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: Mar. 3, 2023
Wide (United States)
Creed III
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Palm Trees and Power Lines
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Dack’s film may be the best of its kind since Joyce Chopra’s 1985 “Smooth Talk” and in many ways is the more dramatic side of Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket.”
2023 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
2022 Oscar Nominated Shorts
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Cocaine Bear
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Knock at the Cabin
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
M3GAN
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
BlackBerry
Chris Barsanti @ Slant Magazine
- Excerpt: BlackBerry deflates the personalities at its center in the vein of Mike Judge and Judd Apatow.
Cinema Sabaya
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: The purpose isn’t therefore to magically solve centuries of persecution. It’s to remind us that no one is perfect. No one is unequivocally correct. And no one is truly alone.
Copenhagen Cowboy
Diego Salgado @ Rockdelux [Spanish]
Emily
Sarah E Boslaugh @ The Arts STL
- Excerpt: …an emotional portrait of a young woman who, despite constrained circumstances, had a wild inner life.
Film, the Living Record of Our Memory
- Excerpt: With the ubiquity of smartphones and the ability to upload videos to YouTube, it is easier than ever to make, distribute, and watch moving images — but that doesn’t mean we should neglect and forget all of those that came before. Film, the Living Record of Our Memory provides ample evidence as to why it is so important that we continue to remember, and to support those who make it possible for us to do so.
God’s Time
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: It’s a ton of fun. Groh is the exact type of manic energy you love to witness from afar with Costelloe’s unmoving innocence and desire to not ruffle feathers proving the perfect foil while Caribel steals control via a take-no-prisoners attitude.
Inside
Chris Barsanti @ Slant Magazine
- Excerpt: Whether or not Vasilis Katsoupis’s film achieves escape velocity from genre limitations though overt sociopolitical commentary is questionable.
Jack Has a Plan
Christopher Reed @ Hammer to Nail
- Excerpt: Jack, it turns out, had a very good plan, indeed.
Jesus Revolution
- Excerpt: With fine talent behind and in front of the camera, Jesus Revolution manages to tell an intriguing and educational story that is not overly preachy.
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: If it wasn’t all in service of public relations, I might even say it’s good. But we live in an era where bigots and racists hide behind religion to persecute, control, and kill. Good propaganda might be well-made, but it’s still propaganda.
Juniper
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: [A] poignant film centering the psychological toll of difficult lives rather than the goal to ease their pain. That exists too, but as a byproduct of their strength to deconstruct the games society often demands we play in lieu of confronting the truth.
Luther: The Fallen Sun
Mal Viver
Paulo Portugal @ Insider [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Mal Viver Mal: é este o enigma inexorável que nos aguarda ao combinar ambos os títulos dos filmes do díptico que o cineasta português João Canijo leva ao festival de Berlim (ver entrevista). Com a particularidade de ambos os filmes serem exibidos em duas secções competitivas diferentes — Mal Viver na competição oficial, e Viver Mal, nos Encontros.
Manodrome
Chris Barsanti @ Slant Magazine
- Excerpt: The film is impressive for how it holds its protagonist’s view of the world separate from its own.
Mogoado
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Thankfully, regardless of my mind drifting throughout, the cinematography always brought me back. Shot with a vertical aspect ratio, Sainz captures some unforgettable images.
My Happy Ending
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Put their eclectic backstories together and you have a perfectly quirky trio of voices to put Julia on the correct path to recovery via humor and tough love. If only life were so neat and tidy.
Pacifiction
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a character study within a political thriller more intent on mood than answers…a mesmerizing immersion into natural splendor and foreign chicanery.
The Properties of Metals
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Spoonful of Sugar
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Director Mercedes Bryce Morgan has fun with rotting flora and fauna and her perverse sex triangle while highlighting themes of motherhood in all their extreme variations, but she never pulls everything together into a satisfactory whole.
Teacher’s Lounge
Chris Barsanti @ Slant Magazine
- Excerpt: The Teacher’s Lounge doesn’t exceed its remit by turning the story into a referendum on society.
We Have a Ghost
Eddie Pasa @ DC Filmdom
Betty Jo Tucker @ AuthorsDen
- Excerpt: Too bad this film runs way too long. Editing needed — and real strong.
A Woman Kills
2022 Films
All Quiet on the Western Front
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Babylon
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
DC League of Super Pets
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Everything Everywhere All at Once
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Navalny
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
She Said
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Whale
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Film, the Living Record of our Memory
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
American Murderer
Christopher Reed @ Film Festival Today
- Excerpt: Twisting through time and space, Gentile weaves his gritty crime drama using narrative feints, parries, and thrusts, leading us to the sharp point of the piece, which is the why and how of Jason Derek Brown’s actions.
A House Made of Splinters
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Simon Lereng Wilmont’s A HOUSE MADE OF SPLINTERS takes a fly-on-the-wall approach to get us inside those “walls of sorrow.” This is a purgatory of healing run by saints whose necessary existence proves just how damaged our world remains.
- Excerpt: One can only wish that this captivating documentary was actually fiction; thanks to Putin and his cronies it is an awful truth.
The Quiet Girl
Christopher Reed @ Film Festival Today
- Excerpt: Little by little, we fall under its spell, the melancholy magic seeping in until the final cathartic howl of anguished love bursts forth. Rarely have I felt so moved and devastated.
Return to Seoul
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Chou astounds with a slippery conclusion that launches Freddie out into the world, now the self reliant adult she merely pretended to be at the film’s onset.
The Substitute
Diego Salgado @ SoFilm [Spanish]
