For a film to get its own page on the main 2021 links page, it must receive at least 5 link submissions from our members with few exceptions. Here is a list of all films that haven’t quite reached that threshold yet. When it does, it will be moved to the main page and removed from this page.
#Like
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Sarah Pirozek weaves an elegant, noirish tragedy on a micro budget, but it’s far more effective as a portrait of the miserable discomposure of modern teen life than as a feminist vigilante thriller.
12 Mighty Orphans
- Excerpt: The film’s lessons are not only delivered, they’re repeated and underlined to the point where even the most uncritical fan will beg for mercy.
Nell Minow @ Movie Mom
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [The adults’] compassion towards these boys is a piece; the boys’ evolution is the puzzle. And to that end 12 Mighty Orphans is pretty darn effective.
13 Minutes
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: What we get then is an extremely misguided film that’s set-up to cleanse sins before deciding to merely repackage them as privilege.
14 Peaks
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: The storytelling that made Chin and Vasarhelyi famous in “Free Solo,” is missing in “14 Peaks.” While the photography Nimsdai and his partners take is stunning, and Nims’ life is remarkable, there is no suspense or tension to lead the film emotionally.
23 Walks
400 Bullets
4×4
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: 4×4 is an engrossing film, and it takes you on a really strange yet compelling ride within its limited setting while also touching on bigger ideas.
8 Rue L’Humanite
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
8-Bit Christmas
- Excerpt: While nothing entirely new, 8-Bit Christmas is still a wonderful story and instant Christmas classic that can be enjoyed every year.
A Madder Red
- Excerpt: “A Madder Red” has its merits, and Ono is quite pleasurable to watch, but as a whole, it results into an exercise of patience, both for its duration and the overall approach to the story.
A Mão de Deus/È Stata la Mano de Dio
Paulo Portugal @ Insider.pt [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Tal como o histórico golo de Maradona marcado com a mão à Inglaterra, durante o Mundial do México em 1986, é considerado um dos pontos altos da sua carreira de futebolista, também a ‘mão’ de Paolo Sorrentino neste filme sublinha o toque de mestre do cinema que vai ao seu próprio passado e se transforma na sua obra mais conseguida.
Aarkkariyam
About Endlessness
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A tutorial on the spiritual practice of attention.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: [Andersson’s] built-in-studio (some amazingly so), neutral pastel-toned scenes filmed with a static camera and a straight face (admirable in his more absurdist moments) comprise a film which expands his trilogy into a quartet.
Kenji Fujishima @ Book & Film Globe
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: This project feels less like a climax to the now-78-year-old Andersson’s brilliant career, and more like an unexpected encore, a gift to hardcore fans who are not quite ready to go home just yet.
Adrienne
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [Ostroy] therefore takes it upon himself to remind the world of who [Shelly] was both as an actor/filmmaker and a wife/mother.
Adventures of a Mathematician
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Recommended for its thoughtful contribution to science and the conflicts surrounding the development of nuclear warheads, Thor Klein’s “Adventures of a Mathematician” is a must-see.
Agnes
Cecilia Barroso @ Cenas de Cinema [Portuguese]
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: just as things are really heating up, suddenly we’re whiplashed into an entirely different film, one in which Agnes’s best friend in the convent, Mary, struggles to create a life outside of it…It’s all a bit of bait and switch.
Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro [Spanish]
- Excerpt: You can tell that it was made by people who are passionate about their work and this story in general, which helps to make up for some of its most notable shortcomings.
Akilla’s Escape
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Strong, understated performances, vivid stylistics, and a frenetic enthusiasm elevate a plot that, on a nuts and bolts level, could have been a fairly standard outlaw-on-the-verge-of-retirement story. Akilla’s Escape doesn’t rewrite the formula, but uses the framework to deliver a slick crime tale with a unique point of view and enough intriguing thematic concerns to make it worth checking out.
Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens aka Ali & The Queens
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
All is Forgiven
- Excerpt: Winner of the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film in 2007 (shared with Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies), All is Forgiven chronicles the breakdown of a family and a daughter’s attempt to understand the real reasons why many years later. With its bold use of time jumps and refreshing lack of excessive sentimentality, the film is an early showcase of the unique storytelling sensibility that Hansen-Løve continues to display with increasing sophistication in her work.
All Light, Everywhere
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This mind boggling documentary accomplishes the feat of criticizing the very media it delivers its ideas with as it leads us to question the incontrovertible truth of police body cam footage.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: In light of events over the past few years, our society needs this movie right now.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Anthony’s point, however, is less that objectivity can’t exist than a desire to remind us of our essential need to question what is being sold to us as objectivity.
Josh Taylor @ The Forgetful Film Critic
- Excerpt: All Light, Everywhere implicates the very act of its own creation in its exploration of the flaws of human observation. Theo Anthony’s documentary destroys the conventional wisdom that “seeing is believing.”
All the Streets are Silent: The Convergence of Hip Hop and Skateboarding (1987-1997)
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Fans of hip hop and skateboarding—particularly from this ten-year stretch or those with an affection for the Zoo York Mixtape video—will find much to love.
Allen v. Farrow
Luiz Carlos Gomes Santiago @ Plano Crítico [Portuguese]
The Alpinist
Sarah E Boslaugh @ The Arts STL
- Excerpt: …the story fizzles out in the second half. due to things that happened in real life rather than any intention of the filmmakers.
- Excerpt: A stark reminder of the perilous extremes of climbing, ‘The Alpinist’ is a fascinating character study of young renegade Marc-André Leclerc and thoughtful companion piece to the recent slew of free solo documentaries, which focuses more on the internal mysteries of the subject than the technical craft of the sport.
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.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: American Underdog is a rousing drama about sports and family that sends you away feeling cheerful.
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Amundsen: The Greatest Expedition
- Excerpt: In attempting to fit a lifetime of legendary adventure and personal upheaval into a mere two-hour film, Amundsen: The Greatest Expedition doesn’t manage to tell us that much about any of it.
Anachronic Chronicles: Voyages Inside/Out Asia
- Excerpt: whether someone likes “Anachronic Chronicles” or not lies utterly on how interested they are in experimentation, as this originality is essentially the only appeal of the movie.
Ankahi Kahaniya
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Three love stories in one movie; pleasing is this anthology. Watch for surprises in each tale — as entertainment, they don’t fail.
Anne at 13,000 Ft
- Excerpt: A lo-fi narrative film that often feels like a documentary with its rambling dialogue and roving camera, Anne at 13,000 Ft soars courtesy of Radwanski’s naturalistic direction and Campbell’s bravura performance. Together, they bring the film’s troubled titular character to sparkling life and ensure you’ll remain fascinated by her journey throughout the entire bumpy ride.
Anne at 13,000 Ft.
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The film is a raw and naturalistic drama that works as well as it does because of the strong work put in from Deragh Campbell.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
Antigone
- Excerpt: …the film is carried by Ricci, a magnetic actress appearing in only her second role, who is wholly believable as a teenager whose greatest strengths, including her insistence on absolutes and her tendency to react with her heart rather than her head, are also her greatest weaknesses.
Aristocrats
- Excerpt: Beautifully shot and impeccably cast, Sode Yukiko’s third feature unfolds in bookish chapters to give a portrait of a life, well…lived.
Army of Thieves
Derek Deskins @ Edge Media Network
- Excerpt: Army of Thieves takes a great character from a poorly made movie and gives him a place to play. And while Schweighöfer is the primary reason that any of it works, at least this time that was on purpose.
Arrebato
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [Zulueta’s] not interested in the release, just the rapture. He wants us to chase the high and live in its glorious potential.
As of Yet
As We Like It
- Excerpt: A near-future spin on Shakespeare continues to play with gender roles, but gets a little lost in their exits and their entrances.
Asakusa Kid
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: “Asakusa Kid” is a film definitely worth watching, and not only for Kitano or Japanese cinema fans, but the afterthought it leaves is definitely that of a ‘what if’, particularly regarding the what the material could be in the hands of a more experienced director. On a personal note, I think that the late Nobuhiko Obayashi would probably end up with a masterpiece.
Ascension
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A dazzling and enlightening documentary on China’s capitalism, consumerism, and economic growth.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This largely dialogue-free film uses a series of visual patterns comprised of people and things edited to its percussive score, unspooling like Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” through the lens of “Koyaanisqatsi” with a touch of Jacques Tati.
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
ron wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A vibrant mix of color, action and hubris with a guilty and anxious lining.
Asia
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Pribar may set our expectations certain ways, once even making me dread the path she had chosen, but her film isn’t the usual mother/daughter movie, upending cliché time and time again in moving and intimate scenes.
At Night Comes Wolves
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Andrew Wyatt @ The Lens
Atlantis
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Filmed in an exaggerated widescreen in a series of single long takes, often static, Vasyanovych uses the horizon to contrast before and after, in one sequence three horizontal perspectives moving in opposite directions.
- Excerpt: Written, directed, shot, and edited by filmmaker Valentyn Vasyanovych, the film follows one veteran as he tries to overcome the horrors of the past despite being surrounded by reminders in the present. Yet despite some artistic merit and admirable intentions, Atlantis left me as cold as the barren Ukrainian plains depicted in the film.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: An artillery shell of an antiwar movie and a vibrant cautionary tale about the military-industrial complex born anew.
Atlas
Attica
Candice Frederick @ TheGrio
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: You cannot watch this meticulously researched and structured account without shaking your head at the fact that people still want to tell you systemic racism is a fallacy.
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: The testimony of the ex-inmates who had been part of the riot explains how the occupation ended. It also encourages the viewer to re-think the American penal system and encourage Congress to develop a much better plan.
Azor
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A suspenseful drama about the woes of the wealthy during times of political uncertainties in Argentina.
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.
- Excerpt: Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn chronicles the uproar that ensues when an amateur porno tape starring a teacher at a prestigious school is accidentally uploaded to the Internet. A satirical story told in three parts, the film has a lot to say about what we choose to be offended by in our everyday lives and practically dares the audience to be offended by its own content.
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: The director of BAD LUCK BANGING gives us a view of the current economic status of Romania which helps the viewer to place the story in time, as well as a film about attitudes towards sex, ethnicities, nationalism, and other hot topics.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The result is funny. You must laugh because the only other option is crying [since] logic and grace are meaningless in the face of loudly boorish ignorance.
Bad Trip
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A gross-out hidden camera prank comedy with an uplifting view of humanity
The Banishing
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Strong performances and some effective filmmaking provides enough chills, even if it doesn’t totally transcend its routine haunted house formula.
Battle for Afghanistan
Ron wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: In one of the best war movies made, the dust, dirt, chaos and betrayal fly from the screen.
Beans
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An indigenous girl’s coming of age as a warrior protecting tribal lands.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
The Beatles: Get Back
Paulo Portugal @ Insider.pt [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: A mini-série The Beatles: Get Back, disponibilizada via streaming para a Disney +, é uma das maiores experiências de documentário musical alguma vez divulgado.
Beckett
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Beckett doesn’t bring much new to the genre, but the choices it makes are mostly effective in the moment.
Becoming Cousteau
- Excerpt: A pleasantly beautiful, if sometimes flatly rendered film.
- Excerpt: Liz Garbus’ documentary Becoming Cousteau captures the wonder of those early viewing experiences while also delving into the life story of Cousteau.
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: This is a biography of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. These days nearly every documentary about nature will contain a downbeat note that the world we see is being destroyed by the selfishness of people, and this film is no different.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Rather than devolve into talking heads, [Garbus] understands that the [restored] documentaries are the draw.
Belle: The Dragon and the Freckled Princess
Diego Salgado @ SoFilm [Spanish]
Below the Fold
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Just because the execution leaves something to be desired doesn’t mean I wasn’t in it for the duration. [It ultimately] ends when it finally starts getting good.
Berlin Alexanderplatz
- Excerpt: With its bravura performances and three-hour length, Qurbani’s Berlin Alexanderplatz makes for an epic exploration of life in modern Germany for those doomed to exist on its margins. And yet, for all its technical brilliance, the film’s decision to modernize a book so very much of its time means that some elements of the story inevitably feel out of place.
Best Sellers
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Best Sellers is a colossal disappointment. This flatly-directed dramedy wastes the talents of Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza by putting them in a story that is annoyingly contrived.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Roessler receives [the actors’] best as the story shifts from easy jokes to appearances-are-deceiving profundity that does rise above its package’s conventions.
The Beta Test
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: “The Beta Test” is full of good ideas that Cummings fails to bring together in a satisfactory way, but if his outrageous performance fails to fuel his film to the finish line, it at least gets us half the way there.
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The Beta Test is an entertainingly excoriating satire that only gets better for those who can catch the name-dropping, industry speak, and self-referential jabs.
Better Days
- Excerpt: Directed by Derek Kwok-Cheung Tsang, the film centers on the unlikely relationship that forms between a young woman who sees the exam as her main means of escaping a rough existence and a young man who has embraced life on the streets as the only option available to him. Through them, Better Days forces us—indeed, it’s more than a little heavy-handed—to come to terms with how the extreme pressure put on young people by society results all too frequently in tragedy.
Between Two Worlds
Diego Salgado @ SoFilm [Spanish]
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
Bhoot Police
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Bhuj: The Pride of India
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Cutler has ostensibly strung together all the feel-good moments that resonate with fans in a way that allows them to live vicariously through her experiences.
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: This documentary on Billie Eilish, which is shortlisted for an Oscar, is surprisingly revelatory, interesting, well-constructed and intimate.
Bingo Hell
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: Bingo Hell isn’t only a vehicle just for the sake of casting older actors, its story and plot revolve around the reality that it isn’t only the young who want to save our collective future from capitalist greed, there are plenty of older folks who’d rather go down swinging than sell out their homes, their neighbourhoods/neighbours, or their cultures.
Bipolar
- Excerpt: Who is the dreamer and who dreams the dream? Queena Li’s film is all about the journey, beautiful photography, an eclectic cast of characters and one possibly spiritual lobster.
Black Island
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
The Blazing World
Bliss
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Whether or not we’re all fake computer simulations, Cahill offers a simple and effective reminder through his new film to interact with the world in a more carefree manner; not amoral, but a bit more live and let live.
Blithe Spirit
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: It’s as though the filmmakers enjoyed the first half of Coward’s play so much that they decided to make a movie out of it and relegate the second half to epilogue status.
Blood Red Sky
Derek Deskins @ Edge Media Network
- Excerpt: As it is, “Blood Red Sky” is a perfectly fine horror action film, bathed in blood and accentuated with explosions. It won’t surprise you, but it’ll keep you entertained for most of its runtime.
Bloody Hell
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: O’Toole’s gleefully deranged dual performance (Rex’s conscience, a device which allows the actor dialogue when alone) and the stylish energy Grierson brings to the film are often reminiscent of Ryan Reynolds’ “Deadpool.”
Sandy Schaefer @ Comic Book Resources
Blue Bayou
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The film is deeply affecting, but Chon’s indulged too many of his ideas while not fully developing Antonio’s back story. Still, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved…
Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: As a fan of artist Bob Ross, this is an interesting portrait. However, I would have preferred an incisive documentary that focused more on the man himself, than the backroom shenanigans of the company that bears his name.
Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Greed and Betrayal
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
Body Brokers
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Its ideas get stretched too thin, and sometimes the nuance gets lost in the process. However, the story is an engaging one, and the performances keep things together.
The Body Fights Back
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Honest, compassionate, and very necessary, this is a provocation, a challenge to our individual and cultural preconceived notions about and neurotic relationships to food, weight, and body image.
Boiling Point
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: An electrifying work of high-wire cinematic theater, a one-take, one-location wonder. Documentary-esque but even more immediate, simultaneously intimate and explosive. Stephen Graham is glorious.
Bombay Rose
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: While certain elements might initially seem alienating or inexplicable, especially if you’re not super aware of some of the cultural nuances, Bombay Rose is an evocative and inspired piece of animation.
Boogie
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Luckily the familial and personal stuff has the strength to stick in our heads when the battle on the court fades because the work the actors put in is effective.
Book of Love
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: In BOOK OF LOVE, Henry (played by actor Sam Clafin), has all of Hugh Grant’s mannerisms and Maria (played by lead actress Veronica Echegui) looks like Penelope Cruz. In fact, this film seems assembled from pieces of other films.
The Boy from Medellin
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: The Boy from Medellín is more than a concert film, but its focus on the upcoming show and persistent attempts to show ‘a day in the life’ of J Balvin stiff-arm what would have been the meat and potatoes of a typical Heineman documentary, the unrest in the streets.
Boys From County Hell
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Though the film generally moves along at a brisk, if occasionally meandering clip and throws a few wrinkles into standard vampire traditions, it never truly sinks its teeth into the material.
The Boys in Red Hats
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
Brain Freeze
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Proof once again that zombie movies still have something to offer.
Broadcast Signal Intrusion
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: There’s excitement in that sense of the unknown, but also frustration. I feel the former outweighs the latter, but it wouldn’t take much for someone to believe the opposite.
Brothers By Blood
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Brothers By Blood is an engaging slow burn with a bleak atmosphere that is carried by a weary yet engrossing performance from Matthias Schoenaerts.
Bruised
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Halle Berry succeeds in transforming herself into a dishonored Mixed Martial Arts fighter who needs redemption and love.
Bull
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: toes the line between thriller, horror, and crime saga, subverting expectations along the way, creeping toward a dark reveal.
Caged
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Caged features plenty of compelling sequences and interesting ideas, though it doesn’t cohere into a satisfying whole. Edi Gathegi manages to use his solitary space as way to really show off his range as a performer.
