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: Jan. 12, 2024
Wide (United States)
The Book of Clarence
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mean Girls
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Inshallah a Boy
- Excerpt: The debut feature from director Amjad Al Rasheed and the first Jordanian film to ever screen at the Cannes Film Festival, Inshallah A Boy is a compelling, character-driven drama chronicling a young widow’s fight to secure what is rightfully hers in a society that bestows more rights upon an unborn boy than a living woman.
2024 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Night Swim
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Bricklayer
- Excerpt: There’s a really good movie in The Bricklayer somewhere; trouble is, only half of it made it to the final cut.
I.S.S.
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: A thoughtful, disquieting consideration of loyalty and tribalism set in the cold vacuum of space with a standout performance by Ariana DeBose.
Night Swim
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: What a stunningly dull excuse for a horror film.
Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: There’s so many moments in which viewers will want to yell at the Walters to stop or get out of the water, making it one of those horror pictures that are frustrating to watch because the characters have no common sense.
Aaron Neuwirth @ We Live Entertainment
- Excerpt: A slog based on a mishmash of tones thanks to laughable writing and poorly handled scares.
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Though Bryce McGuire’s horror debut sinks a bit more than it swims, strong performances from Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon almost keep this domestic haunted pool movie afloat. ‘Night Swim’ champions genre campiness over genuine scares but doesn’t contain enough of either.
- Excerpt: Night Swim reaches for greatness, but its arms are too short.
- Excerpt: Night Swim fails to rise above the limitations of its generic horror foundation. Sadly, it’s not the film I wish I could use to counterargue the idea that January can’t have memorable horror…
Self Reliance
Manuel São Bento @ Firstshowing
- Excerpt: Self Reliance possesses an intriguing premise but ultimately plays it too safe. More audacity and bite were required to truly leave a mark with Jake Johnson’s feature directorial debut.
Spacked Out
- Excerpt: Among the sea of coming-of-age films out there, Spacked Out is refreshing in its focus on rough-and-tumble working-class girls and all of the real issues they face; the film doesn’t judge them for their indiscretions, but treats them with empathy and understanding.
Tiger’s Apprentice
- Excerpt: “People are inherently good”
2023 Films
American Fiction
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Boy and the Heron
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
Ferrari
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Godzilla Minus One
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Infinity Pool
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
It’s a Wonderful Knife
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Maestro
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Marvels
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Past Lives
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Poor Things
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Saltburn
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Taste of Things
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Wonka
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Anatomy of a Fall
- Excerpt: You be the judge
Anyone But You
Dan Stalcup @ The Goods: Film Reviews
- Excerpt: With a few tweaks and another script revision, this could have been an outstanding good-time, R-rated romcom the likes and style of which we so rarely see theatrically released these days.
Big Easy Queens
- Excerpt: The gardenia done it
The Disappearance of Shere Hite
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: While [Oprah] footage is the linchpin connecting the good will earned beforehand and slander that followed, Newnham does a wonderful job accompanying it with the context necessary to understand its relevance to both Hite’s life and America at-large.
Ever Deadly
- Excerpt: Tagaq views her art, and her identity, as bound up with the land, so it’s not surprising that she feels strongly about maintaining traditions and repelling the attempts of outsiders who want to impose suburban rules on a much older way of life.
Ferrari
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: An exceptional immersive experience. Not just for the way it virtually puts you in the driver’s seat during the racing sequences, but also, and moreso, for the way it puts you in the mind of its title character as he negotiates a major turning point in his life.
- Excerpt: Winning at any cost
Kho Gaye Hum Kahan
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Merchant Ivory
- Excerpt: No serious film lover should miss this documentary.
No One Will Save You
Dan Stalcup @ The Goods: Film Reviews
- Excerpt: The film’s later shift into quasi-psychedelia doesn’t quite fit with the intimate sci-fi/thriller blend Duffield had carefully built. But there’s an admirable creative spirit here.
Sloane: A Jazz Singer
- Excerpt: “She didn’t get her due”
Society of the Snow
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: I was awed by its craftsmanship, less so with its emotion.
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: With fantastic production design, solid marks in all technical aspects, and a compelling narrative that fearlessly allows some nihilism to sneak in amongst the usual “miracle” talk, SOCIETY OF THE SNOW delivers on genre expectations and cinematic scale.
2022 Films
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between
Dan Stalcup @ The Goods: Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Jennifer E. Smith’s adorable teen romcoms are always well-fleshed and terrifically crafted, with enough brains and minor variations on cliches to make the experience fresh rather than phoned in.
