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: Oct. 2-4, 2015
Wide (United States)
The Martian
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Expanding (United States)
Sicario
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Limited (United States)
Freeheld
[New Today] Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: It’s all so neatly laid out yet so lacking in the type of detail that would give it emotional soul. Even the dog Stacie so yearns for and gets with Laurel goes MIA once it’s served its purpose.
[New Today] Courtney Howard @ Sassy Mama In LA
- Excerpt: A landmark case deserves a landmark movie. Unfortunately, this isn’t it.
Guilty
He Named Me Malala
[New Today] Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: An inspiring documentary about the teenage advocate for girls’ education, reconciliation, and peace.
[New Today] Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Malala Yousafzai is a worthy and fascinating subject, but Guggenheim’s documentary is a muddle, one which leaves a surprising amount of lingering negative impressions.
Kenji Fujishima @ Slant Magazine
[New Today] Courtney Howard @ Sassy Mama In LA
- Excerpt: Oscar winning documentarian David Guggenheim skips all around Malala’s history to paint her portrait, when he should’ve just relied on her own powerful words and conviction.
- Excerpt: Malala Yousafzai says, “One teacher, one student, one book, and one pen can change the world.” But can one documentary?
Shanghai
[New Today] Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: There are some movies that, no matter how hard they try, just don’t work. This is one of those movies.
The Walk
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
2015 Films In Theaters Now In Select Areas
3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets
[New Today] Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
The 33
Samuel Castro @ Ochoymedio.info [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Una historia que todos queríamos conocer sobre los mineros chilenos atrapados, que fracasa por su ambición de querer contarlo todo.
87th Oscars: Nominated Shorts
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
99 Homes
[New Today] Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: 99 Homes is a broad take on a specific kind of soulless opportunism.
Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Empathetic & socially-conscious, effectively exposing real-estate corruption…
[New Today] Courtney Howard @ Sassy Mama In LA
- Excerpt: Co-writer/ director Ramin Bahrani does for the real estate market what ‘Wall Street’ did for greed-fueled stock brokers. It’s chilling and highly charged.
About Ray
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
Adult Beginners
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Advantageous
- Excerpt: Jennifer Phang’s ambitious sci-fi drama presents some intriguing ideas about identity and sacrifice in a uniquely female context, but she invests her budget into the wrong elements, and is unable to fashion her final film into anything particularly engaging.
American Ultra
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Amira and Sam
Ant-Man
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Avengers: Age of Ultron
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Barely Lethal
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
Big Game
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Bikes vs Cars
Jared Mobarak @ Jared Mobarak Reviews
Black Mass
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
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Blackhat
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Blind
[New Today] Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: For most of us blessed with functional eyesight, that visual sense is a major factor tethering us to our concept of reality. The sudden loss of sight, Norwegian filmmaker Eskil Vogt suggests, can leave a person unmoored.
A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story
- Excerpt: A Brave Heart is a tender and soulful movie about being confident in your own skin. Prepare to be moved and exhilarated.
Breathe
[New Today] Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: Laurent builds carefully toward a shocking ending, and the journey is ultimately worthwhile, although along the way it can feel a little aimless.
Captive
Chappie
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A Christmas Horror Story
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
[New Today] Mark Harris @ About.com
Cinderella
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The Cobbler
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Coming Home
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The Connection
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Cop Car
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The Cut
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
The D Train
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Dark Places
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Deathgasm
[New Today] Mark Harris @ About.com
Frank SwietekO @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: A brew that aims for a campy, midnight-movie vibe it never quite achieves.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Dirty Weekend
Chris Barsanti @ Film Journal International
- Excerpt: Two co-workers stranded in Albuquerque explore some personal taboos in this dashed-off comedy of manners from Neil LaBute.
