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: Dec. 16, 2022
Wide (United States)
Avatar: The Way of Water
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2022 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Black Adam
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
DC League of Super Pets
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Don’t Worry Darling
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Empire of Light
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Nope
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
She Said
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Till
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Triangle of Sadness
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Violent Night
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Wendell & Wild
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A.K.A
- Excerpt: A.K.A. is an excellent documentary that highlights a unique phenomenon in a highly entertaining fashion, as much as a tribute to three people whose stories and opinions are quite captivating to watch.
Aftersun
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Wells leaves the details unspoken via a formally fluid, sensorial experience. All we really know for certain is that their love for each other was undeniable—Mescal (unforgettably vulnerable) and Corio’s performances ensure it.
Bardo, A False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: I approached the prospect of viewing ‘Bardo’ with trepidation. But I’m happy to report that the movie, while it lags at times and never finds a way out of its own desert, delivers the necessary audacious panache to justify its Fellini aspirations.
Blurr
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Broadway Rising
Sarah E Boslaugh @ The Arts STL
- Excerpt: Amy Rice’s documentary Broadway Rising helps put a human face on all the people that make Broadway happen, most of whom will never appear on stage…
Christmas Bloody Christmas
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Things eventually fall apart when the film decides it doesn’t want to end. Milk it a bit, hope things don’t grow too stale, and blow stuff up. It does the job.
Corsage
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: It’s a lively enterprise that goes beyond historical fact to capture a prevailing attitude instead. It’s not about what Elisabeth did, but why she had no choice but to do it.
DC League of Super-Pets
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: This is not an amazing addition to the DC canon (is it even canonical?), but there are some humorous moments, both for the adults and for the younger viewers.
Decision to Leave
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: What Park does is so remarkable because this film never feels as though it’s hampered by tonal shifts. He’s not trying to marry two disparate threads together. Death is the catalyst for love.
Emancipation
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: When it’s not trying to do too much, though, EMANCIPATION does prove an emotionally-charged drama with enough suspense to keep us invested.
Aaron Neuwirth @ We Live Entertainment
- Excerpt: While commendable for its depiction of brutality, there’s little present allowing this film to function as much more than an overlong action film with little to say about its important context.
Enough! Lebanon’s Darkest Hour
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: “Enough!” is the how-and-why story that every thinking person concerned with the disintegration of society needs to heed.
God’s Country
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Society has been pushed into the gray areas to acknowledge that innocuous events can spiral out of control and that incendiary ones demand a response. Newton delivers a character who can no longer avoid accepting that these truths are universal.
Hanging Garden
- Excerpt: “Hanging Gardens” is an excellent film that benefits the most from the story, direction and cinematography, as much as a truly original and meaningful main concept.
The Inspection
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: While the movie does its best to center French’s trials and tribulations as a not-so-closeted gay man doing everything in his power to graduate, it doesn’t necessarily do enough to elevate what ultimately proves just another abusive boot camp depiction.
The Kings of the World
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: [It’s] in many respects a ghost story about five lost souls fending for themselves on the streets of Medellín who leave in search of the life that was taken from them when the government seized miles and miles of land from their people to mine gold.
The Old Town Girls
- Excerpt: What follows is a film as extended flashback, showing us how these characters ended up trapped in such a tangled web of economic stress, familial strain, and teenage angst. Yet while the neo-noir plot of The Old Town Girls was inspired by a true story, the film’s criminal side feels like an unnecessary distraction from what is otherwise a powerful coming-of-age story.
One Fine Morning
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: It’s not a picture that will necessarily blow you away, but it certainly offers a compelling portrait of a woman trying to sort through the issues that are plaguing her life.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: An endlessly enjoyable family film with a sweet message about finding satisfaction in life.
Retrograde
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: A portrayal of hubris and mismanagement on behalf of the world’s so-called “protectors” and abject futility on behalf of those who rose to their feet to risk everything in pursuit of a promise left unfulfilled.
Return to Seoul
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Return to Seoul is a very slow-paced movie, yet it has an allure that eventually drew me in.
Riceboy Sleeps
- Excerpt: “Riceboy Sleeps” is an impressive debut, a story that is both meaningful and entertaining, and a a rather well-shot movie that is bound to find admirers throughout the cinematic spectrum.
Unicorn Town
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
The Whale
Candice Frederick @ HuffPost
Aaron Neuwirth @ We Live Entertainment
- Excerpt: It’s unfortunate that I find the deliberate ways in which stage play adaptations retain certain qualities to feel like a hindrance… With that in mind, Fraser certainly earns the plaudits given thus far, as does the rest of this cast.
White Noise
- Excerpt: Noah Baumbach’s bright, funny, and nervy White Noise vividly translates Don DeLillo’s classic of mid-1980s American consumerist-medicated anxieties.
Young Plato
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Example after example is given on how the great philosophers can still guide us. This is truly an inspirational and instructional documentary.
2021 Films
The Journey
- Excerpt: Despite some issues here and there, mostly resulting from a focus on religion that occasionally looks propagandistic, the quality of action here is enough to satisfy most fans of epic/shonen anime, while the movie definitely deserves a watch for the uniqueness of the production.
2023 Films
Bengali Harlem
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Interspersed alternately with archival shots of early ship workers, stand-up clips from Alaudin’s one-man act “Dishwasher Dreams,” and honest reflections as he uncovers the truth about his mother, “In Search of Bengali Harlem” proves to be a high-interest documentary.
