This Week at the Movies (Feb. 21, 2020)

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. 21, 2020

Wide (United States)

The Call of the Wild

For member reviews of this film, follow this link

Limited (United States)

Emma.

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

Excerpt: Knightley’s introduction is altogether astonishing, the young man disheveled from a hard gallop stripped down completely before being redressed by his valet to walk to the Woodhouses’, a scene usually reserved for women and with far less nudity.

Emma.

MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com

Excerpt: A sly, penetrating zing and a frisson of Insta-influencer horror — of the oppression of performative perfection against a marzipan backdrop — renders Austen’s fluff and nonsense deadly serious.

The Night Clerk

Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan

The Night Clerk

Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum

Excerpt: It’s a fascinating and fairly engaging film that is elevated by two strong lead performances in Tye Sheridan and Ana de Armas.

The Night Clerk

Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage

Excerpt: Sheridan lends his role the necessary nuance it deserves and de Armas imbues hers with a wealth of unspoken pain, but neither effort receives its payoff.

Seberg

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

Excerpt: Screenwriters Joe Shrapnel & Anna Waterhouse turn poetic license into dubious fictionalization told with leaden dialogue frequently guilty of speechifying…weighing down Kristen Stewart’s delicate performance.

Seberg

MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com

Excerpt: French New Wave icon Jean Seberg plays an unwitting game of cat-and-mouse with the FBI in a strangled blend of biopic and paranoid thriller. Not even always fascinating Kristen Stewart can save this.

2020 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas

Excerpt: And Then We Danced es una vibrante, desafiante y enternecedora semblanza sobre el primer amor, aquel que deja una huella indeleble en nuestros corazones para siempre. Un relato necesario que muestra que el amor es amor, sin etiquetas ni prejuicios.

Beanpole

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

Excerpt: “Beanpole’s” most distinctive element is its use of color, Sergey Ivanov’s production design limiting its spectrum to the brilliant greens symbolizing life, rich golden ochers and muted reds.

Beanpole

Jonathan Richards @ santafenewmexican.com

Excerpt: The film explores death, blackmail, betrayal, catastrophic injury, illness, and women’s struggle to survive as second-class citizens in the course and aftermath of war. These are the grim veins mined in a powerful film that will compel your attention even as you fight the urge to turn away.

Beanpole

Rene Sanchez @ Cine Sin Fronteras [Spanish]

Excerpt: Beanpole es un crudo y complejo drama que observa el costo de la guerra a través de la afligida mirada de un par de mujeres que buscan rehacer su vida y encontrar un poco de esperanza en medio de la tragedia.

Buffaloed

Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum

Excerpt: It’s an exhilarating ride that centers itself on a fascinating and effortlessly compelling character, brilliantly portrayed by Zoey Deutch. The messaging and structure is largely familiar, but the story still remains timely.

Buffaloed

Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com

Excerpt: Leave it to an actual Buffalonian to write a screenplay set in the city without one mention or frame of snow.

Buffaloed

Frank Ochieng @ Flick Feast

Excerpt: Wexler’s bubbly blue-collar comedy Buffaloed is a wacky Valentine ode to the chilly upstate New York-based enclave. An unconventional character study that wants to reach for every nuanced nugget it sends out.

Charlie’s Angels

Marco Albanese @ Stanze di Cinema [Italian]

Come As You Are

Candice Frederick @ The Wrap

The Death of Dick Long

Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies

Excerpt: …around the midway point, ‘Dick Long’ takes its outrageous premise and, unexpectedly, wrings serious drama out of it.

Fantasy Island

Frank Ochieng @ Flick Feast

Excerpt: What’s next? Perhaps Love Boat with sea-sick passengers? How about Hotel with extra pushy guests? Or maybe Finders of Lost Loves with alarming divorce rates? [A] whimsical waste of a pointless reboot.

Horse Girl

Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum

Excerpt: there is a lot to admire. It’s well made, and Brie does a wonderful job in bringing her character to life, but the film loses focus as it goes along.

J’Accuse

Paulo Portugal @ Insider [Portuguese]

Olympic Dreams

MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com

Excerpt: Guerilla filmmaking is at its most charming in this melancholy romance set — and improvised and shot on the fly — in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Village. Delightful and delicately observed.

Ordinary Love

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

Excerpt: With screenwriter Owen McCafferty fictionalizing his own experience, directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn (“Cherrybomb”) provide a clean, modern aesthetic to their Belfast backdrop for Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson to render “Ordinary Love” extraordinary.

Ordinary Love

Nell Minow @ rogerebert.com

Excerpt: Manville gives a performance of heartbreaking delicacy and courage.

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum

Excerpt: It’s just a delight from beginning to end, and it provides a refreshingly earnest and old fashioned counterbalance to the kind of noisy, snarky, and quip heavy animated films that tend to come out these days.

Shimla Mirchi

Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood

A Simple Wedding

MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com

Excerpt: Charming culture-clash rom-com is full of life, celebrating human universals of family and love, and embracing differences that make the world so interesting. Smart and spritely, feminist and funny.

Standing Up, Falling Down

Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage

Excerpt: The plot’s obviousness melts away because we’re having a genuinely great time as these flawed men grow ever so slightly with each passing minute. They feel real.

To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You

Josh Taylor @ www.forgetfulfilmcritic.com

Excerpt: What’s the next step up from cotton candy when comparing entertainment to food? Pop rocks? Gummy bears? I’m asking because Netflix’s release To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You is that. It’s not as ephemeral as cotton candy; it feels more substantial.

To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You

Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews

Excerpt: Although not as entertaining as the original film, this sequel includes moments of sheer delight. Happily, the two main characters are just as watchable as before.