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: Nov. 16, 2018
Wide (United States)
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Widows
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Expanding (United States)
A Private War
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A moving and important portrait of legendary Times of London foreign correspondent Marie Colvin. We need more movies like this, about fearless, badass women this outrageously good at their vitally necessary work.
Limited (United States)
Green Book
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: The tune may be familiar, but it is performed with virtuoso style, its central characters drawn with wit, charm, and complexity and brought to life via the absolutely gorgeous performances of its stars.
Jonathan
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The filmmakers lead us to dark places in the process, flipping stigmas on their head to hide the psychological consequences of what’s happening beneath emotional ones.
2018 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Bohemian Rhapsody
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Colette
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Disobedience
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
First Man
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Halloween
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Hate U Give
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Old Man and the Gun
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Overlord
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A Star Is Born
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Suspiria
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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: The story of the story how the west was won.
Billionaire Boys Club
Dragan Antulov @ Draxblog VI [Croatian]
Bird Box
Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: This tension-fueled, exhilarating, highly emotional experience cuts to the bone, delivering a heartrending tale of survival and a mother’s journey towards acceptance.
Blue My Mind
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: A delicate coming-of-age story and tale of female friendship mixed with squirm-inducing body horror, Lisa Bruhlmann’s debut, Blue My Mind, casts unsettling shades of Raw, The Lure, and Cronenberg.
The Cakemaker
Karl Delossantos @ Smash Cut Reviews
- Excerpt: The Cakemaker, Israel’s 2019 Oscar entry, is a quiet and sweet drama with a great lead performance by Tim Kalkhof.
Cam
Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: We Cam, We Saw, We Conquered.
The Christmas Chronicles
- Excerpt: With its saccharine score, saturated cinematography, and trite platitudes, the film is formulaic and forgettable except for Kurt Russell’s performance as the lovable legend.
The Clovehitch Killer
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: What occurs in this movie isn’t a means to expose those “accomplices in silence” as wrong, though. No, The Clovehitch Killer seems to be condoning them.
The Front Runner
Peter Nellhaus @ Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee
- Excerpt: Seventy years ago, a much better film came out about a presidential candidate involved in an extramarital affair with a younger woman, and the machinations of political strategists. That film is State of the Union, directed by Frank Capra.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The Girl In The Spider’s Web isn’t great, but I think it’s a fairly serviceable action thriller, elevated by a great filmmaker and top notch casting.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web
Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: What a very tangled web we weave.
The Guilty
Dragan Antulov @ Draxblog VI [Croatian]
The Guilty
Karl Delossantos @ Smash Cut Reviews
- Excerpt: The Guilty is a somewhat predictable, but taut single-location thriller of a kidnapping case unfolding in real time.
Illang: The Wolf Brigade
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It’s not one of Kim Jee-woon’s best, but it’s still an evocative, well crafted, and beautiful piece of filmmaking.
Jinn
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: At a time when Islam has become weaponized as a synonym for ISIS, we need [these] glimpses at its positivity and humanity.
The Long Dumb Road
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: It has few ambitions other than to entertain, and on that front, it largely succeeds. A paint-by-numbers affair, it’s a pleasant enough picture, and Revolori and Mantzoukas offer plenty of humor and heart to make it worth a watch.
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: A drama as steeped in gender politics as tense thrills underneath a western lens of gorgeously static wide-angles, a mesmerizing score, and brilliantly emotive performances.
Mid90s
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: I’m a bit mixed overall with Mid90s. I think Jonah Hill certainly has what it takes to be a good filmmaker, but there’s not a lot here that hasn’t been covered more effectively in films that he’s clearly pulling from.
Mirai
- Excerpt: The final act of Mamoru Hosoda’s ‘Mirai’ is a fine proof on how utterly magical can cinema be.
The Night Comes For Us
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It features the most viscous and viscerally satisfying action you will see all year. I loved every bone-crunching, blood-splattering second of it.
On the Basis of Sex
Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: Mimi Leder has crafted a solid biopic – not just for the modern era, but for future generations who will carry on the torch of Ginsburg’s wisdom, tenacity, and humanity.
Outlaw King
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The film is perfectly servicable and watchable historical epic, but it lacks the rhythm, the purpose, and emotional engagement to meet its lofty ambitions.
Outlaw King
Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: He fought the outlaw, and the outlaw won.
Outlaw King
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Although impressive cinematography and excellent performances abound, “Outlaw King” seems difficult to follow and ends up being less than exciting, despite all the action and bloodshed on screen.
Restoring Tomorrow
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: An inspirational documentary about restoration of the beautiful Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles.
Shoplifters
Karl Delossantos @ Smash Cut Reviews
- Excerpt: Shoplifters is heartbreaking but often funny and hopeful look at a family of thieves relying on each other to make it day to day.
Shoplifters
Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: With an exactingly tender touch, filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda delivers nothing short of a masterpiece – and perhaps also a career best.
Thugs of Hindostan
- Excerpt: In retrospect, Vijay Krishna Acharya’s ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ should rather have been an irreverent spoof on India’s struggle for freedom. For the rest, there is no chance for such a hackneyed screenplay to find relevance in this day and age.
Under the Wire
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A harrowing portrait of the slaughter of civilians and the urban destruction that was the siege of Homs in 2012, and a terrific honoring of journalist Marie Colvin, who died getting the story out to the world.
Welcome Home
Karl Delossantos @ Smash Cut Reviews
- Excerpt: Welcome Home is nothing more than a kitschy thriller that makes for a perfect popcorn-fueled late-night hate-watch.
What They Had
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: [Chomko] lets her characters endure the painful reality that is recognizing the present-day fate necessary to work towards a future wherein they can find the love Burt and Ruth shared—bells, whistles, and all.
