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: September 21, 2018
Wide (United States)
Fahrenheit 11/9
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The House with a Clock in Its Walls
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Life Itself
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Limited (United States)
Love, Gilda
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: For a documentary about a comedienne whose greatest gift was joy, “Love, Gilda” is quite the downer.
Tea with the Dames
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality and Practice
- Excerpt: Entertaining conversations among four grand Dames of the English theatre and film scene about their public and private lives.
Tea with the Dames
Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: While no one actually drinks any tea in director Roger Michell’s film, the women profiled metaphorically spill the tea on their co-stars, each other and the industry at large.
2018 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Ant-Man and the Wasp
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
BlacKkKlansman
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Book Club
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Christopher Robin
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Crazy Rich Asians
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Hereditary
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mandy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Meg
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Mission: Impossible – Fallout
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The Nun
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Peppermint
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The Predator
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Ready Player One
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A Simple Favor
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Skyscraper
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Sorry to Bother You
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The Spy Who Dumped Me
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Thoroughbreds
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Tully
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Unsane
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White Boy Rick
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The Wife
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You Were Never Really Here
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Adrift
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality and Practice
- Excerpt: True story of a brave young woman who has her heart and hopes tested during a catastrophe at sea.
American Chaos
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality and Practice
- Excerpt: Interviews with Trump supporters in the 2016 Presidential campaign that prove passion beats pragmatism.
A-X-L
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality and Practice
- Excerpt: Intriguing sci-fi thriller that explores what can happen when robots become smarter than humans.
Beautiful Boy
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The nostalgia of the past is therefore [David’s] memory as a father while the pain of the present is his acknowledgment that things played differently for Nic. But we understand this without following the teen down his spiral. Doing so anyway therefore proves unnecessarily excessive.
Bel Canto
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality and Practice
- Excerpt: https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/28631/bel-canto
Blaze
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: One of the most beautiful and moving films ever made about a musician, “Blaze” reveals its cowriter (with Sybil Rosen)/director Ethan Hawke as a true romantic and its star, musician Ben Dickey, as an extraordinarily natural performer.
Blaze
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Blaze feels like an Ethan Hawke passion project, the kind where a filmmaker hears about a legend, digs in to find out more, and discovers a movie underneath it. Blaze’s story and Ben Dickey are made for the camera and Hawke’s country-western opera offers a realistic slice of Americana by a guy who appears to respect it, not a poseur intent on exploitation.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Chris Feil @ The Film Experience
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Heller therefore earns the ending’s sympathy despite what could have become a no-holds-barred escapade before it. She never forgets that these are real people rather than caricatures. They may not earn our forgiveness, but they definitely deserve our empathy.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
The Children Act
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality and Practice
- Excerpt: A towering performance by Emma Thompson as a British high court judge confronted by a complicated case and her own domestic challenges.
The Children Act
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: the adaptation sings under the direction of Richard Eyre (“Stage Beauty,” “Notes on a Scandal”), its themes more evident in the hands of a never better Thompson and the astonishing Whitehead, who beautifully captures the ethereal complexity of Adam Henry.
Cinema Axis
City of Joy
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality and Practice
- Excerpt: An inspiring story of compassion and service in a program training rape victims to be community leaders.
Climax
Chris Feil @ The Film Experience
Destination Wedding
Emmanuel Báez @ Cinéfiloz [Spanish]
Destroyer
Disobedience
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Don’t Leave Home
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Don’t Leave Home is a very assured film that keeps its pacing deliberate, but always unsettling. Not everyone will gel with its wavelength, but it will reward your patience.
Don’t Leave Home
Nuno Reis @ SciFiWorld Portugal [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Esta incursão de Tully no género não é para todos os públicos e não deve ser vista ao início da tarde, mas merece uma oportunidade.
Down a Dark Hall
Steve Biodrowski @ Hollywood Gothique
- Excerpt: Moody and creepy, this Gothic thriller is admirable in its effort to achieve subtle scares but ultimately too tame to truly thrill.
Elizabeth Harvest
Nuno Reis @ SciFiWorld Portugal [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: A câmara e tudo o que envolve enquadramento, cor e composição é uma das melhores armas do filme que nos inunda com planos brilhantes, ainda que não seja consistente. Existem muitos planos bons, mas entre eles há um vazio que tentaram encher com uma visão artística de pouca eficácia.
Farming
Final Score
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Unlike many other Die Hard imitators, Final Score understands the fundamentals, and is able to deliver on all fronts. Dave Bautista effortlessly carries the film, not just with the action, but with the central relationship between his character and his niece.
First Man
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Chazelle impressively depicts [Armstrong’s personal] struggle throughout, but he goes above and beyond during the climactic lunar landing. The moment’s hugeness ultimately tore it from [his] hands. Now it’s finally been given back.
Four Hands
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
The Front Runner
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Reitman and company let actions do the talking for a good two-thirds of the runtime and it’s a true joy to experience. The actors have brilliant comic timing with one another and everyone feels as though they’ve been on the road to cultivate relationships built on respect. I’d argue it’s the best-directed film of Reitman’s career, every facet proving almost impeccable.
Hal
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Scott’s documentary may not be perfect, but its loving embrace of an extraordinary filmmaker will hopefully vault him into a pantheon where he’s so often forgotten.