Cancer; The Integrative Perspective
“Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: …but I am pointing out that proof for the film’s statements and advice is weak. In addition, as an English teacher, I wonder if that misplaced semi-colon in the title isn’t a little warning. Yes The Viewing Booth 2021 http://itsjustmovies.com/review-the-viewing-booth/ “The Viewing Booth” … helps explain how the human subconscious mind can contract with our conscious mind to fool us into interpreting reality to fit our own fundamental bias. Rating 10/10. Yes The Song of the Butterflies 2021 http://itsjustmovies.com/review-the-song-of-the-butterflies/ “The Song of the Butterflies,” [is] a sensitively created documentary on the history of the exploitation of indigenous people living in the Amazon Basin. Yes Fathom 2021 http://itsjustmovies.com/fathom/ Too little information is in “Fathom” to fully appreciate the research or trust the indicators of their outcomes. Though the premise for the film is definitely gripping, there is too much time, especially with the Alaska group, spent in a kind of reality tv approach unrelated to their whale project. Yes Ascension 2021 http://itsjustmovies.com/ascension-review/ But through Kingdom’s lens, we see dehumanization, a robotic existence where everything and everyone is scheduled and contained. No
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The Capote Tapes
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
Catch the Fair One
- Excerpt: A vicious saga of exploitation and vengeance, ‘Catch the Fair One’ is a blood-splattered and grounded thriller that suffers from being oppressively bleak even as it directs focus towards an important and under-discussed topic.
Caveat
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: Squirm-inducing and enigmatic, CAVEAT has the oneiric quality of a half-remembered nightmare, the half that is the most disquieting, where events move relentlessly and inevitably into the macabre.
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Caveat is more of a mood piece than a traditional horror film, relying more on the power of its atmosphere. It’s not for everyone, but it effectively gets under your skin.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: I really liked the production design. The visuals ooze creepiness even if the payoff doesn’t arrive until the very end.
Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Cherry
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Joe and Anthony Russo treat the material with a flashy visual style which, combined with Holland’s constant narration, give the impression the film was adapted from a graphic novel or comic – perhaps a grittier approach was in order here.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The Russo Brothers are committing the cardinal sin of telling us to feel rather than earning that feeling as a result of what they’ve put on-screen. It’s all just pretend.
- Excerpt: At two and a half hours, ‘Cherry’ attempts to tackle war values, PTSD, drug addiction, teen romance, and crime but the decently-entertaining character study settles to skim the surface of the issues it sets out to challenge. Tom Holland is genuinely good but the Russo Bros need to sharpen their dramatic directorial skill if they want to step away from solely commercial projects.
Children of the Mist
- Excerpt: One could say the director gets too close to her subject, occasionally even affecting the “narrative” with her presence, “Children of the Mist” is an excellent documentary that showcases an appalling phenomenon with brutal realism and through a rather artful approach.
A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks
- Excerpt: John Maggio’s documentary is workmanlike in presentation but scintillating in its content.
Chorokbam
- Excerpt: Evidently, “Chorokbam” is an intensely art-house movie, of the type that very little happens from beginning to end, and the tension is just restricted to a brief scene here and there. On the other hand, it is also artful, appealingly weird, and a title that definitely deserves a watch due to its unusual approach to both narrative and audiovisuals.
Cinderella
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Fairy tale goes jukebox musical with a feminist, gender-fluid spin. Throws irony and sarcasm at heterosexuality, patriarchy, even monarchy. Pretty darn fun, with a sweetly spunky Ella in Cabello.t
- Excerpt: It is less a movie than a string of TikTok clips and it made my eyes spin like pinwheels.
Eddie Pasa @ DC Filmdom
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Humor and music through it all, and don’t worry, there’s quite a Ball. Colorful costumes fill the screen; plus robust dancing is so keen!
City of Lies
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: City of Lies is outstanding at provoking outrage and an urgent sense of anger at the LAPD. However, the dialogue is so coarsely written and shoddily edited together, this should not be the final work on trying to piece together how and why Death Row Records corrupted LAPD cops to allegedly murder Biggie Smalls.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A spellbinding drama.
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: The lesson is solid even as the huge production fails to generate the chemistry promised by its cast and crew.
A Classic Horror Story
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Clean
- Excerpt: Adrien Brody was involved on nearly every level in the conceptualization and realization of brooding revenge-thriller ‘Clean’ but with its ugly aesthetics, empty grittiness, and ridiculously hacky story of a garbage man named Clean “taking out the trash”, you really have to wonder why. Being unintentionally funny at least makes it watchable but otherwise, yikes.
Clerk
Derek Deskins @ Edge Media Network
- Excerpt: For the Kevin Smith ignorant, “Clerk.” will be merely something that they scroll past when trying to find something to watch. But for the Kevin Smith faithful, this is a love letter to their devotion.
Cliff Walkers
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: A taut, chilly spy thriller, one full of suspense, betrayal, treachery, and the usual slick execution and eye for detail one expects from Zhang.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: They know it’s about the small victories, the martyrs, and the strength to know when the right choice—the only choice—is letting a comrade die.
C’mon C’mon
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …simply the best movie about a brother and sister and her kid since “You Can Count On Me.”
- Excerpt: I can’t remember a movie that captured as well as Mike Mills’ “C’mon C’mon” the intense, constant feelings of terror, inadequacy, panic, exhaustion, plus the tsunami of love and gratitude and hope and hilarity that is parenthood. He even captures the heartbreaking sorrow in understanding that childhood is fleeting and no matter what you do you cannot protect them from the injustices of the world. This is one of the best films of the year.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: [Mills’] films are about opening doors. And C’mon C’mon is smart enough to do exactly that without overstepping its reach or forgetting that the characters are king.
Josh Taylor @ The Forgetful Film Critic
- Excerpt: If you’re looking for something, anything, to lift your spirits out of the sewer that is our current moment and forget for 108 precious minutes that there is a raging plague all around us, look no further than the best film of 2021, Mike Mills’s newest effort, C’mon C’mon.
Coma
Paulo Portugal @ [Portuguese]
Come From Away
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An inspiring musical about the transformative power of hospitality and kindness.
Come True
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Outside of the shared shadow phenomenon, there’s an unpolished quality to the screenplay with too many loose ends…or untethered one-offs…preventing it from wholly clicking…Stone, who resembles a young Lillian Gish, is quite compelling in the lead
Mark Leeper @ Mark leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: COME TRUE is a horror film based on the dreams and nightmares a teenage runaway has during a sleep study of questionable ethics.
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: It’s rare that a movie’s final shot can undo all the good it’s done up until that point, but ‘Come True’ manages that trick, turning a film that was headed for a mild recommendation into a recommended pass.
Coming Home in the Dark
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …leans more on psychology than outright gore, often artfully obscuring its worst moments. This is the type of film able that inspires overwhelming dread with an overhead shot of a vehicle circling back on a gas station
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Coming Home In The Dark is not going to be an easy film to recommend. Even being as much of a genre enthusiast myself, there were points in here that caught me off-guard.
Concrete Cowboy
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: director Ricky Staub pairs a coming-of-age tale with a real, legendary Black urban equestrian institution and many of its members, giving his film a rich environment while providing an awareness boost for the stables.
Confetti
- Excerpt: Fans of 1980s films will enjoy seeing Amy Irving and Helen Slater as two of the people Lan and Mei Mei meet in New York.
Convergence: Courage in Crisis
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: Stories of heroes in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cousins
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: It’s not easy to traverse [such] heavy emotions through interweaving crosscuts of three eras, but you wouldn’t know it the way Gardiner and Smith deftly handle the journey.
Cowboys
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A complete upending of the Western, about not wide open spaces but close-in intimacy, with an unusual female gaze and a hugely provocative dare to gender expectations. Both ironic and transformative.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Cowboys supplies [these characters] the chance to open their eyes with an authenticity that’s not without its tragedies, but hope is never far behind.
A Crime on the Bayou
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: While the title of her documentary suggests a lurid true crime story, what we get instead is the eye-opening account of how one brave black man’s refusal to accept guilt where there was none…made its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court…
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A delicately elegant documentary tale of an inconsequential moment that illustrates how abominably Black Americans have been treated in their own country, and of the friendship that grew from it.
Crisis
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a flat-footed attempt to apply Soderbergh’s “Traffic” supply chain approach to the current opioid epidemic. Ironically the best performance is featured in the least believable of Jarecki’s three story strands.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: We need well-researched introductions to the topic’s nuts and bolts as much as dramas amplifying its human cost. Just don’t expect this to be both.
- Excerpt: No hope in sight
Sebastian Zavala @ Ventana Indiscreta [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Jarecki manages to paint a bleak picture of the effects opioids have on American citizens.
Cross the Line
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Forceful and urgent, once Cross the Line sets its hooks, it doesn’t let up, raking the viewer and protagonist across a lot full of gravel and broken glass. Victori shows us a speck of light at a time, just enough so there’s the possibility of Dani making it out with both his body and soul intact, only to snatch that hope away.
Cry Macho
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A western story about an old cowboy who demonstrates the power of trust and experiences the benefits of gentleness.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A sentimental reflection on aging that swings between the generic to the absurd.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Not a whole lot happens in this movie, yet if you enjoy getting on Eastwood’s wavelength, it’s a very pleasant tale that’s nice to get lost in for 105 minutes.
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Cryptozoo
Kyle Anderson @ Nerdist
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: for all CRYPTOZOO’s visual and thematic strengths, it fails on an emotional level, never quite compelling us to invest in these characters personal journeys as opposed to their ethical ones.
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s reviews
- Excerpt: CRYPTOZOO is animated, but it is definitely not a children’s film. The film’s premise is that the world is full of magical creatures which stay hidden.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: It’s a straightforward test of compassion wherein utopia must burn for its builders to understand it was never a utopia in the first place.
Dachra
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a strong debut, artful and eerie.
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: Bouchnak uses a tale of rural witchcraft in Tunisia as a way to confront difficult social realities in the country’s contemporary society.
Ron wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: College journalism adopts a meat diet when three students turn a village into a sound stage and become the buffet.
Dad I’m Sorry
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Dara of Jasenovac
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Director Predrag Peter Antonijevic (“Savior”) shines a light on a little known part of WWII history from the point of view of a young girl in a meticulous and artfully shot production that tells a tale so bleak, “The Painted Bird” seems less relentless in retrospect.
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The filmmakers explore an area of WWII that hasn’t gotten the cinematic treatment on this scale, and that new perspective makes it worthwhile despite some otherwise generic plotting.
Dark Red Forest
- Excerpt: Not much more to say, “Dark Red Forest” is an astonishing movie that definitely deserves to be watched on the big screen.
Daughter of a Lost Bird
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A healing documentary about a woman, adopted by a white family as a child, who connects with her Native birth mother.
Day of Rage
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: “Day of Rage” will become a classic film on a demonstration gone berserk. It is an American duty to see this film and then decide for yourself what the heck is up and what we can do about it.
Days
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: initially the film, which definitely identifies as slow cinema, may frustrate, but Ming-liang’s modus operandi becomes mesmerizing and ultimately very moving.
Dead Air
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: An ancient short wave radio becomes the movie, with mixed results.
Dead and Beautiful
- Excerpt: It turns out that being cursed with beauty, money and limitless time is as listless as one hopes one has the beauty, money and time to find out for themselves one day.
Deadly Illusions
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Dear Mr. Brody
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
Delicious
Kirsten Hawkes @ Parent Previews
Deliver Us from Evil
Demonic
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The movie is like a far less successful retread of “Come True” from earlier this year and merely keeps repeating dreams and its literal mind games ad infinitum to diminishing returns
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Neill Blomkamp’s first foray into horror has potential, but overall falls short and feels like a missed opportunity.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: I think the horror elements are too good to dismiss and the volumetric capture technology too intriguing to not let Blomkamp bring it in under questionable pretenses.
Deserto Particular
Sebastian Zavala @ Ventana Indiscreta [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It has lots to say about the rigidity of gender roles and masculinity in contemporary Brazilian society. The fact that it can convey these messages in a delicate and even at times beautiful way, is what makes it worth recommending.
Detention
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It ultimately works as a universal story about fascism and systems of power oppressing people, and how some people could unwittingly play with the system for their own selfish purpose and ruin things for others in the process.
Die in a Gunfight
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The whole is fast-paced despite its numerous exposition-heavy lulls and the production value and energy is nice to look at, but [you’re left] wanting more.
The Dig
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: uses the events surrounding what has been called the ‘British Tutankhamun’ as a reflection on the evolving cycle of humankind by accentuating sex and death…in what might be considered a top notch ‘Masterpiece’ production.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A pleasant, if not deep, excavation of the time period.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: With superb performances, gorgeous cinematography, lyrical editing, and a complementary score, the film proves a melancholic wonder that isn’t easily forgotten.
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies
- Excerpt: With assists from the intimate chemistry between Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes, Mike Eley’s sweeping visuals, and Stefan Gregor’s lovely piano score, ‘The Dig’ is a quest worth to treasure.
Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over
Dirt Music
Sebastian Zavala @ Ventana Indiscreta [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It isn’t a great romantic movie, but it’s certainly one of the best-looking. Despite that, it’s still an overly pompous and self-indulgent melodrama.
Dogs
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: For the most part, the film is deeply morose and serious-minded, and it can make things monotonous and drag after a while. There are a few elements that come into play that break the rhythm in interesting ways, but it all ultimately builds to a fairly predictable conclusion.
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A modern Western in the best tradition that pits change against tradition and men against dogs.
Dogs Don’t Wear Pants
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Don’t Breathe 2
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Not everyone will be able to accept some of the choices in the film, but there are enough nasty thrills to make for an entertaining ride.
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
La Dosis
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: This is a genre film utilizing its subject matter as a springboard towards drama. The payoff is purely entertainment, not philosophical debate.
Double Walker
- Excerpt: A new entry into the indie-horror pantheon, Double Walker is a deeply personal film produced, co-written by, and starring Sylvie Mix as a ghost seeking bloody revenge on the men she believes responsible for her death as a child. Co-written and directed by Colin West, the film developed out of discussions between West and Mix regarding the generational effects of domestic violence and abuse on their own families.
Drifting
- Excerpt: Jun Li and an all-star cast explores the duality of Hong Kong in his second feature, a recreation of a real case of homeless rights and overdevelopment.
Drunk Bus
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Reviews
- Excerpt: In its deeper moments it’s a film about finding yourself.
Drunken Birds
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: More than one romance, however, Drunken Birds reveals itself as a tapestry of life’s unfortunate penchant to keep lovers apart.
The Dry
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: has exactly two things going for it – it’s stunning and spatially intelligent use of its widescreen frame and Keir O’Donnell’s (“American Sniper”) thoughtfully nuanced portrayal of Kiewarra’s Sergeant Greg Raco.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Our minds don’t therefore wander to hypothesize what’s coming next because present drama is enthralling enough to monopolize our attention.
- Excerpt: A detective reckons with his past to sort out a murder-suicide involving his childhood best friend in this salty, straight-faced Australian thriller. Eric Bana is solid if unremarkable.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A dramatic and enthralling small town whodunnit with twists all the way down.
Dybbuk
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Dynasty Warriors
Sebastian Zavala @ MasGamers.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It takes itself very seriously AND presents incredibly ridiculous situations at the same time, resulting in a final product with a very serious identity problem.
Earwig and the Witch
- Excerpt: It’s a bittersweet return for the mighty Studio Ghibli, boldly stepping into a new style of animation but leaving some of their story roots behind in the process.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [Skipping] the studio’s bread-and-butter 2D [is a misstep, but it should] entertain kids and adults alike with humor and magic before it fades away later that day.
East of the Mountains
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A deeply rich and tender-hearted drama about an elder’s experience of compassion.
Eat Wheaties!
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: All actors here are fun to see. The poignant humor got to me. Social media takes a punch. Deservedly would be my hunch.
The Edge of Daybreak
- Excerpt: A hypnotic and meditative journey that uses four decades of political turmoil as the backdrop for a more familial tragedy in this strikingly visually led debut.
Edge of the World
- Excerpt: …a film that commits the ultimate sin for an entertainment product: it’s boring.
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: Less a rollicking action film than it is an adventure of the spirit.
Eight for Silver
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This whimsical biopic is a tale neatly bisected by the death of Emily Richardson, the first half charting an adorably awkward courtship, the second the anthropomorphized cat drawings which made Louis Wain (Benedict Cumberbatch) famous if not rich
Sarah Marrs @ LaineyGossip.com
- Excerpt: The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is another great Benedict Cumberbatch performance for the books, but it offers little more than an interesting art history lesson.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: This ambitious biopic tries to cover too much of Louis Wain’s sad life instead of concentrating on his fabulous feline artistry.
Ema
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Those who prefer straightforward narratives are likely to be perplexed by “Ema,” a character study of a strong, fiery female which uses dance and jaw dropping visual compositions to advance its themes.
Sarah E Boslaugh @ The Arts STL
- Excerpt: [Ema] this film is an exploration of Ema’s character and a deconstruction of conventional attitudes and behaviors. It’s also a cinematic poem, in which the cinematography of cinematographer Sergio Armstrong (which showcases the beauty of Valparaíso, Chile’s second largest city, as well as the creativity of the dance troupe), coupled with a fascinating soundtrack by Nicolas Jaar, help keep you absorbed in this film even when the narrative makes for rough going.
- Excerpt: https://www.filminquiry.com/ema-2019-review/
Encounter
Mark Leeper @ Mark leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: ENCOUNTER starts out with hints of an alien invasion, but this is more a story of a mentally disturbed father kidnapping his sons.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [A] heavy emotional narrative dealing with mental illness, PTSD, and familial love undercut with loud overtures of systemic violence devoid of textual basis.
End of the Pale Hour
- Excerpt: “End of the Pale Hour” has its issues, particularly regarding its pace and duration, but emerges as an interesting movie in the end, for its story, comments about the corporate world, and acting.
