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. 4, 2022
Wide (United States)
Jackass Forever
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Moonfall
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
The Worst Person in the World
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Long Night
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: Fans of the genre may recognize familiar elements, but the craftsmanship and style might be enough to make the viewing experience worthwhile.
- Excerpt: Harrison discusses The Long Night for the 1st Annual JanuScary Special!
2022 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
The King’s Daughter
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Scream
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
After Yang
- Excerpt: After Yang is like therapy. It’s taking a problem, one so large in lives that it feels impossible, and breaks down into questions that we can answer.
After Yang
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It combines world-building with fascinating sci-fi concepts (robots, clones, self-driving cars!), and of course, big questions about human nature.
After Yang
David “DC” Bolling @ DC’s Take
- Excerpt: Above and beyond everything else, it hits what it means for those grieving and all that is tied to us.
Am I OK?
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It feels quite personal and quite honest, and thanks to an appropriately light tone, it ends up becoming a delightful experience.
Babysitter
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: An exercise in style and color that, without working all the time, is very easy to admire.
Bro Daddy
Call Jane
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Call Jane ends up satisfying with its efficient mix of drama, subtle humor, and true events.
Catch the Fair One
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Reis, the first Native American woman…to win a championship boxing title, is absolutely magnetic in the lead and Wladyka… belies his sophomore feature filmmaking experience. Both are talents to watch.
Cha Cha Real Smooth
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: The contrast between two very different characters who get along so well, is what makes “Cha Cha Real Smooth” an extremely charming experience.
Cha Cha Real Smooth
David “DC” Bolling @ DC’s Take
- Excerpt: I wouldn’t mind watching more of these characters through the runtime because the script has them be pretty poignant when it calls for a scene to be heartbreaking or comedic that was handled better than I expected
Clean
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: It’s as though the film wants to be a hard-hitting drama and action spectacle at the same time but ends up being neither.
Dual
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: A dark but funny film, satirically violent and immensely entertaining; very different from any other movie I have seen so far at Sundance.
Emily the Criminal
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It works very well as a dramatic thriller, but it also paints a credible picture of a reality that, surely, many people live in the United States.
The Fallout
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: It’s only until we can talk about these issues openly that we are able to find some hope of overcoming them.
Fresh
David “DC” Bolling @ DC’s Take
- Excerpt: The tone shift didn’t come across as distracting as I predicted because I managed to get in the groove of how twisted the rest of the premise is heading.
Fresh
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: An incredibly tense film, centred on Edgar-Jones and Stan’s fantastic performances (the latter uses his charisma to terrify both Noa and the viewer).
God’s Country
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: God’s Country proves that being subtle and understated is sometimes best when developing a dramatically powerful story.
Good Luck to you, Leo Grande
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: A film about the pleasure that every human being deserves, about the perception that one has about their own body, and about female sexuality.
Hridayam
Lotawana
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a production that would be the envy of much larger budgeted films. “Lotawana” is beautiful, with strikingly edited montages escorted into the film by Ryan Pinkston’s lovely piano score and top notch sound mix.
Lotawana
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Master
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: A film with two sides: one more intellectual and fascinating, and the other undeniably tedious and predictable.
Munich: The Edge of War
Betty Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Although we know how the end goes, this thriller keeps us on our toes.
My Old School
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: That’s where the film’s genius lies; in highlighting the ridiculousness of the situation, and the fact that reality is often stranger than fiction.
Palm Trees and Power Lines
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: A powerful and devastating film, which fortunately never victim-blames, and rather manages to intertwine an important message with a well-told story.
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliche
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Poly’s daughter has done her proud with an intimate, yet all-encompassing portrait of an extremely talented and complex woman. “Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché” is yet another in a string of fabulously engaging rock docs.
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliche
- Excerpt: The punk anthem “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!” was released by the band X-Ray Spex ten years before I was born, yet the first time I heard it as an angsty teenager it felt as prescient as ever. Just as much an outburst against aggressive consumerism as it is a feminist call to arms — if not more so — it’s impossible to hear Poly Styrene’s voice screaming those lyrics and not feel equal parts enraged and empowered. A mixed-race woman fronting a rock band in the 1970s while the National Front was spreading its racist rhetoric throughout the UK, with a mouthful of metal braces and a closetful of futuristic homemade fashions, Poly Styrene was a unique artist who remains an iconic figure to this day, with her influence felt everywhere from Afropunk to Riot Grrrl.
Resurrection
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: The film had potential, but sadly it doesn’t work very well either as a suspense thriller, or as a drama with supernatural and surreal touches.
Sharp Stick
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: The film tries to bother and generate immediate reactions in the viewer, but unfortunately it only manages to stay on the surface.
Shithouse
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It may have some technical flaws – weird cuts, awkward camera movements – but they’re not enough to spoil the good acting and entertaining script.
Sundown
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Roth’s almost somnambulant performance is another reflection on the influence of unimaginable wealth, one which he sprinkles with just enough glimmers of compassion to allow us to see Neil’s soul.
A Taste of Hunger
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Contemplative and tenderly observed, a slow-burn romantic and family drama about two complicated, difficult people and what they’re willing to risk to achieve their dream. Plus: Scandi food porn!
A Taste of Hunger
- Excerpt: The film moves back and forth through time and is divided into chapters, from their sweet first meeting to a sour betrayal, and the heated climax when all of the elements combine.
The Tinder Swindler
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: The direction and editing balances out the details, delving into the intricacies of the fraud and its massive ripple effects.
Utama
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: The best thing about “Utama”, however, is in its honesty; in the conflict between its characters, and how real it all feels.
We Need to Talk About Cosby
When You Finish Saving the World
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: A very good debut for Eisenberg as a director, so much so that I will be (impatiently) waiting for his next behind-the-scenes job.
When You Finish Saving the World
David “DC” Bolling @ DC’s Take
- Excerpt: When You Finish Saving the World doesn’t really have a moment that had me recalling being emotionally resonant enough to care what these characters are going through, although I believe there’s a large amount of empathy with them that could’ve been explored more with a longer runtime.
Who We Are: A Chronice of Racism in America
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This is the nation’s history which Republicans are desperately trying to hide from their constituents…and writer Jeffrey Robinson is just the right tour guide, his concise insights cutting right through their rhetoric.
You Won’t Be Alone
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Powerful at times, but a bit pretentious at others. However, those who can stomach the gore will find something of interest here.
2021 Films
Army of the Dead
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Boss Level
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Cyrano
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Drive My Car
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Eternals
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Flee
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Harder They Fall
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Judas and the Black Messiah
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
King Richard
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Licorice Pizza
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The Mitchells vs. the Machines
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
MLK/FBI
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
No Sudden Move
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Petite Maman
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Pig
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Power of the Dog
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Raya and the Last Dragon
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Space Jam: A New Legacy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Summer of Soul
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West Side Story
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Wrath of Man
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
American Underdog
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: The reliance on hope and optimism is de rigueur for sports biopics, but Kurt Warner’s path to the NFL is anything but predictable.
Army of Thieves
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Radu Jude’s latest film is the cinematic equivalent of Pussy Riot, a bold, experimental and bawdy comedy about some very serious subjects… stacking up all the outrages humanity has to offer versus consensual sex and asking just which is obscene.
Finch
Here Alone
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Killing the Shephard
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Munich – The Edge of War
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: People who love historical dramas — particularly those about the events that led up to WWII — will find a lot to enjoy here.
Outlier
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Parallel Mothers
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
Red Notice
Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Somewhere with No Bridges
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse
Transference: A Love Story
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
