Two friends damaged by abusive childhoods. One of them is in a psych ward after attempting suicide. The other is paralyzed by his own emotional stasis. Neither wants to live, so why not help eachRead Full Review

In a Marvel Cinematic Universe where Iron Man and Captain America are both gone, and newer, younger stars appear to be coming to take their place, Doctor Strange seems like a character a bit in limbo.Read Full Review

In a scene boosted by stunning scenic imagery in the second half of Montana Story, one of our main characters (played by Haley Lu Richardson) speaks of the indoctrination she received as a child for natural wonder. ThisRead Full Review

“I’m too carefree,” expresses the title character midway through Anaïs In Love, “A voice tells me ‘You could die tomorrow, so make the most of it’”. From the opening frame, Anaïs moves like a character whoseRead Full Review

Any career that can last for four decades is impressive, but there’s something singular about the career arc of Nicolas Cage, he’s been an action star, a comedy lead, and an Academy Award winner. TheRead Full Review

Through three films, Robert Eggers has shown us a wide variety of grotesqueries, ranging from the haunted spirits of The Witch to the self-imposed depravities of The Lighthouse. His latest (and, by far, his biggest) film travels allRead Full Review

As Petite Maman opens, the eight-year-old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) politely says goodbye to several old women in a hospital, dutifully visiting each room and giving a fond but final “au revoir“. Saying goodbye is important to her, andRead Full Review

How do I come to grips with Ambulance? The film is directed by Michael Bay, a filmmaker I’d long considered to be the definition of cinematic dearth, a panderer of racist and misogynistic stereotypes whose derangedRead Full Review

Early in The Lost City, our heroine, best-selling author Loretta Sage (played with wondrous charm and aplomb by Sandra Bullock), is given a sequined jumpsuit to wear for the first event of her much-awaited book tour.Read Full Review

Everything Everywhere All At Once reaches levels of absurdity mostly unseen outside of Charlie Kaufman or David Lynch. Its endless appetite for zaniness can feel (and did feel) like an assault of quirk – aRead Full Review

There’s an aggression to the intellectuality of Nadav Lapid’s two latest films. 2019’s Synonyms was a blistering character study of a rowdy young man, and former IMF soldier, trying to flee his military obligations in Israel.Read Full Review

Adrian Lyne is the master of a genre that no longer exists. His erotic thrillers of the 80’s and 90’s were massive hits which titillated audiences and maximized the sex appeal of their stars. The summitRead Full Review

In the aftermath of World War II, Germany began an arduous journey toward rebuilding; a process that continues to this day. Even after the Allies took down Hitler and emptied the concentration camps, freedom was notRead Full Review

In both the first and final acts of The Batman, director Matt Reeves plays the somber sounds of Nirvana’s “Something In The Way”, the morose song that ends their iconic album Nevermind, released in 1991. Nirvana is aRead Full Review

The marriage between Pixar and Disney has turned shaky. Pixar was once the heavy-hitter of Disney’s arsenal, providing both the massive box office returns the studio is accustomed to and consistent high marks on theRead Full Review

There’s a reason the uncanny valley is such a rich soil for science fiction. It lies at the heart of the human race’s existential crisis – in our attempts to create life (and prolong it),Read Full Review

Cyrano de Bergerac is one of movie history’s most beloved protagonists, portrayed countless times including the Oscar-winning performance by José Ferrer, an Oscar-nominated performance from Gérard Depardieu, and Steve Martin in the charming, contemporary retelling Roxanne.Read Full Review

I am in the generational sweet spot for Jackass Forever. The iconic pranks and stunts show premiered when I was still in grade school, and it’s particular brand of (mostly white) bad boy idiocy caught fireRead Full Review

I can’t in good conscience call Marry Me a good movie, though the unfortunate truth is that I did enjoy myself. The preposterous romantic comedy stars Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, a pair that upon first glanceRead Full Review

The “COVID movie” is a still a bit of a gamble. The years-long pandemic which has caused (and continues to cause) mass death and sidelined “regular life” (whatever that means) is both a controversial topicRead Full Review

Neil, our protagonist in Sundown, is an emotionally solitary man. Played by Tom Roth, in a performance that is equal parts tranquil and weary, he struts through his life with seemingly little regard for the feelingsRead Full Review

As 47, it can probably be said that Norwegian director Joachim Trier is no longer a newcomer. His first film, Reprise, was released in 2006 and it announced a director whose vision was so exciting and unique,Read Full Review

Is there a screenwriter in this world better than Asghar Farhadi? His ability to take modest stories and spin them into grand moral schisms of fierce complexity is unmatched anywhere. Few people have a betterRead Full Review

A strange sound in the middle of the night. A woman is awaken. What was it? These are the foundational elements to Memoria, the latest film from the great Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the patriarch of SlowRead Full Review

