Because of embargoes (those happy little restrictions on when critics can post reviews, good or bad), a lot of our critics aren’t able to share links with you until release day. Here are some last-minute reviews for this weekend’s upcoming films. We’ve kept in all the reviews posted yesterday as well so you can have more help in deciding what to see (if you haven’t already).
Our critics have been hard at work reviewing the latest films. Here is a look at what’s coming out this weekend (in select cities, check your local listings) and what else may be in theaters right now.
Opening: Dec. 5-7, 2014
Limited (United States)
Life Partners
Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
- Excerpt: Life Partners’ Keeps It Light And Familiar, But Still Stays Fun
Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: While writer-director Fogel and co-writer Joni Lefkowitz don’t say anything too fresh here, besides incorporating both sides of sexual orientation, the film is often perceptive and even sharply funny about co-dependent relationships and how they are tested when one romantic door opens for one party and not the other.
Pioneer
David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: Skjoldbjærg’s style pastiche coheres to create something larger than the sum of its parts. Petter’s harrowing descent wraps us up viscerally in real-world deceptions and their devastating collateral damage.
Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
Carson Lund @ Slant Magazine
- Excerpt: Pioneer’s greatest asset, and another trait it shares with Mann and Fincher’s work, is a careful attention toward the particulars of its milieu in a way that doesn’t call attention to those period touches. The film matches the quotient of moustaches, thick-rimmed glasses, and earth-toned blazers from Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy without ever getting Argo-level ostentatious about it.
The Pyramid
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry
Donald Levit @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Wild
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Zero Motivation
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Lavie’s made a film from an unique perspective, one which illustrates how discrimination works against the system, undermining it by breeding contempt. But while the film certainly has comedic aspects, it’s never as uproariously funny as it could (or should) be
2014 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Algorithms
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
American Sniper
- Excerpt: American Sniper is at its freshest and most insightful when examining the physical and mental effects warfare takes on a soldier.
[New Today] Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: American Sniper is a solid well constructed effort. The ongoing effect that war has on an individual’s psyche as well as his family are thoughtfully addressed, but there’s never anything particularly revelatory added to the conversation.
Annabelle
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Antarctica: A Year on Ice
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Babadook
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Big Eyes
[New Today] William Bibbiani @ CraveOnline
- Excerpt: An incredible return to form for Tim Burton, who once again has found an outsider hero worth filming, and who here does some of his finest work in bringing her to life.
Birdman
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Black or White
Black Sea
[New Today] MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: An underwater heist of Nazi loot? Awesome. Submarine movies don’t get much better than this intensely suspenseful popcorn adventure.
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
The Boxtrolls
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Boyhood
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
By the Gun
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Cliched, confused and thoroughly unnecessary, “By the Gun” features a meaty role for Boston rapper Slaine (“The Town”) as Nick’s best friend George, but writer Emilio Mauro deep sixes the character’s early promise in a laughable “Mean Streets” ripoff.
Citizenfour
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Crossing
- Excerpt: John Woo’s first directorial offering in four years is a grand scale war-time romance chronicling the plight of three unrelated couples whose lives become entwined during the Chinese Civil War. As was the case with Woo’s 2008 two-parter, Red Cliff, the eponymous event – in this case the tragic 1949 sinking of Chinese steamer the Taiping – is still yet to come, as this first installment delivers two hours of detailed set-up, with its feet firmly on terra firma.
Dumb and Dumber To
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Enemy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Exodus: Gods and Kings
José Arce @ LaButaca.net [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Ridley Scott propone una de sus peores películas desde un planteamiento erróneo y apelotonado, además de fallar en la elección de buena parte de su reparto. Bastante mal todo, en general.
- Excerpt: Meeting, but rarely exceeding, expectations, Ridley Scott’s grand retelling of Moses and the Hebrews’ flight from Egypt is strong on visuals and A-list presence, but slight on narrative and characterisation. Christian Bale and Joel Egerton both put in fine performances as Moses and Rameses, while the rest of the big-name cast gets lost amidst a CG-heavy blizzard of battles, plagues, revolts and muddled imagery.
Filth
Dustin Freeley @ Movies About Gladiators
- Excerpt: Irvine Welsh’s further examination of Scottish self hatred.
