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: Oct. 13, 2023
Limited (United States)
The Mission
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The filmmakers will analyze how the yearning to go native mixed with Evangelical fervor led to death…a thoughtful and well laid out analysis of a preventable tragedy.
Once Within a Time
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Simultaneously ancient and hyper-modern, ‘Once Within a Time’ is as an apocalyptic dispatch from the far reaches of reality… It is uncommercial, personal, specialized, and fated to be underseen, but nevertheless a major cinema event in 2023.
2023 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
The Creator
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Exorcist: Believer
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Haunting in Venice
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
It Lives Inside
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Aatmapamphlet
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
The Burial
Chris Barsanti @ Slant Magazine
- Excerpt: This flashy legal melodrama is too flabby to deliver the walloping blow that it needs.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Maggie Betts (“Novitiate”) has put together a great ensemble who deliver the goods despite a slippery script which fluffs over…legal questions…its best element just might be Athie in a breakout role as the quiet legal digger behind the star power.
Christopher Reed @ Film Festival Today
- Excerpt: Impressively, she manages to insert important conversations about our nation’s deeply problematic past without those bits of dialogue feeling forced in anyway. It’s therefore doubly regrettable that the courtroom hijinks go in the opposite direction.
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: All in all, it remains a compelling piece with solid performances and relevant themes. And as a swan song for Friedkin himself, that middle finger of a finale couldn’t be more appropriate.
Candela
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Andrés Farías’ stylish, stunningly photographed (by cinematographer Saurabh Monga) neo noir gives LGBTQ and immigration twists to the noir tropes it honors, its approaching storm reminiscent of “Key Largo.”
Cassandro
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: This biopic manages to entertain thanks to actor Gael García Bernal as the real-life luchador.
Country of Blind
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court
- Excerpt: If you had a drinking game for every time someone in this movie talks about “shattering norms” or “abandoning precedent” or the equivalent, you would be tipsy, which may be the best way to watch the fourth episode about the chaotic, scandal-prone recent years.
Foe
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Ronan and Mescal do not stint on their respective talents for digging deep emotionally, but the film about a disintegrating marriage is wrapped within a clunky sci-fi shell which distracts more than it illuminates.
Golda
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Khufiya
A Million Miles Away
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: the biography of José M. Hernández, a man who reached for the stars–literally.
Mister Organ
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: It’s the kind of story that might need a trigger warning for viewers who have fallen victim to manipulators like Organ. And it’s a journey that can’t help but draw you into its web of deceit—coercive and fatigued alike.
Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Maybe the whole proves a bit niche in the end, but its surprisingly robust education on EO 9066 and its aftereffects really ensures that its look at Bashi’s life resonates as an example of what it means to be a minority in the US.
The Royal Hotel
Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: In spite of the narrative possibilities, there’s nothing really compelling about this movie.
She Came to Me
- Excerpt: Writer/director Rebecca Miller somehow manages to make heightened characters feel authentic in “She Came to Me,” continuing to show her increasing comfort with warmth and humor.
Surprised by Oxford
- Excerpt: Oxford itself, the town, the buildings, and the institution is one of the movie’s most significant characters. Almost every shot of the film is filled with its grandeur, dignity, splendor, and traditions.
Thank You for Coming
There Goes the Neighborhood
- Excerpt: There Goes the Neighborhood is most eloquent it lets these advocates speak about themselves and their neighborhoods.
Totally Killer
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: This is a romp that is fully aware of the absurdity existing in it. It celebrates the good, the bad, and the goofy with equal consideration.
V/H/S/85
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: one very strong entry, a good one, a solid piece of filmmaking that outstays its welcome and two outright duds…Mike P. Nelson’s (2021’s “Wrong Turn” reboot) ‘No Wake / Ambrosia’ is the absolute cream of this crop
