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: Oct. 25, 2019
Wide (United States)
Countdown
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The Current War
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Limited (United States)
Burning Cane
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: A dark metaphor with even darker results. [Youmans’] handling of the topic is unapologetic in its visually poetic yet starkly matter-of-fact honesty.
Girl on the Third Floor
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Girl on the Third Floor’ is a gooey reminder not to tackle a major home renovation on your own. Especially when the house is a haunted former brothel with a bad reputation in the neighborhood.
The Kill Team
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A chilling and ethically powerful true story that asks why civilian murders keep happening in wars.
One Piece: Stampede
- Excerpt: Fans won’t be disappointed.
Paradise Hills
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: A strange, ambitious, if somewhat flawed, sci-fi parable that still offers a promising directorial debut from Alice Waddington.
Paradise Hills
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: [A] fun ride as guilty pleasure enthusiasm usurps any flirtations with thoughtful discourse.
Saand Ki Aankh
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Western Stars
- Excerpt: There are plenty of great documentaries about great musicians. Not many have the soul of this one, nor the revelations of the artist’s mind.
2019 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Ad Astra
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The Addams Family
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Booksmart
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Downton Abbey
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Gemini Man
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Haunt
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It Chapter Two
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Joker
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The Lighthouse
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Little Monsters
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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
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Official Secrets
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Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
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Parasite
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Ready or Not
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Zombieland: Double Tap
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#Female Pleasure
1BR
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Thank god for cults, where would the horror genre be without them?
Casanova, Last Love
Luiz Santiago @ Plano Crítico [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: In the eighteenth century, Casanova, known for his taste for fun and play, arrived in London after having to go into exile.
Crown Vic
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The result isn’t perfect, but there’s enough to peek inside this complex argument surrounding the police with nuanced emotion.
Diecisiete
Samuel Castro @ El Colombiano [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Daniel Sánchez Arévalo consigue, como lo ha hecho ya varias veces en su carrera (es el mismo director de AzulOscuroCasiNegro y Gordos), crear una historia de personajes particulares, entrañables por su singularidad.
Dolemite Is My Name
- Excerpt: See ‘Dolemite is My Name’ for the Eddie Murphy performance that has everyone talking but don’t expect the somewhat uninspired film to be all that much more than a strong reminder of the once-popular actor’s massive talents.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
- Excerpt: The last time we see Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) in Felina, the final episode of Breaking Bad, he is escaping captivity from an Aryan gang compound in a car belonging to the (very) recently deceased Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons). This exact instant is where we start El Camino, a Breaking Bad Movie.
An Elephant Sitting Still
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Eli
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: While a mostly generic haunted house film, it is worth watching for its bonkers final act.
Emanuel
Greener Grass
- Excerpt: ‘Greener Grass’ uses dream logic and ontological sloppiness to create a singularly bizarro sendup of modern person as social media package. The twisted, random, and bogus plot will alienate viewers expecting traditional comedic stylings but those willing to get weird may just love what Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe have cooked up.
High Strung Free Dance
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: High Strung Free Dance’ is a must-see for all dance fans! Think ‘A Chorus Line’ meets ’42nd Street.’
Honeyland
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: We watch as capitalist greed enters this sanctuary to destroy it completely before moving on as though nothing happened. There’s no clearer evidence of humanity’s impact on nature.
In the Tall Grass
Federico Furzan @ Cinelipsis [Spanish]
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: For all its redundancies, authentic character growth is wholly new. These characters now add substance to their own story.
Jojo Rabbit
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Director Taika Waititi sees warning signs, and in the shadow of Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers, confronts the uncomfortable and malign with humor, winks, and farce. Jojo Rabbit is a remarkable achievement of wit and wariness – truly one of the best films of the year.
Jojo Rabbit
- Excerpt: A silly, sincere, bleak, and surprisingly wistful tale where love trumps hate in a tug of war over the soul of a young boy.
Knock Down the House
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: [It proves] a bit superficial [since it’s] less about what standing up entails than the circumstances that got them to stand in the first place. [But it’s] interesting enough.
Koko-di Koko-da
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: What if ‘Groundhog Day’ but with deep parental despair and murder carnies?
Kopfplatzen
Luiz Santiago @ Plano Crítico [Portuguese]
The Laundromat
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: A rare misfire from Steven Soderbergh. Compelling and timely themes are not given the focus and attention that they needed.
The Laundromat
Benjamin Kramer @ The Voracious Filmgoer
- Excerpt: Every anecdote is at once darkly funny and boilingly upsetting, compellingly futile yet cut with a sharp stab of empathy for the underdog.
Light from Light
- Excerpt: Plays out as a smart ghost story about a paranormal investigator’s search for a possible afterlife that becomes personal to the investigator and her family.
The Lighthouse
- Excerpt: In Robert Eggers’ brutal but lyrical 19th century horror show, The Lighthouse, there is a lot of David Lynch in the looming soundtrack and the steam-powered, proto-industrial feel in the scenes of tending the lighthouse machinery.
The Lighthouse
The Lighthouse
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Weird as balls. But in a good way.
The Lighthouse
Josh Taylor @ www.forgetfulfilmcritic.com
- Excerpt: It seems blasphemous to use the word masterpiece so early in his career, but with his painstaking attention to detail, his eye for striking cinematic imagery, and his exploration of the human psyche, that’s just what Eggers has produced with both The Witch and now with The Lighthouse.
The Lighthouse
Little Monsters
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Lupita Nyong’o and Alexander England shine in a terrific and charming zombie comedy that keeps the gags and the gore coming fast.
Little Monsters
Mark Harris @ Black Horror Movies
On Broadway
- Excerpt: Oren Jacoby’s richly illustrated documentary on the ups and downs of modern Broadway, On Broadway, is all celebrations and no questions. Whether that’s a problem depends on your level of theater mania.
Porno
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: If you lament the lack of graphic genital violence and sex demons in your horror-comedies, this movie has you covered on both fronts.
QT8: The First Eight
- Excerpt: Documentary QT8: The First Eight is director Tara Wood’s wonderfully exuberant and satisfying retrospective of the work of American auteur Quentin Tarantino.
Saudi Women’s Driving School
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: One small step forward for the rights of Saudi women.
Skin
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: It’s solid and it works!
Stitches
Luiz Santiago @ Plano Crítico [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Stitches combines elements of thriller and melodrama, and deals with the story of newborn babies abducted from hospitals, which has been a hot social issue in Serbia recently.
Sweetheart
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The story is stretched a bit thin, but it is strong when it comes to J.D. Dillard’s ability to build suspense and Kiersey Clemons’ skills as a performer.
The Swerve
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
Tell Me Who I Am
This Is Our Home
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: When this movie hits a wall, you can practically hear the impact.
War
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Where’s My Roy Cohn?
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Regardless of whether you think he was a man of integrity or the reason authoritarians have risen to power in America, [the film] proves entertaining because Cohn was himself an entertainer.
Wounds
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: A surprisingly shallow experience, given the people involved. Nifty ideas and imagery do not add up to a compelling and satisfying narrative.
2018 Films
Blue Breath
Luiz Santiago @ Plano Crítico [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Ribeira Quente is a fishing village in S. Miguel Island in the Azores facing the last days of a fishing activity as they know it.
Tehran: City of Love
Luiz Santiago @ Plano Crítico [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Three disenchanted characters: an ex-champion bodybuilder, an overweight beauty clinic secretary and a dispirited religious singer, yearn for love and connection in Tehran.
