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: Jul. 14, 2023
Wide (United States)
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Afire
- Excerpt: Winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, Afire (also known as Roter Himmel, or Red Sky in German) follows a quartet of young people at a summer retreat near the Baltic Sea as they butt heads, make love, and create art — all as a massive wildfire rapidly approaches and threatens to destroy everything around them.
The Miracle Club
Christopher Reed @ Film Festival Today
- Excerpt: This “miracle club” is very much in need of its own cinematic, if not actually divine, intervention.
2023 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Past Lives
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Amanda
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: It seems like Wes Anderson has become the main comparison point people have been using to describe Carolina Cavalli’s AMANDA, but I’d lean more towards calling it an arthouse DUMB AND DUMBER. And I say this with earnest affection.
Anonymous Sister
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: I hope Jamie takes this film to a lawyer and I hope it has been part of the settlement with Purdue Pharmacy and the Sackler family. What happened to her family happened to thousands of American families. It is the story of the perfidious Purdue-developed and marketed oxycontin, a drug that leaves you wanting more and more until you become debilitated.
Big Bang
- Excerpt: Of ovens and men
Biosphere
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: The film’s success is thus more in line with supplying a catalyst for conversation than anything concretely valuable to add to that dialogue. That alone does make what is probably a misguided artwork worthwhile.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: The artwork reinforces the calm, poetic, dreamlike mood.
Boat People
- Excerpt: A cautionary tale of ants and aunts
Canary
- Excerpt: A bird with a song
Chomp It!
- Excerpt: Enjoy the meal
Death & Ramen
- Excerpt: “I can’t die with an empty stomach”
Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Jennings and his crew do a great job, and what you may learn, even if you live in the big city, may save your home and help you support ways to save your state.
Extraction 2
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Shoot. Stab. Repeat.
The Fading
- Excerpt: The tragedy of loss
The Flying Sailor
- Excerpt: Be careful what you smoke
Hills and Mountains
- Excerpt: A wedding as a funeral
In the Shadow of Beirut
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: I chose to review this movie because I was curious about what the Clintons would choose to sponsor. I recommend it because it touched my heart.
Insidious: The Red Door
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: This is a forgettable movie that does nothing to take the franchise to new heights.
The Lesson
- Excerpt: Richard E. Grant is an inspired choice for J.M.—his offbeat looks, haughty air, and ability to give the impression that he’s rotting from the inside out are the perfect match for a character who’s lost the thread but won’t admit it.
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: If there is a flaw here, it is that the writing is more diffuse than it should be for this to be as riveting as it could have been. Still, it is a subtle but powerful film full of unexpected intrigues and ruthless violence that is no less destructive for being virtual.
Make Me Famous
Christopher Reed @ Hammer to Nail
- Excerpt: It’s a great mix of voices, allowing the narrative to truly come alive.
Mickey Hardaway
- Excerpt: Art is a waste of time
Mushka
- Excerpt: How to raise a tiger
The Old Way
- Excerpt: youngster Ryan Kiera Armstrong impressed me the most in this new Western. Her thoughtful performance brings realism to her every scene. .
Pruning
- Excerpt: How free are any of us?
Sam Now
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: The real magic of this film is done through the editing by Darren Lund and Jason Reid. They weave a spotlight on Sam, the youngest of Jois’s sons, who was just starting his freshman year of high school when his mom went AWOL.
Satyaprem Ki Katha
Simo
- Excerpt: Sibling rivalry
Sulam
- Excerpt: Pathetic family values
The Taking
Tarla
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music
- Excerpt: The documentary of Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music is arriving when it’s most needed.
Users
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: … for those who gravitate to meditative, thought-provoking documentaries sans story or characterization, this may the best of the genre in 2023.
Who We Are
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: I turned on “Who We Are” and we forgot about our timing. When Jeffery Robinson said he thought he knew it all after graduating from Marquette and Harvard Law School, and then he bothered to learn more, and began to tell that more, we were caught up.
Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West
- Excerpt: We need the tonic of wildness
The YouTube Effect
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: An expansive look at how damaging technological growth on an unprecedented scale proves when put in the hands of cutthroat opportunists left to police themselves so a largely apathetic government can willingly reap the benefits of letting them.
2022 Films
The Last of the Winthrops
- Excerpt: You can’t choose your relatives
Only in Theaters
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
