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. 20, 2020

Limited (United States)

Collective

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

• Excerpt: This artfully unfolding documentary is part political thriller, part paean to investigative free press, the whole haunted by Tedy Ursuleanu…who has turned her severe burning and disfigurement into something like national conscience performance art

Embattled

Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage

• Excerpt: [The climactic fight is] where the fireworks are, but the true worth to Embattled is the path Jett takes to get there and the reasons for why he does.

Jiu Jitsu

Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See

• Excerpt: A movie starring Nicolas Cage, Alain Moussi, Tony Jaa, Frank Grillo, JuJu Chan, Marie Avgeropoulos, and Rick Yune, about a group of elite fighters who must use martial arts to defeat an alien invader, directed by one of the masterminds behind the recent Kickboxer films. That’s probably enough information for viewers to decide whether or not to see Jiu Jitsu, a film that delivers precisely what one might expect.

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

• Excerpt: Ahmed doesn’t engage in histrionics, instead giving a quiet, internal performance…The man we are left with (in a knockout of a final scene) is very changed from the one we first met.

Karl Delossantos @ Smash Cut Reviews

• Excerpt: Sound of Metal is one of the best portrayals of deafness in film using smart sound design and a stellar performance by Riz Ahmed to communicate the experience. And while it loses steam as it makes its way to the finale the core message is powerful and poignant.

Sound of Metal

Josh Taylor @ The Forgetful Film Critic

• Excerpt: It’s a simple setup – almost high-concept: the elevator pitch might be, “Metal drummer loses his hearing overnight and must face radically changing his life in order to adjust.” But the careful attention to detail and emotional complexity that first-time director Darius Marder and his co-screenwriter Abraham Marder put into the picture make Sound of Metal a deeply moving experience.

The Twentieth Century

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

• Excerpt: …what happens in Winnipeg doesn’t stay in Winnipeg, here depicted…as a red light district of fetishism where King indulges his used boot fetish by buying one of Ruby’s to huff back at home as his oversized cactus ejaculates.

Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie

• Excerpt: A fever dream of German Expressionism propelling forth Canadian political chicanery. For the adventurous cinephile, this may be the most fun you have all year.

Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com

• Excerpt: Rankin is upping the “Canadian-ness” of the piece with each aspect of his production, placing what’s already a very niche topic into very singular packaging.

Zappa

Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage

• Excerpt: An in-depth look at the man behind the mustache through his own words, those of his collaborators, and the art itself.

2020 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas

Continue reading This Week at the Movies (Nov. 20, 2020) →

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. 13, 2020

Wide (United States)

Freaky

For member reviews of this film, follow this link

Limited (United States)

Ammonite

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

• Excerpt: Winslet is extraordinary here, every year of unappreciated hard work writ across her expression, her mannish way of walking the gait of a laborer…Lee’s fashioned a wonderful what-if examination of a little known historical figure

The Climb

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

• Excerpt: “The Climb” is not only funny and insightful, but full of cinematic invention, its scenes transitioning on everything from singing gravediggers to pole dancing karaoke to a tracking shot of a dog that takes us from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Come Away

Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie

• Excerpt: I know most children’s stories are based on sinister myths which dribbled out of spooky German Brothers Grimm forests, but it’s perplexing to see both Neverland and Wonderland stand upon the shoulders of one family’s emotional meltdown.

Dreamland

Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage

• Excerpt: Dreamland isn’t Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, but it is an attractive deviation that skews younger with its coming-of-age nostalgia rising above the plot’s dramatic intrigue.

Fatman

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

• Excerpt: There is a subgenre of Christmas movies that intersect with blackly comic horror…Nelms’ film is so off kilter, it doesn’t quite line up with those in either the horror or comedy departments, but should appeal to the same audience.

Wolfwalkers

Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews

• Excerpt: Moore’s work is immediately identifiable…and this one is a beauty, its 17th century architecture comprised of geometric shapes, its forest magically rendered in swirling autumnal shades, its undulating wolf pack moving as one.

2020 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas

Continue reading This Week at the Movies (Nov. 13, 2020) →