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: Feb. 10, 2023
Wide (United States)
Magic Mike’s Last Dance
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2023 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Knock at the Cabin
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Skinamarink
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2022 Oscar-Nominated Short Films
80 for Brady
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
- Excerpt: Having four film and television legends team up for a fun comedy should be an easy field goal. Pity that 80 For Brady has the accuracy of a Dallas Cowboys kicker.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Sure, it’s great to see this quartet together in anything, but watching this film continually made me want to see them in a project worthy of their abilities.
- Excerpt: It’s a Cinderella story with four fairy godmothers, but instead of ugly step-sisters forcing them to do housework, these women are confronting the indignities of aging and the limits of mortality.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: To me it feels like how I’d imagine one’s life flashing before their eyes would unfold. To have [it] told with such honest, heartfelt devotion is a balm for the soul.
The Amazing Maurice
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: It’s family entertainment with an attitude.
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: It’s a fast-paced adventure bouncing back and forth between vantage points and devices to keep the jokes loose and the danger light. The film stumbles at times and is definitely convoluted, but it also just plain works.
At Midnight
Attachment
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: Gislason’s film is full of Jewish folklore and superstition while still a vividly human portrait of the loving connections that bind people together emotionally across space and time, disguised in the cloak of a demonic possession story that’s far from the standard genre fare.
Baby Ruby
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: For certain viewers, it might even be cinematic birth control, causing them to swear off ever getting pregnant.
Bad Behaviour
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: The filmmaking is imperfect with the pacing leaving a lot to be desired, but there’s some real potent stuff happening beneath the surface—especially via Connelly’s intensely emotional performance.
Cinema Sabaya
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Alliance of Women Film Journalists
- Excerpt: The combination of the setting far removed from a movie studio and the mix of experienced and novice actors gives Cinema Sabaya an authenticity that had me questioning whether I was watching a feature film or a documentary. But we as audience members learn a great deal about the attitudes and challenges of women living in Israel, and that is quite an accomplishment.
The Civil Dead
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: It can feel a bit long at times, but I don’t think the filmmakers ever overextend the joke. It helps that they acknowledge the darker places inherent to the conceit.
Getaway
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Jethica
- Excerpt: On the surface, supernatural horror-satire Jethica is a decidedly small-scale affair; director Pete Ohs co-wrote the script with the four main actors in the cast while also serving as producer, editor, and cinematographer. Yet what the film lacks in flashy production values, it more than makes up for with considerable ingenuity and cleverness — not to mention, a great deal of delightfully dry, deadpan humor.
Joyland
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: JOYLAND ultimately proves itself to be about complicity. The ways in which our silence allows for the systematic dismantling of another’s chance to be free.
Kim’s Video
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
Let It Be Morning
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Could it be more biting? Sure. A bit more anger would have done it well. You still cannot deny its effectiveness as is, though—especially if that restraint helps earn the eyeballs of those who need to watch it.
Little Dixie
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: It carries out a routine formula slightly better than normal, yet not well enough to be worth spending two hours on.
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: You chose this particular genre flick with a desire to watch Frank Grillo casually take out a high number of nameless antagonists while pursuing mostly justified (if immoral) acts of violence. It’s what he does and what Swab and company deliver.
A Lot of Nothing
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: It’s an entertaining if overstuffed ride that pulls no punches. Because these conversations only seem to ever end worse than they’ve begun since the only person we truly listen to today is ourselves.
No Bears
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: There is a sense of urgency that underlines the film, as though Panahi – and the audience – are on borrowed time.
The Outwaters
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a creative take on a descent into madness, but some judicious editing would have made for a better film.
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: The Outwaters is not just cosmic horror, it’s a gruesome existential journey that catapults Robbie and his friends through the ugly historical fabric of America encompassed in the Mojave Desert.
She Is Love
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: SHE IS LOVE is never better than when past and present collide to show us everything Patricia and Idris have learned during their time apart is perhaps the result of suppressing who they were together and who they are at their core.
Sometimes I Think About Dying
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: The dry humor of [Fran and Robert’s] insecurities is entertaining enough to endure the pacing, but it’s the supporting cast like Garrett and especially Marcia DeBonis’ Carol that truly resonates.
A Woman Kills
- Excerpt: Written and directed by Jean-Denis Bonan, A Woman Kills is a serial killer thriller with an undercurrent of protest running just beneath its surface.
2022 Films
Avatar: The Way of Water
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Everything Everywhere All at Once
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Living
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Strange World
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Hatching
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: While the horror aspects are a nice touch to keep audiences interested in blood happy, HATCHING’s true success is its authentic depiction of the sort of childhood trauma too many laugh off as growing pains instead of a destruction of innocence.
Ram Setu
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
The Sea Beast
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: It becomes a surprisingly emotional journey pitting duty against justice and memory against doctrine to find out that being a hero doesn’t automatically mean you’re right.