The End of Us
- Excerpt: Henry Loevner and Steve Kanter’s ‘The End of Us’ effectively stages a mumblecore breakup movie in the maw of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than using the pandemic as a jumping off point, the virus is a central element, which will lead to varying mileage depending upon how much viewers crave more panny in their lives.
Enemies of the State
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: https://aisleseat.com/enemies-of-the-state.html
Enfant Terrible
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: All the contradictory elements are here in Masucci’s intense and terrifying performance, and by keeping all the action not only indoors, but also on sets that are purposefully artificial, there is a sense that we are watching Fassbender’s life pass before his eyes as he died at only 37.
Equal Standard
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Escape From Mogadishu
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is mindless entertainment at its finest.
Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
- Excerpt: Not much more to say, “Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time” is an astonishing finale to an astonishing restart, and a film that is very difficult to describe its quality in writing. Better go watch it ASAP.
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Overall, I preferred the way ‘End of Evangelion’ launched straight into the crazy from the get-go, and the peculiarity of its fascination with the unappealing Shinji. But I didn’t feel cheated by this version, and I can see how many fans might find this to be the more satisfying—and indeed ultimate—conclusion to the tale.
Ever Since We Love
- Excerpt: Ever Since We Love chronicles the messy coming-of-age of a young man studying at China’s top medical college who finds himself torn between three different romantic interests-slash-archetypes: the hometown first love, the practical college girlfriend, and the mysterious older woman. There’s not much here that hasn’t been seen before in other, better movies, but Li’s imaginative direction and Fan’s smoldering performance as the femme fatale who catches the eye of our young hero help elevate the story above mere mediocrity.
Every Breath You Take
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A possible success of a movie that is submarined by a cheap shot at horror.
Every Film
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: In the end, the whether someone likes the movie or not will be based on how close the main themes here strike, since “Every Film” is a rather personal work that will not resonate with the majority. Baruah has some interesting ideas, and occasionally shows a good level in the command of the medium; as a whole, however, the film seems to address only hardcore (European) festival goers.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: The movie may have vacated the premises, but the soundtrack continues to live rent-free in my head.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Glenn Dunks @ Flicks Australia
- Excerpt: A movie for queer hims, hers and theys to watch with parents, and for those older viewers to sit and get misty-eyed over what never was for them. Unlike Ryan Murphy’s version of The Prom, there is a scrappiness here that defies the commercialisation of queer lives by conglomerates.
Executive Order
- Excerpt: A disruptive social thriller where a newly-minted Brazilian law forces all black folks to relocate back to Africa,Lázaro Ramos’ ‘Executive Order’ is an entertaining and explosive commentary on racial relationships in governance. The pièce de résistance is the incendiary performances from Alfred Enouch, Adriana Esteves, and Seu Jorge.
Eye Without a Face
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Rather than showcase itself as a psychological puzzle, we’re left stumbling through a predictable shell game.
Eyimofe
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Shooting on 16mm, the brothers have created a vibrant, neorealistic film from the perspectives of a loosely connected man and woman facing different cultural obstacles trying to leave the city which is the film’s third main character.
Fabian: Going to the Dogs
- Excerpt: At 176 minutes, Fabian is a long film, but it’s never boring, due in part to commited acting performances and top-notch production values as well as the variety of visual material Graf throws on the screen.
The Faithful: The King, The Pope, and the Princess
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A spiritual quest for faith, meaning, and purpose through the images of global icons.
The Faithful: The King, the Pope, the Princess
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A spiritual quest for faith, meaning, and purpose through the images of global icons.
Falling
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: We watch [everything] with the implicit request [to] forgive him because he’s a dying old man. No technical or artistic success overcomes [ignoring that request’s danger].
Falling for Figaro
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: Millie Cantwell loves opera and wants to compete in the “Singer of Renown” contest, but naturally there are obstacles. The film has a nice selection of operatic arias, with the ones “sung” by the two leads actually voiced by Stacey Alleaume and Nathan Lay.
The Fallout
- Excerpt: A vital work that puts the school shooter epidemic into focus, ‘The Fallout’ is an audacious, explosive debut from writer-director Megan Park that makes way for a remarkable performance from Jenna Ortega. Heart-pounding, honest, and at times even hysterical, this is the very best of SXSW’s narrative feature competition.
False Positive
- Excerpt: False Positive threads classic horror-film tropes with a woozy, partially comic sensibility but doesn’t fully commit to this approach.
Fan Girl
- Excerpt: Fandom and power dynamics get interrogated in this brilliantly performed two-hander.
Fatherhood
Nell Minow @ Movie Mom
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: If you love movies from the heart, you can’t beat this one.
Fatherhood
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A kinder, gentler version of comedian Kevin Hart.
Fathom
- Excerpt: An inspiring tribute to the power of curiosity, purpose, and the triumphant joy of adding one more piece to the jigsaw puzzle of knowledge.
Fauci
- Excerpt: This film covers Dr. Anthony Fauci’s work not only with the COVID-19 pandemic, but also with the AIDS/HIV epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s.
Faya Dayi
Fear of Missing Out
- Excerpt: “Fear of Missing Out” is an interesting film, particularly due to its unusual approach, but Kawachi definitely needs to improve on the technical aspects of his filmmaking if he wants to move to the next level.
Fear Street Part 1: 1994
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Mark Hobin @
- Excerpt: Part One is reminiscent of Scream with a sprinkle of Stranger Things thrown in for good measure. Given that, I can’t think of one single reason why anyone should watch this over its superior inspirations.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Too many scenes too dark to see. Decoding them is misery.
Fear Street Part 2: 1978
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Mark Hobin @
- Excerpt: The chronicle draws significantly from Friday the 13th without forging an identity of its own.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Bloody events in Camp Nightwing! The witch’s curse goes in full swing.
Fear Street Part 3: 1666
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Mark Hobin @
- Excerpt: I’m not recommending this unless you’ve watched the other two. However, the finale feels more like a distinct entity and less of an homage to other, better films.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Most key actors play dual roles. And slasher horror scars our souls.
The Fear Street Trilogy
The Feast
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s reviews
- Excerpt: This could be described as “a game of knives and poisons.”
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: The Feast ultimately feels like a cheat. It withholds the information we need for too long, so that by the time it finally arrives, we no longer care.
- Excerpt: This gothic folk horror slow-burn possesses intrigue in spades though may leave some viewers wanting more from its relatively opaque mythology. As far as this dinner guest goes, I found ‘The Feast’ a deliciously uneasy slice of disquieting folklore.
The Fever
Fever Dream
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Writer/director Claudia Llosa’s (“Aloft”) adaptation of Samanta Schweblin’s novel observes the constant fears inherent within motherhood, but the disjointed folk horror world she sets it in ultimately derails the film.
Sebastian Zavala @ Ventana Indiscreta [Spanish]
- Excerpt: A dreamlike experience, from the shocking prologue with a woman being dragged across the floor, to the (almost) permanent feeling of suspense that floods the film.
Final Account
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Parallels to today’s right wing extremism are chilling and there are many examples…a
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: These interviews of the last surviving Nazi flunkies exist in isolation lacking any sort of cohesion
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: The movie is equal parts chilling and enlightening. It should be required viewing for every teenager and adult in the country.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: There are so many smiles of deflection and quick answers feigning ignorance because these men and women have probably needed to lie to themselves in order to survive.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An unusual road movie full of life lessons for an engineer, a dog, and a robot.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Thankfully, director Miguel Sapochnik (“Repo Men”) has Tom Hanks and a sweet rescue named Seamus and his decision to just embrace his material’s corniness works in its favor. This movie is made for anyone who’s ever noted that DOG is GOD spelled backwards.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: The story restlessly tugs at your heartstrings. When the robot isn’t acting cute, there’s also a puppy to melt your heart.
Blake Howard @ Dark Horizons
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: FINCH is a post-apocalypse (solar flare/gamma burst) story, with many nods to earlier science fiction stories: a low-slung robot named Dewey, an opening sequence reminiscent of THE MARTIAN, and a humanoid robot built for companionship. Not a lot of new ground is broken here, but it is enjoyable in a classic science fiction sort of way.
The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manuel for Military Occupation
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A sobering documentary about the effects on all sides of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people during its military occupation.
The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manuel for Military Occupation
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A sobering documentary about the effects on all sides of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people during its military occupation.
First Date
Kyle Anderson @ Nerdist
Candice Frederick @ TheGrio
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: It starts as a mildly vulgar comedy, but the tone changes to really downbeat and violent as the film goes on.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Know that you’ll need to embrace [its nightmarish] descent to enjoy it because things can begin to feel laborious if you aren’t in the right headspace.
First Love
- Excerpt: “First Love” is not a bad film, as the story and the overall comments are both intriguing and interesting. In the end, though, as a whole, it is more easily to be described as a missed opportunity for something great, than a properly good movie.
The First Wave
- Excerpt: The First Wave successfully emphasizes how people’s emotions were whipsawed by an unprecedented crisis.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: This film portrays the perseverance of a community ravaged beyond imagination. And it ends with the sobering knowledge that [more] was coming.
Fishing
- Excerpt: Truth is that is difficult to form an opinion about such a short sample, but if one would perceive it as a promotional piece for Kanetomo’s work, it works quite well, particularly if any animation company that deals with children’s movies would like to hire him.
The Five Rules of Success
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Flag Day
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: : although “Flag Day” doesn’t wholly succeed, it is clearly a step up, an impressionistic look at a father and daughter relationship featuring a real father and daughter which also works as an allegory for the myth of the American dream.
Flora & Ulysses
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: I’d like to say those unfamiliar with the source will fare better, but the film’s homogenized narrative renders it inert regardless.
For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
For the Sake of Vicious
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: For the Sake of Vicious is a mean, ugly little picture. Even at eighty minutes, this exercise in gratuitous violence made my skin crawl so badly that I couldn’t wait for it to be over.
A Forbidden Orange
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
Forever Rich
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Too bad we can’t like Rich at all; we almost want to see him fall. His actions mostly make us cringe; we get tired of his hateful binge.
Forget Me Not: Inclusion in the Classroom
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko
- Excerpt: “Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko” is another great title by Studio 4ºC and Ayumu Watanabe, which is bound to satisfy all fans of the modern style of mainstream anime movies, as it was formed by Studio Ghibli (some references actually appear in this film too, as in the featured image).
Found
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: FOUND is the real-life story of three adopted teenage Chinese-American girls who start out independently trying to find the families who abandoned them in China.
Four Good Days
- Excerpt: The performances, including Stephen Root as Deb’s second husband and Joshua Leonard as Molly’s ex-husband, far exceed the formulaic quality of the script.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: By refusing to choose between the perspective of the addict or the family, they decide to supply each equal footing to thus prove that equal footing doesn’t exist.
France
- Excerpt: The title of writer-director Bruno Dumont’s latest film, France, is not just the name of the country in which it is primarily set but also its protagonist, a popular television journalist played by the brilliant Léa Seydoux. What starts as a sharp satire of contemporary news media gradually starts to buckle under the weight of everything Dumont throws at the screen, but Seydoux’s dynamite performance burns bright enough to outshine the mess piled up around her.
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: In FRANCE, France de Meurs (played by Lea Seydoux) is a telejournalist who goes through a personal crisis and tries to change her style.
French Exit
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: An impeccable comedy of manners full of quirky performances.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: So while I can’t embrace its dramatic import, I can enjoy its comically subversive caricature of aristocratic behavior.
Fried Barry
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It’s loud, profane, proudly vulgar, and exhaustingly irreverent. Fried Barry is unapologetic in its indulgences, and it’s all the better for it.
Friends and Strangers
- Excerpt: Sydney proves to be a fertile backdrop for a wandering narrative where realism meets ennui.
Fully Realized Humans
Andrea Chase @ EatDrinkFilms.com
- Excerpt: A brashly honest, slyly wise comedy about one couple’s quixotic attempt to rid themselves of their emotional baggage before the imminent birth of their first child.
Funhouse
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Funhouse has a clever idea, but this is the kind of movie that continually comes up just a bit short in every area.
Funny Face
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Cosmo Jarvis and Dela Meskienyar are a dynamic duo that give the film soul. Tim Sutton’s flourishes sometimes pushes its limit, but it ultimately comes together in a meaningful and resonating way.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: It’s more interesting than it is good. Its performances outshine the plot in which they’re stuck. And its motivations are commendable albeit obtusely niche.
The Gateway
Sebastian Zavala @ Ventana Indiscreta
- Excerpt: A B-style thriller, with a long-suffering and uncommunicative protagonist, and a relatively simple but relevant plot.
Gaza Mon Amour
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Together, the explicit and implicit stories combine to tell what life and love is like in Gaza. Together with the West Bank, Gaza is claimed by the de jure sovereign State of Palestine, but subject to Israeli laws and apartheid. Both stories have confusion, roadblocks, and desire.
Gensan Punch
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: Brillante Mendoza seems on occasion, that he was not completely sure on the path he wanted his film to follow, and the fact is that the flashbacks of Nao’s past and even more so, a romantic notion that is also included, could have been completely omitted. Apart from that, however, “Gensan Punch” emerges as a rather captivating movie that presents the world of amateur boxing realistically, through the portrait of a captivating man.
Get Back: The Beatles
Paulo Portugal @ Insider.pt [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: A mini-série The Beatles: Get Back é um excelente documentário musical e uma tremenda viagem no tempo e espaço. Até porque nos ajuda a sentir a pulsação de cada membro da banda naquele preciso momento.
A Ghost Waits
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: Filmed in evocative black and white, the film takes hoary tropes and makes them not just fresh, but dynamic with smart direction and a performance from Andrews that hits all the right emotional notes with fine undertones of complexity and heart.
Giants Being Lonely
- Excerpt: Familiar, even universal issues of growing up, identity, and intimacy are presented with a lyrical, dreamlike tone.
The Girl on the Train
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
The Girl Who Got Away
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: You might not have all the pieces fitting perfectly, but hindsight quickly fills in the blanks. That’s a testament to an underrated script and a deceivingly worthwhile film.
A Glitch in the Matrix
Kyle Anderson @ Nerdist
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: Bemusement abounds, as does amusement, and when it’s all over, don’t fight the urge to prove that you are not actually a brain in a laboratory jar.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: It provides an appetizer into the feasibility that this outlandish science fiction concept might be real. Someone else will have to supply the main course.
- Excerpt: As fascinating, thought-provoking, and well-researched a documentary as ‘A Glitch in the Matrix’ is, it also proves to be utterly terrifying in both its study of simulation theory and the dark real world implications it poses.
The God Committee
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: A provocative drama about the ethical questions involved in choosing an organ transplant recipient.
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Stark has written and directed a thoughtful film reflecting standard moral theories that apply not just to the Transplant Committee, but to human decisions in every area of life.
God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya
- Excerpt: What starts as a strong, visually striking ode to one woman’s act of rebellion gradually runs out of steam, as though the film is unsure of what it is trying to say apart from “down with the patriarchy!” An admirable message to be sure, but not quite enough in this case to carry an entire movie.
Golden Voices
- Excerpt: This is very evidently a personal story for the people who made it, a heartfelt note of thanks for the fresh start they found in their new home, and for all fresh starts and the people with the courage to find them.
The Good Boss
- Excerpt: baked into the humour is a caustic allegory on class-divide and capitalism
Good Person
- Excerpt: As such, “Good Person” emerges as an intriguing film that definitely deserves a watch, particularly for its combination of whodunnit and family drama.
Grandpa Was an Emperor
ron wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: An intimate look at the final days of an Ethiopian Camelot gone terribly wrong.
Great White
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: It takes itself seriously, provides the necessary stakes for audiences not to turn that severity into unintentional comedy, and uses logic instead of explosive theatrics.
Grudge
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Longtime grudge turns revenge crime, then hits its target just in time. Surprise and tension fill the screen, so be prepared for extra mean.
Guardians of the Dead Sea
- Excerpt: “Guardians of the Red Sea” is an easy to watch documentary in its 78 minutes, with the three axes it revolves around working quite well in that regard, while also highlighting the situation in Dead Sea in the most eloquent fashion.
The Guilty
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This version of “The Guilty” relies more on the story’s twist than the underlying character traits that lead to it
Karl Delossantos @ Smash Cut Reviews
- Excerpt: Fuqua doesn’t set out to recreate the Danish film. He’s too singular of a filmmaker for that. Rather, he filters the original’s plot through a distinctly American – and Fuqua – lens.
Sarah Marrs @ LaineyGossip.com
- Excerpt: It is only 90 minutes long.
Gunda
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Have you ever imagined an adult cow could gambol? With artfully placed cameras shooting in black and white and an incredibly layered, natural sound mix, Viktor Kosakovskiy invites us to consider the lives of the creatures we share this earth with.
- Excerpt: Named for the mama pig who is the film’s central character, Gunda never ventures inside the bloody walls of a slaughterhouse to make its point about why we should value animals as sentient beings; rather, it avoids the easy shock and awe of such brutality in favor of simplicity and beauty.
Hail Hydra: Martial Arts Cinema is Immortal
Happily
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …that most frustrating type of movie experience, one which features leads who really click, starts off really well and promises to keep us guessing only to spiral into pointlessness.
Derek Deskins @ Edge Media Network
- Excerpt: By the time you reach the end of “Happily,” all that is left is a series of abandoned ideas, potential character arcs, and a return to relative normalcy.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Add some deep-cut one-liners and a stoned-out-of-her-mind Yi calling shotgun in the most absurd way possible and this ride becomes a gift that keeps giving.
Hard Hit
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It takes advantage of its premise quite well, developing an occasionally tense, visually neat, and very well acted narrative.
