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: Jun. 5, 2020
Wide (United States)
None
2020 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
The Vast of Night
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Way Back
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Why Don’t You Just Die!
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Wretched
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Alice
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: To watch Piponnier weigh that abhorrent truth is to witness the internal struggle every woman who’s experienced this type of coerced acquiescence faces.
Becky
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Becky is bad, just not in a way that’s any fun, and Kevin James neither embarrasses himself nor has an Uncut Gems moment like his pal Adam Sandler.
Blood Machines
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: That it’s all shot with an obvious male gaze can often undermine [its feminist] themes too, but it is gorgeous just the same.
Body Cam
Mark Harris @ Black Horror Movies
The Collini Case
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Beautifully photographed by Jakub Bejnarowicz (Netflix’s ‘Perfume’) in widescreen with a color palette of green, blue and blond, the film is gripping from start to its shattering finish.
Come as You Are
- Excerpt: Can you walk in my shoes (or chair)?
The Deeper You Dig
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Lots of families have favorite shared activities, but not many mother/father/daughter units make unsettling indie horror about guilt and grief.
The Dog Doc
- Excerpt: “Send us your hopeless”
Driveways
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: So while Driveways may have a simple narrative, [it holds] a profound weight [to become] a distillation of what it means to be alive, fallible, and willing to be better.
End of Sentence
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: These characters are too complex and performed with too much nuance to not be fully invested in their desperation towards a common goal.
End of Sentence
- Excerpt: End of Sentence is brilliant binding of shadows and light, each eviscerating their opponent in a heated competition to see which one gets loose first.
The Family Tree
- Excerpt: Different kinds of love
The Flood
- Excerpt: One of the most telling lines of the production comes from Haile’s lips: “I’ve always been unwanted.”
The Grand Grandmaster
- Excerpt: A mild parody of martial arts master epics is all over the place tonally, but its charismatic cast and some broad comedy is designed to appeal to a wide audience.
Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics
Josh Taylor @ www.forgetfulfilmcritic.com
- Excerpt: To use the parlance of someone you might score psychedelic mushrooms from at a Grateful Dead tribute band concert: Don’t let any negative vibes near your aura while you watch it, man, or you’ll, like, be in for a real bad time.
The High Note
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: The High Note is a music-based comedy that I enjoyed the heck out of.
Inheritance
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Inheritance might have benefited from its third act being a tad subtler, but I get the allure of throwing away nuance for splashy suspense.
Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: These are Nash’s anthems to the underestimated and this journey is proof that evolution through reinvention only makes you stronger.
The Man Standing Next
- Excerpt: A slickly produced snapshot of a moment in time that remains divisive to this day. An excellent cast and beautiful photography lift this above the average bear.
Marona’s Fantastic Tale
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: the animators bring her into existence with a lap of her mother’s tongue, using it like a paintbrush… This beautiful story is animated with uniquely surreal visuals
Military Wives
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Thomas and Horgan beautifully ensure that this story remains about grief’s many forms: past, present, and potential. Success is no match for catharsis.
The Painter and the Thief
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Their newfound friendship strips them down to their raw humanity in a way that allows them to see each other like no one has ever seen them.
Proximity
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [The sci-fi elements] demand the time to be more than enigmatic and pretty. The script is sadly too shallow to bring everything together.
Shirley
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A compelling portrait of a great writer, fueled by Elisabeth Moss’s searing work.
Shirley
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Decker portrays it all as though it’s one of Jackson’s psychological horrors—[stepping] to the precipice of danger before all tension releases with a cut.
The Wanting Mare
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: As the years turn Anmaere ever darker [we’re reminded] that paradise isn’t something to chase, but something to build.
You Don’t Nomi
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Like “Room 237,” “You Don’t Nomi” may not convince with some of its outrageous claims, but it is an entertaining look back at a notorious cinema flop that was bad in all the right ways.
2019 Films
The Aeronauts
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Bombshell
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Brittany Runs a Marathon
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dark Waters
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Queen & Slim
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Accompanist
- Excerpt: The power of music to heal
The Confirmation
- Excerpt: Boys will be…
Ema, Pablo Larraín
Paulo Portugal @ Insider.pt [Portuguese]
Enemy Lines
- Excerpt: Banke’s first feature shows much promise
From Iceland to Eden
- Excerpt: Escaping life together
Harbor
- Excerpt: The voyage works out better than most might expect, but the sequel of “what now” for these desperate/disparate youths is eagerly awaited.
In the Absence
- Excerpt: Who deserves this kind of “leadership”?
Incitement
- Excerpt: Amir is portrayed with such great humanity by Yehuda Nahari, who creates a character that is sincere, charming, and yet increasingly frightening.
Lancaster Skies
- Excerpt: The allure of flight
Porno
- Excerpt: Lurking in the devilish background is Peter Reznikoff’s wide-ranging take on Phantom of the Movie House, Lord Beekhman.
The Raft
- Excerpt: In 1973, anthropologist Santiago Genovés planned a social experiment that predated reality television by decades—put a bunch of attractive young people of various nationalities on a raft called the Acali, sail across the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to Mexico, and see what happens.
Walk Run Cha Cha
- Excerpt: Remarkably, the solution comes in the form of Cha-Cha lessons (both group and private—ably given by the comely Maxsym Kapitanchuk and Elena Kirfuks), who show the partners just how to harness the steps but also rekindle their emotions.
