Excerpt: This momentous cultural event from the end of the turbulent 60’s is apt to floor those unfamiliar with the case given the uncanny similarities with events today… The film features a dynamic, sprawling ensemble, one of the best of the year.
Excerpt: For better and for worse, all of Aaron Sorkin’s idiosyncrasies on full display. It is elegant, energetic, and entertaining, but I also found the film and its messaging to be hollow.
Excerpt: ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ showcases both Aaron Sorkin’s great skill and his great shortcomings. Telling the true story of a rambunctious American kangaroo court trial, Sorkin’s script is as precise and laser-honed as one would expect but his developing skill as a director still keeps audiences arm’s reach from the emotional core of the material.
Excerpt: Aaron Sorkin’s sophomore effort in the director’s chair – after 2017’s Molly’s Game – is just as compelling, erudite, and masterful as his first. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is one of the best movies of the year so far.
Excerpt: Presenting both Steinem’s life and times in a single film thus presents particular challenges, but Julie Taymor and Sarah Ruhl are more than up to the challenge in The Glorias, an unconventional film that is part traditional biopic and part wild experiment, ticking off key events of Steinem’s life (even the adoption of her famous aviator glasses) while engaging in flights of fancy and mixing time periods so that the Glorias of different ages are able to interact with each other.
Excerpt: From the first frame we are put on notice that this will be a film in which the emotional truth of her life is given equal weight with the factual truths that, while, accurate, cannot hope to convey the same power
Excerpt: What can one say about a Gloria Steinem biopic in which she tap dances in a Black barbershop as a child or meets a cutesy couple of Harley enthusiasts in a diner who gush in admiration of her feminism? Corny, say I.
Excerpt: Once we get to Steinem kicking the patriarchy’s ass – which began when she wrote an undercover piece about the awful working conditions of the “bunny” cocktail waitresses at New York’s Playboy Club in the 1960s – the movie sabotages its own momentum by doubling back to one of the less interesting segments.
Excerpt: Honest Thief is a dispiriting let down of what may have been something bordering on intriguing in favor of low-rent action trash and a complete of waste of Liam Neeson’s talents and our time.
Excerpt: Brian Welsh’s timely film celebrates civil disobedience through a coming-of-age lens at a time when authoritarianism is on the rise and the youngest generation is at the forefront of the human rights battle… The moving, central heartbeat of “Beats” is how Welsh lets us see Spanner through Johnno’s eyes.
Excerpt: Beats captures the highs and lows, the simultaneous hope and desolation, and, most of all, the wild, anarchic freedom of youth and having no idea what you’re doing, but plowing full speed ahead, consequences be damned.
Excerpt: Maggie Q and Luke Hemsworth star in Death of Me as a couple on holiday caught in a surreal, nightmarish mystery of bafflingly creepy stares, eerily-congratulatory salutes and a sadistic cult’s spine-tingling ritual.
Excerpt: After this mystery-horror effort presents a creepy-enough hook, “Death of Me” deflates, growing less interesting the deeper it gets into the weeds.
Excerpt: Death of Me opens with a killer premise that grabs you by the throat. From there, it proceeds to gradually squander all the potential of that premise.
Excerpt: …such an over the top piece of southern fried Gothic it is difficult to tell whether [Campos] intended his faithful retelling as drama or black comedy…a problem of tone and perhaps overreach that Campos never gets his arms around
Excerpt: Watching it is like binging a grisly rural crime miniseries with so many intriguing characters and plot-strands that we’re not quite sure where to look
Excerpt: I don’t think the film comes close to achieving the ambitions of its heavy themes, but I admired that it was willing to take a swing. The filmmaking and performances remain engrossing.
Excerpt: The unsettlingly bleak film is confidently directed, handsomely produced, and impeccably acted by its spectacular cast that includes Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Sebastian Stan, and Bill Skarsgård.
Excerpt: It is thoroughly delightful, and a ton of fun, even if there isn’t a whole lot going on under the surface. Millie Bobby Brown is incredibly charismatic.
Excerpt: Unconnected with the larger Sherlock world, Enola relies more on idiosyncratic quirks and twitchy editing at the expense of a more quixotic mystery to solve.
Excerpt: Enola Holmes’ isn’t out to be a clever reinvention but this flick is fun. It starts out fun, never stops being fun, and everything about it is fun.
Excerpt: Brandon Cronenberg continues to delve into body tourism, this time through the eyes of professional assassin Tasya Vos, a woman who has perhaps put her own personality on ice one time too many.
Excerpt: It’s a gnarly and relentlessly brutal assault on the senses, filled with nightmarish imagery and concepts that are brought to screen with plenty of style and atmosphere to spare.
Excerpt: With its good performances, excellent visual design, and all the blood and gore you could ask for, Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Possessor’ is a thrilling, engaging experience that succeeds in getting under your skin.
Excerpt: Hopefully the cast had a great time making “The War with Grandpa” because it’s a groan-inducing chore to watch for those still suffering from 2010’s putrid “Little Fockers.”
Excerpt: I know I was in good hands in the opening scene, which features a yellow city bus contrasted against the pastel teal of a post office exterior, and many more visual delights are presented over the course of Kajillionaire.
Excerpt: Watch as [Evan Rachel Wood] walks behind Jenkins and Winger like an Emirati wife, head down but fingers flying towards any pay phone coin return that crosses her path, her entire body language like a magician’s misdirection.
Excerpt: Through all of the idiosyncrasies on display here, “Kajillionaire” is a true oddball of a gem with a warmth and kindness that sneaks up on you.
Excerpt: Miranda July’s oddball opus ‘Kajillionaire’ uses quirk to speak to the distancing of humanity from itself, creating a weirdly tender and wholly otherworldly dramedy that’s lit up by great performances.
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