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. 4-6, 2015
Wide (United States)
Krampus
Limited (United States)
Chi-Raq
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …with “Chi-Raq,” the old Spike is back…The script is entirely in rhyme, part classical couplet, part echo of Chicago’s South Side rap.
Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: It’s a film of pain and rage, equally bolstered and undermined by its humor and sermonizing.
Hitchcock/Truffaut
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Letters
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A tender and touching biopicture on the life and spiritual work of Mother Teresa who viewed herself as an instrument of God’s love.
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A fatuous argument for Mother Teresa’s sainthood; credulous and willfully ignorant, and disregards everything about her beliefs that was nasty or skeptical.
Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: A piece of chintzy hagiography that ends up diminishing rather than celebrating its subject. Perhaps Mother Teresa was a saint, but in Riead’s hands she’s become a plaster one.
Macbeth
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The World of Kanako
Youth
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2015 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
Ayanda and the Mechanic
- Excerpt: A vibrant, energetic, colorful story of a young woman who restores furniture in her late father’s garage, only to find herself taking over the business to keep it in the family. It’s an uncommonly rich picture, constantly spinning off in unexpected directions: hopscotching gingerly between coming of age story, romance (Ayanda and one of the mechanics have a hinted-at past, an uncertain future, and plenty of heat right now), character study (Fulu Moguvhani is heart-wrenching in the title role), and the complications of familial dynamics.
Beasts of No Nation
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Bikes vs Cars
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: Reports from cities around the world about the need for bikes and the problems faced by bikers.
Blind
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Joachim Trier’s (“Oslo, August 31st”) cowriter Eskil Vogt makes his directorial debut with a story that calls back to the structure of “Reprise” as if crossed with Jeremy Podeswa’s “The Five Senses.”
Brooklyn
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
By the Sea
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Carol
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Christmas Horror Story
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Creed
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Danish Girl
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Democrats
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A hard-hitting documentary on the complexities of creating a workable democracy in Africa.
The End of the Tour
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Frame by Frame
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A documentary about the photo revolution that has taken place in Afghanistan in the past decade.
Girlhood
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Good Dinosaur
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Heart of a Dog
James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
In Jackson Heights
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
In the Heart of the Sea
- Excerpt: We don’t get many great historical seafaring movies these days – 2003’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World might have been Hollywood’s last one – but while on the waters In the Heart of the Sea comes pretty close. It could have been even better had it stuck to the story of the Essex.
James White
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Janis: Little Girl Blue
James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A compassionate, intimate unpacking of the legend of Janis Joplin that reveals the trouble influences on the force-of-nature singer she willed into being.
Legend
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Love the Coopers
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Making Rounds
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Mediterranea
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: Sad story about the struggles of two brothers from Burkina Faso who journey to Italy in hopes of finding a better life.
Meru
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Minions
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Mr. Holmes
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mustang
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Night Before
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Out of My Hand
- Excerpt: In the opening, Cisco (Bishop Blay) is tapping a tree in a Liberian rubber plantation, and in the closing, he’s changing the tire of his New York cab. In the 80-ish minutes that separates those scenes, Fukunaga details how he went from one place to the other, a portrait of a life that plays as much like documentary as drama.
Pan
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Pearl Button
Matthew Lucas @ From the Front Row
- Excerpt: An elegy for a forgotten genocide that is arguably one of the most ghastly in the history of the world.
Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Phoenix
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Room
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Secret in Their Eyes
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Sembene!
Josh Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
Shaun the Sheep Movie
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Sicario
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Spectre
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Spotlight
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Spy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Steve Jobs
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Taxi
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Theeb
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Much is foretold by Thaler’s use of light and space, Salameh Al-Sweilhiyeen disappearing into the landscape not once, but twice, rock formations forming passages into the unknown.
Victor Frankenstein
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
War Room
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: This is the Kendrick Brothers’ most polished, most accomplished, most competent film, a massive leap in terms of both their own work and Christian independent filmmaking. It’s a testament to what can happen when writers/director get out of their own way, not make themselves the center of attention, move minorities up-front and center, and acknowledge(albeit in a small way) that there is such a thing as sin.
The Wonders
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2015 Films (Coming Soon)
Ah Humanity!
Mathieu Li-Goyette @ Panorama-cinéma [French]
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A charming documentary about a long-married Hollywood couple who made many important contributions to American movies.
The Messenger
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A Canadian documentary about songbirds as another species at risk.
