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: Sep. 23, 2022
Expanding (United States)
Moonage Daydream
David “DC” Bolling @ DC’s Take
- Excerpt: Moonage Daydream is the perfect immersive experience for David Bowie fans. So much to take in, but it’s an unconventional documentary that shines a light on his career while being a gorgeously transcendent odyssey through the visuals and soundtrack.
Limited (United States)
Carmen
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Alliance of Women Film Journalists
- Excerpt: Maltese director Valerie Buhagiar knows all too well what dangers lurk in the past. Her new feature film, Carmen, set in a small town in Malta in the 1980s, uses humor and good will to reveal the repressive culture behind the picture-postcard image.
Catherine Called Birdy
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Adapting the YA novel she identified with in fourth grade, writer/director Lena Dunham offers her most surprising work to date, a joyful, loving, hilarious tale of rebellious feminism which also embraces its male characters with affection.
Sidney
Sidney
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Just because this memorialization treats its subject with unabashed reverence doesn’t negate its power to move audiences or champion his rare talent and austere presence.
The Swearing Jar
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Death looms large and the characters are all struggling with its impact, but they’re doing so in a way that will ultimately lead them towards productive means to cope, heal, and find happiness again.
2022 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Barbarian
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Beast
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Breaking
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Bullet Train
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Cha Cha Real Smooth
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Clerks III
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Elvis
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Hustle
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Lightyear
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
See How They Run
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Woman King
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Using the employees of ‘the happiest place on earth’ for perspective on a country-wide issue gives this documentary a particularly pointed arrow…one which uses a name as American as apple pie to open people’s eyes.
Apples
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Apples becomes an existential fable raising open-ended questions… The ending is, ironically, memorable.
The Automat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A delightful and culturally rich documentary about a ground-breaking food chain.
Black Box
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: an aurally based conspiracy thriller akin to Brian De Palma’s “Blow Out.” Given the recent Boeing 737 scandal, its subject is timely and it fills a niche, making it ripe for an American remake.
Blonde
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: Instead of commenting on the evils of stardom, this becomes an exercise in misery.
Blonde
- Excerpt: Take the NC-17 rating as a warning! Blonde is a disturbing, visceral, tragic fever dream with a runtime that makes it hard to finish in one sitting. On the bright side, Ana de Armas turns in another stellar performance.
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The cast is game and Reijn is happy to let their characters shed their humanity with ease. And while the reveal is obvious, its hilarious predictability renders it perfect, nonetheless.
Bruiser
Marcio Sallem @ Cinema com Critica [Portuguese]
Confess, Fletch
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: In a time when reboots and remakes always aim to be bigger and louder, here is a cast-driven vehicle that embraces its frothy style.
Escape from Kabul
- Excerpt: Jamie Roberts’ terse, painfully precise documentary “Escape from Kabul” zooms right in on one episode—the massive last-minute airlift of Afghans and remaining American personnel from Kabul in August 2021—and never looks away, even when you might wish that it did.
Granada Nights
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A young man’s adventures in Spain that reveal how travel can be transformative.
Hashtag Blessed: The Movie
- Excerpt: A Christmas gem that made me smile as it unfolded to beguile.
House of Darkness
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: That we’re in on it makes the whole more intriguing because we can never know when the other shoe will drop. It depends on how long LaBute wants Mina, Lucy, and whomever else to teach their lesson. And in what way that lesson will be taught.
The House of the Lost on the Cape
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: The film is therefore about healing above all else—with a dash of mythologizing come true. A solid, heartwarming drama that balances the real world with the supernatural.
Jerry and Marge Go Large
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A spunky and thoroughly satisfying morality tale about generosity.
Kimi
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A timely, tense, and ethically rich high-tech thriller.
Navalny
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A tribute to a heroic Russian freedom fighter.
Nothing Compares
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: This is a story of resilience and trauma, told with the sort of raw honesty that O’Connor herself evinced.
Out of the Blue
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: I can’t therefore stop wondering if Out of the Blue is intended as parody for the noirs sprinkled throughout. He shoots it with the earnestness of homage and yet those intertitles and lack of deception renders the whole silly.
The Silent Twins
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: The cinematic somersaults take too much attention away from its subjects.
The Silent Twins
Thomasena Farrar @ MusicMoviesThoughts.com
- Excerpt: But others, like myself, feel that even with solid performances from its cast – primarily leads Letitia Wright (June Gibbons) and Tamara Lawrance (Jennifer Gibbons) and their younger counterparts Leah Mondesir-Simmonds and Eva-Arianna Baxter respectively – the film didn’t fully realize what precipitated the silence pact amongst the siblings nor the circumstances, both familial and societal, that contributed.
The Woman King
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
The Woman King
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: This thrilling action epic may star Viola Davis (and she is indeed great), but it significantly benefits from an exciting ensemble of women.
The Woman King
- Excerpt: The Woman King is a riveting African epic that should be seen on the biggest screen possible! Visually stunning, emotionally impactful, and quite funny to boot. This film has something for everybody to enjoy.
The Woman King
Marcio Sallem @ Cinema com Critica [Portuguese]
The Woman King
David “DC” Bolling @ DC’s Take
- Excerpt: The Woman King is the fierce, old-fashioned historical action film I didn’t think I needed. The tale of the Agojie warriors is packed with exquisite fight choreography and its compelling theme of sisterhood.
Yunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A transformative film set in Bhutan about finding happiness and cultivating a good heart.