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
Vadim Grigoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
I Am Not a Witch
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a powerful feminist message as magical realism, a piece of political folklore resounding through generations.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Intelligent Lives
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality and Practice
- Excerpt: A solid case for tearing down the walls created by intelligence testing supported by the uplifting stories of those whose have escaped this segregation.
Introduzione all’Oscuro
Amber Wilkinson @ Eye For Film
- Excerpt: Aims more for emotional beats and resonances than factual musings.
The Land of Steady Habits
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality and Practice
- Excerpt: An engaging and well-acted drama about the challenges of middle age and suburban living.
Lizzie
Love Sonia
- Excerpt: Filmmaker Tabrez Noorani’s ‘Love Sonia’ chronicles a tale where a spirited 17-year old goes in search of her sister who has been to trafficked to a big, bad city. It isn’t essentially a tiring watch but the film emanates a vibe of insufficiency and predictability throughout, making us impossible to stay fully invested in the proceedings.
Manta Ray
Amber Wilkinson @ Eye For Film
- Excerpt: The film remains mysterious without being confusing – you don’t need to grasp every detail to understand its metaphors and message and its enigmatic aura invites repeat viewings.
May the Devil Take You
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: While lovely looking, the movie’s conflicts and characters are so underwritten it is hard to connect with them or understand them. And those too-many-jumpscares are just too damn annoying. High on the noises but very low on the thrills.
mid90s
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Watching Suljic have a blast with 90s music blaring over the visual nostalgia of film grain and full frame aspect ratio is enough to enjoy every second spent with him, but Hill underestimates the others’ appeal. Stevie’s tale is fun, but the real drama lies with them.
Monsters and Men
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Even with this sense of complexity, however, Monsters and Men still can’t stop itself from dipping too far into hyperbolic moments made more powerful by artifice than they ultimately prove.
Monsters and Men
The Old Man and the Gun
Chris Feil @ The Film Experience
Pick of the Litter
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality and Practice
- Excerpt: A remarkably suspenseful account of the service dog training of five puppies.
Prodigy
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Filled with exquisite suspense, “Prodigy” earns a place on my list of favorite contemporary thrillers.
Slice
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The film feels like it was ripped right out of the shelf alongside VHS tapes of Repo Man, Miracle Mile, and The Return of the Living Dead. It’s wild, hilarious, and full of details that will groom a cult following.
Slice
- Excerpt: Slice’s cinematic world-building is hot, fresh, and ready for consumption, even if the center is still a bit raw.
Slice
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: From the white witches disguising their deviousness with social justice to a community of different groups learning to co-exist and maybe even work together, Slice never holds back on using horror tropes and expected genre characters – witches, ghosts, werewolves – to skewer just how divided our society’s become.
Smallfoot
Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: With a genuinely heartening message that’s never cloying or condescending, Smallfoot is the feel-good movie of the fall, perfect for the entire family.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Karl Delossantos @ Smash Cut Reviews
- Excerpt: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is a swoon-worthy teen romantic comedy with a heart of gold and a trailblazing protagonist.
Widows
Chris Feil @ The Film Experience
Wildlife
Chris Feil @ The Film Experience
2017 Films
Custody
Alan Mattli @ Facing the Bitter Truth [German]
- Excerpt: Custody, French director Xavier Legrand’s debut feature, is a harrowing 90-minute exploration of the perfidiousness of domestic abuse, in keeping with Margaret Atwood’s famous dictum, “Men are afraid women will laugh at them; women are afraid men will kill them.”
Island
Amber Wilkinson @ Eye For Film
- Excerpt: This is an unflinching portrayal and, those who are recently bereaved or are in that large group of the populace – including myself – who have ever watched a loved one succumb to terminal illness, should approach it with extreme caution.
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: Another win from one of Indonesia’s most exciting directors today.
Mom and Dad
Federico Furzan @ El Otro Cine [Spanish]
2016 Films
Forsaken
ADDLINEFor member reviews of this film, follow this linkADDLINE
Approaching the Unknown
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Playing an inventor/scientist/astronaut responsible for the planning and execution of sending the first man (himself) on a no-return trip to Mars, Mark Strong manages to hold our interest for this entire film.
Blackway
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Ray Liotta pushes the bad-guy envelope almost to the cartoon villain category here, but it definitely works in this suspenseful thriller.
Finding Altamira
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Finding Altamira excels at showing the joys and sorrows that can come from a historic discovery. It also paints a beautiful picture of a tender father/daughter relationship.
I.T.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Very troubling is the lack of any character to cheer for during this all-too predictable cyberspace thriller.
Off the Rails
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: This fascinating true story of New York City’s most famous transit criminal comes across as quite compelling, though repetitive.
Our Last Tango
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: What a creative and artistic documentary! Besides its emphasis on love/hate and dance, “Our Last Tango” offers special insight into the power of obsession, the ups and downs of a relationship, the genius temperament, and the problems of aging.
Samurai Rauni
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: This deliberate cult item, with Nordic ninjas and Scandinavian samurai, plays like a low-grade acid trip and raises its artistic sights in the mystical and mystifying final act, but ultimately it’s more ‘Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.’ than ‘El Topo.’
Skiptrace
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Skiptrace shows Jackie Chan’s amusing side and takes us for a fun wild ride.
Films Not Yet Scheduled
Diamantino
Chris Feil @ The Film Experience
Gloria Bell
Chris Feil @ The Film Experience
Rafiki
Chris Feil @ The Film Experience
