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C-
|
It Ends With Us
(2024)
|
Brianna Zigler
|
Naturally this all feels dishonest, cloying, and clumsy, as Baldoni’s directorial prowess can’t match that of a halfway decent HBO series.
Posted Aug 12, 2024
|
|
B-
|
Cuckoo
(2024)
|
Katie Rife
|
There’s just enough here to make it a satisfying watch for snobs and sickos, but it leaves more questions than it answers, in both good ways and bad.
Posted Aug 09, 2024
|
|
B+
|
Good One
(2024)
|
Katie Rife
|
Good One is beautifully observed, making its point without being too obvious, and perfectly judged in that it doesn’t waste a single shot.
Posted Aug 09, 2024
|
|
D+
|
Borderlands
(2024)
|
Jarrod Jones
|
The tone of the movie is all over the map, which leaves much of the cast painting expressions on their faces that are a cross between stoic frustration and subtle confusion.
Posted Aug 09, 2024
|
|
C+
|
The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat
(2025)
|
Leigh Monson
|
'The Supremes At Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat' is better served as a companion to the novel than a standalone experience. Earl’s may give you all you can eat, but eating too much too fast is a recipe for indigestion.
Posted Aug 08, 2024
|
|
A
|
Eno
(2024)
|
Manuel Betancourt
|
More than a biographical documentary, Eno emerges as a brilliant and endlessly inspiring creative manifesto.
Posted Aug 04, 2024
|
|
B-
|
War Game
(2024)
|
Brent Simon
|
War Game engagingly imagines a single, specific, very believable threat, and if not everything in its stress-test goes smoothly, neither is it a complete disaster.
Posted Aug 03, 2024
|
|
C
|
Harold and the Purple Crayon
(2024)
|
Leigh Monson
|
'Harold And The Purple Crayon' doesn’t quite provoke the blues that one might expect from such a crass-sounding adaptation, but neither does it paint the town red with its modest ambitions. We’re left mixed, as purple as the crayon.
Posted Aug 02, 2024
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|
B+
|
Trap
(2024)
|
Jesse Hassenger
|
Appropriate for a filmmaker who loves the art of the self-cameo, it’s a Hitchcockian scenario—only in Shyamalan’s version, it’s not a regular man thrust into extraordinary circumstances, but a genuinely guilty killer. Call it a Right Man thriller.
Posted Aug 02, 2024
|
|
C+
|
Deadpool & Wolverine
(2024)
|
Jesse Hassenger
|
There are times when Deadpool & Wolverine seems to understand the futility of its own fixations. Yet the movie ultimately endorses Deadpool's left-field desire for conformity with tired, oft-stated MCU ideals.
Posted Aug 02, 2024
|
|
C+
|
The Instigators
(2024)
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
The Instigators can’t seem to decide whether it wants to be a somewhat offbeat, convoluted crooks-on-the-run movie or an over-budgeted cookie-cutter action film.
Posted Aug 02, 2024
|
|
A-
|
Chicken for Linda!
(2023)
|
Cindy White
|
If you’re craving something light and flavorful, it may just hit the spot.
Posted Jul 30, 2024
|
|
B+
|
Crossing
(2024)
|
Natalia Keogan
|
Its dramatic conclusion still manages to forgo clichéd expectations and cater instead to the limitless possibilities that abound in an urban sprawl.
Posted Jul 26, 2024
|
|
C+
|
Twisters
(2024)
|
Matt Schimkowitz
|
Twisters mainly falters in the payoff, overthinking the right move and creating a series of minor disappointments that add up.
Posted Jul 26, 2024
|
|
B-
|
Skywalkers: A Love Story
(2024)
|
Emma Keates
|
Angela and Ivan’s love story often feels almost too storybook to be plausible, but it’s next to impossible not to root for them as they support each other—often physically—through their many costumed security evasions and insane stunts.
Posted Jul 26, 2024
|
|
B+
|
Starve Acre
(2023)
|
Matt Schimkowitz
|
Aiming for authenticity, Kokotajlo finds supernatural power and dramatic weight in the genre’s rustic simplicity.
