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. 6, 2024
Wide (United States)
Solo Leveling -ReAwakening-
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Devils Stay
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
The End
- Excerpt: It’s a long sigh, an off-key parody song performed before humanity’s curtain call.
Get Away
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Imagine ‘Midsommar’ played for laughs and you’re on the right track.
Girl with the Needle
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The film begins with an eerie, Lynchian image, that of a face morphing into others which we will meet along the way. The film overall is indebted to Lynch as well, recalling “The Elephant Man” in look, sound and theme, disfigurement featured in a freak show.
Nightbitch
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Writer/director Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”), whose adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s novel feels a little toothless, is blessed with a committed performance from her star, who fearlessly exhibits the physical and mental downsides to maternity.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A feminist tale with, no pun intended, real bite.
The Order
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: They’ve changed the name of real-life F.B.I. agent Wayne Manis to Terry Husk and given Husk fictional family issues which really only distract from the otherwise lean and suspenseful narrative.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A harrowing exploration of how hate groups operate
2024 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Anora
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Gladiator II
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Memoir of a Snail
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Moana 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Red One
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Saturday Night
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Substance
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Venom: The Last Dance
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Wicked, Part I
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
76 Days Adrift
- Excerpt: Imagine setting sail on a record-breaking cross-Atlantic solo trip in 1982, only to have your boat (Napoleon Solo, no less) soon scuppered then have to hang on for dear life in a 4×4 life raft with hopes of, somehow, riding the North Atlantic currents and, hopefully, reaching terra firma somewhere in the Caribbean.
- Excerpt: Imagine setting sail on a record-breaking cross-Atlantic solo trip in 1982, only to have your boat (Napoleon Solo, no less) soon scuppered then have to hang on for dear life in a 4×4 life raft with hopes of, somehow, riding the North Atlantic currents and, hopefully, reaching terra firma somewhere in the Caribbean.
Anatema
Diego Salgado @ Sofilm [Spanish]
Armand
- Excerpt: Suffer the little children
Armor
Sebastian Zavala @ Loud and Clear Reviews [Spanish]
- Excerpt: A repetitive, tedious action “romp”, full of terrible digital effects and clichéd characterisations, and lacking in anything resembling excitement or tension. Armor is, unfortunately, a wasted opportunity.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: An oft-told tale is rediscovered from a fresh perspective, reminding us of the values we cherish during the holidays.
The Bibi Files
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Bloom makes a powerful case against Israeli’s Prime Minister, not only for extending a war resulting in tens of thousands of civilian casualties in order to stay in power, but in his part in creating the circumstances which led to October 7 to begin with…a crucial work of non-fiction filmmaking.
Blue Fiddle
- Excerpt: The Magic of Music
Bound in Heaven
Diego Salgado @ Fipresci [Spanish]
The Brutalist
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: Epic art film on antisemitism.
Daaaaaalí
- Excerpt: Ego on a brush
Detained
- Excerpt: Too many plot twists spoil the broth
Drowning Dry
Sebastian Zavala @ Loud and Clear Reviews [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Despite not being presented in chronological order, the film makes sense on an emotional level, and that’s all it needs for its story to work.
Housewife of the Year
- Excerpt: Exploitation 101
Juror #2
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
- Excerpt: (Juror #2) is a well-crafted, well-acted, well-directed piece of filmmaking that is probably the best film of 2024.
Diego Salgado @ [Spanish]
Maria
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The whole is imbued with similar flourishes as Larraín’s other English-language heightened biographies, Jackie and Spencer, to find its narrative thrust landing somewhere between the former’s poetic realism and latter’s evocative fantasy.
The Piano Lesson
Porcelain War
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …not only an uplifting look at artists waging an unorthodox battle in Ukraine, but a whimsical look at art as Anya’s paintings come to life as miniature animations on the body of a porcelain snail.
Queer
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Working with an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ last published novel by his “Challengers'” scribe Justin Kuritzkes, director Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”) has elicited a powerhouse performance from Daniel Craig that is romantic desire personified.
The Room Next Door
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: The Room Next Door is a slight disappointment. Its story—based on a novel by Sigrid Nunez—is intriguing and at times unpredictable, but it is presented here coldly and logically, leaving aside its emotional aspect.
Strange Darling
Sugarcane
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The atrocities perpetuated upon Canada’s indigenous is yet another stain on a Catholic Church which has covered up the sexual crimes of priests around the world and allowed the abuse and deaths of single women in Ireland’s notorious Magdalene Laundries.
Sweethearts
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Yes, following [Hearon’s Palmer] takes us away from the “main plot,” but I’d argue his path is both more interesting and makes [the leads’ plot] better through the act of “ruining” it.
That Christmas
- Excerpt: Schmaltz-heavy and wishlist-thin, That Christmas offers very little and doesn’t even have the self-awareness to include the receipt.
Touch
- Excerpt: Even as the possibility of WW III looms large, it’s encouraging to have a film that celebrates life in the devastation of death (in this case, the utter destruction of Hiroshima).
You Are Not Me
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Writer/directors Marisa Crespo & Moisés Romera use the paranoid fundamentals of “Rosemary’s Baby” for a very disorienting and disturbing Christmas homecoming tale.
