Here are some reviews of films coming out at the theater this week as well as others that may be in theaters or newly on home video.
Opening: Dec. 11, 2020
Limited (United States)
Archenemy
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Ultimately, Archenemy proves frustrating. The most fun, intriguing characters, and exciting ideas take a backseat to rote family drama that carries little weight. The film has big aims, but in the end, it takes a bold leap, arms outstretched, but misses the target and plummets to the ground.
Farewell Amor
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Msangi takes shortcuts to her happy resolution…but “Farewell Amor” ends on the right note.
Minari
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Reviews
- Excerpt: The family drama connects with an audience in the same sincere way Ozu’s films connected.
The Stand-In
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: The gimmick behind “The Stand In” is having Drew Barrymore in dual roles. Unfortunately, seeing Barrymore twice does not make this high-concept life-swap comedy doubly funny, charming, life-affirming, or whatever its goal was supposed to be.
Wander Darkly
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Writer-director Tara Miele’s relationship drama “Wander Darkly” is ambitious in exploring trauma and grief through the memories of a relationship in collapse. If only the film were as cumulatively profound as it thinks it is.
Wander Darkly
Sandy Schaefer @ Comic Book Resources
The Weasel’s Tale
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …a throwback black comedy of con in which the targeted victims turn the tables on the scam artists. This is a fun romp buoyed by an exceptional cast, Cecilia Monti’s costume design and Nelson Noel Luty’s art direction.
Wild Mountain Thyme
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: For a romantic comedy to work, there has to be at least one obstacle the couple must overcome. Here there are two and neither makes a lick of sense. Still the film features beautiful scenery and a perfectly cast Blunt…
Wild Mountain Thyme
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Wild Mountain Thyme is about to get pop culture’s attention for all the wrong reasons: Absurd Irish accents, Irish stereotypes which believe the land to still be a 19th century hamlet full of lyrical prose and folk sing-a-longs, and the most gobsmacking, I can’t believe that just happened ending of 2020.
2020 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Anything for Jackson
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Bill & Ted Face the Music
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Hillbilly Elegy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Kindred
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mank
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Nomadland
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Sound of Metal
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Tenet
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Twentieth Century
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Wolf of Snow Hollow
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
All My Life
Black Bear
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Watching “Black Bear” is like watching a pot of water simmer and then boil over without being able to stop it, and yet it’s more controlled and captivating than that.
Black Bear
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A provocative, challenging work that shows the amazing Aubrey Plaza in a whole new light.
Bulbbul
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Dick Johnson is Dead
Karl Delossantos @ Smash Cut Reviews
- Excerpt: Dick Johnson is dead isn’t the old cliché of being about life instead of death. It’s very much about death. It’s unabashedly about death. However, it’s about the alternating sensations of crying and laughing we feel when we confront it.
Girl
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: By being so stripped-down, “Girl” winds up being dreary and nondescript in its white-trash grime and bleakness.
Godmothered
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Son of a butterscotch is Jillian Bell just a delightful elixir of life.
Half Brothers
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A funny and compassionate movie.
I Hate New Year’s
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Reviews
- Excerpt: Though it’s a better quality film than most holiday gay Lifetime romance films, it still comes across as a gay Lifetime romance film.
I’m Your Woman
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a low key genre effort that much like Hart’s female-centric take on the Superhero genre goes to some unexpected places.
The Killing of Two Lovers
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Writer/director/editor Robert Machoian’s lived in meditation on a strained marriage just may be the filmmaking discovery of the year.
Let Them All Talk
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Not since “Ocean’s Twelve” has director/cinemtographer/editor Steven Soderbergh delivered a vacation film for a prestigious cast, but this time around it’s an actors’ piece.
Let Them All Talk
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: “Let Them All Talk” does let them all talk, mostly coming down to being a breezy yet only deceptively light hang with actors we like and know can do anything at this point.
Let Them All Talk
Sandy Schaefer @ Comic Book Resources
Lilly’s Light: The Movie
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Possibilities come to light as Lilly shares her magic sight. Imagination fills the screen in each unique creative scene.
The Midnight Sky
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: as moving as it can be, largely due to Clooney’s melancholy stoic resolve, Mark L. Smith’s (“The Revenant”) adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel ‘Good Morning, Midnight’ always feels like something we have experienced before.
My Psychedelic Love Story
Dennis Schwartz @ Dennis Schwartz Reviews
- Excerpt: The main characters were so limited.
The Prom
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …plays like 3 seasons of [Murphy’s] TV series ‘Glee’ stuffed into two hours without its music rights, the generic originals here occasionally goosed with clever lyrics… Thankfully Murphy’s cast Streep as his lead…
The Prom
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A bombastic bore.
Promising Young Woman
Run
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Sarah Paulson is really good at horrifying people. I mean that as a compliment.
Soul
- Excerpt: A remarkable achievement that lifts up and celebrates the human spirit, ‘Soul’ ranks amongst Pixar’s best works and charters a life-affirming mission to the great beyond that’s sure to leave audiences peering deep within themselves.
Superintelligence
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: There is always a place for a comedy, like “Superintelligence,” that goes down easy in the moment without being entirely memorable.
Uncle Frank
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Tinged with melancholy and earned hope instead of sentimentality, “Uncle Frank” is familiar but heartfelt.
What Lies Below
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: “What Lies Below” finally answers the question, “What if your mom’s hot new boyfriend was a horny lake monster?” It isn’t half-bad, even if its silly premise is played with earnest faces.