Finding Vivian Maier
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Force Majeure
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Foxcatcher
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Foxy Merkins
Get Santa
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Grand Budapest Hotel
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Great Invisible
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Hangar 10
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
The Heart Machine
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
[New Today] William Bibbiani @ CraveOnline
- Excerpt: [It is] egregiously besides the point for a story about the folly of war and greed to luxuriate this long on rampant destruction, especially as a byproduct of stretching The Hobbit into three films for monetary gain.
The Homesman
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Horrible Bosses 2
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ida
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Imitation Game
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Inherent Vice
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Interstellar
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Into the Storm
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Ivory Tower
Dustin Freeley @ Movies About Gladiators
- Excerpt: A documentary about education and its discontents.
Jessabelle
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Jimmy P.
[New Today] Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
- Excerpt: If you can forgive the film it’s slow, methodical nature – which is reflective of its central protagonist – this is a meditative, quietly effective story that might get to you.
Kill the Messenger
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Late Phases
Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
- Excerpt: Late Phases’ Brings Back The Classic Werewolf Fighting Movie
The Lego Movie
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Liberator
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Listen Up, Philip
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Magic in the Moonlight
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Meet the Mormons
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Men, Women & Children
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Most Vioent Year
[New Today] Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An immersive drama about a businessman who stays calm in the midst of a dreadful series of setbacks.
A Most Wanted Man
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Mule
Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
Nas: Time Is Illmatic
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Omar
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Penguins of Madagascar
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Rosewater
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Rude Dude
The Sacrament
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Selma
Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A stirring and enlightening movie about civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his crusade for equality.
The Skeleton Twins
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Song of the Sea
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An Irish folktale about facing our fears, embracing death and human frailty, walking in wonder and returning home as transformed lovers.
St. Vincent
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Still Alice
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A caring and compassionate portrait of a linguistics professor stricken with early onset Alzheimer’s. carried home into our hearts by Julianne Moore’s mesmerizing performance.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An impressive hallowing of play and laughter as the sources of a lightness of being.
Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: The magic is in the technique.
The Theory of Everything
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
True Son
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Unbroken
[New Today] William Bibbiani @ CraveOnline
- Excerpt: The script relies so much on Zamperini’s determination that it never capitalizes on the many dramatic uncertainties that might have turned his story into a timeless nail-biting classic, as opposed to a solemn, respectful salute that lasts more than two hours.
Whiplash
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Why Don’t You Play In Hell
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Winter Sleep
Alan Mattli @ Facing the Bitter Truth [German]
- Excerpt: An intense, complex, subtly poetic character drama inspired by Chekhov and evoking Bergman – a majestic, intimate monument.
Women Who Flirt
- Excerpt: After dipping his toe into China with his 2012 sequel Love In The Buff, Hong Kong auteur Pang Ho Cheung embraces the inevitable and presents his first full-blown mainland production, Women Who Flirt. Zhou Xun and Huang Xiaoming play the longtime friends and colleagues whose til-now platonic relationship is jeopardised by Taiwanese dolly bird Sui Tang, forcing Zhou to step up and show she’s got what it takes to win the guy she’s always loved.
You’re Not You
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
2013 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
The Grandmaster
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
2014 & 2015 Films (Coming Soon)
Action Jackson
[New Today] Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Bonobo
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Coming Home
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Death Metal Angola
Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Death Metal Angola’ is a quiet movie about a culture roaring back to life.
Déjà Vu
- Excerpt: Romanian film has long takes galore.
Eastern Boys
[New Today] MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Repugnant drama about the tender relationship between a man who pays for sex and the boy he hires. At least Pretty Woman pretended to be a fairy tale.
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Guidelines
Mathieu Li-Goyette @ Panorama-cinéma [French]
Heaven Adores You
Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
Mea Culpa
David Upton @ So So Gay
- Excerpt: Shoot out set pieces have no real rhythm to them; the tension rises and falls with unusual sharpness, dying off as the men cease in confusion. No one can see anything and the bullets don’t land; this is not a world of seamless choreography but a recognisably messy one where the camera lives among humans carefully searching for their unknown enemy.
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
The Nose
Mathieu Li-Goyette @ Panorama-cinéma [French]
Once Upon a Time, Veronica
Ungli
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
The Salt of the Earth
[New Today] Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A monumental documentary by Wim Wenders on the remarkable photography of Sebastiao Salgado whose work reveals a deep reverence for life.