Posted Jul 25, 2024
|
|
D+
|
My Spy: The Eternal City
(2024)
|
Leigh Monson
|
Perhaps four years between films was simply too much for a fledgling attempt at franchising, but My Spy: The Eternal City bears all the hallmarks of a sequel with nowhere to go and nothing on its mind.
Posted Jul 17, 2024
|
|
B+
|
Oddity
(2024)
|
Matthew Jackson
|
A ferociously entertaining, beautifully orchestrated thrill ride that’s exactly the kind of horror movie you want to watch with a crowd.
Posted Jul 16, 2024
|
|
C-
|
Sorry/Not Sorry
(2023)
|
Brianna Zigler
|
It’s not nearly as interesting or meaningful without the kind of catharsis that could be achieved by getting C.K. on camera to speak for himself...
Posted Jul 12, 2024
|
|
B-
|
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger
(2024)
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
A feature-length introduction to the Powell and Pressburger oeuvre executive-produced and narrated by Martin Scorsese.
Posted Jul 12, 2024
|
|
C+
|
Sing Sing
(2023)
|
Natalia Keogan
|
The story itself presents a flawed notion of “serving time” and becoming “reformed” as a result of incarceration without unpacking the institutional violence that lands Black men behind bars at a disproportionate rate.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
|
|
C-
|
Dandelion
(2024)
|
Courtney Howard
|
While it begins on a promising note and intermittently strikes the right chords, this cinematic symphony sours during its crescendo when it should be intensifying, bringing its stirring sentiments together in resounding harmony.
Posted Jul 10, 2024
|
|
C
|
Fly Me to the Moon
(2024)
|
Cindy White
|
Unless you can put aside everything you know about the space program, government, advertising, and television broadcasting, you may spend a good deal of the film’s two-hour runtime frustrated by its plot holes and contrivances.
Posted Jul 10, 2024
|
|
A
|
Longlegs
(2024)
|
Matthew Jackson
|
From the first seconds to the last, Longlegs will have you squirming, a triumph of tension and tone and pure nightmare fuel.
Posted Jul 10, 2024
|
|
C-
|
National Anthem
(2023)
|
Natalia Keogan
|
Though lushly lensed by cinematographer Katelin Arizmendi, there isn’t much under the quietly glam veneer of National Anthem.
Posted Jul 09, 2024
|
|
A-
|
Flipside
(2023)
|
Cindy White
|
Make no mistake, though this documentary may be a collection of seemingly random threads, there is a cohesive narrative here. It’s the story of the second coming-of-age, when you start shifting your gaze from the future to the past.
Posted Jul 04, 2024
|
|
B-
|
Kill
(2023)
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
Aficionados of fast, violent action will have a good time, but shouldn’t expect much more.
Posted Jul 03, 2024
|
|
C+
|
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
(2024)
|
Jarrod Jones
|
In both structure and presentation, Axel F often feels as ‘80s as cocaine and Kevin Bacon—and, wouldn’t you know it, this movie contains scads of both.
Posted Jul 02, 2024
|
|
D+
|
Despicable Me 4
(2024)
|
Leigh Monson
|
There’s nothing intrinsically offensive about a film with low stakes, minimal plotting, or even comedy for the blandest sensibilities. But when a film is all of those things, one has to wonder what we’re even doing here.
Posted Jul 02, 2024
|
|
C
|
MaXXXine
(2024)
|
Katie Rife
|
Some of MaXXXine’s many elements are fun, but never ascend beyond that.
Posted Jun 28, 2024
|
|
2.5/5
|
The Devil's Bath
(2024)
|
Matt Donato
|
Franz and Fiala are their signature selves, but ... mileage will vary, dictated by your appreciation for methodical avalanches of sorrow driven by puritanical pressures.
Posted Jun 26, 2024
|
|
C
|
Daddio
(2023)
|
Manuel Betancourt
|
Given its premise and set-up (a chat between two characters in a moving car presented all but in real time), Daddio has the whiff of a stylistic exercise—one which Johnson and Penn attack with requisite self-seriousness.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
|
|
A
|
I Am: Celine Dion
(2024)
|
Manuel Betancourt
|
The simplicity of the documentary’s bilingual title (I Am: Celine Dion / Je Suis: Céline Dion) gets at the simple if elusive question that concerns it: Who is the Grammy-winning singer without her voice, without her stage, without her audience?
