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
The Dead Don't Hurt
(2023)
|
Tim Appelo
|
Mortensen gives and gets unusually deep performances, and despite a cliched script and a way-too-moseying pace, it’s Mortensen’s best-directed film yet, with his richest cast
Posted May 31, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Ezra
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Heartbreaking and hilarious, Ezra is a contemporary audience-pleaser that inspires laughter and tears, sometimes simultaneously.
Posted May 31, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Summer Camp
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Through good gags and misfires, the movie is mild entertainment with the advantage of bringing this big band of mature actors together for a serving of fun with a side of hard-won wisdom.
Posted May 31, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Sight
(2023)
|
Tim Appelo
|
Hyatt is a powerhouse of faith filmmaking, but this one is marred by a weak script with many confusing flashbacks. Still, it’s one heck of a tale.
Posted May 24, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Theron made audiences care for her traumatized Furiosa. In comparison, this gargantuan effort is soulless splatter.
Posted May 24, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
The Garfield Movie
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
It’s innocuous but jolly matinee fare, a kid-friendly event movie for the whole family.
Posted May 24, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Back to Black
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
It’s an irresistible narrative that captures the spirit of a song stylist equally talented at self-sabotage.
Posted May 17, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
(2024)
|
Tim Appelo
|
The movie takes its own sweet time, and would be better minus half an hour. But even the longueurs are eye-poppingly watchable and serve the purpose of building a world that envelops us.
Posted May 10, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Wildcat
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
The literary love fest, though well-intentioned, ends up being more mild than wild. For a true taste of O’Connor’s magic, see Wise Blood (1979), in which her work was best realized onscreen.
Posted May 03, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Jeanne du Barry
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
The tableaux are stunning, the costumes surreal and truffle-rich, but the film doesn’t let period details obscure the scandalous love story at its royal center. A warm, scented bath of a movie.
Posted May 03, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
The Fall Guy
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
The movie is made to entertain: It’s got karaoke, charismatic stars, cars rolling in the air and a winky, devil-may-care attitude. It’s mainstream action-comedy-romance mayhem with extra sizzle.
Posted May 03, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Challengers
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
While clever, that exhausting narrative strategy, shot with the stunning shallowness of a Nike ad, bounces along yet never quite lands.
Posted Apr 26, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill
(2022)
|
Tim Appelo
|
A must-see for fans of the ’70s singer-songwriter scene.
Posted Apr 19, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
We Grown Now
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
This earnest, observant and empathetic coming-of-age adventure presents a story of African American boyhood as iconic as Stand by Me.
Posted Apr 19, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Hard Miles
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
An inspiring movie that pushes away the soot and trauma of our overtaxed corrections system to find the inherent good in its young denizens, one pedal, one hard mile, at a time.
Posted Apr 19, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Blood for Dust
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
[A] modest, character-driven modern noir.
Posted Apr 19, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
The Absence of Eden
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
The wonderful Zoe Saldaña plays Esmee, a Mexican migrant desperately trying to escape the tentacles of human and drug trafficking on both sides of the border.
Posted Apr 19, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Arcadian
(2024)
|
Chris Nashawaty
|
The chief reason to check out Arcadian is the film’s mangy-haired, nocturnal monsters who howl like haunted banshees and shake their ravenous maws with blurry speed.
Posted Apr 12, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Civil War
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
The film, never as daring or nuanced as it needs to be, rests uneasily between Oliver Stone’s provocative war correspondent movie Salvador and Gerard Butler’s ballistic blockbuster Olympus Has Fallen.
Posted Apr 12, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Wicked Little Letters
(2023)
|
Tim Appelo
|
The cartoonish script, broad satire, obviousness and constant f-bombs may annoy you, but Anglophile fans of Calendar Girls or The Full Monty will probably like it. It’s sure worth watching for the fabulous acting duel of Colman and Buckley.
Posted Apr 05, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
A Cat's Life
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Clémence discovers the great joys, and attached sadnesses, of loving a cat with a will of its own. She learns empathy and joy, one purr, one death-defying leap, one loss at a time in a rare family movie of gentle pleasures.
Posted Mar 29, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Carol Doda Topless at the Condor
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
The film, jam-packed with historical footage, is a fun and fascinating tour of a vice that seems benign in retrospect in the age of ubiquitous internet porn.
Posted Mar 29, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Chaplin
(1992)
|
Thom Geier
|
Richard Attenborough’s biopic can be formulaic, but Downey nails Chaplin’s all-over-London accent (sometimes Cockney, sometimes posh) and his gift for sidesplitting slapstick.
Posted Mar 29, 2024
|
|
2/5
|
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
(2024)
|
Glenn Kenny
|
If only the filmmakers could’ve shoehorned some actual jokes into this overstuffed confection, or served up action that didn’t look like it was edited in a digital shredder!
Posted Mar 22, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
The Neon Highway
(2024)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Mayes sings better than he acts; he’s no foil for that charmer Bridges, who makes every scene feel as comfortable as an old slipper and earns every tear that comes his way.
Posted Mar 22, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Road House
(2024)
|
Chris Nashawaty
|
The brawls are nice and crunchy, and the insanely shredded Gyllenhaal is believable as a brute with a heart of gold, but the villain pales next to the original’s Ben Gazzara,
Posted Mar 22, 2024
|
|
4/5
|
Arthur the King
(2024)
|
Dana Kennedy
|
A modest film that says a lot about what winning really means.
Posted Mar 19, 2024
|
|
3/5
|
Knox Goes Away
(2023)
|
Thelma Adams
|
Keaton has proven himself to be as adept at action seriousness as antic comedy. In Knox, his hand is steady...
Posted Mar 19, 2024
|
>