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: Feb. 7, 2020
Wide (United States)
Limited (United States)
And Then We Danced
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: And Then We Danced is a love story, but it’s not merely a sexual awakening. We’re watching as Merab is exposed to a world he’s been conditioned to ignore.
Come to Daddy
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …while the film can be wedged into the horror genre, it’s more of a darkly comedic psychological thriller which, unfortunately, devolves into an ultra violent gross-out spectacle, almost entirely losing the father-son reunion story at its heart.
The Lodge
The Lodge
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The filmmakers know how to set a mood, and while the story is engaging in the moment, especially with Riley Keough’s performance, it doesn’t have much lasting impact.
The Lodge
Aaron Neuwirth @ We Live Entertainment
- Excerpt: It’s a shame the film ultimately has little else to offer beyond its slow-burn eeriness and psychological chills.
The Lodge
- Excerpt: Led by a strikingly gloomy performance from Riley Keough, ‘The Lodge’ uses the power of psychological warfare and brutal natural elements to spook up a dark cabin fever horror story that refuses to let up.
2020 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
2020 Oscar Nominated Shorts
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Color Out of Space
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Dolittle
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The Gentlemen
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Gretel & Hansel
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The Rhythm Section
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Underwater
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Weathering With You
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The Assistant
- Excerpt: The Assistant stares at a recent college grad’s first real-world moral dilemma – what will you do when your black and white ethics lessons confront the gray areas of innuendo, the behavior of powerful men, and the inevitability of personal consequences should you challenge the system.
Come Away
Film About a Father Who
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: This film isn’t therefore about righting wrongs, but exposing facts Ira kept locked away. Lynne Sachs captures it with immense compassion.
John Henry
- Excerpt: [a] half-baked, hedonistic inner city revenge thriller…registers with all the generic luster of a rusty sledgehammer. John Henry is hammered but not the preferred way you would expect
The Last Full Measure
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [While] some of its melodrama [proves] disingenuous, it remains effective and affecting. There are some truly profound moments of authenticity that hit harder than [expected].
Like a Boss
Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: Despite its sweet sentiments about female friendship, its connect-the-dots formula, mixed messages and stale characters and conflicts overwhelm, making this a messterpiece.
Like a Boss
- Excerpt: [A] flat and flimsy premise deserving of an immediate pink slip. The monotonous Like a Boss drags out its cockeyed comedic conflict with all the originality and imagination of cherry-colored lip gloss.
Little America
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A joyous collection of portraits of immigrant experiences inspired by true stories.
An Officer and a Spy
Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
Ordinary Love
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A Cancer Movie but not a horror story. Funny, moving, hopeful; an intimate portrait of a couple who know how to support each other and why that matters. Oh, and it’s also a love letter to the NHS.
Relic
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: The well-crafted film is original, disturbing and subtle.
The Rescue
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: This Michael Bay–esque love letter to China Rescue & Salvage may be propaganda, but its enjoyably bonkers melodrama and grippingly engaging action are a lot less obnoxious than any film Bay has made.
The Traitor
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Marco Bellocchio’s (“Vincere”) epic tale of the man who brought down the Italian mob (Italy’s submission for the International Film Oscar) is probably easier to dive into in its home country where one presumes Buscetta’s story is as well known as Whitey Bulger’s is in Boston.
The Traitor
- Excerpt: Was the man who brought down the Sicilian mob a rat or a defender of the true mafia? Director Marco Bellocchio has a strong opinion, but The Traitor may be too nebulous for an audience uninitiated in the subject matter.
The Turning
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Some effectively creepy moments and decent performances are not enough to make up for a lackluster adaptation.
The Turning
- Excerpt: Lacking spine-tingling dread, taut tension, and the deservingly provocative ending needed to make its modern sentiments land, this re-imagining is less than a classic.
The Turning
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Strips away the ambiguity of the source story to leave us with lazy jump scares, visual gloom, and a cheap cheat of an ending. Gaslights its protagonist and, incredibly enragingly, the viewer, too.
Tyler Perry’s A Fall From Grace
- Excerpt: …transparent and turgid. A Fall From Grace is so much of a mockery that this cinematic cyst may have the moviemaker returning back to wearing Madea’s saggy panties.
2019 Films
1917
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The Aeronauts
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Bombshell
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Brian Banks
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Dark Waters
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Honey Boy
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Hotel Mumbai
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Jojo Rabbit
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Knives Out
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Little Women
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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
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Parasite
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The Peanut Butter Falcon
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Portrait of a Lady on Fire
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Richard Jewell
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Terminator: Dark Fate
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Uncut Gems
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América
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …a beautiful portrait of familial love nestled within an eldercare drama.
Bull
- Excerpt: Send in the clowns
Citizen K
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Muckraking documentarian Alex Gibney on why Vladimir Putin is so dangerous, via the tale of a Russian oligarch of the post-Soviet era turned dissident. Vital context for the state of the world today.
An Elephant Sitting Still
- Excerpt: One of darkest (in all senses: storylines, lighting, much of the music) films yet seen, gives many insights to life in present-day China along with the universal realities of bullying, infidelity, depression, angst and social media “outings”.
Malasaña 32
Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
Les Miserables
Dragan Antulov @ Draxblog VI [Croatian]
