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: Mar. 27, 2020
None.
2020 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Bloodshot
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Blow the Man Down
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Emma.
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Hunt
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Invisible Man
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Swallow
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Adverse
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Welcome back Mickey Rourke!
Baaghi 3
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Big Time Adolescence
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Even when things go haywire and lean heavily onto the humor of each situation, the film refuses to lose its dramatic edge. There are stakes to what is happening.
Bloodshot
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: derivative lump of lethargy that taints the thrill of the plot twist, and renders an action sequence in plummeting elevators dully predictable
Bloodshot
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Incoherent action sequences and strained sci-fi woo-woo can’t save a clueless mashup of Robocop, The Matrix, and Captain America that makes a mockery of its protagonist. Deeply terrible.
Blow the Man Down
- Excerpt: The film never veers into wink-wink self-consciousness that its opening might have suggested.
Blow the Man Down
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The filmmakers breathe new life into an otherwise familiar setup.
Blow the Man Down
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Quietly savage, weirdly funny, this feminist take on crime noir is ferocious in a way that only slowly reveals itself. Conflict and compassion wax and wane in a mystery that isn’t quite what it seems.
Burden
- Excerpt: …a compelling but seemingly trite tension tale. Redemption expositions are cozy and thought-provoking in concept but nicely wrapped feel-good fables such as Burden seem to be holding back the realness of its provoked outrage.
Chhapaak
- Excerpt: Meghna Gulzar ‘s film exposes how men empowered by patriarchy nip women off their dreams by throwing acid on them. Deepika Padukone and Vikrant Massey are wonderful in this sensitive, deeply disturbing film.
Una Chica Invisible
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Jawaani Jaaneman
- Excerpt: This Nitin Kakkar film creates a new universe for fun Bollywood cinema centred on parenting headlined by one of 2000s’ most charming romantic stars. Welcome back Saif Ali Khan & cheers to the charming debutante, Alaya F.
The Last Thing He Wanted
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Terrible…What a miss oportunity!
Lost Girls
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Amy Ryan showcases her talent in a film that will make you want to know more about the Long Island serial killer.
Love Aaj Kal
- Excerpt: Love Aaj Kal’ is a profound signal that the Imtiaz Ali brand of cinema ought to evolve. Because there is very little to feel in a banal love story made worse by lead actors who barely know their craft.
Malang
- Excerpt: It feels like an extended music album visualized through Vikas Sivaraman’s indulgent lenses. Problems arise when ‘Malang’ tries to be a feature film as there is only so much one can do with a dull screenplay & lifeless characters.
The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon
- Excerpt: Freedom Records & Films’ documentary about Mojo Nixon started production in 2012, and, at the time, it was scheduled to release a couple of years later. There’s no indication why it took so long, but the fruit of director Matt Eskey’s labors, The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon, is well worth the long wait.
My Darling Vivian
- Excerpt: In 1951 Johnny Cash met Vivian Liberto at a skating rink in San Antonio when she was a Catholic schoolgirl, and he was an airman in the U.S. Air Force. He was immediately besotted with her, and after he shipped out to Germany, they exchanged thousands of love letters. When he returned in 1954, they were married, and shortly after that, she was pregnant with the first of four daughters.
Panga
- Excerpt: Be it with Bhopal’s lazy vibe or the homey living spaces, Ashwiny Iyer ‘s ‘Panga’ explores middle-class Indian life with great flair. Kangana Ranaut is wonderful whereas Jassie Gill, Richa Chadha and Neena Gupta lend solid support.
The Platform
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It is a film that wants to make its message clear, and it will use any cinematic means necessary to get that point through. It’s full of engaging and thrilling filmmaking.
The Platform
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: [Relies] on excellent cast willing to unearth the humor of futility while also succumbing to its depths of despair [as it coaxes] out the kinetic energy of its static spaces.
Resistance
- Excerpt: The film is an old-fashioned and straightforward tale of brave opposition to the Nazi occupation of France.
Resistance
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: That the man at the center is Marcel Marceau ultimately becomes a trivial matter once the story cements itself as being about so much more than his not-yet-realized celebrity.
Saint Frances
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: [The film reveals] the one [absolute] we do need: a certainty in our collective uncertainty. Happiness demands wiggle room.
Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan
- Excerpt: The mega responsibility on its shoulders notwithstanding, ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan’ barely makes the cut as a coherent feature film. It is truthful towards LGBTQIA but the film, without doubt, is Ayushmann Khurrana’s weakest in years.
Spenser Confidential
Frank Ochieng @ The Critical Movie Critics
- Excerpt: …[a] witless cop caper…this charmless action-comedy suspense piece will result in yet another disposable salt-and-pepper buddy flick aiming for low rent chuckles.
Tanhaji: The Unsung Hero
- Excerpt: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Likewise, when Bollywood gives you historicals, subtract the history out of it. So yes, Ajay Devgn ‘s ‘Tanhaji’ works solely and adequately as a well-shot fantasy fare.
Thappad
- Excerpt: Helmed by Anubhav Sinha, ‘Thappad’ neither makes compromises nor treads side roads to reach its destination. It knows where to go & how to get there. This Taapsee Pannu-starrer is the most accomplished Hindi language film in a long time.
Trance
- Excerpt: Anwar Rasheed makes his comeback film richly fulfilling as far as his craft is concerned. That aside, ‘Trance’, fuelled by a zestful lead act by Fahadh Faasil, deserved a firmer screenplay to have become truly path-breaking.
Verotika
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Verotika is a thoroughly baffling work that has to be seen to be believed. And aficionados of movies that are crazy-town banana-pants absolutely should see it.
Vivarium
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: As a parable on suburbia, there isn’t much here you haven’t seen before, but it’s presented with skill from the cast and crew, a relentlessly oppressive atmosphere, an eye for striking visuals, and a level of viciousness that I can’t help but admire.
Vivarium
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: While Contagion, Outbreak, and World War Z enjoy a mini-renaissance due to the world’s current viral fears, Vivarium may be the ultimate cabin fever horror as it preys on the audience’s tedium of social distancing.
Vivarium
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: I have to give the filmmakers a ton of credit here because they walk themselves to a point of no return as far as where things are heading and they do not blink.
Vivarium
2019 Films
Bombshell
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Doctor Sleep
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The Highwaymen
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Just Mercy
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Parasite
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Portrait of a Lady on Fire
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In the Tall Grass
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: It had potencial, but it’s an overall failure!
Loop
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: A great first incursion of Brazil’s Cinema in the World of Sci-Fi!
Loqueesha
- Excerpt: …embarrassing and abominable. Utterly imbecilic and indigestible, Loqueesha is a rancid stain for all that participated in this flatulent farce
Where’s My Roy Cohn?
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
The Wolf Hour
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: If it wasn’t for Naomi Watts, The Wolf Hour would be terrible!
2018 Films
The Cakemaker
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Reviews
- Excerpt: An intriguing and atmospheric drama from the debut of the middle-aged Israeli writer-director Ofir Raul Graizer.
Inner Ghosts
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
