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: May 14, 2021
Wide (United States)
Finding You
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Profile
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Spiral
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Those Who Wish Me Dead
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
The Djinn
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: an effective little chiller, but after its hard won emotional climax, that final twist leaves a bitter taste in one’s mouth.
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.
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.
Riders of Justice
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Anders Thomas Jensen (“The Green Butchers,” “Men & Chicken”) reunites his regulars Mikkelsen and Lie Kaas in a family-of-shared-issues comedy built around a violent adventure driven by geeky statistical analysis.
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.
2021 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Wrath of Man
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Army of the Dead
Sebastian Zavala @ MasGamers.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: No, it didn’t have to be two and a half hours long, but it’s still bloody fun and absurdly intense. It’s not art, but it’s not trying to be.
Bad Trip
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A gross-out hidden camera prank comedy with an uplifting view of humanity
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.
Jumbo
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.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It has all the well-balanced ingredients that any animated film should include: humor, emotion, action and spectacle.
Monster
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: The cast is by far the most impressive thing about this production.
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.
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.
Post Mortem
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
The Reckoning
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
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.
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.
Test Pattern
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.
Things Heard and Seen
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
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.
The Woman in the Window
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Director Joe Wright (“Atonement,” “The Darkest Hour”) has made a valiant attempt to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear with his A-list cast and theatrical production… But with a cast like this, it is disappointing that so few performances stand out and that one central one is badly miscast.
2020 Films
Bad Education
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Marionette
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
My Octopus Teacher
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: This otherwise gorgeous nature documentary is marred by the banal self-therapy of its human protagonist… and he is nowhere near as interesting as the manic pixie dream octopus who changes his life.
Suicide Forrest Village
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Ten Minutes to Midnight
Joao Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