Hard Luck Love Song
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Here’s one I can’t recall seeing before – an opening credit stating that the movie we’re about to watch is based on a song. As it turns out, if that song is Todd Snider’s ‘Just Like Old Times,’ you’re in for a real treat.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: https://aisleseat.com/hard-luck-love-song.html
Haseen Dillruba
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Hell Hath No Fury
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Stolen gold. Nazi conspiracies. Tangled webs of greed, betrayal, and vengeance. Jesse V. Johnson’s Hell Hath No Fury hath damn near everything a historical action thriller needs.
Hemingway
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A fascinating documentary on the life of the writer, revealing character qualities we connect to spiritual practices.
Here After
Here Alone
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Here Before
- Excerpt: Andrea Riseborough mic drops another outstanding performance in Stacey Gregg’s remarkably unnerving ‘Here Before’, an Irish domestic psychological thriller about a mother convinced that her deceased daughter has returned in the form of her wee new neighbor.
He’s All That
- Excerpt: It is a sweet little end of summer sorbet with appealing young performers and a script that refreshes the original without overdoing it.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: This gender-switch remake does an excellent job of showing how the two main characters become better persons and develop genuine feelings for each other despite their differences.
The Hidden Life of Trees
- Excerpt: It can appear to be anthropomorphizing, giving them the attributes of humans. But by the end of this film, you might think that understanding trees on such human terms is not even close to doing them justice.
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: At a time when we are looking for help with climate change and the sustainability of our natural world, “The Hidden Life of Trees” brings crucial forestry information to the table with gorgeous color and a surprising story.
High Ground
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: It is the colonists against the people and the land in this lusciously shot thriller.
Hockeyland
- Excerpt: Hockeyland does not so much examine or analyze hockey culture as it assumes and celebrates it, an approach that will quickly become tiresome if you’re not already on the bandwagon.
Homeless
- Excerpt: A social family drama from South Korea that manages to mostly avoid being misery porn by concentrating on a handful of characters living on the fringes.
Hope
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Norway’s submission for the International Oscar…is director Maria Sødahl’s painfully real autobiographical reconstruction of how an alarming cancer diagnosis metamorphosized her romantic relationship…a raw and moving modern love story.
How I Became a Superhero
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
How to Deter a Robber
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: There’s not a lot happening under the surface here, but Maria Bissell’s instincts as a storyteller are really solid here, and the comedic chemistry with the cast is incredibly sharp and charming.
The Human Factor
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: With his “The Human Factor,” Moreh has laid out complex situation in clear terms that leave us disconsolate at what might have been…
The Human Voice
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: the Scot and the Spaniard have whipped up a riotously colorful bit of manic Almodóvarian melodrama.
The Humans
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: [Houdyshell’s is] a devastating performance that shows the cost of this family’s dysfunction and the beating heart that wills it to stick together despite its cracks.
Hunted
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Hunted is a thoroughly tense and visceral film, one that manages to bring flourishes that go from surreal to borderline mythic.
Hydra
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Lo-fi, with few frills, the action in Hydra is undeniable. If only there was more or the rest of the movie measured up in any way.
I Blame Society
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A vicious, delicious Hollywood sendup, deconstructing — like a wrecking ball deconstructs — indie filmmaking, cinematic violence, and the industry’s treatment of women. Write what you know? Hoo boy.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: It’s about discovering if she has what it takes to be a filmmaker [by seeing if she has what it takes to get away with murder] since those goals progress in tandem.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
I Carry You With Me
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Intimately shot by cinematographer Juan Pablo Ramírez, who finds magic in natural light and artfully obscured compositions, the time shifting film makes a strong statement about U.S. immigration through a personal lens of sacrifice and oppression.
I Never Cry
Diego Salgado @ SoFilm [Spanish]
Ibrahim
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Standout performances and a simple yet powerful story of family and growth make this film work.
The Ice Road
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Liam Neeson battling the natural elements is exciting. The subplot about evil businessmen is not.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Surprises and plot twists help move the action along in this riveting film. But it’s the icy road scenes that make it a memorable adventure.
Icon
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
Identifying Features
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The quiet, methodical pacing of Identifying Features might not work for everybody, but it ultimately comes together beautifully. Fernanda Valadez has crafted a film with so much empathy and a striking eye for images that will leave a lasting impression.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Acting and locations so real it looks like a documentary, then dissolving into horror in a crashing ending worthy of any classic tragedy.
Iké Boys
- Excerpt: Iké Boys is a delightful throwback to the popular Japanese Super Sentai series of the 90s. What it lacks in great visual effects it makes up for in a well-focused story and a likable young cast.
Imad’s Childhood
- Excerpt: “Imad’s Childhood” is a great documentary that manages to highlight a very sensitive subject in eloquent but also respectful fashion, thus fulfilling a number of the key purposes of the medium.
Imaginur
- Excerpt: Despite these problems, the overall atmosphere of “Imaginur” actually compensates, with the movie remaining entertaining throughout, while providing food for thought through the unusual approach to the comments about memory and how it shapes people.
In the Same Breath
Ron wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A brutal look at Wuhan’s Covid outbreak morphs into a dialectical exploration of America’s in a war that has no winners.
India Sweets and Spices
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Substantive without being didactic, and bursting with humor, it’s a genuine feel-good film that focuses on the relationships between people in a manner that’s as authentic as it is pleasing.
Infinite
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Knee-jerk clichés abound in a shameless retread of The Matrix in which many levels of storytelling ineptitude are the only depth on offer. Can Hollywood please stop reincarnating the same old movies?
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: All things considered, Infinite is the perfect content for Paramount+: big budget theatrics and low stakes drama.
Aaron Neuwirth @ We Live Entertainment
- Excerpt: I like Wahlberg just fine, but he is sorely miscast as the lead character.
Insane
- Excerpt: “Insane” does not exactly reinvent the quarantine film, but has enough intriguing elements, both in context and production values to deem it a rather interesting watch.
Into the Beat
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Lively hip-hop group numbers are a treat, but it’s the marvelous duets by Pfeifer and Marscher that blew my mind. Their final routine exudes passion and mixes a little ballet with hip-hop. What a great number!
Into the Darkness
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Instead of caring about where this family ends up when the dust settles, [this film] seeks to highlight the complexities inherent to breathing that dust in without reprieve.
Introducing, Selma Blair
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: This film is not an easy watch. [But] Blair uses comedy to diffuse her own discomfort as much as those experiencing her struggles.
Ip Man: The Awakening
- Excerpt: “Ip Man: The Awakening” does not exactly reinvent the genre or the franchise, but is fun, well choreographed, and will probably appeal to all fans of both.
Jagged
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: It’s everything you’d expect from a documentary of this kind and yet you cannot deny its worth due to the content. Klayman is here as the steward of Morissette’s story.
Jane By Charlotte
Diego Salgado @ SoFilm [Spanish]
Jockey
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Collins Jr. and Parker forge a warm on screen partnership, the type of relationship that really feels lived-in.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: [Collins Jr. is] an actor who’s deserved more leading roles than his career has thus far afforded and he runs with the opportunity to prove it yet again.
- Excerpt: An emotionally-charged and gorgeous-framed film about man’s struggle for serenity in the face of lost purpose, ‘Jockey’ features a career-best turn from Clifton Collins Jr., even if it’s a story that feels like it’s been told before.
John and the Hole
Kyle Anderson @ Nerdist
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: I get the impulse to leave things open-ended. The problem, however, is that I think doing so was a way to save [them] from having to solve the problem they wrote on the board.
- Excerpt: Led by an unsettling central turn from Charlie Shotwell, ‘John and the Hole’ is a mysterious, jet black anti-coming-of-age fable about the loss of childhood innocence and wanting to accelerate the pace of growing up that is sure to leave many viewers mystified. For all its lurid puzzlings, this hole feels like Yorgos Lanthimos was charged with remaking ‘Home Alone’ so I still dug it.
Jolt
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Wascha [is] trying to buy more time than [he] already has [for sequels]. Maybe [it pays] off. Or maybe Jolt will forever be a marginally entertaining missed opportunity.
A Journal for Jordan
- Excerpt: It is the story of an improbable romance between two very different people and the imperishable bond that they both wanted their son to understand.
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.
Julia
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A tribute to Julia Child’s enthusiasm and her inimitable love of cooking.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …a thorough biographical documentary that makes its case for Julia Child’s incredible influence on American cooking by reminding us what we were eating before she hit the airwaves.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Expertly researched and compiled to educate and entertain in equal measure, the first two-thirds of Julia are impeccably drawn.
Jumbo
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Zoé Wittock’s debut exhibits a great deal of craft with its stunning visuals and a sound design that will make you believe Jumbo is a sentient being, but her narrative lags behind, the story never getting beyond a conceptual phase.
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Merlant’s so good that she sells you on her orgasmic abandonment within Jumbo’s metallic embrace, and make a lovers’ spat with a multi-ton hunk of creaking machinery come off as tragic rather than comic.
Just Remembering
- Excerpt: “Just Remembering” has its faults, and the truth is that Matsui’s narrative experiment does not work completely. However, there is still a lot to like here, with the movie definitely deserving a watch for the performances alone.
Justice Society: World War II
Luiz Carlos Gomes Santiago @ Plano Crítico [Portuguese]
Kandisha
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Kandisha is an overall effective horror film, and fans of Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo will probably find a lot to like here, especially in the few moments where they really indulge in the carnage.
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: Beneath a brutal supernatural revenge story, the film briefly touches on social issues from misogyny and racism to the Gothic, haunting legacy of colonialism in France.
Karnan
- Excerpt: Despite some faults which seem to be inherent in the local movie industry, “Karnan” is a true epic movie that also manages to highlight the issues the lower castes face in the country, through an approach that aims firstly towards entertainment.
Kate
Derek Deskins @ Edge Media Network
- Excerpt: When “Kate” gets out of its own way and relishes its skills, it’s a stylish, hyper violent thrill ride bathed in neon lights, coated in blood, and so exhilarating that you’ll have to fight the urge to shout words of encouragement at the screen.
Keep an Eye Out
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Quentin Dupieux (“Rubber”) is a master of absurdist humor and in this…he flexes his language muscles in a meta comedy which finds its protagonists tumbling down semantic rabbit holes…
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Your enjoyment on Keep An Eye Out will depend on how much you can get on Quentin Dupieux’s wavelength, though this is probably his most accessible and hilarious absurdist exercise to date.
- Excerpt: While Keep An Eye Out is only a brisk 73 minutes, the storyline contains enough surrealist silliness to fill a film twice as long. A comedy that is both eccentric and efficient? Sign me up!
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Quentin Dupieux’s effervescently surreal policier parody recalls vintage 70s cinema. And it’s actually pretty weird.
kid 90
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: More than entertainment for viewers, kid 90 proves a cathartic reckoning for Frye and anyone watching who has gone through the same trials and tribulations on any scale.
Killer Concept
- Excerpt: Killer Concept joins Driven as another enjoyable treat from Glenn Payne and Casey Dillard.
The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves to Die
- Excerpt: The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves To Die’ has absolutely no regard for any kind of modern political correctness, not to mention the fact that women here are portrayed as much the villains as the men, to say the least, while realism is thrown out of the window essentially from the beginning of the movie. Who cares though, when the entertainment it emits comes from every scene and the quality of the production is so high? The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves To Die” is one of the best action movies of the year and a return to a cinematic past of Korean movies that I feel many have missed significantly.
The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Shot in real time in a dingy apartment and a stairwell, the dramatic dynamism and ensemble acting the filmmaker has achieved showcase true independent filmmaking at its finest…This film will make you grieve.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: And even though we know how it ends, we still watch each glimpse of hope with a renewed sense of optimism that maybe Chamberlain will get out of this after all.
Killing the Shephard
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
King Knight
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: One thing that “King Knight” does really well is its long psychedelic scene, admirably achieved on an obviously low budget.
Knocking
Kyle Anderson @ Nerdist
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Director Frida Kempff spins Emma Broström’s adaptation of Johan Theorin’s novella into not only a paranoiac horror thriller heavily indebted to Roman Polanski’s “Repulsion” and “The Tenant,” but a stand for the voices of the marginalized.
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
Chris Barsanti @ Slant
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: Vonnegut was a writer whose outlook was shaped by his fear of failing. Some of his books made it and some did not. So it goes.
Labyrinth of Cinema
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …in his final film writer/director Nobuhiko Obayashi (“Hausu”) once again makes his strong anti-war sentiments very clear while being riotously entertaining – if you can keep up with it…a worthy capper to the career of a true cinematic maverick.
- Excerpt: Chock full of Ôbayashi’s trademark surrealistic imagery and eye-catching editing techniques, Labyrinth of Cinema tells an empathetic and energetic story about the power of cinema to change the world — one that we would all do well to take in.
Lady of the Manor
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It’s not a particularly ambitious or complex project, but as a basic comedy, it gets the job done, especially in terms of the cast really bringing it.
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: If any of this sounds funny, don’t worry, it isn’t.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: That the second half does find direction almost makes up for the first’s complete lack thereof, but it just wasn’t for me in the end.
Lair
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: While I’m all for Crow’s impulses, the execution here leaves something to be desired. Hopefully Lair ultimately proves a sign of greatness to come.
Language Lessons
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: These two are so enjoyable to watch even those thoroughly sick of Zoom calls, which I believe encompasses just about everyone, will forget about the format, Morales propelling the narrative by switching up backgrounds in creative ways.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Morales and Duplass are superb in their performances and writing to not shy away from knee-jerk mistrust or long-standing insecurities.
Lansky
Ronald wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A modest and entertaining rewriting of gangster history told by characters as old as the formula.
Last and First Men
- Excerpt: After his sudden, tragic death in 2018, fellow composer and musician Yair Elazar Glotman completed the project, making Last and First Men Jóhannsson’s first and only feature film as a director. The result is a haunting, philosophical view of the distant future that feels disturbingly prescient in its depiction of humanity’s destruction.
The Last Blockbuster
Sebastian Zavala @ Ventana Indiscreta [Spanish]
- Excerpt: The film focuses on the human side of the story; its protagonists, and not so much in the events in which they were involved.
Last Film Show
- Excerpt: A love letter and elegy for film and the unvalued art of the projectionist, ‘The Last Film Show’ is a beautifully-filmed and involving story of coming-of-age in a darkened movie theater in a modernizing India
Last Film Show
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
The Last letter From Your Lover
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
The Last Mercenary
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: David Charhon is balancing a lot of moving parts, and not all of it immediately clicks. However, when it’s leans on the ridiculous, it can be fun.
Last Words
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
Leave Me Alone
- Excerpt: Granted, the story maybe goes a bit too far on what is happening, particularly in Loong’s arc, but in general, the movie emerges as a rather entertaining watch, equally for its story, comments, and visuals, in a rather hopeful debut
LFG
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: The biggest difference between the U.S. Men’s & Women’s Soccer Team is not the skeletal structure nor unequal pay – it’s that the women actually win
- Excerpt: This isn’t a deep investigation into the particulars of the USWNT’s case, more a robust summary with a healthy dose of rah-rah feminism. But as a portrait of one of the higher-profile fights to close the gender pay gap, it gets the job done with gusto.
Lily Topples the World
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Alliance of Women Film Journalists
- Excerpt: Jeremy Workman’s charming and inspiring documentary, Lily Topples the World, focuses on Lily Hevesh, a 20-year-old woman who is a celebrity in a community few older people know anything about—the YouTube world of domino art.
- Excerpt: Sometimes everything comes down to a struggle between order and chaos. Lily Hevesh’s constructions made of dominoes are both, in the tradition of Tibetan monks making intricate sand Mandelas and then wiping them away, or artist Andy Goldsworthy making art from ice knowing it will melt.
Limbo
- Excerpt: Seldom has a film been more accurately titled than Ben Sharrock’s Limbo, which centers on the plight of a young Syrian refugee living at an asylum center on a Scottish island while he waits for the gears of justice to grind through their motions and determine his fate.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Ben Sharrock’s second feature is a humorously deadpan exploration of the refugee experience that resembles an Aki Kaurismäki movie with a sprinkling of Bill Forsythe’s Scottish “Local Hero” flavor…one of the best films to emerge so far in 2021.
- Excerpt: Sardonic and soulful, ‘Limbo’ is a slow-moving and darkly funny drama about the ennui of immigration and the guilt of leaving behind a life unfulfilled that crescendoes to a thunderous, lyrical peak.
Lisey’s Story
Listening to Kenny G
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [Penny Lane] proves yet again that nobody can tonally marry edification and entertainment on-screen so effortlessly.
Little Fish
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A love story set during a pandemic that reminds us of the importance of memories.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: A sort of ouroboros that simultaneously travels forwards and backwards to make it so we as viewers ascribe meaning to moments before fully grasping how they truly go together.
Little Girl
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Lovely verité documentary about eight-year-old Sasha, who was born into a boy’s body but is definitely a girl. An inspiring portrait of someone asking for so little: to be accepted for who she is.
Locked Down
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Ejiofor and Hathaway are game, but they’re grasping for something solid, and don’t find it. A deeply unsatisfying novelty artifact of the pandemic that fails to create a necessary sense of transgression.
Lone Wolf
- Excerpt: Adapting a Victorian tragedy to contemporary Melbourne is a disturbingly easy fit in an age of constant surveillance.
The Loneliest Whale
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: More than 52, this adventure also becomes about Zeman’s affinity for whales since childhood. It’s his ambitions and his excitement that propel the narrative forward.
The Loneliest Whale – The Search for 52
Makr Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: THE LONELIEST WHALE–THE SEARCH FOR 52 is a documentary about a whale that calls at 52 hertz. If you want a documentary that actually comes to a conclusion, this is probably not for you.