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth haunts the theater both inside of outside of its productions. A longtime held superstition states that even saying the word “Macbeth” inside a theater can bring on disaster. The play, noted for itsRead Full Review

Within all of the supporting characters in Don’t Look Up (of which there are so, so many), there’s a small window into a version of this movie that could possibly work. Writer-director Adam McKay stridently by-passesRead Full Review

With a reputation for provocation and sensuality, Spanish maestro Pedro Almodóvar has gotten somewhat softer in his later years. His last three films – Julieta, Pain & Glory, and now, Parallel Mothers – are somber and meditative, a moreRead Full Review

The literature of Elena Ferrante is rife with inner passions and women on the edge of emotional collapse. These women are often running away from their troublesome pasts (and physically running away from Naples, Italy),Read Full Review

The new West Side Story opens with a superb crane shot over looking the teardown of apartment buildings in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. A sign states that all this work is making way forRead Full Review

The protagonist of Red Rocket is so incredibly shameless, a bottomless pit of delusion and self-indulgence. His name is Mikey Davies but he’s better known as Mikey Saber, a multi AVN Award-winning porn star who’s spentRead Full Review

Encanto takes place within the lush tropical villages of South America, which pops with vibrant color and diverse wildlife. The latest film for Walt Disney animation (the 60th to come from the studio, as the film’s openingRead Full Review

In Benedetta, a large group of Italian nuns in a Tuscan convent speak to each other in French, and while this is far from the most ridiculous part of the movie, it’s indicative of the movie’sRead Full Review

Flee transcends the arbitrary constrictions of film genre, using animation and dramatic reenactments to tell a harrowing migrant story. Through interviews with his friend, Amin (at the beginning, the film says that names are changed forRead Full Review

How many ham actors can one movie sustain? Ridley Scott sees that question, scoffs, and then proceeds to make House of Gucci, a film based on the Sara Gay Forden book that documents the tragic way inRead Full Review

The Auteur Theory is mostly self-aggrandizing bunk, but it exists because of directors like Paul Thomas Anderson, a filmmaker who clearly follows nothing beyond his own artistic impulses. His films are idiosyncratic; sometimes stately, sometimesRead Full Review

Creature comforts are a major motif in Drive My Car. The two main characters of the film feel safest when they’re behind the wheel of a fire engine red Saab, coasting along the highways of metropolitan Japan.Read Full Review

Every major director reaches an age where they make their autobiographical film. Good or bad, I’m often weary of anyone’s ability to withstand their own nostalgia. Belfast – an amusing but broad black & white movie about aRead Full Review

King Richard is an old-fashioned Hollywood biopic, with all the sentimentality and mythologizing that that entails. What’s surprising is how the film turns that to its advantage. Will Smith (perhaps the last of America’s bankableRead Full Review

Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn certainly earns the distinction of Best Movie Title of 2021. It promises irreverence and promiscuity, a degree of playfulness with an edgy adults-only bent. Bad Luck Banging delivers on thatRead Full Review

In a Jane Campion film, intimacy and brutality are often intertwined. The relationship between her characters is often a dance of passion and possession, with one often complimenting (and then disintegrating) the other. The Power ofRead Full Review

C’Mon C’Mon is Mike Mills’s weepiest film to date. His first two features – Beginners and Twentieth Century Women – were about parents trying the best they can despite their own emotional shortcomings. That these are storiesRead Full Review

Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, Passing, is a landmark text. It’s provocative subject matter – racial passing – was a controversial subject then and still a bit taboo today. Rebecca Hall choosing this adaptation to be herRead Full Review

After over a decade, and dozens of films, it’s hard to imagine that there are even more superheroes springing out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It strains the mind to conceive of a universe with soRead Full Review

A fable based on a true tragedy. This is the statement that begins Pablo Larraín’s latest film, Spencer, about a tempestuous Christmas weekend in the life of Princess Diana. “Fable” warns us that what we’ll see shouldRead Full Review

The image of Swinging 1960s London is immortalized in films like Michael Antonioni’s Blow-Up and John Schlesinger’s Darling. In those films, and several others, high fashion and sexuality entangle with the sinister underbelly of vice and murder. TheirRead Full Review

Just a simple plot reading of Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir – a young film student starts a passionate but fraught relationship with a charismatic heroin addict – will not do justice to the complexity of the emotionsRead Full Review

The very title of The Last Duel promises bloodshed and it delivers. From early on, we get Game of Thrones-level brutality, blood spurting and spraying everywhere, battles coming down to excruciating slaughter. But The Last Duel is also Rashomon,Read Full Review

Dune is a bit of a white whale for the film community. David Lynch’s 1984 attempt is considered to be the renowned director’s biggest flop. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempt at an adaptation in the 70’s was suchRead Full Review