Here are some reviews of films coming out at the theater this week as well as others that may be in theaters or newly on home video.
Opening: Aug. 19, 2022
Limited (United States)
The Immaculate Room
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The Immaculate Room isn’t breaking the mold on this type of conceit. If anything, it’s purposely embracing a narrow scope of mental fracturing the scenario can ignite and counting on the actors to make it compelling.
The Legend of Molly Johnson
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Purcell and Collins are unfortunately made to suffer for their trouble, their performances a moving tribute to the sacrifices so many have made for their people to live on with the promise of more.
Orphan: First Kill
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: kitschy fun…Not only has the actress, her child doubles, makeup artists and prop perspectives made this believable, but fans of the original should be pleased with the switchback twist cooked up by “Prey” writer David Coggeshall…
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: The rare sequel better than the original, but that’s not saying much. Takes too long to get to its surprises, its adult star is unconvincing as a child, and its minimal cleverness feels like a cheat.
- Excerpt: Orphan: First Kill has a great twist that almost salvages the entire movie, but ultimately fails to recapture the magic of the first film. Silver lining… Julia Stiles and Isabelle Fuhrman turn in great performances.
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: [It’s] not set far enough into the past nor populated with enough characters to care about to be relevant. It’s practically the exact same movie but flipped in a way that renders it inconsequential to Esther’s mythology despite any initial intrigue.
Spin Me Round
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: I’m assuming the locations were the draw…Either than or something got lost in translation along the way, the film veering from cringey character comedy to plain old cringe.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The genre hopping that results might give you whiplash, but in the best way. [Baena is] humorously leading us towards extremes with the sole goal of subverting our expectations.
The Territory
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: While these type of activist documentaries can often invite an infuriating sense of hopelessness, Pritz highlights how the mentorship of 18 year-old Bitaté…has formed an effective 20 year-old leader utilizing new methods to fight back.
Three Minutes: A Lengthening
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Much like the ancient vases discussed, this celluloid is mined as a reflection of humankind at its specific moment in history—a priceless artifact itself.
2022 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Bullet Train
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Elvis
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Fall
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Lost City
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Love Song
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Nope
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Prey
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Thor: Love and Thunder
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Bodies Bodies Bodies
David “DC” Bolling @ DC’s Take
- Excerpt: Bodies Bodies Bodies wasn’t the typical Gen Z slasher they marketed. But it is a darkly funny, unpredictable, and provocative spin on the whodunnit sub-genre.
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: It’s often difficult to determine if the film is satire or just poorly written, though one wants to believe it’s the former since it’s easier to enjoy if it’s knowingly referencing pop culture trends and buzzwords
Claydream
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: It was a real blast from the past to see so much of [Vinton’s work] on-screen. That Evans can keep things somewhat objective despite his goal to ensure Vinton comes out smelling as nice as possible only adds to the documentary’s appeal.
Day Shift
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: I’m not sure if this is a good bad movie, or if it’s a bad good movie.
Day Shift
Mark Harris @ Black Horror Movies
Day Shift
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A pool cleaner hunts vampires in Los Angeles during his daytime job. I suggest you call in sick.
Day Shift
Eiffel
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Comfortably unchallenging French romantic drama, though it does Freudian-slip into implying that the engineer was only inspired to erect his soaring tower when an old flame reawakened his, er, heart.
Emergency Declaration
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The plane is in danger. It can’t land until a plan to alleviate that danger is made on the ground. Everything that occurs reinforces those two truths. Even so, it’s never boring.
Emily the Criminal
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Emily the Criminal is a shrewd portrait of a lost soul searching for meaning and finding it in an illicit situation.
Fire in the Mountains
James Plath @ Family Home Theater
- Excerpt: It’s a visceral film that all but invites you into the world of this family to imagine yourself in their position. Considering that Fire in the Mountain is the debut feature of a self-taught filmmaker, that’s especially impressive.
Get Away If You Can
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Braun and Martin make some interesting choices and craft a gorgeous looking film on an obviously shoe-string budget, but none of that matters when my one wish was for these characters to never see each other again.
Incredible But True
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The humor has it’s laugh-out-loud moments despite a relatively subdued overall tone. We’re often laughing at these characters’ pain, so that uncertainty of whether to gloat or wince comes with the territory.
Inu-Oh
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Without a strong story and characters who have more than one dimension, Inu-oh is just an assemblage of gorgeously animated scenes presented for their own sake.
Inu-Oh
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The juxtaposition of what they’re doing in such an antiquated setting is intriguing enough to keep our attention. The music being catchy and the performances being invigorating is icing on the cake.
Mack & Rita
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: This is an inane, laughless movie that doesn’t seem to have any point.
Memory Box
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Credit the filmmakers for going to those darker places with the impossibility of living through so much death and destruction. And for deciding that letting that pain out and realizing they don’t have to battle it alone can lead to happy endings too.
Rogue Agent
- Excerpt: Starring James Norton as the con man and Gemma Arterton as the woman who falls for him, then decides to take him down, Rogue Agent has a wonderfully outrageous truth-is-stranger-than-fiction premise but doesn’t make the most of it, forcing its two lead actors to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to keeping the audience engaged.
Rogue Agent
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: I’m surprised the studio gives up the game in its marketing materials. By going in blind, I became seduced by Freegard just as effectively as his victims.
The Roundup
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: The filmmakers balance the tone perfectly—thanks to Ma’s charismatic ability to shift from subtle humor to extreme violence on a dime—and keep things moving smoothly despite a ton of moving parts.
Summering
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: The film starts strong and loses its way.
Summering
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: It’s as though Ponsoldt and Percy brainstormed a bunch of universal stereotypes for a coming-of-age film and let their characters rise from them rather than even attempt to make their identities anything but one single trait each.
Tahara
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This coming of age tale is the contrasting character study of quiet, introspective Carrie…and showboating, self-absorbed Hannah…a combination which results in both moving drama and cringey comedy.
Le Temps Perdu
- Excerpt: The second installment of filmmaker Maria Alvarez’s trilogy of documentaries about art and aging (following Las Cinéphilas and preceding Las Cercanas) could not possibly focus on a more fitting subject. In Le Temps Perdu, Alvarez eavesdrops on a group of elderly people who have been meeting together for nearly two decades in a Buenos Aires cafe to read and re-read Marcel Proust’s masterwork, In Search of Lost Time.
They/Them
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
Thirteen Lives
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A life-affirming tale about an extraordinary rescue effort.