The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A scientific quest for a whale unable to communicate with other whales that is also a metaphor for loneliness in our times.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …until it really begins to feel manufactured in late stages, the work is very informative, not only about 52, but about the whale songs that engaged human interest in their fates and the perils facing them in today’s oceans.
Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: Lessons in paying attention for a young Tibetan convinced he’s dying unless he can find the sacred feminine in the world around him.
Lorelei
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Credit Doyle for not letting this thing get out of hand as far as forgetting who these people are underneath their surfaces. Expect some emotional fireworks along the journey.
The Lost Leonardo
Chris Barsanti @ Slant
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Dalsgaard’s thriller of a documentary posits that greed, power, stature and politics fuel the value of art far more than aesthetic mastery…fascinating, all encompassing and entertaining…
Lucky
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Grant, whose committed performance anchors the film, uses the specter of a masked killer who reappears daily to address the myriad ways woman are dismissed from micro aggressions to outright misogyny.
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Compact and efficient, Lucky puts a nice spin on the recurring timeline narrative.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: May’s demon isn’t the kind you can destroy. Its faceless patriarchal terror is unrelenting and infinite.
Luzzu
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A gripping portrait of the choice between tradition and modernity facing a Maltese fisherman.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: boasts vibrant cinematography (Léo Lefèvre) and a complex yet clearly told tale of one man’s struggle against inevitable economic realities, but Jesmark’s betrayal of a friend’s good faith makes him a difficult character to root for.
M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: The film covers Escher’s entire career, from early “realistic” works through his branching out into more mathematical and surreal art, always in woodcuts, lithographs, or drawings rather than paintings.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A mellow journey of logical ponderings made amazing by the subject’s illogical pretzel art.
M.C. Esher: Journey to Infinity
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: A crucial biographical document even if it’s an imperfect film. Lutz has composed a university lecture in its own right: educationally pragmatic and historically enlightening.
The Mad Women’s Ball
The Madness Inside Me
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Mafia Inc
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Let me show you how we do it in Canada.
Mainstream
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Mama Weed
- Excerpt: Starring the iconic Isabelle Huppert as the titular translator-turned-queenpin, Mama Weed is a tension-filled dark comedy that explores the lengths some will go in order to survive and thrive in a world that doesn’t seem to care. Some keen points are made along the way about the way migrants are treated in French society, though the casting of Huppert—as marvelous as she always is—as a person of Algerian descent does raise one’s eyebrows.
Ron wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: No thriller here, Isabelle Huppert plays it straight and entertains for the full run time.
Man in the Field: The Life and Art of Jim Denevan
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: “Man in the Field” is a spellbinding film for your mind.
The Man Who Sold His Skin
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …Ben Hania’s Tunisian nominee for the International Oscar could be accused of the same thing she wishes to condemn, one of the many trippy, circular arguments her film puts forward.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A departure from a reality that is, itself, a departure from reality
Mandao Returns
Sebastian Zavala @ Ventana Indiscreta [Spanish]
- Excerpt: The film feels like a true sequel, set to expand the world in which the story takes place, but without losing the charm of the first installment.
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
Roxana Hadadi @ RogerEbert.com
- Excerpt: None of this is particularly challenging, but Allen and Newton are pleasant enough and have easily believable chemistry, and Samuels keeps things moving at a brisk clip.
Martyrs Lane
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The film is a ghost story that is driven more by emotions and character rather than the desire to scare, and it packs a major punch by the end.
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: While [easy] to discern who Sayer’s character is to this family, Platt makes certain to shroud the circumstances behind her absence in enough mystery to keep us invested.
Materna
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: It’s moments of abject fright where impulse takes over in ways that show who we are beneath the images we present to the world.
Mayday
Mark Leeper @ Mark leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: The nature of what is going on is kept from the viewer for a while but turns out to be a YA-level action story.
The Meaning of Hitler
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: This is the story of the life of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, as well as a look at their influences and parallels today.
The Medium
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: There’s a lot of skill on display and some stellar craftsmanship. And while I might not care for the mockumentary approach, it doesn’t take away from the horror that the film indulges in.
Midnight in the Switchgrass
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Horsnail and Emmett never provide anything that makes us question how we know everything will end anyway. So why not try and prevent your heroes from becoming pawns?
The Mimic
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: A sharp script and fantastic performances from Thomas Sadoski and Jake Robinson make a sharp and hilarious comedy.
Minamata
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: A story that deserves to be told on its own merits and a film that effectively does exactly that. Minamata isn’t perfect, but it’s a solid tale of art as power and citizens as heroes.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Minamata aims at the soul. This powerful film meets its goal.
Misha and the Wolves
- Excerpt: This globe-trotting caper is a tale that’s stranger than fiction, perhaps because it just might be, and director Sam Hobkinson manages to weave the tale of a Holocaust survivor who lived with wolves into an entertaining and meaningful exploration of truth and autobiography.
Mission Possible
- Excerpt: Mission Possible is a masterclass in action comedy, a film that ticks all the boxes of the category and a truly fun to watch movie.
Mission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: Two spiritual masters, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, demonstrate the practice of joy in conversation about its relevance to our times.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway
- Excerpt: “Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway” is a great introduction to the three-movies arc, and one of the best mecha anime movies we have seen during the last few years.
Moby Doc
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Pink Floyd: the Wall’ with a sense of humor.
Moffie
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The film, which is both unflinchingly brutal and often quite beautiful, lays a groundwork for understanding the white male South African mindset given the military’s harsh indoctrination into hate politics…
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: We’re floating just outside Nicholas’ head as he reconciles past suffering and current trauma to begin to discover where his levels of complicity and rebellion stand.
Mogul Mowgli
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This fever dream of a film will be most appreciated by those…with knowledge of such history as the 1947 Partition of India, as Tariq refuses to spoon feed his audience, building his character profile with childhood memories and adult nightmares
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: An uneasy jolt of (pop) culture clash and assimilation angst. Unsettling and electrifying; near-nightmarish and absolutely mesmerizing. Riz Ahmed oozes sweat and rage, pride and power.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Ahmed and Tariq’s personal experiences let them bring their own pain and anger to life. It’s a topic devoid of answers and Mogul Mowgli does well not to pretend the opposite.
The Mole
ron wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A droll slight of hand may have the viewer in the role of sucker as much as the fearsome enemy.
Monday
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: If “Monday” makes any point at all, it is that sexual attraction does not a relationship make.
Monster
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: The cast is by far the most impressive thing about this production.
Monuments
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Mother Schmuckers
- Excerpt: This ultra-low-budget Belgian comedy is a tasteless gas that regularly makes light of that which is most likely to offend. Writers, directors, and stars Harpo and Lenny Guit are almost definitely an acquired taste but their weirdo depravity left me giggling nonstop.
Mother/Android
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: MOTHER/ANDROID is a standard robot apocalypse story done on a low budget.
Mothering Sunday
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: It opens a door to the depths of our souls, reminding us we aren’t alone.
Mothers of the Revolution
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Retro footage and sharply executed dramatizations tell the tale of an audacious multiyear all-women anti-nuke protest in the 1980s, revolutionary action that changed its heroines and saved the world.
Moving in 2008
- Excerpt: American Nightmare
Moxie
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Serious theme with comic turn, MOXIE includes a lot to learn.
Mummering Legends
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: The folk horror spirit is alive in GRIND MIND’s film. The story might not capture all that makes Newfoundland mummering so specifically unique to the province, but it still uses Newfoundland history and culture in a way that hasn’t been seen on film before.
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.
Munich: The Edge of War
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Dull, earnest fanfic full of halfhearted secret-agent shenanigans and a misguided rethink of Chamberlain the appeaser. Same-old rote, by-the-number World War II–ing we’ve seen countless times before.
Munich–The Edge of War
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: MUNICH–THE EDGE OF WAR is not science fiction, but as a historical drama it veers toward alternate history.
Murder by the Coast
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Music
Roxana Hadadi @ ThePlaylist.net
- Excerpt: This movie is literally and figuratively saying music can save your life, but the execution is all treacle and dust—overly sweet and utterly empty.
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
My Darling Supermarket
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: The inner life of retail food sales is teased out with beautiful clarity.
My Donkey, My Lover and I
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Attaining more chemistry with the donkey than the lover on the French Appalachian Trail.
My Father’s Tracks
- Excerpt: “My Father’s Tracks” is not exactly a great film, but is easy to watch, funny, and includes enough elements that allow it to stray away from the plethora of family dramas/comedies that come out of the Japanese movie industry.
My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: Cuartas explores issues of family, morality, and sexuality through a vampiric lens, depicting three siblings connected by blood in far more than just the sense of their family bloodline as they grapple with the prospect of losing each other.
My Little Sister
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a moving character piece about the fierce bond between siblings who relied upon each other growing up with theatrical parents while forging their own path in the family’s chosen art world.
My Lovely Angel
- Excerpt: Despite some small issues here and there, “My Lovely Angel” emerges as an excellent movie that highlights a very important issue while offering entertainment throughout its duration.
My Name is Pedro
Beverly Questad @ It’s Just Movies
- Excerpt: LaSalle might have been dazzled by her charismatic subject. Not everything is fully explained in the film.
My Salinger Year
- Excerpt: A semi-autobiographical film based on the non- fiction book by Joanna Smith Rakoff, covering her time in 1996 and 1997 with a New York literary agency who had J. D. Salinger as a client.
My Wonderful Wanda
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A delightful skewering of pretense that bounces from scary to scattered through perfectly executed twists of love, hate and lust.
Myth of a Colorblind France
- Excerpt: The key to the different experiences of expat African Americans and immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, according to Myth of a Colorblind France, is that French racial discrimination has its roots in France’s colonial history, rather than being based exclusively on skin color. Thus, an individual who may have no problem accepting African American celebrities and tourists may at the same time wish that the impoverished, dark-skinned immigrants living on French housing estates would just disappear from the country.
Naked Singularity
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A very good cast makes a valiant go of it, but a hugely ambitious experimental novel has been boiled down to a tepid mishmash of genres: social-justice drama + black-comedy heist + sci-fi mind-bender.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Rather than make a great film, however, these positives have me placing the presumedly better book into my queue.
Needle in a Timestack
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: Time travel exists, and Nick thinks someone is trying to change his timeline. Not surprisingly, Nick’s attempts to “fix” things have a somewhat different effect than he wants.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: I don’t think John Ridley’s Needle in a Timestack quite reaches the full potential of its conceit, but it comes close while overcoming any early preconceptions.
The Neutral Ground
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An account of what the arguments around the removal of Confederate statues in the South reveal about racism in the U.S. today.
Never Gonna Snow Again
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a magical fable about a mysterious man’s spiritual influence on the unhappy inhabitants of a wealthy, gated community… Utgoff is perfection in this role, even his celluloid self providing a sense of calm.
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: It’s a movie that begs for an allegorical interpretation, but I’m not sure it plays fair with the audience on that count.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A lighthearted cautionary tale about appreciating what has been given to us.
The New Bauhaus
- Excerpt: The New Bauhaus, a documentary feature directed by Alysa Nahmias, is a fittingly creative exploration of the legacy of Moholy-Nagy, an artist who never became a household name and yet whose life’s work is nonetheless ever-present in our lives today.
New Order
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: With a very compact running time, Franco impressively paints a city under siege, then flips the chaos into control of the most horrifying nature, a dehumanizing authoritarianism. “New Order” is shocking, but it delivers an effective warning.
- Excerpt: For those well-versed in zombie movies (by now everyone?), there is a grim humour in how Franco uses horror cinema tropes to escalate tension.
Luiz Santiago @ Plano Crítico [Portuguese]
New Year
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: There are some interesting ideas bandied about and you get the sense that the Suttons [and their actors] are creating from experience.
New York Ninja
- Excerpt: With no script, soundtrack, or production notes of any kind to work from, Vinegar Syndrome edited reels of 35mm film, recorded dialogue with a cast of cult faves from the 1980s, and enlisted the band Voyag3r to compose and record a stunning, synth-heavy score. The resulting New York Ninja, with directing credit belonging to both Liu and Kurtis Spieler, is a campy, action-packed delight that deserves its chance to finally be seen by the audiences that will appreciate it most.
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Every last choice the movie makes is totally off the wall—seriously, at one point the Ninja roller skates into battle.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Know what you’re getting into. Whether [it] sounds like the best or worst way to spend ninety-minutes, it will be that and more.
Newtok
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Burton and Smith worked on filming “Newtok” for six years, including filming the community for 300 days to create this haunting documentary about one of the first mainland areas in the world to be claimed by global warming.
The Night
Andrea Chase @ killermoviereviews.com
- Excerpt: THE NIGHT creates an internal logic that is easily perceptible, while also being tantalizingly beyond comprehension. The suspense builds slowly but relentlessly, gearing up for a resolution that is a psychic shock.
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The film’s payoff doesn’t quite work, but the buildup that preceeded it is incredibly tense and refined horror filmmaking.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: As a journey inward into the roiling waves of memory and regret, Ahari fulfills his promise with an unapologetic air of penance and disgrace [despite an] egregious misstep.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A synchronous collection of horror tropes keeps up the pressure from beginning to end.
Night Drive
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Both actors bought into their roles and kept me smiling. You can forgive a lot when that happens and even more when a (mostly) satisfying payoff follows.
Night of the Kings
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: What is perhaps most unexpected is that Lacôte’s move could almost be considered a dance film, Roman’s words accompanied by inmates creating a striking visual accompaniment via synchronized movement, complementing his words with sound effects inherent in their steps.
- Excerpt: ‘Night of the Kings’ challenges what a film can be, using African traditions of oral storytelling to create an often spellbinding – if not entirely complete – story about, well, stories.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: When Africa does surrealism one is in for a treat.
Night Raiders
Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: The movie is an intense drama about family and the consequences of authoritarian government — real and imaginary.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The acting is solid, the pacing smooth, and the lessons all too familiar considering the rise of xenophobia here in the United States.
Night Teeth
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
A Nightmare Wakes
- Excerpt: A Nightmare Wakes is Mary’s story, and in representing her mental state, it frequently blurs the boundary between what’s in her mind and what’s in the reality shared by her companions. This is done with such subtlety that you often don’t realize the film has left the shared world of experiences until you’re well into Mary’s feelings and perceptions.
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: This is an oneiric exercise in capturing the truth of a woman and a book that succeeds where traditional narrative could not.
Nightshooters
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Nightshooters is a showcase for Jean-Paul Ly, but how does the rest of the movie compare?
Nina Wu
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Echoing the me-too movement on a grand scale this story examines how fans kill their idols.
No Ground Beneath the Feet
- Excerpt: “No Ground Beneath the Feet” is a great movie, a rather hopeful debut, and a testament to the progress of Bangladeshi cinema.
No Land’s Man
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: Despite some issues with the writing, and the fact that the romance and the character’s story is a bit far-fetched on some levels, the comments Farooki wanted to present are well communicated through an approach that is both analytical and entertaining, while the sense of humor and the audiovisual beauty are on a high level.
No Man’s Land
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: While the film isn’t necessarily great as a whole, it has little moments that make the film compelling and interesting, and the cast puts in a lot of strong work.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Rather than focus on white Americans’ need to open eyes to [their] vitriol and hate, the script asks their victims to shoulder the responsibility of their own oppression.
Nomadland
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Frances McDormand makes us care in a role where her soul is bare. For me, this film is poetry in motion.
North Shinjuku 2055
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: Despite its rather experimental approach, “North Shinjuku 2055” is a very easy-to-watch film and an overall excellent title.
Not Going Quietly
- Excerpt: A masterful character study and politically activated documentary about ALS-stricken activist Ady Barkan, ‘Not Going Quietly’ is a powerful and overwhelmingly emotional story of a heroic man honing the power of his voice just as he begins to lose it – and the rest of his physical abilities – to an absolutely debilitating disease.
Notturno
Andrea Chase @ EatDrinkFilms.com
- Excerpt: An engrossing experience that bears witness as few other works have done to the most innocent victims of war.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: “Notturno” is a series of vignettes, some more engaging than others, some featuring stories Rosi returns to, others not… his imagery here often starkly powerful or lyrically beautiful.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: There is only so much one can say about man’s inhumanity to man and this film says it all.
The Novice
Cecilia Barroso @ Cenas de Cinema [Portuguese]
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [Fuhrman’s] frustration and determination are scary on their own so coupling her performance with Hadaway’s stylistically sensory choices only makes it more intense.
- Excerpt: A thrilling character study about an obsessive athlete and her self-destructive drive, Lauren Hadaway’s ‘The Novice’ explosively flips the sports drama on its head.
Christopher Reed @ Hammer to Nail
- Excerpt: The film can be read as a universal coming-of-age parable or the unique odyssey of this specific character. Either way, it offers moments filled with uncomfortable truths about the human experience.
The Nowhere Inn
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: The main character, singer Annie Clark/St. Vincent (played by Annie Clark) asks a friend (Carrie Brownstein, played by Carrie Brownstein) to write and direct a documentary about her for her fans. But while the stage persona of St. Vincent is dynamic and exciting, the reality of Annie Clark is boring.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The conceit is so daring that each lull inherently undercuts its potential boldness. [It’s] a captivatingly inventive meta-narrative spin on genre and celebrity, nonetheless.
- Excerpt: From Clark’s initial encounter with a limo driver who doesn’t recognize her, to a bass player who decides he’ll be Australian on camera, to a hilarious bit part by Dakota Johnson as the tabloid-friendly love interest, ‘The Nowhere Inn’ undercuts charges of pretentiousness by putting funny first.
