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: Mar. 4, 2022
Wide (United States)
The Batman
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
After Yang
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: This filmmaker has a unique ability to marry poetic visual and aural elements with existential ideas in a way that is deeply human – even when seen through the eyes of an android
Asking For It
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Some films approach social issues with nuance and insight, offering carefully crafted critiques that address difficult problems through close examination and critique. Asking For It is not one of these movies.
Great Freedom
- Excerpt: Great Freedom doesn’t shy away from highlighting how bleak it is to be deemed a criminal just because of who you choose to love, yet it also shows us that in the face of such seemingly insurmountable odds, love can still be found regardless.
2022 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
2021 Oscar Nominated Shorts
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dog
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Marry Me
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Studio 666
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Uncharted
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Against the Ice
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: I do believe Against the Ice is a success insofar as its ability to memorialize these unsung heroes. The story itself just isn’t quite as spellbinding as one may believe due to its familiarity and back-heavy construction.
Ali & Ava
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Despite proving a heartwarmingly funny and rich love story, its strength truly lies in its characters’ melancholic confrontation with their underlying pain.
A Banquet
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Uncertainty abounds and Paxton utilizes it to heighten suspense as the family fractures further. Nightmarish images arrive as reality conjures its own form of fear.
The Burning Sea
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Not terribly disastrous… until it is. Then movie-movie melodrama gives way to eco-cataclysm and new realms of planetary existential nightmare. I cannot recall a movie’s ending haunting me this much.
The Burning Sea
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: The Burning Sea offers plenty of thrills and human drama, but also a socially-conscious message about the environmental hazards of drilling for oil in the ocean.
Butter
Kirsten Hawkes @ Parent Previews
- Excerpt: This isn’t a perfect film…but it is an earnest one, filled with affection for teens and empathy for their challenges.
The Desperate Hour
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: The Desperate Hour brings together an accomplished director and an actress with two Oscar nominations for a story that’s in monumentally bad taste.
Fabian: Going to the Dogs
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Schilling is perfectly cast, delivering a performance that sustains both the weight and wit of the writing [for a] memorably tragic romance between man and hope in an era of hopelessness.
Family Squares
Kirsten Hawkes @ Parent Previews
- Excerpt: The screwball elements of the story don’t always work well with the more nuanced character studies and leave audiences confused.
Fresh
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
Fresh
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: the subject is taboo enough that filmmakers usually go one of two ways…But “Fresh,” while very well crafted, tries to play it in the middle somewhere with gore that isn’t campy but disturbingly realistic, making for a truly unpleasant experience.
Hellbender
Sarah E Boslaugh @ The Arts STL
- Excerpt: [Hellbender} keeps you on your toes for its 82-minute running time, through interesting shots and visual effects, abrupt shifts of mood, and a twisty plot that has no interest in sticking to anyone else’s playbook.
Hellbender
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: While there’s always a humorous slant to the proceedings, that edge of danger is where it excels. Never underestimate the ingenuity of supernatural storytelling.
The Jump
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Žickyte opens with vintage U.S. news coverage, immediately engaging his audience with the need to know just why the U.S. would have handed a defector back to the Soviets.
Looop Lapeta
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Captures the juxtaposition of big city living and small town surviving in a way that resonates beyond its cultural specificity because we all understand the contrast.
A Madea Homecoming
Kirsten Hawkes @ Parent Previews
- Excerpt: Like other Tyler Perry offerings, “A Madea Homecoming” is a cringe-fest, full of sexual innuendo and vaguely incestuous jokes, amplified in this film by references to bestiality and an obsession with testicles.
No Exit
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: In a sea of mid-budget thrillers, this one rises above the pack.
No Exit
Playground
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Wandel and her cinematographer Frédéric Noirhomme keep their focus tightly on the schoolchildren, adults rarely seen above the waist, heard only as part of Nora’s ambient experience. The effect is one of intense immersion.
Playground
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Wandel pulls no punches in her depiction and both Leklou and Vanderbeque deliver performances well beyond their years. With only seventy-minutes at their disposal, Playground pushes forward with powerful intent.
Slapface
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Some can see past shaky performances and pacing to let the message shine. Others can’t. I implore you to try because there are a ton of interesting ideas in play for those willing to look.
2021 Films
Cyrano
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Don’t Look Up
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
West Side Story
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
