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. 26, 2024
Limited (United States)
Alienoid: The Return to the Future
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Hundreds of Beavers
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: If Guy Maddin made a live action Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoon with the structure of a video game it would come out something like “Hundreds of Beavers,” an absolutely brilliant and hilarious example of DIY independent filmmaking.
Sometimes I Think About Dying
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The film’s final minutes celebrate human connection in the most touching way… like a Pacific Northwest Sundance take on an Aki Kaurismaki film with Dabney Morris’ music adding a dab of nostalgic Americana.
2024 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
I.S.S.
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Night Swim
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Agent of Happiness
- Excerpt: Agent of Happiness immerses us in a doc that’s partially invested in the day-to-day of a unique profession, partially enraptured by the beauty of Bhutan’s bright colors and vast vistas, and partially surprised to have found itself on a buddy-comedy road trip.
Black Box Diaries
- Excerpt: Because filmmaker Shiori Ito is both survivor and journalist, and recorded her own investigation into her assault in real time, the documentary becomes a thrilling testament to her exceptional, tenacious agency in the face of a hostile world.
The Breaking Ice
- Excerpt: “The Breaking Ice,” from writer/director Anthony Chen, is about three lost souls facing the frozen world outside and in.
Los Delinquentes
Paulo Portugal @ [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Longa comédia ácida de Rodrigo Moreno que convida à contemplação e introspeção sobre estilos de vida e até o cinema. Mas depois de ver, apetece ficar ainda mais tempo à conversa
Paulo Portugal @ www.esquerda.net [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Estreia esta quinta-feira a longa comédia ácida de Rodrigo Moreno, um dos realizadores da nova vaga do cinema argentino. É um filme precioso em que nos apetece ficar longamente à conversa depois de o ver.
A Different Man
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Sebastian Stan has never been better than in the unnerving and darkly comic physiological thriller ‘A Different Man’. Renate Reinstve and Adam Pearson are remarkable. Tragic, human, nightmarish, and stealthy funny, this is one to watch out for.
Eternal You
- Excerpt: Eternal You observes the burgeoning industry around techno-spiritualism with wry skepticism.
Freaky Tales
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: As is the case with most anthologies, Freaky Tales struggles to justify its existence as a whole. Though each individual portion is entertaining enough in itself, one is left a bit exhausted by the final product, and unclear on its artistic intent.
Girls State
- Excerpt: A documentary that can struggle to tie its young politicos to the outside world, but thrives when tying them to each other.
Girls Will Be Girls
- Excerpt: In its lovingly observed, casually bold and uneasily tense coming-of-age drama exists familiar dynamics we’d rather not recognize.
How to Have Sex
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Manning-Walker’s shattering film debut explores the self-inflicted violence of youth, famously opined to be wasted on the young, with great care before shifting to a heartbreaking meditation on sexual consent, steadied by a ravishingly raw central turn from newcomer Mia McKenna-Bruce. Even for a debut film, How to Have Sex feels explosive and must-see.
I Saw the TV Glow
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Jane Schoenbrun’s unsettling identity-horror unfolds itself slowly before crescendoing into something undeniably powerful and affecting. A startling film that won’t soon leave you, even when the TV stops glowing.
Igualada
- Excerpt: Igualada hints at an insider look at an amazing story, but all its access goes towards a surprisingly anonymous film.
It’s What’s Inside
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Greg Jardin’s ‘It’s What’s Inside’ is a hilarious, mind-bending puzzle box comedy-thriller. Crafted with incredible precision and featuring an electrifying ensemble cast, this eruptive debut is destined to be one of the buzziest movies of 2024.
The Kitchen
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: The result is slow moving and perhaps a bit repetitive, but there’s a lot to like too from performances to soundtrack to production design mixing LED and neon with digital interfaces and drones.
Krazy House
Love Lies Bleeding
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Rose Glass’ slimy, queer romance thriller is as bloody as it is weird, with Kristen Stewart and a beefy Katy O’Brian pouring the requisite steam to power ‘Love Lies Bleeding’’s sleazy, demented engines.
Love Lies Bleeding
Never Look Away
- Excerpt: Directed by Lucy Lawless in her debut, Never Look Away documents the life and career of the spitfire with the same relentless energy as its adrenaline-junkie subject—and gives us a sense of what kind of person was putting themselves in danger to bring us the news.
Porcelain War
- Excerpt: A battlefield art documentary that faces its violent dissonance head-on until resonance emerges.
A Real Pain
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Jesse Eisenberg’s sophomore feature ‘A Real Pain’ is an effective character study about two polar opposite cousins that’s warm, funny, and thoughtful. Kieran Culkin and his smug, offhanded charm is the film’s defining high point.
Sugarcane
- Excerpt: From subject/director Julian Brave NoiseCat and director/journalist Emily Kassie, the documentary gives faces, names and histories to those affected by the residential schools—and looks, bracingly, towards a future where healing is possible.
Thelma
- Excerpt: When writer/director Josh Margolin’s debut Thelma keeps its sights trained on its rogue granny on a mission (June Squibb), its hilarious geriatric reframe of action-movie tropes has a game champion.
Via Norte
Paulo Portugal @ [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Paulo Carneiro abandona Trás-os-Montes, onde filmou Bostofrio, em 2019, para captar a opinião de emigrantes portugueses fãs do tuning, na Suíça, em Via Norte. O filme, finalmente, estreia em Portugal.
2023 Films
American Symphony
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Anatomy of a Fall
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Beau Is Afraid
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Beyond Utopia
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Dream Scenario
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Fallen Leaves
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Godzilla Minus One
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The Holdovers
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Killers of the Flower Moon
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Maestro
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Nyad
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Oppenheimer
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Origin
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Poor Things
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Society of the Snow
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Talk to Me
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The Goldman Process
Paulo Portugal @ www.insider.pt [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: A grande estreia da semana nas salas de cinema é uma entrega firme aos códigos da intriga de tribunal. Algo singular num país onde não abundam muitos exemplos dignos de nota.
Paulo Portugal @ www.esquerda.net [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: A grande estreia da semana nas salas de cinema é uma entrega firme aos códigos da intriga de tribunal. Algo singular num país onde não abundam muitos exemplos dignos de nota.
Green Border
Paulo Portugal @ www.esquerda.net [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Estreia esta quinta-feira nas salas portuguesas este filme que parte de um guião feito de centenas de horas de análise de documentos e entrevistas com refugiados, residentes próximos da fronteira entre a Polónia e a Bielorrússia, bem como depoimentos anónimos de guardas fronteiriços.
Tiger 3
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
When Evil Lurks
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Rugna utilizes the usual demonic possession tropes, but in unique ways to ensure his mythology captivates on a purely visceral and aesthetic level.
2022 Films
Dear Thirteen
- Excerpt: Dear Thirteen offers a pleasant look at the experience of being thirteen for an interesting selection of young people from different parts of the world.
