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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
(2024)
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Rubén Rosario
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We get some rather uninspired CGI, a villain that reeks of Guillermo del Toro envy and a bored looking Bill Murray phoning it in. Thanks, but no thanks for the memories.
Posted Apr 02, 2024
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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
(2024)
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Rubén Rosario
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Much like the touchy-feely Trapper, it's a hugger. Also, an absolute blast.
Posted Apr 02, 2024
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Problemista
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Torres thinks he's being charming, but mostly, he's just irritating. His brand of whimsy makes me break out in hives.
Posted Apr 02, 2024
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Snack Shack
(2024)
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Rubén Rosario
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It's Robinson who gives the film's most memorable performance, imbuing the stoic, warm Shane with a melancholy undertow.
Posted Apr 02, 2024
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Lie with Me
(2022)
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Rubén Rosario
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It's a tricky tightrope that Gillet and De Saint Jean are required to walk, but the stars are able to sell how their characters' affair, initially driven by lust, deepens into a more affectionate and mutually supportive bond.
Posted Apr 02, 2024
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All of Us Strangers
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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The scene is jovial, lighthearted. Then it hits you like a wrecking ball, going for the tear ducts with the efficacy of a heat-seeking missile...
Posted Apr 02, 2024
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Dune: Part Two
(2024)
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Rubén Rosario
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Toppled by arid self-importance.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Madame Web
(2024)
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Rubén Rosario
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Madame Web lumbers from setpiece to setpiece, with a perpetually irritated Johnson acting as she'd rather be anywhere but here.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Drive-Away Dolls
(2024)
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Rubén Rosario
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They've made a romp that's tough on the outside but squishy in the middle. This is primo trash and proud of it.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Argylle
(2024)
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Rubén Rosario
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Argylle, while not nearly as lousy as you may have heard, squanders enough potential to fill a John le Carré novel.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Mean Girls
(2024)
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Rubén Rosario
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As in the 2004 movie, this remake/remix rises and falls by the ability of its lead actress to carry it, and this is where the new Mean Girls doesn't make fetch happen.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Lisa Frankenstein
(2024)
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Rubén Rosario
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The filmmaker is intent on putting a smiley face on pretty disturbing subject matter, but the results come across as a jumble of underdeveloped ideas.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Seven Blessings
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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It might appear to be genteel matinee fare. Not the case at all. It's raw, uncompromising and brutally honest.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Will
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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As for Mielants, he skillfully orchestrates the disparate elements...
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Shoshana
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Unfortunately, she ends up being sidelined for entire chunks of the film, becoming a supporting character in her own story...
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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The Goldman Case
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Urgency can only take Khan so far, especially when the entire film feels like a framing device. It just goes to show formal rigor, no matter how accomplished, doesn't necessarily equate insight...
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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This is when Kidnapped abandons its earthbound trappings and fully grapples with the damage that organized religion can and does inflict...
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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The Boy and the Heron
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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I have been doing this long enough to recognize a great movie when I see one, and The Boy and the Heron, a haunting, admirably tough jewel from a master storyteller, is a great movie. Watch it take flight.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Faith is the operative word here: here's a faithful adaptation that feels of a piece with Anderson's filmography while continuing a new chapter in his body of work that can only be described as a carefully controlled burst of creativity.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Strange Way of Life
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Sometimes the best gifts come in the smallest packages.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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The Killer
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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The Killer evaporates before your eyes, undone by an obtrusive voiceover narration that undermines its sleek minimalism at nearly every turn.
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Killers of the Flower Moon
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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That it remains riveting and accessible despite the gravity of the subject matter is a testament to Scorsese's storytelling moxie, a lived-in screenplay credited to the director and Eric Roth, and Thelma Schoonmaker...
