Our critics have been hard at work reviewing the latest films. Here is a look at what’s coming out this weekend (in select cities, check your local listings) and what else may be in theaters right now.
Opening: Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2014
Wide (United States)
Before I Go to Sleep
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Before I Go to Sleep isn’t merely bad cheese, it’s Limburger.
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: A lethargic, very silly would-be thriller…featur[ing] scenes of abuse that are extremely nasty and protracted.
Nightcrawler
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
The Great Invisible
- Excerpt: The Great Invisible occasionally touches on gripping material but leaves too much of the story unsaid.
Frederick and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A hard-hitting and illuminating documentary about one of the largest man-made environmental disaster in history.
Horns
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Horns will make a fine Halloween date movie for those who steer clear of gore and jump scares but other than that, there is not too much here.
Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: A near-miss, a supernatural romance-cum-whodunit that strains under the weight of its warring elements.
2014 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
1,000 Times Good Night
The Babadook
- Excerpt: Kent’s fixations are incredibly mature, and her focus is stellar. “The Babadook” never sells out, safeguarding its human interests, even when the shit hits the fan.
Birdman
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Blue Room
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The Book of Life
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Camp X-Ray
- Excerpt: The baggage Stewart brings to ‘Camp X-Ray’ makes its first hour more compelling than anything in the screenplay. If the character is out of her depth, there’s a question as to whether the actor is as well; both certainly walk into Gitmo (the setting and the set) with something to prove, and when obstructions are placed in front of them, their jaw hardens and they proceed with even greater determination.
The Canal
Ron Wilkinson @ Monsters and Critics
- Excerpt: Spirits in restrooms, blood from the walls and a hand cranked camera add up to something, but we are not sure what.
Citizenfour
- Excerpt: Citizenfour is an historical document of confounding significance. It’s a glimpse behind the closed doors of a moment in time that has otherwise only been revealed in the abstract.
Ron Wilkinson @ Monsters and Critics
- Excerpt: Enter the real life world of spy craft and believe the truth is stranger than fiction
A Coffee in Berlin
Aaron Pinkston @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: Anchored by a breakout performance and a witty script, the film is an effortlessly entertaining stroll through the German capital.
Dear White People
- Excerpt: Writer/director Justin Simien takes on race relations in the Ivy League with this dagger-sharp satire, a film filled end-to-end with tiny sticks of dynamite, each lit carefully with a gleeful smirk.Simien is a righteous filmmaker, but his bitterness is exhilarating, and at its best, ‘Dear White People’ vibrates with the visceral thrill of watching a gifted new voice get away with something.
Death Comes to Pemberley
Frederick and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A devilishly good whodunit by P.D. James that is a sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
The Decent One
Ron Wilkinson @ Monsters and Critics
- Excerpt: Home movies juxtaposed with horrific Nazi footage paints the picture of the sleeping monster in us all.
Deliver Us from Evil
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dracula Untold
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Extraterrestrial
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Force Majeure
Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: The cool deliberation…takes a degree of patience to appreciate, and some may find its abrupt tonal shifts bewildering. But it’s a remarkable portrait of a family on the verge.
Fury
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The Giver
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The Guest
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Hercules
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Interstellar
William Bibbiani @ CraveOnline
- Excerpt: Christopher Nolan’s latest is an impressive visual spectacle riddled with plot holes and false emotions.
John Wick
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The Judge
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Kill the Messenger
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Laggies
Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: an odd departure for Shelton, an unusual premise relayed in more routine storytelling beats, but she’s cast it well and Knightley shines.
The Last Sentence
Aaron Pinkston @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: While this is an impressive production from a very competent filmmaker, I was left a bit cold.
Left Behind
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Love Is in the Air
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Low Down
Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
Kenji Fujishima @ Slant Magazine
Lucy
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The Maze Runner
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Men, Women & Children
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Million Dollar Arm
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Missionary
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: Little more than a pallid gender-reversal version of ‘Fatal Attraction’ with an unseemly religious twist…at best cable-TV fodder.
Mr. Turner
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: This is no stuffy costume drama but a richly lived-in visit to early-19th-century England that is rough, bawdy, often funny, and more often unsettling.
National Gallery
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This one isn’t a complete soup to nuts exploration of an administration so much as it is an exploration of how we communicate with art, Wiseman’s sly sense of humor peaking through in his editing.
Ouija
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Rhymes for Young Ghouls
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: If you are a film critic, ethnic studies type, or a Native American starved for cinematic role models, you’ll probably fall over yourself praising ‘Ghouls,’ and I’ll be hard pressed to muster much of a will to argue against you.
Snowpiercer
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St. Vincent
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Stonehearst Asylum
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The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: Will enthrall everyone with its evocative images but probably task the patience of anybody not already acquainted with, and fascinated by, the story.
This Is Where I Leave You
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The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Against all trepidation that inevitably comes with a horror film named after a classic—or in this case, a minor classic—”The Town That Dreaded Sundown” feels like both a throwback and a revitalization, and above all else, it’s actually scary.
A Walk Among the Tombstones
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Warsaw Uprising
David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: What we have is a film that – well-intentioned though it may be – is so profoundly misguided from the very start that it’s difficult to imagine what, if anything, could be done to improve it. At times, it’s so off-kilter that it’s funny, probably the last thing the filmmakers would want this story to be.
Whiplash
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White Bird in a Blizzard
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Winter in the Blood
David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: As the name suggests, winter represents something just under the surface. There’s something in the blood, in the animals, in the dirt, in the town and in the liquor.
2013 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Charlie Countryman
2014 Films (Coming Soon)
Class Enemy
Alan Mattli @ Facing the Bitter Truth [German]
- Excerpt: Many of its characters do not go beyond the stereotypical, Rok Bicek’s feature debut can be deemed a success. A minute and arresting psychological drama.
The Rugby Player
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Someone You Love
Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
Watchers of the Sky
When the Garden Was Eden
Wild Tales
Carlos del Río @ El rincón de Carlos del Río [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Muy sobrevalorada.
