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. 25, 2024
Wide (United States)
Conclave
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Black Box Diaries
Christopher Reed @ Film Festival Today
- Excerpt: It’s a taut real-life thriller, bracingly told. The occasional narrative confusion notwithstanding—including some of the murky details of Yamaguchi’s countersuit—the effect is to shock and inspire in equal measure.
Dahomey
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Mati Diop (“Atlantics”) takes a unique approach to her documentary on the return of stolen artifacts to Benin, imagining the interior life of a statue of King Ghézo…At only 68 minutes, “Dahomey” covers its subject from every angle.
Magpie
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: 2024 has been the year Daisy Ridley has stepped up and shown her breadth as an actor in three thoroughly different roles and her performance here as an overlooked wife and mother seemingly losing it is what keeps us in the film’s grip.
Memoir of a Snail
- Excerpt: Though crafted with wry care and a captivatingly scuzzy aesthetic, the bittersweet biography is so miserable that the “sweet” ends up as a cloying chaser to old escargot.
Christopher Reed @ Film Festival Today
- Excerpt: Though the subject matter leans heavily towards the bleak, there is great beauty throughout. Grace’s journey may have an ultimate destination that is somewhat familiar (she learns and grows), but the milestones along the way are unique, fascinating in their wonderfully strange details.
My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Chapter Two, Desire, begins by pointing out the lesbian allusions to the two roommates of “The Pleasure Garden,” and indeed, one of this films greater pleasures is its emphasis on Hitchcock’s lesser scene silent films.
Your Monster
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: This anti rom-com defies easy classification, but it’s an exhilarating and unpredictable experience.
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Sure, the humor may be bitter, the horror may be audacious, and the overriding genre may be “anti-romance.” But this hugely original, grimly delightful howl of feminine rage is actually kinda sweet.
2024 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
The Apprentice
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Back to Black
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
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Blink Twice
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The Crow
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Joker: Folie à Deux
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Megalopolis
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Rebel Ridge
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Rumours
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Saturday Night
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Smile 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Speak No Evil
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Substance
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Terrifier 3
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Thelma
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Twisters
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
We Live In Time
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The Wild Robot
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All Happy Families
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Picking ALL HAPPY FAMILIES apart isn’t going to be difficult for those who wish to do so, but I also don’t think audiences should dismiss the underlying message of finding the time and space to reinvent yourself.
All We Imagine As Light
Christopher Reed @ Film Festival Today
- Excerpt: The tempo is deliberate, and sometimes the narrative rambles, yet we are more often than not hypnotized by the poignancy of scenes. The future, whatever it holds, comes next.
Anora
Aaron Neuwirth @ We Live Entertainment
- Excerpt: Aided by a fierce lead performance from Mikey Madison…there’s a lot to enjoy thanks to how this movie sets its sights on establishing familiar setups and completely flipping the table, to end up with something edgier, grander, and effectively emotional.
Average Joe
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
- Excerpt: Average Joe, based on the Supreme Court case Kennedy vs. Bremerton School District, wants to avoid the trappings of a “Christian” film. It is unfortunate that, despite an interesting story and some good performances, what Average Joe thinks distinguish it end up hampering it.
Con Job
- Excerpt: Comedies come in all shapes and sizes. In this case, director Ian Niles along with co-writer Guy Harry have concocted a “conedy” that may well have been entitled Death Do Reveal Us.
Falling Stars
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: Falling Stars focuses on one family specifically and dives into how generational legacies continue to haunt entire bloodlines.
Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: [It’s] very specifically focused on the victims’ experiences rather than the crime itself. That fact holds things back where the overall subject of celebrity and fandoms is concerned, but it makes the whole more personal and cathartic for those impacted.
Goodrich
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
- Excerpt: Goodrich is not a terrible film. It is just not a good one.
MadS
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: No matter how much fun I had with the aesthetic and fresh take on a familiar horror trope, MADS cannot help but drag. It’s therefore great as far as the ride goes. There just isn’t much below the surface.
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: The scariest part is that while MadS is a fictional story, its fears eerily mirror what scares so many of us at the moment in reality while we’re forced to watch a world out of our control lurch into a tailspin of violence, spurred on by those in power, that seems to never end.
Nightbitch
The Room Next Door
Katie Smith-Wong @ Movie Marker
- Excerpt: Moore and Swinton is the on-screen partnership that 2024 didn’t expect but seeing them together in Almodóvar’s first English-language feature feels like a dream collaboration. Although the filmmaker doesn’t tread too far from familiar ground, The Room Next Door feels like a steady return to form that may spell a new era in Almodóvar’s filmography.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
- Excerpt: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story will move the viewer and give us insight into an actor who played the Man of Steel but who became a greater symbol for truth, justice and the American way.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: What transcends is not just the actor’s determination to live but the unwavering devotion of his wife, Dana. Together, they exemplified how love can transform misfortune into hope.
- Excerpt: Through this heartfelt and deeply personal documentary, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story pays tribute to the man behind Superman.
Thank You for Banking With Us
- Excerpt: Overall, Thank You for Banking With Us brings a confident, emotive yet provocative caper that sees two unlikely women take a stand against patriarchal social norms.
Treasure
Diego Salgado @ Sofilm [Spanish]
Woman of the Hour
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: If this is where Kendrick’s directorial career starts off, I can only imagine the heights she will go.
Josh Thayer @ The Forgetful Film Critic
- Excerpt: If ever there were a movie that exemplifies the recent viral social media phenomenon known as “Man or Bear,” in which women are asked if they would prefer to be alone in the woods with a man or a bear, it’s Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour.
2023 Films
Fast Charlie
Sebastian Zavala @ MeGustaElCine.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: The narrative isn’t particularly exciting, but between the good work of Brosnan and Baccarin, the efficient direction of Noyce, and the moments of sudden violence and efficient black humour, “Fast Charlie” manages to entertain.
