Because of embargoes, 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. 11-13, 2015
Wide (United States)
In the Heart of the Sea
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Expanding (United States)
Legend
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Limited (United States)
The Big Short
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Boy and the World
- Excerpt: One wonders how receptive young audiences should be to a film that puts its storytelling secondary to its message-making. Bubbly as Abreu’s aesthetics are…his deathly pale, black-hole-eyed human figurines, almost all voiceless, are just interchangeable representations of contemporary existential woes.
Don Verdean
Kenji Fujishima @ Slant Magazine
2015 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
#Horror
45 Years
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Amy
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Anomalisa
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Beasts of No Nation
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Best of Enemies
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Body
[New Today] Mark Harris @ About.com
[New Today] MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Women’s friendships in dangerous situations are not something we see a lot of onscreen. But this ends up not really being about the women at all.
Bridge of Spies
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Brooklyn
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
By the Sea
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Carol
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Cartel Land
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Chi-Raq
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Creed
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Criminal Activities
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
The Danish Girl
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Entertainment
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Every Thing Will Be Fine
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
Felix and Meira
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Good Dinosaur
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Goodnight Mommy
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Heart of a Dog
Hitchcock/Truffaut
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Human Capital
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
James White
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Janis: Little Girl Blue
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: All we know is that Janis loved the blues, loved life, felt deeply, and that Amy Berg creates a fascinating study of a musician sometimes overshadowed by her fellow untimely death peers such as Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain.
Joy
- Excerpt: However, these sequences that give the film (and Lawrence’s performance) a real edge are constantly off-set by a screenplay from Russell that feels indecisive and unfinished.
[New Today] Kristy Puchko @ Pajiba, Comic Book Resources
- Excerpt: As he’s best known for movies with male protagonists—like The Fighter, Three Kings and Silver Linings Playbook—I was curious to see how Russell would handle a female-focused story with themes of friendship, sisterhood, motherhood, and gender politics. The short answer is: like an asshole.
The Keeping Room
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Krampus
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Lady in the Van
Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: It’s an even blander, weirder, less logical Philomena.
Life
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Look of Silence
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Macbeth
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Mediterranea
Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: Jonas Carpignano’s timely and revelatory film puts a human face on the contemporary crisis of illegal immigrants and refugees desperate for a better life. That the principal face belongs to a charismatic newcomer named Koudous Seihon adds enormously to the film’s appeal.
Mustang
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Night Before
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Our Brand Is Crisis
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Pearl Button
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Revenant
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Room
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Second Mother
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Shaun the Sheep Movie
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Sicario
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Sisters
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Son of Saul
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Southpaw
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Spectre
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Spotlight
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Steve Jobs
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The Tainted Veil
[New Today] Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A documentary on opinions swirling around Muslim women wearing the hijab.
Trumbo
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Uncle Nick
- Excerpt: I was not offended by the subject matter so much as I was depressed by the lazy, lameness of the gags.
Victoria
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Where to Invade Next
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Youth
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2015 Films (Coming Soon)
Art Bastard
Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: But the real thrust of this lively documentary is Cenedella’s relationship to the art establishment, which has generally been too caught up in the frenzied pursuit of the latest thing to appreciate what he has to offer.
The Dressmaker
João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
The Girl King
Hector
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Ice and the Sky
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
Of the North
- Excerpt: Documentary ‘of the North’ is armchair colonialism.
Ovation
Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: Jaglom, a protégé of Orson Welles (his recordings of conversations with the master is available in book form: My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles,) has had a checkered career, but there’s a lot to like about this puppyishly amiable backstage romp.
