From its festival debut earlier this year to its streaming premiere this weekend on VOD, the much-praised Sundance Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner Never Rarely Sometimes Always, about a pregnant Pennsylvania teen who travels to Manhattan for an abortion, has been widely embraced…
Read MoreA from-the-headlines satire that plays it so broad as to be ineffective, the red vs. blue culture war comedy-thriller The Hunt isn’t funny or exciting enough to be successful at either. The self-described “most controversial movie of the year” says nothing we don’t already…
Read MoreAs evidenced by his last two pictures, eighty-three-year-old British filmmaking legend Ken Loach’s social critiques are as sharp as ever, his eyes still keen to the injustices inflicted on the working poor and, thankfully, offer no indication of slowing down. In 2016, he charted…
Read MoreThe to-date best movie of 2020, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man is a smart, sleek thriller, and one with surprising psychological gravitas. Elizabeth Moss, the go-to for characters fraying under duress, etches out a compelling portrait of a domestic abuse victim trying to put…
Read MoreIf you haven’t seen 2014’s Force Majeure, the Swedish picture about a family vacationing in the Alps who experience an avalanche scare and the domestic fallout after, then perhaps Downhill, the American remake, will do something for you. Otherwise, the new picture, an awkwardly…
Read MoreWhen a picture is released in January featuring a big star minus any publicity, you know you’re in for a stinkeroo, and Kristin Stewart’s waterlogged Alien redux Underwater, the latest in a long line of creature features aping Ridley Scott’s 1979 suspense classic minus…
Read MoreWhatever one might say about Tom Hooper’s inexplicable new movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “longest running Broadway musical” and 7-time Tony winner Cats—and there will be much said—it’s an undeniable vision. A misguided one, sure, but who honestly thought this was a good…
Read MoreThe whodunnit may be an all-but-vanished American film genre, but Rian Johnson’s sensationally entertaining Knives Out serves as an affectionate revival. An exceedingly clever, highly skilled exercise in, well, fun, it would take a real grinch to poo-poo it. And why would anyone want…
Read MoreWhat a sad, rich movie Noah Baumbach has fashioned with Marriage Story, about a New York theater director and actress who call it quits after their personal and creative partnership has run its course. A semi-autobiographical, remarkably perceptive picture about the emotional spoils of…
Read MoreIf Martin Scorsese never makes another mob picture (at least in the formal sense), his new magnum opus, The Irishman, might possibly be the final movie word on the subject. Certainly amongst the finest in an oeuvre that includes masterworks like Goodfellas and The…
Read More