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. 22, 2023
Wide (United States)
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Boys in the Boat
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Color Purple
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Iron Claw
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Migration
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Expanding (United States)
American Fiction
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Poor Things
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
The Crime Is Mine
Chris Barsanti @ Slant Magazine
- Excerpt: Draws on the same giddily rules-trampling pre-war mood as ‘Chicago’.
- Excerpt: A period piece set in the 1930s Paris rendered so delightfully decadent in classics such as Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise and Mitchell Leisen’s Midnight, The Crime is Mine boasts lush Art Deco production design, gorgeously lit cinematography, and an ensemble cast packed with both up-and-coming and established French talent—including the legendary Isabelle Huppert, chewing the scenery to bits as a faded silent film star who still craves the spotlight.
Society of the Snow
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: While it is a thrilling survival adventure on the one hand, it in no way exploits its victims, instead illuminating the intense spiritual bond that quickly grew among them, one in which friends would offer up their deaths to the living…
2024 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Cerrar los Ojos
Paulo Portugal @ Insider [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Cerrar los Ojos é, seguramente, um dos filmes deste ano. E de todos os anos. De repente, não me lembro de um filme capaz de abrir a porta do cinema de uma forma tão completa.
Onde fica Esta Rua? ou Sem Antes nem Depois
Paulo Portugal @ Insider [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Rever Os Verdes Anos para perguntar Onde Fica Esta Rua? Sim, o tempo fez o seu feitiço, com Isabel Ruth a cantar num maravilhoso showcase no Cinema Ideal.
2023 Films
The Boy and the Heron
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dream Scenario
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Godzilla Minus One
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Holdovers
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
May December
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Wonka
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: [The film] may not reach the heights of its predecessor, but it does contain enough good stuff to fill up a few hours.
The Delinquents
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: [The dualities] are fun and provide the whole a nice clean, circuitous pathway forward towards a pitch-perfect farce of an ending, but the idea that it takes a crazy premise for both men to finally come alive is the real point.
Earth Mama
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Having her lead character fully conscious of what’s coming proves a crucial piece to the [filmmaker’s] objective lens. It’s not therefore about success or failure. It’s merely the reality that most of these scenarios fall somewhere in between.
Eileen
Finestkind
- Excerpt: Like its main characters, this movie is at its best on the sea.
Green Border
Paulo Portugal @ Insider [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Num robusto registo de ficção documental, a polaca Agnieszka Holland aproxima-nos da experiência radical e diversa de refugiados em busca de asilo nas duas fronteiras do seu país: Bielorríssia e a Ucrânia.
Jacob the Baker
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: First published in 1989 by Random House, the “Jacob” books carry messages of wisdom and caring as does this remarkable film.
Leave the World Behind
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A meandering conversation without a compelling payoff.
The Miracle Club
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Monster
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Screenwriter Yûji Sakamoto intentionally tells this story of a young boy three times with vary degrees of detail augmented by each chapter’s specific vantage point. He sets our expectations with the desire to upend them. Will it be for better or worse?
Origin
Candice Frederick @ HuffPost
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: It’s an ingenious approach to simultaneously educate and entertain. Some of it works better than the rest, but you cannot deny the power of the whole when [its] more lecture hall passages are put into context with the authentic human drama of the rest.
The Smell of Money
- Excerpt: The Smell of Money lays bare a specific example of the tangled mess of economic and racial privilege which explains so much about why things happen the way they do in the United States. It gives ample time to the direct experience of people negatively affected by hog farming but also includes voices like Senator Cory Booker and epidemiologist Steve Wing who place the issues in larger perspective.
Total Trust
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: “Total Trust” was obviously made at risk to the Chinese citizens participating in this film. It is a precious and important documentary examining the cost of safety and order as well as “happiness and fulfillment.”
Waitress: The Musical
- Excerpt: The show is smoothly staged before an appreciative audience, with well-chosen theatrical touches.
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
- Excerpt: Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer serves as a good introduction to this most fascinating of filmmakers.
The Zone of Interest
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: That’s where its power to disturb lies. Not just with you acknowledging the horrific similarities to your own day-to-day, but also the characters on-screen numbing themselves to the truth with varying degrees of success.