Posted Jun 24, 2024
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|
|
Kinds of Kindness
(2024)
|
Farah Cheded
|
Following Poor Things’ brief foray into happy endings, Kinds Of Kindness sees Lanthimos return to the kind of movie it feels perverse to say you “enjoy.” In short: The Greek freak is back.
Posted Jun 22, 2024
|
|
A
|
Green Border
(2023)
|
Natalia Keogan
|
Green Border feels timeless in its approach, again emphasizing past and ongoing violence against those deemed societal “threats.”
Posted Jun 21, 2024
|
|
C-
|
Trigger Warning
(2024)
|
Courtney Howard
|
What should serve as a warm welcome for Mouly Surya (helming her first English-language picture) and a kick-ass welcome back to lead roles for star Jessica Alba turns into a congealed mess of squandered potential.
Posted Jun 21, 2024
|
|
A-
|
Janet Planet
(2023)
|
Natalia Keogan
|
Few artists can so seamlessly transcend artistic labels, but Annie Baker has proven that she possesses the natural knack for quiet storytelling across mediums.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
|
|
B-
|
Fancy Dance
(2023)
|
Elijah Gonzalez
|
A drama from director Erica Tremblay that portrays life on the Seneca-Cayuga Nation reservation in Oklahoma through an unflinchingly real, non-idealized lens.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
|
|
A
|
Thelma
(2024)
|
Cindy White
|
Thelma is a fun and funny twist on the action genre.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
|
|
C+
|
The Bikeriders
(2023)
|
Matt Schimkowitz
|
Through rose-colored glasses, Nichols directs a nostalgic eulogy for a simple, uncomplicated biker that never existed. He built an enviable chopper without enough gas in the tank to get somewhere real.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
|
|
A-
|
Ghostlight
(2024)
|
Brent Simon
|
Beautifully realized. A simple, throwback, redemptive story about the very personal roads of grief we all must travel, Ghostlight connects as authentic and heartfelt, but there’s also a sneaky profundity to match.
Posted Jun 19, 2024
|
|
B-
|
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
(2024)
|
Jesse Hassenger
|
At its best, Ride Or Die feels as wacked-out as later-period Bay, without the sense that its filmmakers are rage-directing their way through some kind of unspecified, omnidirectional anger issues.
Posted Jun 18, 2024
|
|
A-
|
The Imaginary
(2023)
|
Cindy White
|
The Imaginary is an enchanting tale in which reality clashes with imagination in a battle to determine which is more powerful.
Posted Jun 18, 2024
|
|
C
|
Firebrand
(2023)
|
Murtada Elfadl
|
A fitting portrait of a woman the film presents as ahead of her time.
Posted Jun 14, 2024
|
|
B-
|
Inside Out 2
(2024)
|
Cindy White
|
Sometimes you want a comfort watch, and Inside Out 2 is perfectly suited for that. Just don’t expect all those emotions to hit the same way they did the first time around.
Posted Jun 14, 2024
|
|
C
|
Cora Bora
(2023)
|
Emma Keates
|
On its own, Cora Bora doesn’t offer anything new. But as an audition tape for Stalter’s future, it’s one of the more exciting things to come out of the comedy world this year.
Posted Jun 12, 2024
|
|
B
|
20,000 Species of Bees
(2023)
|
Leigh Monson
|
Despite its limitations, 20,000 Species of Bees is crafted from a place of empathy so often lacking in conversations about trans childhood.
Posted Jun 10, 2024
|
|
C+
|
The Watchers
(2024)
|
Katie Rife
|
The Watchers is clearly a first film, with the promise and the problems that come with it.
Posted Jun 08, 2024
|
|
B
|
Hit Man
(2023)
|
Natalia Keogan
|
A slick, sexy comedy-noir that will actually get at-home viewers to engage with media outside of the dreaded algorithm.
Posted Jun 06, 2024
|
|
C-
|
Tuesday
(2023)
|
Emma Keates
|
A film can’t just be bizarre, sad, and shocking in turn with nothing real to anchor it to the ground.
Posted Jun 06, 2024
|
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