Offseason
- Excerpt: ‘Offseason’ is a skeletal whisper of an idea (daughter of cult-esque escapee reckons with family legacy on a haunted island) that just never finds its groove or flower as a horror story. The fact that it feels long at less than 90 minutes speaks to how thematically and narratively barren the latest from Mickey Keating ultimately is. Big disappointment.
Old Henry
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A classic western that explores the malevolence of family secrets and the yearning for security.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Starring the Coen Brothers’ go-to hayseed Tim Blake Nelson (“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”), “Old Henry” is a redemptive tale laced with the romance of the American Western outlaw.
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: What ultimately makes Old Henry worth watching is Tim Blake Nelson, who gets to have a rare lead performance here, and he delivers strong work.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: This western is dialogue heavy with sharp bursts of violence before the big fight, thriving on the internal tumult of its characters.
On Stage
- Excerpt: In the end, and on a personal note, the documentary made me to want to meet Brother Long (and have a drink or two with him) and also to search about the music of “Second Hand Rose”, which I guess fulfilled the purpose of the film, even if Zhang Yaoyuan chose a sideway route to achieve it.
On the Count of Three
- Excerpt: A jet black comedy-drama with serious issues on its mind, ‘On the Count of Three’ finds morbid humor and grave sentiment in a pair of besties with a suicide pact. Christopher Abbott is as good as he’s ever been.
One Shot
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: After a while, you forget about the gimmick and do find yourself sucked into the characters and the overall situation. It’s a stunning technical achievement.
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Everyone with a boner for tactical action should watch this Scott Adkins one-shot ass kicker this weekend
Only the Animals
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Here, adapting Colin Niel’s novel, [Moll] takes on the more modern issue of the ripple effect of a falsehood perpetrated over the Internet, but his Chinese puzzle box of a plot is overly impressed with its own cleverness…
Onoda – 10.000 Nights in the Jungle
- Excerpt: “Onoda – 10.000 Nights in the Jungle” is a great film, a true epic that shows the consequences of war in the most eloquent fashion through a truly impactful and quite dramatic story. On a last note, Onoda was actually the penultimate Japanese soldier to surrender since Teruo Nakamura did so later in the same year…
Oslo
Kenji Fujishima @ TheaterMania
Outlier
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Outside the Wire
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Buried underneath opaque layers of what we are misled Outside the Wire is about – drone warfare ethics, weaponized artificial intelligence, and post-Cold War proxy wars – is a muddled treatise on endless wars.
Oxygen
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Mélanie Laurent deserves to be a bigger star.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
P!nk: All I Know So Far
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Pink did not choose between global superstardom and motherhood. Watch tens of thousands of people scream while Pink juggles acrobatics, diapers, and bedtime routines.
Palmer
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A heartfelt and emotionally resonant drama that is uplifted by understated performances.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: While the plot progression is therefore familiarly convenient, however, it never felt manipulative. And that’s a big win for this type of film.
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies
- Excerpt: Despite of its clichéd and overdone nature of the narrative, Fisher Stevens’ ‘Palmer’ offers a thought-provoking and emotionally powerful drama about acceptance and second chances.
Paper & Glue
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: Inspiring stories behind JR’s monumental, creative, socially conscious immersive art.
Paper Spiders
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: Is brutal in its honesty. It refuses to pander to its audience with platitudes or rainbows, while at the same time, it never demeans Dawn for her condition, nor strips her of her humanity.
The Paper Tigers
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The Paper Tigers is thoroughly charming and filled with endearing characters. Fans of martial arts movies will have a blast.
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Movie fights are great and all, but they mean a lot more when there’s the emotional center to back them up.
Paw Patrol: The Movie
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: PAW Patrol: The Movie exemplifies the old cliché – it really is a picture the whole family can enjoy.
Paw Patrol: The Movie
- Excerpt: Kids love them because the puppies are cute, brave, and capable. Also, like a boy band, the group is varied enough that each child can find one to identify with or pick as a favorite.
Percy vs Goliath
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: While it is a standard in its construction, the story keeps it engaging. Christopher Walken delivers a terrific performance.
The Perfect Candidate
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Haifaa Al-Mansour handles the material with patience and sensitivity, but also with a firm grip on cinematic storytelling that keeps things effortlessly compelling from moment to moment.
A Perfect Enemy
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Ridiculous excuse for a thriller — obvious, preposterous, ultimately banal — piles on psychological absurdities as it builds from a maddening middle to an enraging crescendo of misogynist nonsense.
Perhaps Love
- Excerpt: Cho Eun-ji seems to have hit the reef of the first time directors, who frequently try to do as much as possible in the feature debut. However, the result is rather entertaining for the most part while she seems to have many interesting social comments to make, which deem the film hopeful.
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Cynical sequel — you know, for kids! — doubles down on the nihilistic money-grubbing of the original. Thinks that being clever and meta about its own disenchantment will win us over. It does not.
PG: Psycho Goreman
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a very clever concept, but although it’s amusing for a while, “Psycho Goreman” spins off in too many directions, plot overtaking its simpler pleasures.
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: By never [giving anyone] a path towards redemption, Kostanski keeps things entertaining with a detached sense of revelry that lets us enjoy the gore without remorse.
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: Underneath the enjoyably goofy, child-like adventure of Psycho Goreman lie a few interesting themes that use the story’s comedy for satirical purposes.
Phil Liggett: The Voice of Cycling
- Excerpt: Even if it’s light on the very thing that made him a legend, this glimpse into Phil Liggett’s life should satisfy those with their own nostalgic memories of his famous tones.
Pieces of a Woman
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Kirby’s transcendent performance [is rendered] inert [as the film] positions her as a trump card waiting to do the right thing and end what’s become a melodramatic charade.
Plan B
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [Verma and Moroles’] comedic timing is only outdone by their authentic, heartfelt terror about the unknown.
El Planeta
ron wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A slow burn into existential questions of social status, truth, lies and the power of the human spirit.
Playing with Sharks–The Valerie Taylor Story
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s review
- Excerpt: This National Geographic film tells the story of Valerie Taylor, who has worked to educate the world about sharks, and to promote conservation efforts for them.
Pleasure
- Excerpt: A stunningly provocative exploration of the peaks and valleys of the porn industry led by a wowing performance from newcomer Sofia Kappel, ‘Pleasure’ uses gratuitous sex to speak to structures of power and consent while telling the story of one girl’s thirst for pornstar fame.
Poet
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: “Poet” is an excellent film, one that highlights the fact that Omirbaev is at the top of his art, particularly because he manages to present all his comments through an approach that is intelligent, funny, and rather artful at the same time.
Port Authority
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: What makes Lessovitz’s film so great isn’t that she allows these truths into what could have just been a sweet, inclusive romance, but that she lets their impact be felt.
Poser
- Excerpt: An envious podcaster infiltrates the Columbus underground music scene in Ori Segev and Noah Dixon’s engaging debut ‘Poser’. A stalker-thriller featuring a pair of engaging breakout performances, the beats may be familiar in places but are remixed to amplified effect.
Post Mortem
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Poupelle of Chimney Town
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: While the film is first and foremost about Lubicchi having someone to call his friend, it’s also a rather incisive critique on capitalism, misinformation, and totalitarianism.
The Power
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Writer/director Corinna Faith (BAFTA nominated for her 2006 short ‘Care’) utilizes our fear of the dark to shine a light on both class and female oppression in 1970’s England with her double entendre titled film.
Pray Away
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
Prayers for the Stolen
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: Empathy building film about young girls in a Mexican village whose strong friendship helps them survive dangers from without.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Huezo effectively keeps the film a slice of life drama in a way that guarantees personal nightmare simply because it has thus far eluded them.
Prime Time
- Excerpt: Jakub Piatek’s attempt to unravel the modern obsession with broadcasting our private lives through the lens of Y2K features a solid performance from Bartosz Bielenia but cannot stir up enough twisty plot momentum to engage on a deeper level.
Prisoners of the Ghostland
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Sono’s created a frontier town that looks like it was art directed out of a Chinatown five and dime… choppy and nonsensical, but it’s Sono’s world and Cage is living it up in it.
- Excerpt: Prisoners of the Ghostland, Sono’s English-language debut, stars Cage as an infamous criminal who is told to track down the adopted granddaughter of the warlord who rules the Old West-meets-Mad Max town in which the film takes place. Sono takes a hefty pile of mismatched genres, throws them all in a blender, and cranks the speed up to an explosive eleven, with Cage as the leather-clad center of the madness swirling around him.
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: the real question of the day is: Is Prisoners of the Ghostland truly the wildest movie Nicholas Cage has ever made? With a post-apocalyptic circus vibe, and the cinematic equivalent of throwing half-a-dozen subgenres in a blender, it’s certainly in the running.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Was I ultimately left wanting more? Yes. But I harbor no regrets towards the journey.
Prisoners of the Ghostland
Christian Long @ Glide Magazine
- Excerpt: A delightfully outlandish western/samurai flick
Private Desert
Cecilia Barroso @ Cenas de Cinema [Portuguese]
Psycho Goreman
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Like a Troma movie, but a Troma movie with heart and soul that’s actually as fun as those movies want to be.
PVT Chat
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: The examination of how we communicate through screens, and how the personas we craft online bleed over into the tactile world, is especially poignant in this moment.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Its journey contains a lot worth delving into, but the destination lacks [the start’s] captivating, darkly sinister energy.
Queen Bees
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: [Burstyn’s] best scenes with a Bee are with Loretta Devine’s Sally, whose uproarious bit on ‘underboob sweat’ is the film’s funniest. But these elements are like a life raft on the Titanic.
- Excerpt: Half a dozen veteran performers do their best to elevate a patchy script in “Queen Bees,” a gentle romantic comedy set in a retirement community that one character describes as “‘Mean Girls’ with Medic- Alert bracelets.”
Queen Marie
- Excerpt: Directed by Italian filmmaker Alexis Sweet Cahill, Queen Marie chronicles the ruler’s attempts to convince international leaders that the “Romanian question” was deserving of their attention. And while lavish historical dramas laden with European accents are increasingly out of vogue with moviegoers, Queen Marie isn’t without its charms—including its fittingly regal lead.
The Queen of Black Magic
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Kimo Stamboel’s latest is a thoroughly enjoyable and often unnerving horror film with plenty of nasty and bloody scares.
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Featuring a searing performance from Djuricic, whose reasonable hope giving way to mounting helplessness shrouds the film in unbearable tension, “Quo Vadis, Aida?” is like watching a horrific accident we are powerless to stop.
Maitland McDonagh @
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [We’re never] taken for granted. Rather than show us what we know is happening, [Zbanic] includes foreshadowing, rumors, and expressions to put a chill in our spine instead.
R#J
Rabid
- Excerpt: As is usually the case with omnibuses, the quality of the segments is not on the same level, with the first one being clearly on a higher level than the rest. Nevertheless, the combination of brief durations, horror and black comedy aesthetics, and intense social commentary work excellently for the omnibus, essentially carrying it from beginning to end.
Raging Fire
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Simply the best action movie of the year so far, and if we see one better, we’re damn lucky.
Rams
Dan Lybarger @ Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
- Excerpt: It’s difficult to go wrong with good material.
Rare Beasts
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: It’s uncensored, honest, and crude. It’s relatable, deplorable, and hilarious. And it’s a singular vision of emotional schizophrenia.
The Real Charlie Chaplin
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: “The Real Charlie Chaplin” provides remarkable revelations about a remarkable actor. The outstanding research and editing, beginning with his birth in 1889, that make this documentary flow will land this film as a major contender for best doc on the 2022 Academy Award short list.
The Reason I Jump
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: accomplishes one of cinema’s primary objectives – giving us the perspective of a world unknown to us.
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: An extraordinary cinematic experience that immerses us into the personal landscapes of profoundly autistic, nonverbal young people. The empathy it engenders is deeply felt and enormously eye-opening.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Hopefully audiences will see The Reason I Jump and acknowledge the ways in which they can help too. Understanding is the first step.
The Reckoning
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It most doesn’t reach the heights of some of Neil Marshall’s previous works, but there’s enough style, tension, and strange imagery to make its mark.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: For all its familiarity, however, you can’t deny its visual panache via immersive cinematography and production design.
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
Red Notice
Blake Howard @ Dark Horizons
Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Red Soil
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Brings home the sometimes illusive dangers of environmental degradation by showing victims and their families in revolt.
Reel Asian Shorts
- Excerpt: Six shorts that are long in content
Resident of Alice
- Excerpt: “Resident of Alice” is a true gem of a film, and one of the most interesting Japanese indie dramas we have seen this year.
Resort to Love
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: This sweet rom-com seems short on com — but strong on rom.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Actress/singer Jennifer Hudson is such a fascinating individual. She could be the star of her own biopic.
The Retreat
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: The Retreat holds real terror and true horrors. It’s the embodiment of so many anxieties us queers feel when we’re watching these backwoods slasher-type films, let alone when actually being in the middle of the woods.
Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: Powerful documentary on the history of race massacres in the U.S. and how what led to them endures to this day.
- Excerpt: Never strident, never glib, this is a compelling film that is unflinching in what it wants to say about the past and the present.
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A straightforward yet shrewdly incisive work of journalism, a cutting history of white America’s backlash against Black progress. This is history that is not yet past, and must be reckoned with.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Rise Again proves itself to be an extensive deep dive into a subject that needs to be taught. It’s time to remove [our collective] blindfold.
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Now at 90 years old, Rita Moreno is more popular than ever. And she’s making the most of it, as shown in this terrific documentary..
River
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: You can’t have us invest in a human story only to figuratively (and in some cases literally) tell the characters to unceremoniously ignore it for something else.
River of Blood
- Excerpt: “Paka” is a great debut that manages to make its comments in a way that is contextually rich, visually captivating and entertaining at the same time.
The Road Up
- Excerpt: This film will nourish the glimmer of hope in all who watch it, hope for Mr. Jesse and his students but also the little glimmers we sometimes overlook in ourselves.
Ron’s Gone Wrong
Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Smith and company know this and do well to package [its Post-Capitalism 101] insight into an E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial redux plot.
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
The Rookies
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: This hyperactive Chinese action comedy has a lot of outrageous moments that are fun to watch. They’d be even more fun if they were surrounded by a coherent plot and three-dimensional characters.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: People who like this type of film will have a blast while those who don’t are caught glancing at their watches in hopes the end is finally near.
Rose Plays Julie
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: With its lush art house production aesthetic, unsettling exploration of identity and double entendre dialogue, “Rose Plays Julie” unfurls with an elegant sense of dread.
Running Against the Wind
- Excerpt: A good training or racing montage…can always lift the spirits, and the straightforward nature of running (the point is to cross the finish line first, and everyone can see who does so) makes the sport inherently film-friendly.
Rurouni Kenshin
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Russian Raid
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: …a bunch of gnarly Russian dudes pounding one another into oblivion.
Ruth: Justice Ginsberg in Her Own Words
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words
- Excerpt: [Ruth] gives you some idea of what it took for her to make her way in a field in which, as we see her telling a group of schoolchildren, she started with three strikes against her: being Jewish, being female, and being a mother.
Sabaya
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: With “Sabaya,” Hirori illustrates news items many have become inured to and brings them to devastating life while his subjects, Mahmud and Ziyad, give us hope for humanity.
- Excerpt: Though one may be left wanting more footage and more character after watching the horrifying ‘Sabaya’, there is no denying the raw power of Hogir Hinori’s guerrilla documentary which shines a light on one of Earth’s darkest spots.
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: “Sabaya” is a remarkable film with remarkable access to suffering, resilience and compassion.
Saina
Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Tusshar Sasi @ Filmy Sasi
Sardar Udham
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: While it isn’t flawless, it’s a strong and effective piece of filmmaking that paints a compelling and well rounded portrait of a man in search of vengeance, no matter the cost.
Sator
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Sator can be a difficult watch in several respects, but it explores horror conventions with a personal touch that makes for a unique piece of filmmaking.
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Savior for Sale: The Story of the Salvator Mundi
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
Scales
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: While Scales did sometimes test my patience, I think there is a lot to really like about this film. Shahad Ameen’s exploration of womanhood in a man’s world is explored with a haunting and fresh vision.
- Excerpt: While Scales is hauntingly beautiful and contains a powerful thread of feminist anger, the story is sparse to a fault, barely summoning enough narrative to fill its already brief running time. Nonetheless, the film’s unique vision announces Ameen as a rising filmmaker to watch.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: It’s not enough for Ameen to merely expose that universal truth. She must also show the personal cost by pulling the curtain on what it is that’s really happening.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
The Scary of Sixty-First
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The Scary of Sixty-First will find an audience firmly affixed to its wavelength who will champion its boldly irreverent style as a cult classic. [I’m sadly not it.]
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: It feels like an adaptation of a Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy podcast that realized it didn’t have enough crazy ideas to spin into a feature film, so a horror movie subplot was added.
Scenes from an Empty Church
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: Dramedy about how the faith and forgiveness of two Catholic priests are tested during the pandemic.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Leave it to Tukel to take a cynical interpretation of organized religion, wrap it around a moment mired in a crisis of faith, and find a way to embrace the humor and hope.
School’s Out Forever
Seance
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: A solid if unspectacular debut that attempts to play with horror conventions to mixed results.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Rather than subvert things as a rule, Barrett often leans into tropes to lull us into a false sense of security before adding a deviation that surprises enough to stay fresh.
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: The discussion of urban legends and privilege that Seance brings up are icing on an already tasty genre cake.
Searchers
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: Interesting exploration of how apps help some New Yorkers find someone to date.
Searching for Mr Rugoff
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Secret Agent Dingledorf and His Trusty Dog Splat
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: You know a movie is in deep trouble when it misspells its own title in the opening credits.
