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. 28, 2020
Wide (United States)
Bill & Ted Face the Music
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Personal History of David Copperfield
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
Centigrade
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Walsh and his two actors make the most out of their singular location, one which may have been easy on the budget but which surely posed technical and artistic challengers. They’ve risen to them.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: I mean it as a total compliment to say Centigrade will drive you nuts.
Entwined
Fatima
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Full of compelling ideas about the mystery of faith.
2020 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Project Power
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Sputnik
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Tesla
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Unhinged
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
All Hail the Popcorn King
Mark Leeper @ Mark Leeper’s Reviews
- Excerpt: A study of the surrealist writer Joe R. Lansdale; his coterie of twisted but loyal fans makes for a fun film.
Boys State
Glenn Dunks @ The Film Experience
- Excerpt: I watched the new Apple+ and A24 documentary Boys State and, sorry to break it to you, but America is nuts. Like, really. A lot. I’m allergic to nuts—anaphylactic, send me hospital kind of allergic—and I felt as if I were about to break out in hives watching Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ compelling and unsettling new movie.
Chemical Hearts
Rich Cline @ Shadows on the Wall
- Excerpt: There’s a darkly intriguing tone to this thoughtful teen drama. Although it’s rather mopey and naggingly disconnected from reality, like most films based on young-adult novels
Chemical Hearts
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
Desert One
- Excerpt: Desert One will give you an appreciation for how complex a problem Carter faced, and how easily, in real life, things can go wrong.
Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt)
- Excerpt: But beneath its paranormal fluffiness, there lies something stirring in its fusing of queer generations. LGBTIQ+ folk remain self-educators of their shared history, with stories of Stonewall, Oxford Street and beyond certainly not taught in the classroom by teachers and textbooks.
Fried Barry
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: In the end, I’m not entirely sure what to make of South African oddity Fried Barry. Leaping boundaries of horror, science fiction, and gritty realism, among others, it’s certainly a wild, chaotic, immersive ride.
Get Duked!
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: It’s a shame most people won’t have the opportunity to watch this with a crowd. It’s the kind of raucous, unruly comedy that would slay with a rowdy late-night audience.
Ghost Tropic
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This beautiful film from coeditor/writer/director Bas Devos is a paean to a city under cover of night and the little seen people who populate it.
Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Host
Emmanuel Báez @ Cinéfiloz [Spanish]
Host
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
The One and Only Ivan
Rich Cline @ Shadows on the Wall
- Excerpt: Thankfully, there’s a witty edge to the dialog that keeps things from becoming too syrupy. And it also helps that effects work is grounded and realistic
Spree
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Reviews
- Excerpt: A baseless thriller critiquing the social-media craze for being an addiction.
Stage Mother
Rich Cline @ Shadows on the Wall
- Excerpt: There’s plenty of colourful drag queen energy in this comedy-drama, but director Thom Fitzgerald keeps the tone introspective, adding thoughtful undercurrents and a big beating heart
State Funeral
- Excerpt: Sergei Loznitsa’s 135-minute triumph is a beast of a film and one with its roots firmly in Soviet documentary (it was, after all, resurrected out of scraps of a different film). A herculean effort of archival dumpster diving that is something of a prequel to Loznitsa’s potent fall-of-the-USSR doc The Event (which I listed as the 7th best documentary of the decade) from 2015…
Tenet
Rich Cline @ Shadows on the Wall
- Excerpt: Christopher Nolan’s latest brain-bender is an entertaining if rather dense spy thriller, mixing the globe-hopping splendour of a Bond movie with Nolan’s puzzle-style plotting
Tenet
- Excerpt: Christopher Nolan has too much time on his hands.
Uncle Peckerhead
James Jay Edwards @ The Big Smoke America
A Witness Out of the Blue
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: A Witness Out of the Blue has all the earmarks of a classic Hong Kong crime saga. There’s murder, slick production values, a twisting plot, shades of moral ambiguity, standoffs, shootouts, and a parrot. Wait, what?
A Witness Out of the Blue
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: A Witness Out of the Blue has all the earmarks of a classic Hong Kong crime saga. There’s murder, slick production values, a twisting plot, shades of moral ambiguity, standoffs, shootouts, and a parrot. Wait, what?
You Cannot Kill David Arquette
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A poignant redemption tale.
2018 Films
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word
Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