Posted Mar 11, 2024
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The Princess
(2022)
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Rubén Rosario
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Kiet has crafted a violent yet strangely wholesome anomaly: a mindless but enjoyably junky East-meets-West hodgepodge that stokes our bloodlust while staying true to its storybook setting.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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The Creator
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Say this for Edwards: there's enough talent on display that you keep rooting for him despite his repeated stumbles. Maybe next time he'll finally get it right.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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A Haunting in Venice
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Those apparitions haunting A Haunting in Venice are the ghosts of better murder mysteries.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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The Origin of Evil
(2022)
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Rubén Rosario
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You have to feel for Stéphane, the driven go-getter at the center of this portrait of shady machinations set in a world of wealth and luxury.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
(2022)
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Rubén Rosario
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Alberto doesn't hit viewers over the head with eighties nostalgia. She has crafted a sweet, disarmingly tender coming-of-age tale, one that believes opposites not only attract but also bring out the best in each other. It gives your heart a warm squeeze.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Cassandro
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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García Bernal's unassuming, no-nonsense approach to playing Saúl is the secret sauce in this story about a life lived out in the open. It punches above its weight.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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The Case of the Talking Mongoose
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Nandor Fodor may not work all the time, and its payoff is awfully muted, but it is also the kind of acquired taste that comes along all too seldom. In other words, this is the good kind of weird.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Bottoms
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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I was rooting for Bottoms to be a winning spin on the underdog tale, but the film is strong coffee from the get-go: grating and garish and loud but rarely funny.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Hundreds of Beavers
(2022)
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Rubén Rosario
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...endlessly inventive, cleverly sampling from all kinds of sources...
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Perpetrator
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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The results add a dash of body horror to the shopworn coming-of-age genre.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Big Easy Queens
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Sharp tongues and saturated colors can only take you so far, and while Dalton's latest effort is a decisive step up, she's still finding her way as a visual storyteller. With Queens, she comes close, but no cigar.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Haunted Mansion
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Yet another Disney movie based on their Magic Kingdom dark ride will inevitably feel like kiddie fare, but considering the talent in front of and behind the camera, it didn't have to be this way.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Talk to Me
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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It works like gangbusters until it really doesn't. Still, there is something to be said for a near miss that leaves you somewhat intrigued for what the filmmakers will do next.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Summoning The Spirit
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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It's gratifying how much of it lingers in my memory. Thanks to a committed ensemble cast, an evocative location and capably staged bloodbaths, this is the kind of creature feature that gets under the fur. It puts its best Bigfoot forward.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Oppenheimer
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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His latest effort is too much of an endurance test, a magnum opus consumed by its quest for significance...
Posted Oct 02, 2023
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Psychosis
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Martin's chutzpah... carries “Psychosis” past its rough spots and put a big, fat stupid grin on my face.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
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Past Lives
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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It celebrates the people who leave an indelible mark, regardless of time and distance. What's truly astonishing is how a film this levelheaded can still break your heart into a million tiny pieces.
Posted Jul 15, 2023
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Sound of Freedom
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Reducing what could have been a potent piece to self-aggrandizing propaganda with its heart in the right place...
Posted Jul 15, 2023
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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Cruise's latest slice of intercontinental intrigue will have you experiencing déjà vu all over again, not only because it trots out the oft-filmed scenarios, but because he stopped doing the very thing that kept the franchise on its toes.
Posted Jul 15, 2023
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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You could fault the new cast members, an insufferable Waller-Bridge in particular. But no. The bulk of the blame falls squarely on James Mangold, the filmmaker who was brave, or foolhardy, enough to take the reins from Spielberg.
Posted Jul 15, 2023
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Of an Age
(2022)
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Rubén Rosario
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Stolevski may not quite match what Richard Linklater pulled off in “Before Sunrise,” another 24-hour romance, but after crafting a dark, thorny horror film, it's invigorating to see the filmmaker's more tender side.
Posted Jul 03, 2023
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Will-o'-the-Wisp
(2022)
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Rubén Rosario
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An unclassifiable delight, a frothy satire of monarchy and colonialism that has a lot on its plate but never forgets to be fun. Plus it's got musical numbers.
Posted Jul 03, 2023
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Lonesome
(2022)
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Rubén Rosario
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It's a refreshingly unvarnished view of a gay man living on the margins, rendered with gusto, frank abandon and disarming optimism.
Posted Jul 03, 2023
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Horseplay
(2022)
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Rubén Rosario
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[Berger] wants to deconstruct, not titillate...
Posted Jul 03, 2023
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Asteroid City
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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It's playful, loopy, endlessly inventive, awash in the creative approach to cinema that has been the Texan filmmaker's signature from his early work in the 1990s.
Posted Jul 03, 2023
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The Flash
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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My inner comic book geek beamed, while still mindful of the film's place in the bigger picture, both for the future of its lead actor's career and the future of movies based on DC Comics.
Posted Jul 03, 2023
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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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Caple simply lacks the cocky bravado and 'roided-up visual panache that Bay brought to the table.
Posted Jul 03, 2023
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
(2023)
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Rubén Rosario
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While bigger doesn't always mean better, the larger canvas and more elaborate logistics here, in terms of narrative scope and thematic heft, make for a dazzling time at the movies for many (most?) age groups.
Posted Jul 03, 2023
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