Sentinelle
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Quick, to the point, and violent, it gets in cracks skulls, and gets out. With a compelling, layered protagonist and badass turn from Olga Kurylenko, this more than scratches a particular action itch.
Seobok
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: This South Korean sci-fi thriller has a lot to say about cloning, the meaning of being human, ethical ramifications of eternal life, and slick genre action.
Settlers
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Mark Leeper @ Mark leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: This is basically a John Ford Western on Mars (down to using some of Ford’s trademark shots), with a minimal cast.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The thing about withholding plot information is that you must generally divulge that which you’ve held back at some point. [Rockefeller] never does.
Sexual Drive
- Excerpt: Bringing together Japan’s twin histories in cinematic erotic and the glorification of food, Kota Yoshida’s anthology may make you reassess your relationship with at least three food groups.
Shadow in the Cloud
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Liang isn’t content with one wild scenario, presenting Maude with obstacles on all fronts, and just when you think the filmmaker’s gone too far (as I did with that package reveal), she manages to make it work.
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It’s not a great movie, but there’s fun to be had, especially with Chloë Grace Moretz effortlessly carrying the ride on her shoulders.
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Shankar’s Fairies
A Shape of Things to Come
Sheep Without a Shepherd
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: an entertaining ride piloted by a master manipulator.
Shershaah
Shiver
- Excerpt: Toshiaki Toyoda delivers another dazzling collision of sound and vision, teaming up with legendary taiko drumming troupe Kodo for this beautiful hybrid film.
Shoplifters of the World
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
- Excerpt: Shoplifters of the World is a love letter to both The Smiths and their fans.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The best thing about “Shoplifters of the World” is its soundtrack, but despite the film’s flaws it has an endearing quality.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The result isn’t perfect, but its messaging and execution is a lot more resonant than I expected going in—a less successful sibling to Blinded By the Light.
Show Me the Father
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Even viewers who aren’t interested in the religious messaging are likely to be moved by the stories told here. They make the film heartwarming and inspiring.
Show Me What You Got
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Cvetko isn’t therefore interested in mining what it means for these three to get together. That they join is inevitable. It’s what this relationship gives them that matters.
Shrieking in the Rain
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: “Shrieking in the Rain” is not exactly a pioneering film, and the truth is, that the combination of nostalgia and love for cinema do lead to some scenes that could be described as cheesy (the donut ones for example). It is, however, sincere, realistic, informative and quite fun, in a combination that truly deserves to be watched.
Signal The Movie Cold Case Investigation Unit
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: “Signal The Movie Cold Case Investigation Unit” has its faults, but in general emerges as a rather entertaining genre movie that works very well within its crime film aesthetics.
Silat Warriors: Deed of Death
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Hardcore fans of martial arts cinema should give Silat Warrior: Deed of Death a chance. Outside of that demographic, however, it’s a hard sell.
Silat Warriors: Deed of Death: Wait for It
Silent Land
Silent Night
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …while Griffin’s premise is strong, unfortunately it is swamped in a black comedy which is rarely funny with a (fairly obvious) twist ending Stephen King devised forty years ago.
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Apocalyptically sorta-satirical, bone-deep terrifying slap in the face that humanity has properly earned. Formidable, intense… and funny, in a very dry way that is nevertheless difficult to laugh at.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Griffin has made a comedy, but she pulls no punches. This is both to the film’s success and detriment because, while a lot of fun, Silent Night is very blunt in its delivery.
Silk Road
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: There is a wealth of confirmation to be found about many our worst nightmare in SILK ROAD, a cautionary tale of stereotypes, specialization, and the consequences of absolute freedom.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: At the end of the day this is a hollowly reductive account of what happened with a weird subtextual rich punk against blue collar cop agenda falling woefully flat.
Silo
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …a great procedural on the complications of a grain entrapment rescue…But while Burnette’s created a wide variety of characters in his rural New Hope, it takes the better part of the film to figure out how they are interrelated.
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Marshall Burnette shows strong instincts in highlighting character within the margins of a story that is otherwise devoid of anything remotely superfluous.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: A little subtlety where those parables are concerned would have been nice, but they’re effective just the same.
Silver Skates
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Simple as Water
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Megan Mylan, an Oscar-winning filmmaker, took five years in five countries to create this cinéma-vérité documentary masterpiece on what it’s like to be a refugee.
Sisters on Track
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [Answering how Bell pushes these sisters through a broken system] is the film’s strength because it presents a blueprint reaching beyond them alone.
Sisters with Transistors
Six Minutes to Midnight
- Excerpt: The concept is intriguing, mostly because it is a World War II story that we haven’t heard before; Izzard apparently spent years researching the school alongside the curator of the Bexhill Museum before writing the script. Yet despite this impressive undertaking, the end result is not much more than your standard spy thriller: solid, yet unremarkable.
Skeleton Flowers
- Excerpt: “Sceleton Flowers” is a well-directed, well-shot, and well-acted film, that needed, though. some more tension and a bit of trimming in its duration to get to the next level. Festival audiences, however, will probably have a blast with this.
Skyfire
Sandy Schaefer @ Comic Book Resources
- Excerpt: Skyfire is an enjoyably goofy natural disaster genre movie throwback that manages to be truly ridiculous yet utterly sincere at the same time.
Slalom
- Excerpt: It’s clear where Slalom is headed, and it wastes no time getting there—but what’s really interesting in Slalom is what happens in the remaining two-thirds of the picture, which takes an unexpected direction.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Presents the news headlines of scandalous abuse in elite competitive sports in a deeply personal perspective.
Slate
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Overall, Jo serves up a strong, entertaining, odd-enough-to-standout action film, and if Ahn Ji-hye becomes a big international action star, much worse things could happen.
Slaxx
Kyle Anderson @ Nerdist
Sarah Boslaugh @ The Arts STL
- Excerpt: Slaxx isn’t aiming for the Oscars, unless “best socially conscious midnight movie” has become a category and I somehow missed the memo. But it’s a lot of fun, and at 77 minutes does not overstay its welcome.
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: As silly as Slaxx gets, it’s clear that is has quite a bit on its mind. Elza Kephart proves herself more than capable at balancing the weird and outrageous with thoughtful theming.
Diego Salgado @ SoFilm [Spanish]
Small Engine Repair
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: while Pollono is adept at drawing his male characters, he tips his hand too strongly with his plot developments, draining all surprise from what should be a shocking turn of events. What he leaves us with is a strong, regional character study…
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A scathing look at toxic masculinity.
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: A great setting and a powerful message are submerged in facial hair and mumbled lines.
So Late So Soon
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Hymanson films them in good times and bad—present and past. The result can appear slight at times, but no less poignant in the aftermath.
Some Kind of Heaven
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: With “Some Kind of Heaven,” Oppenheim’s created a spiritual successor to Errol Morris’s “Vernon, Florida with the style of Todd Hayne’s “Far from Heaven.” It’s a must see.
Somebody’s Flowers
- Excerpt: “Somebody’s Flowers” is a bit too long, as is usually the case with recent Japanese productions, but apart from this minor fault, emerges as an excellent effort in both retaining a particular rhythm and approach, and presenting a plethora of comments in an intelligent and entertaining way.
Sometime Other Than Now
- Excerpt: Sometime Other Than Now is a frustrating watch—it keeps teetering on the brink of almost being good but never quite makes it. I never thought I’d miss the skill (if not depth) of Nicholas Sparks, but here we are.
Somewhere with no bridges
Federico Furzan @ Screentology
- Excerpt: A compelling insight into loss, and the effects of human kindness. A celebration of life like you’ve never seen.
Son of Monarchs
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: Richly thematic and symbolic story of the parallel migrations of a Mexican scientist and the butterflies from his home region.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: It’s a powerfully dramatic exploration of who we are through the eyes of someone forever trapped straddling an invisible line between worlds that aren’t so far apart.
Son of the South
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
Songbird
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Sooryavanshi
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Sound of Violence
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Strings together gorgeous, extravagant bursts of violence and color, and cool, inventive sound design with flimsy storytelling beats.
- Excerpt: Destined to be hated by many and cherished as a cult classic by others, ‘Sound of Violence’ is an off-the-rails hoot where a deranged musician tortures people to make the ultimate club-thumping beat. The only way to satisfy her craving for sonic perfection: lots and lots of violence. If you’re not laughing, you’re definitely watching it wrong.
Soup and Ideology
- Excerpt: This, however, is the only issue with “Soup and Ideology” which emerges as a rather interesting film, particularly in the way a personal story is implemented to talk about historic trauma, identity, and the concept of Zainichi Koreans in general.
South of Heaven
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Flat, misses the mark, and never realizes its potential. [
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Despite so much going on, none of it rises above the consistent drone of a single frequency pulling us forward without any real stakes.
The Souvenir: Part II
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: : If “The Souvenir” conveyed the power and pain of the filmmaker’s mysterious first love, “Part II” finds her breaking free of its oppression to proclaim herself.
Space Sweepers
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Space Sweepers offers a good old fashioned adventure that sweeps you up in a whole new world with wonder, wit, and plenty of personality. It has the kind of heart and imagination that you don’t see in a lot of modern American blockbusters.
The Sparks Brothers
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Wright’s labor of love may be guilty of a fan’s over indulgence, but his subjects will charm the pants off of you, make you laugh and amaze with their creativity and sheer endurance.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Wright appears to be their biggest fan with a keen understanding of the Sparks brand and the perfect collaborative spirit to let their eccentric personalities shine.
The Spine of Night
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: For anyone who has wanted a spiritual follow up to something like Heavy Metal, this will definitely scratch that itch.
Spirit Untamed
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A pleasant little film that has real charm.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: The kiddies may not understand that Spongebob and Patrick are dissecting the tropes of a buddy picture versus a hero’s journey as they set off on their journey, but they will enjoy the exchange that ends in rocks and sand, literal and figurative, filling the characters’ heads.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Really, what more do you need to know than Keanu Reeves has been cast as a tumbleweed?
Spoor
- Excerpt: An ecological thriller that is not without flashes of humor courtesy of its wonderfully weird cast of characters, Spoor is guaranteed to make many audience members uncomfortable. In my case, it also left me hopeful.
Stardust
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Still Life in Lodz
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Elbaum’s position as someone [paying respects and gaining insight] allows her to be the perfect steward with as much curiosity, knowledge, and reverie as we could hope [for].
Storm Lake
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A rousing salute to local newspapers as the glue holding communities together.
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: …a delightfully informative film about an otherwise grave threat to truth, community and democracy.
Stowaway
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …the type of film that seems to exist all for its excruciating climax, one in which Penna keeps upping the ante to unbearable degrees.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: This is well-acted character study. Just not a particularly exciting one.
Stray
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A bittersweet, multilayered vérité portrait of the street dogs of Istanbul. Startlingly immersive, howling with moral questions about what we owe these creatures of intelligence, dignity, and feeling.
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: I bawled my eyes out in aching nostalgia with this absolutely delightful dive into the creation of the educational TV show and its carefully crafted chaos that had an outsized impact on Generation X.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: There’s so much about “Sesame Street” that deserves to be celebrated considering how it really did change our perception of television and the power of marketing.
Sublet
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The strength of the film is with its leads, the award winning veteran and screen newcomer connecting so believably from such opposing romantic ideologies we come away from the film with hope for humanity.
Sugar Daddy
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: McCormack and Morgan aren’t interested in sanitizing the messiness that goes into a woman accepting herself outside the men’s world she was born into.
Summer of 85
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: In adapting the Aidan Chambers novel ‘Dance on My Grave,’ prolific writer/director François Ozon elicits fine performances in a striking location in service to an unsatisfying narrative.
Summertime
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: While the individual spoken word poets, rappers and singer/songwriters all have unique voices…Estrada has made the whole work beautifully…If this doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, neither did it mine and yet it is all kinds of wonderful…
Sun Children
Ronald wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: As gritty and up close as any street drama with a twisty ending second to none.
Superior
- Excerpt: Erin Vassilopoulos’ ‘Superior’ is a moody psychological drama that suffers a middling script while leaning on effective, evocative aesthetics and too-subtle character development.
Swallow
Cecilia Barroso @ Cenas de Cinema [Portuguese]
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Swan Song
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: Mahershala Ali delivers a work so captivating that we are willing to follow him wherever he chooses to take it.
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: Cameron (played by Ali) is dying, and to save his family from grief, he agrees to a new technique that will duplicate him completely, with all his memories except the ones that would tell him he is a duplicate. The plot has similar ideas to FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, and also MOON.
Swan Song (1)
- Excerpt: In SWAN SONG, Udo Keir is a retired hair dresser asked to do the hair and make-up for a former client with whom he had a falling-out
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Topped off by one of the best performances of the year, this is funny and sweet, sad and joyous, simultaneously soul-crushing and life-affirming, and deeply, deeply human.
Swan Song (2)
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Mahershala Ali plays these two sides of himself with subtlety, Tucker wary, Jack supportive yet continually advancing his own cause.
Christopher Reed @ Hammer to Nail
- Excerpt: Beautifully shot and edited, Swan Song is full of poignant moments that force us into serious meditations on the nature of existence. It is best not to think too much about the mechanics of the plot, however, lest its weaknesses stand out.
Sweat
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Writer/director Magnus von Horn’s film’s powerful portrayal of the addictive nature of social media and the way its psychologically tuned algorithms Impact self esteem is enough to make one want to swear off their platforms.
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Nuanced, sensitive peek into the world of a social-media influencer, with a beautiful central performance. Uncynical and pragmatic about the seachange human society has endured in the 21st century.
The Swedish Boys
James Wegg @ JWR [Swedish]
- Excerpt: A varied collection of shorts that includes a few third wheels
Sweet Girl
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: I don’t know if I would necessarily recommend Sweet Girl but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a good time. I find a lot of comfort in the sort of 90s thrillers that Brian Andrew Mendoza is trying to evoke here
Sweet Thing
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …if this one doesn’t make a star of [Rockwell’s] eldest, Lana, the right people aren’t paying attention.
Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Three friends, a van full of inflatable sex dolls, and a fishing trip gone very, very wrong; a quartet of inept killers; and a mysterious one-eyed man with a brutal vendetta. All wrapped in a bloody, violent, patently ridiculous, near-slapstick package.
Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue
The Swordsman
- Excerpt: Absolutely stunning from top to bottom, I couldn’t possibly have loved The Swordsman more. With a touching father/daughter relationship at its core, a clear mission to pay homage to Japanese blind swordsman series Zatoichi, gorgeous production design, top notch performances, and breathtaking action sequences, this film just hit the spot on every conceivable level.
Ten Minutes to Midnight
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: takes risks and makes unexpected choices, the film has concerns other than bloody theatrics, and there are more ambitions and ideas to chew on than the package indicates.
The Tender Bar
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This charming coming of age story features an on point Affleck, delivering weirdly specific advice like ‘Never under any circumstance hit a woman, even if she’s coming at you with a pair of scissors…’
Test Pattern
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: There is much to ponder here and Ford has crafted a unique perspective with which to do so.
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: [Healthcare is] a willfully malicious system meant to dissuade, demoralize, and dehumanize women. And Ford pushes [things] even further [with society’s role too].
Josh Taylor @ The Forgetful Film Critic
- Excerpt: The most thrilling thing about Test Pattern is Ford’s unapologetic point-of-view. This is a story told from a Black woman’s perspective, and the director makes no concessions to any other gaze.
The The Rossellinis
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Even Alessandro is using it as his movie’s title, to gain attention and interest. But upon lifting the curtain, Alessandro also reveals the truth behind the famous and revolutionary name.
There Is No Evil
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Mohammad Rasoulof encourages you to think, and he does it in a manner best suited for the medium of film, by getting you involved with characters and using the camera to explore these ideas in ways that are challenging yet compelling.
They Say Nothing Stays the Same
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A character study about a Japanese elder who models kindness, hospitality, and reverence.
Things Heard & Seen
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Seyfried engenders sympathy and a rooting interest that carries us through a film whose supernatural aspects almost feel like an afterthought and which carries its subplots a bridge too far.
Things Heard and Seen
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
This Is My Desire
Ron wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Documentary clarity in a story of dreams, identity and family almost too real to be fiction.
This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection
- Excerpt: The winner of the Special Jury Prize for Visionary Filmmaking at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and Lesotho’s first-ever submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection is a devastating depiction of one woman’s fight to maintain the traditions of her people when the crushing wave of modernization threatens to sweep them away. Written and directed by Mosotho filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese and starring the late, great South African actor Mary Twala Mhlongo in her heartbreaking final performance, the film forces us to examine the idea of progress and the irreparable damage this purportedly positive force can do when it lacks a beating heart.
Three Wishes for Cinderella
- Excerpt: I have to admit, it’s refreshing to revisit the Cinderella story from a non-Disney perspective.
Thunder Force
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy share outrageous dining and dancing sequences that almost save Thunder Force.
‘ Til Kingdom Come
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A deep dive into US evangelical Christians teaming up with Israeli charities in an absolutely terrifying unholy alliance that has geopolitical implications that should worry everyone, believer or not.
Till Death
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Till Death might not provide the most complicated or nuanced story, but it’s a thoroughly engaging cat-and-mouse thriller that relies on the lead using their wits to survive, and Megan Fox carries you through the twists and turns effortlessly.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: While I can easily recommend giving Till Death a shot, it’s difficult not to notice how often it misses its opportunities to fight above its weight class.
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: The film tackles trauma in a compelling way through Fox’s protagonist and the harrowing journey she must undertake to be free of her husband’s figurative, and literal, shackles.
