Here are some reviews of films coming out at the theater this week as well as others that may be in theaters or newly on home video.
Opening: Sep. 27, 2019
Wide (United States)
Abominable
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
The Day Shall Come
Aaron Neuwirth @ We Live Entertainment
- Excerpt: The Day Shall Come is not quite as hard-edged as his previous feature, but there is still a good amount of fun to go with the messaging seen this time around.
First Love
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: After a foray into period Samurai films, prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike (“Audition,” “Blade of the Immortal”) switches gears with a very violent, often funny, Yakuza noir with a blossoming romance as its through line.
First Love
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: First Love feels simultaneously tight and meticulous, but also wild and free and barely clinging to sanity.
Judy
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: If Goold’s film feels a little small for its outsize subject, Zellweger’s performance is not contained nor restrained by it. She’s a marvel and her “Judy” will inspire both cheers and tears.
Judy
2019 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Ad Astra
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Depraved
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Goldfinch
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Hustlers
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
It Chapter Two
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Luce
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Monos
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Official Secrets
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Peanut Butter Falcon
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ready or Not
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Running with the Devil
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
143 Sahara Street
Adults in the Room in San Sebastian FF
Paulo Portugal @ insider [Portuguese]
Arjun Patiala
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Becoming Nobody
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: A non-critical and unfocused but diverting documentary on the American academic who dropped out to become an influential spiritual teacher advocate for those seeking the inner truth.
Between Two Ferns: The Movie
Derek Deskins @ Edge Media Network
- Excerpt: This was clearly a movie that was developed on the fly, an exercise in improvisation, and while that may be a gift to the improv experimenters (and the cast), it leaves it feeling like a puzzle that was never fully assembled.
Between Two Ferns: The Movie
- Excerpt: I have seen Between Two Ferns: The Movie, and I will watch it again, and, to be completely transparent, I’ve been skipping through its best bits on Netflix while writing this very review.
Bloodline
- Excerpt: Bloodline gives its characters just enough interiority to probe at the idea that parenthood’s combination of “love and total panic at the same time,” as Lauren says, can push someone toward murderous madness.
The Cave
Censored
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Ripped from the headlines, or at least the Saturday night movie theatre, the forbidden turns out to be in all of us.
Corporate Animals
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Corporate culture gets a delightfully twisted kick in the ass when a “team-building retreat” turns disastrous. As horror vies with comedy, the pitch(black)-perfect cast gets the balance just right.
Country Music
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A monumental series about the history, impact, and musicians of the popular music genre.
The Death of Dick Long
James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
The Death of Dick Long
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Easily the best movie about an Alabama-based Nickelback cover band I’ve ever seen.
Depraved
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: With his updating of the Frankenstein legend, the filmmaker indicts Big Pharma while probing the need for a generational shift in society’s moral values. And as usual, Fessenden does a lot with a little…
Depraved
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Rather than the world being unready to accept [Adam] for what he is, though, [he’s] who cannot [accept himself].
Don’t Be Nice
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A documentary that reveals the power of poetry to speak truth to power.
Downton Abbey
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: Sequel to the TV series in which the beloved characters face new challenges and discover new joys.
Un Film Dramatique
The Girl in the Fog
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Well done but predictable missing person mystery gives a new director time to get his feet on the ground.
I Am Not Alone
In the Aisles
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A portrait of life after hours in a warehouse supermarket that illustrates the way of tenderness.
Little Monsters
Love Child
Monos
Monos
Aaron Neuwirth @ We Live Entertainment
- Excerpt: There are memorable visuals, a haunting and offbeat score, and other elements turning this survival story concerning a group of child soldiers into something as profound as it is atmospheric.
Monos
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A powerful journey into barely controlled chaos. A family that slips its reins with disastrous results.
Ms. Purple
Allyson Johnson @ CambridgeDay.com
Neither Wolf Nor Dog
- Excerpt: A Native American Lakota elder, known only as Dan, asks a white write from Minnesota to visit and help him write a book about his people.
Official Secrets
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Not a spy thriller but a story of emotional and intellectual suspense wrangling with matters of patriotism and of conscience, and of just how far journalism’s watchdog role can and should take it.
Official Secrets
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Strong acting and direction turns a potentially dry documentary into a ripped from the headlines thriller.
Rambo: Last Blood
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com [French]
- Excerpt: Stallone, when not attempting to scale rarified thespian heights with neither metaphorical crampons nor oxygen tank to assist in the ascent, maintains his lopsided grimace and trademark grunt as he stalks along with cold dead eyes and a generally distracted air.
Rambo: Last Blood
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: One great action set piece is not enough to make up for a troubling and simplistic story that fails to evoke all the elements that made the central character so striking.
Reverso
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Running with the Devil
Dan Lybarger @ Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
- Excerpt: Despite featuring gunplay, nudity, illicit drugs and a setting that crosses two continents, Running With the Devil feels more like a leisurely, chemically enhanced stroll.
Running with the Devil
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Nicolas Cage is weirdly subdued here. Fortunately, Laurence Fishburne’s sped-up, cocaine-fueled sex montage makes up for that.
Running with the Devil
Stuck
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A parabolic musical about what needs to happen to achieve the ancient dream of unity and respect for all people.
Total Dhamaal
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
The Truth
Paulo Portugal @ insider [Portuguese]
Villains
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: With a likable and charming cast, Villains offers some solid genre thrills with a twisted sense of humor.
Waiting for the Barbarians
Where’s My Roy Cohn?
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Even though Cohn died more than 30 years ago, his stain on American culture remains and was revived with Trump’s election; therefore, here is a new documentary to remind us who he was, the crimes he committed, and to piss everyone off all over again.
Zeroville
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Zeroville tries to be Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but it can’t when everything happens in earnest. Purpose is lost beneath its clashing tones and hollow aesthetic.
2018 Films
The Friend
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A deeply spiritual drama about the beauties and bounties of friendship.
Netizens
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: A documentary film that matters to us all, “Netizens” boasts an urgent call to understand the suffering the “wild west” internet can bring.
