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: May 13, 2022
Wide (United States)
None
Limited (United States)
The Innocents
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a suspenseful horror film, one which acknowledges both the cruelty and purity of children developing social skills… Much like Belgium’s Oscar submission “Playground,” the isolation of children within their own world is startlingly realized.
- Excerpt: A deeply disturbing portrayal of what happens when four kids discover they have superpowers, much of the film’s imagery—including brutal violence towards animals and children—is difficult to stomach. Yet Vogt’s decision to not pull any punches when it comes to the cruel acts children often commit before they have a full understanding of right and wrong is a large part of what makes The Innocents such an effective horror film.
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Like a comparatively wispy and more observational “X-Men” on an indie budget, “The Innocents” is as disturbing as it is devastating, and it’s always absorbing.
- Excerpt: Your nerves are frayed by the end, but it’s totally worth it.
Monstrous
Jeremy Kibler @ Horror Obsessive
- Excerpt: Monstrous offers a game Christina Ricci and not much more.
Montana Story
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The siblings may have found their way back to one another by the time they separate, but their story is never as satisfying as that little seen, symbolic horse’s is.
On the Count of Three
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: There are hints here of such classics as “Mean Streets” and “Scarecrow,” but while Carmichael realizes a good sense of pacing and shepherds actors well, he doesn’t scale those heights…Abbott is this film’s scene stealer.
Private Property
- Excerpt: The movie is 45 minutes of people explaining their life problems, 30 minutes of backstory, and 10 minutes of actual tension.
2022 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
The Adam Project
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Barbarians
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The Batman
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Death on the Nile
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Deep Water
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dual
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Happening
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Memory
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Morbius
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The Northman
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The Outfit
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The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
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After Blue
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Because while [it’s] undeniably bold, beautiful, transgressive, and singularly memorable, it possesses nothing of substance for me to care about the journey.
All My Puny Sorrows
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: This is emotionally piercing stuff, elevating what could have been a tepid Drama About Life with first-rate performances. There’s nothing puny about them.
Anaïs in Love
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The film unfolds as a subdued, yet impressively funny tale populated by flawed yet benevolent characters who never become so absorbed in their own self-importance to put something as silly as revenge above their universal and human yearning for happiness.
Annular Eclipse
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: A new blockbuster from China with a theme that take us back to Blade Runner.
The Aviary
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: I wouldn’t say Cullari and Raite necessarily give us anything we haven’t already experienced with the genre or themes, but they utilize them with deft hands to keep us invested in the characters and, by extension, the mystery connecting them.
Black Site
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Familiarity doesn’t automatically get in the way of effectiveness, though. With a better budget and more polish script-wise, Black Site might even be a good film.
Il Buco
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: With the only spoken words being that of the shepherd calling to his flock…Frammartino and his cinematographer…have created pure cinema, visual storytelling that achieves something spiritual. And oh, what glorious imagery has Berta divined.
Confession
- Excerpt: Apart from this issue, though, the movie is quite good, presenting a rather impactful story with artfulness, while managing to communicate a series of comments about human nature very few people would like to admit, in the most eloquent fashion.
Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: FIDDLER’S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN, directed by Daniel Raim, and written by Daniel Raim and Michael Sragow, is more than a “making-of” documentary. The people involved with making the film talk not just about making the film, but their own backgrounds and emotions, and how they affected their work.
Follow Her
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Considered the Best Film of FantasPorto 2022, “Follow Her” is a strong indie horror film.
Gangubai Kathiawadi
- Excerpt: “Gangubai Kathiawadi” in an excellent film, a masterclass on how to shoot a biopic that focuses on entertainment, and testament of the great abilities of Bhansali and Bhatt.
Hatching
- Excerpt: It’s a wonderfully twisted, pastel-colored Finnish fairy tale of the fractured sort.
Lucy and Desi
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
Mole Song Final
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Non Mi Uccidere
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: From Italy to Netflix…A new “Twilight” themed movie!
Operation Mincemeat
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: Legitimately gripping even though we can guess how it all resolves.
Pedro
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Shepherd
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: The first two acts work well in developing this world and allowing cracks to creep in.
Shepherd
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Its resulting visual and tonal intrigue, while effective, unfortunately feels hollow when juxtaposed against Hughes’ noteworthy performance.
Stanleyville
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: “Stanleyville” will firmly not be everyone’s cup of tea. But if you like this type of tea, it never wavers from its bizarro, off-kilter sensibility.
Stanleyville
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: It’s a high concept structure built with a lo-fi aesthetic that’s populated by darkly comic performances lending a surreal dryness that captivates as the whole spirals out.
The Tale of King Crab
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The Tale of King Crab is thus a singular cinematic work that brings folklore to life less to provide a morality lesson than a fictionalized historical account of the places economic inequality pushed impoverished men who had already forsaken their souls.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: One of the greatest things about this newest instalment of Texas Chainsaw Massacre is that it treads new ground by bringing Leatherface into a contemporary story, rather than keeping him stuck in decades passed, while simultaneously echoing Hooper’s film in the most important ways by keeping the story focused on socioeconomic issues, as well as on Leatherface’s queered identity.
Thar
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
The Twin
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Taneli Mustonen’s sturdy direction, a handful of creepy moments, and a dedicated, sympathetic lead performance do smooth out the musty familiarity of this material, making “The Twin” more effective than not.
The Unmaking of a College
- Excerpt: The many clips of students waxing poetic about their experience at Hampshire tends to make this film feel at times like a recruiting video…
Vortex
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: While his messaging and execution are sound and the film objectively effective, I wouldn’t fault anyone for falling asleep before realizing it. Nor those rejoicing upon its end.
Wake Up Punk
XxxHolic
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: The new live-action anime adaptation sensation from Japan.
2021 Films
Cruella
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Jungle Cruise
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Lamb
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American Underdog
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Coma
Paulo Portugal @ [Portuguese]
