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: Dec. 1, 2023
Wide (United States)
Godzilla Minus One
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2023 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Barbie
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May December
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Missing
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Napoleon
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Saltburn
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Trolls Band Together
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Wish
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American Symphony
- Excerpt: American Symphony is at its most mundane when focused on the professional life of the rousing, youthful musical multihyphenate.
Christopher Reed @ Hammer to Nail
- Excerpt: Heineman, as always, brings us into close proximity to his subjects. The intimate camera reveals moments of pain, sorrow, and happiness, tears flowing freely but laughter also equally present.
Birder
- Excerpt: Live free or die
Dream Scenario
Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: This is a bizarre commentary on cancel culture, as well as a fascinating extrapolation of the Mandela Effect… Once again, like many of Cage’s projects, it’s not likely this movie will appeal to everyone, but it’s enticing.
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Nicolas Cage is comedic in a dry, subtle, nakedly painful way, playing with his “Cage rage” persona; his performance is profoundly moving. I only wish the film was more deserving of what he’s doing.
Frybread Face and Me
- Excerpt: [Frybread Face and Me] is faithful to the approach Benny attributes to his grandmother in his opening narration (voiced by Luther): “In Navajo storytelling, symbols mean more than facts, and time means nothing at all.”
Christopher Reed @ Hammer to Nail
- Excerpt: There is both happiness and misery in equal measure, some of it related to the mistreatment of indigenous people on American soil, and some of it just the usual family dysfunction of anywhere and everywhere. It’s a bittersweet tale with moments of genuine connection between the characters, as well as sections of real profundity.
Good Burger 2
- Excerpt: Good Burger 2 isn’t simply junk food. It is a petrified Happy Meal buried in the back of your childhood closet, reheated in the microwave.
How to Have Sex
- Excerpt: In a social landscape often dominated by the unsaid and the unaddressed, How to Have Sex mirrors reality by avoiding explicit discussions of the traumatic events at their core.
Monster
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: For the first time…Kore-eda works from a screenplay he did not write and yet Sakamoto Yûji appears to reference several of Kore-eda’s films within a “Rashomon”-like story that shifts our perspective with its three points of view over three acts.
Peeping Tom
- Excerpt: Now screening in a brand-new 4K restoration from The Film Foundation and BFI National Archive in association with STUDIOCANAL—with Powell apostle Martin Scorsese and Powell widow Thelma Schoonmaker serving as consultants—Peeping Tom is a thrilling examination of the dangers inherent in making and watching moving pictures. Initially dismissed by critics and audiences alike, it is now known as a cult classic that paved the way for so many films to follow.
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Rustin
- Excerpt: Rustin is an informative story about one of the Civil Rights Movement’s most overlooked members!
Scarygirl
Nadine Whitney @ Loud and Clear Reviews
- Excerpt: Scarygirl is entertaining overall but lacks a certain zest to distinguish itself from other family centric children’s animated features. Positive messaging aside, Scarygirl is competent but slight.
Sly
- Excerpt: SLY documentary pleased me for openness and honesty. Sylvester Stallone, what a guy! I’m happy he’s not a bit shy.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
- Excerpt: The small miracle of the Estonian film “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” is that it does more than show us a blissfully safe space; it invites us inside.
Sweet Dreams
- Excerpt: Ena Sendijarevic’s satire is efficient, cruel, and unbearably true. It might appear to be a cat and mouse story about one family and their dysfunctional machinations, but Sweet Dreams is about the act of colonialism and the malevolence that accompanies taking a land, a culture, and a people and subjugating them for profit. A carnivalesque piece of cinema that spares no one.
2022 Films
Good Guy with a Gun
- Excerpt: The world is not going to get any better