Marcio Sallem @ Cinema com Critica [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: O pior de Até a Morte é o subtítulo nacional Sobreviver é a Melhor Vingança, já que o thriller estrelado por Megan Fox é revigorante. Escrito por Jason Carvey, cujo crédito mais recente é de 2006 (!), o roteiro apresenta Emma no fim do relacionamento extraconjugal com Tom (Aml Ameen), que descobriremos à frente trabalhar com o marido dela, o possessivo Mark (Eoin Macken). Um sujeito doente para, após um jantar romântico e uma noite de sexo em uma cabana no meio do nada coberto de neve, puxar a arma e se suicidar na frente de Emma. Atordoada, a recém viúva descobre que está algemada ao cadáver do marido, que tomou o cuidado de descartar tudo aquilo que Emma poderia utilizar para escapar. Celular? Jogado dentro do jarro de água. A arma? Só tem um projétil. Facas? Não. Carro? Sem gasolina.
Tina
Glenn Dunks @ The Film Experience
- Excerpt: It is admittedly a curious directorial choice to have their own subject say they’re sick of talking about the story at hand and then make a film about it anyway.
Tiny Tim: King for a Day
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Getting the real story from those who loved him beyond the “act” is crucial to realizing that Tim demands to be remembered as more than a flash in the pan curio.
To All the Boys: Forever and Always
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Frantic pacing and too much noise tarnish the gold in this last ‘Boys.’ Yet tender love scenes make us smile and entertain us for a while.
Tom & Jerry
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Modernization is the enemy of the classics.
Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: The updated theatrical version of ‘Tom & Jerry’ directed by Tim Story offers nothing but rehash of old comedy moments that are barely funny.
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse
Too Late
Eddie Pasa @ DC Filmdom
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
Tove
- Excerpt: The film focuses on the decade or so during the 1940s and 1950s in which two events changed the course of Tove Jansson’s life and career forever: her passionate affair with theater director Vivica Bandler and the success of the Moomins at the (temporary) expense of her more “serious” paintings. Thanks to Bergroth’s empathetic direction and a magical lead performance from Alma Pöysti, Jansson’s ongoing struggle to find personal and professional fulfillment pulls you in tightly and refuses to let you go.
Transference: A Love Story
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Treat or Trick
- Excerpt: “Treat or Trick” is not exactly high art, and the truth is that the plot holes are quite a lot here. However, the fact that Hsu does not take neither himself nor his film seriously and his will to mock a plethora of concepts and even himself results in a movie that is truly entertaining, and quite easy to watch.
Tribhanga
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Trigger Point
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Anyone who watches this genre will be able to guess what’s happening fairly early. It therefore becomes about the character. Liking him makes the journey worthwhile.
The Truffle Hunters
- Excerpt: …Watching this film is something like taking a vacation to a place where everything is simpler and less stressful, and that’s no small thing as *pandemic travel restrictions stretch into their second year.
Truth to Power
Beverly Questad @ It’s Just Movies
- Excerpt: “Truth to Power” showcases the results of Tankian’s mission.
The Tunnel
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: As stuffed with soap-opera clichés as its cinematic precursors, but this is nevertheless a solid and diverting rescue procedural… and it’s somehow even more shocking for how mundane its disaster is.
Twilight’s Kiss
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Twilight’s Kiss manages to be incredibly affecting and effortlessly engaging, not in spite of its methodical pacing and lack of closure, but because of it.
Two Lottery Tickets
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: This sly and charming story meanders along making its point about cinema and human nature with nary a trace of pretension, nor a pandering nod to political correctness.
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It’s the kind of comedy that works because it taps into a reality that many people experience. Many moments had me laughing out loud thanks to the performances and the sharp writing from Paul Negoescu.
Two of Us
- Excerpt: The debut narrative feature from writer-director Filippo Meneghetti, Two of Us provides a stirring look at the longtime love between two older women and the way it is put to the test by a health crisis. With a story hinged on the disapproval and disappointment of others, some of the plot twists feel startlingly retrograde for a film about a lesbian couple in the twenty-first century, but an absolutely brilliant lead performance from the legendary Barbara Sukowa makes it impossible to stop watching regardless.
Ultrasound
- Excerpt: From the very first frame, the mysterious science-fiction midnighter from Rob Schroeder sets out to dazzle and bewilder audiences with a magic trick of a film. Smart and captivating, ‘Ultrasound’ comes fastened to committed performances from a game cast and a perplexing plot that leads to a resoundingly clever conclusion.
The Unforgivable
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: If you are looking for Christmas movies, The Unforgivable will not be on your list. However, if you are a Sandra Bullock fan, this grim drama is a must-see offering.
The United States vs Billie Holiday
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Andra Day, who both looks and sounds more like Holiday than [“Lady Sings the Blues’” Diana] Ross, is outstanding in her debut, but the film itself lacks focus, shooting off in too many directions with too many players.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Even Andra Day’s flawless performance can’t save this mediocre movie.
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Andra Day’s performance is phenomenal. This first-time actor seems born for the role and hopefully will garner the levels of attention she deserves.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: It won’t be enough to save it for some, but those daggers of truth make it hard for me to simply disregard the whole.
Unlock Your Heart
- Excerpt: “Unlock Your Heart” suffers from some of the most usual “ailments” of current Japanese cinema, but the story, the charisma of the protagonists and the visual approach definitely compensate, resulting in a film that is interesting and easy to watch.
V/H/S/94
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Vacation Friends
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: You can almost feel the movie straining to set up its extreme gags, and the comedy gets crushed under the weight of that.
Val
- Excerpt: If you’re a Kilmer fan, you’ll definitely want to see Val. If you’re not, it may still be interesting due to the wealth of “inside Hollywood” material included.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: [The filmmakers’] dreamlike, memory infused editing reflects the past in the present, in one extraordinary sequence bringing Kilmer’s mom alive again as her son enters her now empty house… With “Val,” Poo and Scott will have many reconsidering Kilmer, a man who has been true to himself.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: An engaging first-person account of Val Kilmer’s life assembled from decades of the actor’s own home movies.
Vanquish
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Then you watch the final result and realize it was a paycheck job for everyone involved, and that no one really cared too much about what they were doing.
The Vault
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Nice editing mixes the hysteria of World Cup finals with sweaty vault raiding in this safe and sane procedural.
The Village Detective
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: If “Dawson City: Frozen Time” was a masterpiece, Morrison’s latest is a lark, a somewhat unfocused and slight history of Russian silent film…with a more in depth examination of popular Russian actor Zharov’s seventy year career.
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: THE VILLAGE DETECTIVE–A SONG CYCLE is a documentary about several reels of a 1969 film (THE VILLAGE DETECTIVE [“Derevenskiy detektiv”]) from the Soviet Union that were pulled up in 2016 in an Icelandic fishing trawler’s net.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: A clip show worthy of a legend of stage and screen. An appetizer for an extensive body of work it leaves you to seek out for yourself.
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Mummified by the sea and the volcanos, a zombie of a movie that refuses to die.
Violation
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It is designed to be difficult to watch, especially given the time it will take for viewers to piece it together. However, it ends up packing a serious punch.
Violet
Tara Karajica @ Fade to Her
Sarah Marrs @ LaineyGossip.com
- Excerpt: Violet is a frank portrait of feminine anxiety, a worst-case scenario showcase of where being a “good girl” can get you.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: If anyone out there still had doubts about Munn’s ability to handle what a role like this entails emotionally and physically, let them go now.
The Virtuoso
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: I recommend The Virtuoso to patient viewers who enjoy less action but more depth of character portrayals – even in hit man sagas.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Enjoy the noir and put the rest aside.
Vivo
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …a colorful and energetic cross-generational and cross-cultural tale in which music is the language of love.
Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: For soundtrack “Vivo” gets a hands-down 5/5. 100%! Kids and adults were entertained.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Although Lin-Manuel Miranda’s original songs add to the entertainment quality of VIVO, the cute title character steals the show.
Vivo
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: When the melodies kick in, the movie shines.
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Some will find The Wanting Mare to be too slow or abstract, but it packs so much imagery and ideas in a way that is challenging, rich, and a feast for the eyes.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
Wanton Want
We Broke Up
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: We Broke Up was never destined to be much more substantial than what it is on the surface. And that’s fine. It’s a pleasant enough foible, which is the intent.
Welcome to the Blumhouse: The Manor
Derek Deskins @ Edge Media Network
- Excerpt: The Manor is a stylistic mess that struggles to terrify, or even captivate, for its meager runtime.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Beth Accomando @ KPBS CInema Junkie
- Excerpt: Schoenbrun’s “We’re All Going To the World’s Fair” is the kind of film I love because it does not tell you what happens and it does not tell you what to think. It’s not a film with answers, but rather one that provokes questions.
West Michigan
Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
Wet Season
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Wet Season is made with patience and restrant, but it is never dull. Yeo Yann Yann’s performance makes a strong and lasting impression.
What Happened to Mr. Cha?
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It’s an amusing comedy that has fun with the real life persona of its star.
- Excerpt: This South Korean comedy gets metatextual as Cha In-Pyo plays a JCVD-style version of himself. For the star’s sake, let’s hope this is as far removed from reality as possible.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: A comedy with laughs galore. Dear Mr. Cha, we want some more!
What We Left Unfinished
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: The doc could have used some extra context and information to better absorb these stories, but the film offers a lot of things to learn.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Some moments carry the emotional weight that’s scarred us all, some surprise with a knowing wink of humorous intent, and others prove undeniably charming in their earnestness.
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Themes of betrayal, sex and power are shifted amongst a sea of half remembered events and faces that reassure even as they confuse.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a great introduction to Hamaguchi…an original anthology that won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The film features an exceptional ensemble working with Hamaguchi’s playful yet insightful script
Wheels
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Whelm
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
White as Snow
- Excerpt: With the iconic Isabelle Huppert playing said stepmother, you know this isn’t going to be your great-grandmother’s Snow White (or Walt Disney’s either, for that matter). Instead, it’s a gorgeously lensed tale of female emancipation and generational jealousy.
White Coat Rebels
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: Portraits of activists trying to change the medical system’s reliance on Big Pharma.
White Devil
Who You Think I Am
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The film, which begins as a middle-aged woman’s catfishing expedition…becomes something far more disturbing and devastating as Claire opens up along with Nebbou’s aperture.
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Not even the treasure that is Juliette Binoche can make this cynical romantic thriller palatable. Does not say the things about social media and the lives of older women that it thinks it does.
Who’s Stopping Us
Diego Salgado @ SoFilm [Spanish]
Wife of a Spy
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: It’s a thoroughly compelling portrait of a marriage tested by war and politics, and acts also as a way of reckoning with the atrocities committed under Japanese imperialism, confronting that history, and how a regime can lead people astray, and manipulate them.
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: We have seen a lot of spy thrillers set in Europe, usually with American or British spies, but WIFE OF A SPY is a bit different. This, the latest film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa (not relation to Akira Kurosawa), is set in 1940 in Japan, and has as its spy a Japanese businessman.
Diego Salgado @ SoFilm [Spanish]
Ron Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Slow compared to an American pot-boiler, this story has enough soul for any two of the usual spy movies.
Wild Men
- Excerpt: Starkly funny and wholly original, the sensational Danish dark comedy ‘Wild Men’ sees a forty-something father in the midst of a midlife crisis wander into the wilderness to unwittingly befriend a drug smuggler and run from the police. An outstanding cast of characters and sparkling writing makes this one Tribeca’s best debuts.
Wildland
Ron wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Too much left to the viewer hamstrings a cold silent thriller brimming with potential.
Willy’s Wonderland
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: It has Nicolas Cage fighting his way through Satanic animatronics, and enough earnest goofiness to fill out a roughly 90-minute movie in pleasing fashion.
Witch Hunt
- Excerpt: ‘Witch Hunt’ struggles to execute an allegorical deathblow to real-life systemic prejudice but manages to remain a worthwhile watch for those who want their witchcraft served with a slice of political commentary.
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf
The Witches of the Orient
- Excerpt: The Witches of the Orient has an unusual pace and structure for a sports documentary, lending a mythical tone to its subject.
- Excerpt: A remarkable story about an equally remarkable team of Japanese volleyball players and their unbeaten lead-up to their victory at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Without Remorse
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: The latest reboot of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan universe is far more blood splatter and head shots than fans of his novels are used to, but Michael B. Jordan’s John Kelly is a fresh protagonist to push forward what used to be a Vietnam story into our times.
- Excerpt: Without Remorse’s major crime is not that it’s unoriginal; it’s that it doesn’t know how to incorporate these influences into a cohesive whole, nor does it make us care about anything that happens to anyone.
Woe
Wolf
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A challenging and compassionate movie.
Wolfgang
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: WOLFGANG is a basically a biography of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, as well as a look at how he transformed the restaurant industry.
Woman in Motion
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: We’re here to learn about Nichols’ deserved place in our space program’s history [as] an innovator and influencer who quite literally dragged it into [the] present.
The Woman Who Ran
Wonderful Paradise
- Excerpt: Wonderful and weird go hand-in-hand in this truly bizarre film that just keeps getting stranger – and that’s just one of the things to love about it.
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: An exhaustive deep dive into the history of folk horror around the globe.
The World to Come
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …the movie belongs to Waterston, whose narration sounds like a voice from the past reading from a period memoir with eloquent elegance.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: That’s where the film’s true power lies: an expressive silence that alternates between exhilaratingly electric with potential and anxiety-inducingly tense with uncertainty.
Worth
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A substantial film about the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund that addresses whether it is possible to put a price tag on a life.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Colangelo’s film may be visually drab, but it features many strong emotional scenes and an interesting character study of a man whose heart was in the right place but whose head was focused on figures.
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: WORTH is a film about the September 11 Victim’s Compensation Fund, and the work of Ken Feinberg in assigning compensation amounts to the victims’ families.
- Excerpt: The eternal conundrum of the law is finding a balance between the fairness of a clear, consistent rule and the fairness of individual, discretionary judgment. This movie illustrates that wrenching dilemma in the most compelling terms, with much of the focus on the shell-shocked survivors whose grief is only eased by being given a chance to talk about them, to make sure that the people they loved for their very individual characteristics is not seen by those in charge of estimating the value of their lives see them as more than data points to plug into a formula.
A Writer’s Odyssey
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: As was always the concept of wuxia films, the action is what truly matters, and in that regard, “A Writer’s Odyssey” truly excels, in one of the most impressive action fantasy mashup we have seen in the latest years. Hollywood super hero movies could take a lesson or two from Lu Yang.
A Writer’s Odyssey
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: A wonderful sense of imagination and a number of stellar action sequences easily carry the film through some occasionally flimsy plotting..
Writing with Fire
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: an insightful and inspiring analysis of grassroots journalism succeeding in spite of such obstacles as reporters having no electricity to charge the smartphones they’ve learned to work with…
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: By following Suneeta’s meteoric rise and Shyamkali’s more gradual ascent, the filmmakers can expose just how good Meera is at leading by example and through effective lessons to better those around her and ultimately help achieve their common goal.
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: The award-winning filmmakers, Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas, are social justice advocates and their films are used a “tools of advocacy in a wide array of educational and cultural spaces across the world.” “Writing with Fire” is an important and superbly crafted documentary.
Wrong Turn
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Not without glaring flaws, the new Wrong Turn is also a ton of mean, nasty backwoods horror fun. You know, if people getting crushed by logs is your idea of fun I guess.
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Reviews
- Excerpt: Comes with a new look (no cannibal mutant hillbillies) but it keeps the kills bloody violent and innovative.
Ronald Wilkinson @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Campers in trouble Part 86 gives way to a curiously current portrait of a country divided and a loving father surprisingly good with an ax.
Yakuza Princess
Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Yakuza Princess ultimately falters due to its awkward pacing, which really hinders the film’s energy, but there are moments of pulpy goodness sprinkled throughout here.
- Excerpt: Co-written and directed by Brazilian filmmaker Vicente Amorim, Yakuza Princess stars Japanese singer-songwriter Masumi as a young woman living in São Paulo who discovers she is heiress to half of Japan’s yakuza crime syndicate — and the other half is trying to kill her. Yet when one looks beyond the immediate novelty of the film’s title, one is taken aback by how dull and derivative Yakuza Princess actually is.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Amorim keeps plot paramount throughout in a way that ensures a streamlined journey towards its long-awaited crown.
The Year of the Everlasting Storm
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Anthology films are notoriously difficult to pull off successfully, but “The Year of the Everlasting Storm” presents seven distinct voices addressing a common theme on a spectrum running from linear narrative to experimental art without a dud in the bunch.
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
The Yellow Wallpaper
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Lee Jutton @ Film Inquiry
- Excerpt: It is a mark of Gilman’s genius that she manages to pack a feature-length film’s worth of feminist commentary and gothic atmosphere into such a succinct little story, and her critique of men’s misguided attempts to diagnose and treat women’s health problems — both mental and physical — remains tragically relevant to this day. So, it’s no wonder that “The Yellow Wallpaper” has been adapted for the screen multiple times in the past.
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: The Yellow Wallpaper is depressing, though a necessary story. The issues Gilman wrote about in the 1800s may have changed somewhat, but they still exist, in one form or another.
Yes Day
- Excerpt: But it is an entertaining, family-friendly romp with wish-fulfilling yeses, extended comic mayhem, and satisfying consequences. And yes, there is learning and hugging.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: A mom agrees to one YES DAY and thinks that might just pave the way to change how the kids think of her. Rambunctious fun ensues, for sure!
You Have to Kill Me
- Excerpt: As such, “You Have to Kill Me” emerges as one of those films whose audience will enjoy if they do not overthink, since entertainment is found here aplenty.
Yuni
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Zeros and Ones
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: I don’t know what Zeros and Ones is supposed to be. I only know that I was bored to a level no human being should ever have to experience.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Rather than find myself engaged in any meaningful way, I checked out about halfway through and simply rode out the rest with zero expectations.
Zone 414
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