The Divergent Series: Insurgent
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Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead
Stacia Kissick Jones @ Next Projection
The DUFF
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The Duke of Burgundy
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Eden
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Ejecta
- Excerpt: There are no happy-faced hairless alien midgets making Kodály Hand Signs whilst smiling at a beaming François Truffaut. No siree Spielberg, the mo-fos in this picture induce drawer filling of the heaviest order.
Entourage
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Everest
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Ex Machina
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Fantastic Four
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Faults
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Felt
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Fifty Shades of Grey
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Finders Keepers
[New Today] Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: [Carberry and Tweel] turn this odd story into something surprisingly touching about and compassionate toward these people.
Andrew Wyatt @ St. Louis Magazine
- Excerpt: Surprisingly, Finders Keepers is more Rich Hill than Jerry Springer: a grim portrait of rural, blue-collar America negotiating—with little success—a briarwood of false hopes, suffocating expectations, and exploitative forces.
Focus
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The Forbidden Room
- Excerpt: The Forbidden Room’s central gimmick—a collection of lost films from the recesses of moving-image history are re-made by Maddin and company and invited to converse with one another—is deceptively anthropological. What’s really happened is that this filmmaker, always fascinated less by bygone cinema in its actuality than by the interaction between old films and the complex mind of their viewer, has leveraged this experiment, at once a research project and a brainstorm, to chisel yet again into the depths of his own past.
Furious 7
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The Gallows
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Get Hard
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The Gift
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Grandma
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
The Green Inferno
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Gross, stomach-churning horror flick, proving, once again, that no good deed goes unpunished…
[New Today] Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Never quite as gripping, scary, or shocking as a cannibalistic horror film could and should be, it’s just flippant blood and guts but no brains and very little reason to care.
Hard to Be a God
Jared Mobarak @ Jared Mobarak Reviews
Hitman: Agent 47
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Home
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Hotel Transylvania 2
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How to Save Us
Jared Mobarak @ Jared Mobarak Reviews
Hyena
Don Lewis @ Consequence of Sound
I Saw the Light
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
In the Name of My Daughter
Inside Out
For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Insidious Chapter 3
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The Intern
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Irrational Man
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It Follows
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James White
- Excerpt: The debut feature from Josh Mond, producer of Simon Killer and Martha Marcy May Marlene, is a tough coming-of-age tale featuring a couple of top-notch showboating performances. However, the desperate circumstances alone do not make for an engaging drama, and the desperately unlikable central character always keeps the audience at arm’s length.
Jupiter Ascending
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Jurassic World
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Just Jim
The Keeping Room
Chris Barsanti @ Film Journal International
- Excerpt: Three women, two white sisters and their slave, are hunted by renegade soldiers at the end of the Civil War in an ambitious if overreaching home-invasion thriller laden with historical nuance.
Kill Me Three Times
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Kingsman: The Secret Service
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Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
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Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
Jared Mobarak @ Jared Mobarak Reviews
The Last Five Years
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Learning to Drive
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Legend
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Life
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A smart, wistful exploration of art, ambition, and celebrity, with appealingly melancholic performances by Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan.
Lila & Eve
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Live from New York!
Don Lewis @ Consequence of Sound
Lost River
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Love
Macbeth
[New Today] Simon Miraudo @ Student Edge
Rob Wallis @ The Metropolist
- Excerpt: A Macbeth that lacks not only significance but also the sound and fury that might provide a truly memorable addition to the canon.
Mad Max: Fury Road
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Man from Reno
Jared Mobarak @ Jared Mobarak Reviews
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
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Manglehorn
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Maps to the Stars
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Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
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McFarland, USA
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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
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Meru
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Miss You Already
MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Authentically female in how it gets inside a lifelong friendship between two women, and as wisely funny as it is sharply poignant.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
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Mississippi Grind
[New Today] Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: Boden and Fleck understand that these two characters feed off of each other’s personalities, while fueling the addiction that unifies them.
[New Today] Courtney Howard @ Sassy Mama In LA
- Excerpt: Though the cards add up to a few shy of 21, GRIND’s throwback vibe and characters make this worth taking a seat at the table.
Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds are playing the latter day George Segal and Elliott Gould. Unfortunately, our protagonists this time around are poorly developed and sometimes downright unbelievable, a serious mistake for earnest filmmakers.
[New Today] Kristin Dreyer Kramer @ NightsAndWeekends.com
Mistress America
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Narcopolis
The New Girlfriend
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The Nightmare
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Pan
- Excerpt: … essentially Hook for the Avatar generation.
Paul Taylor Creative Domain
Marilyn Ferdinand @ Ferdy on Films
- Excerpt: Riffing on the title of dancer/choreographer Paul Taylor’s autobiography Private Domain, director Kate Geis’s conceit is that she will reveal the secret of Taylor’s choreographic genius. This she does not do—nor do I think anyone can—but she nonetheless offers accumulative detail in showing how a dance is made.
[New Today] Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: It will appeal mostly to dance aficionados; for the less passionate, it would be like someone not interested in tennis watching a documentary about Roger Federer doing stretches and calisthenics and drills in preparation for Wimbledon. The genius is apparent, but the process is not for everyone.
Pawn Sacrifice
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Pay the Ghost
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Peace Officer
The Pearl Button
Alan Mattli @ Facing the Bitter Truth [German]
- Excerpt: Although it partakes in uninhibited romanticisation, Patricio Guzmán’s documentary essay still is still a fascinating example of Herzogian “ecstatic truth” cinema.
Phoenix
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Pitch Perfect 2
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Prophet’s Prey
[New Today] Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: Amy Berg’s documentary about Jeffs and the FLDS is a study of evil disguised as virtue and of devotion taken to the extreme.
Queen of Earth
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Reality
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Reality is a Chinese puzzle box of nightmares hidden inside of jokes hidden inside of nightmares. It’s the labyrinth itself that interests Dupieux, not the exit.
Ricki and the Flash
[New Reviews Today] For member reviews of this film, follow this link
Run All Night
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Samba
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San Andreas
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The Second Mother
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Shaun the Sheep Movie
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Sleeping with Other People
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Some Kind of Beautiful
Southpaw
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Spring
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The Stanford Prison Experiment
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Straight Outta Compton
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Stray Dog
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Survivor
Don Lewis @ Consequence of Sound
Taxi
[New Today] Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A cogent and playful documentary about the banned filmmaker’s return to the streets of Teheran.
- Excerpt: Like an outlaw puppeteer Panahi refuses to let anyone break his creative strings.
Ted 2
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Terminator Genisys
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Tom at the Farm
Jared Mobarak @ Jared Mobarak Reviews
Tomorrowland
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Trainwreck
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The Transporter Refueled
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Truth
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
Unbranded
Chris Barsanti @ Film Journal International
- Excerpt: Four modern-day cowboys drive 16 mustangs from Mexico to Canada in this sumptuously packaged and goofily charming oddball feature-length advocacy advertisement about America’s wild-horse overpopulation crisis.
Unexpected
Jared Mobarak @ Jared Mobarak Reviews
Vacation
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Veteran
James Marsh @ South China Morning Post
- Excerpt: A renegade cop takes on the spoilt heir of a family-run conglomerate in Ryoo Seung-wan’s tightly-paced and sharp-witted crime thriller Veteran. Hwang Jung-min and Yoo Ah-in lead an impressive ensemble of familiar faces, while the themes of endemic corruption and cronyism in Korean big business strike a poignant chord.
Victoria
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
Chase Whale @ Hammer to Nail
- Excerpt: It’s wild, it’s bold, and the final act is an exhilarating force that will leave you slack-jawed. Star Laia Costa is a virtuoso of talent and her nuanced emotional range is going to make her a star.
The Visit
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The Voices
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A Walk in the Woods
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We Are Still Here
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The Wedding Ringer
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Welcome to Me
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What We Do in the Shadows
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When Marnie Was There
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While We’re Young
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Wild Tales
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Woman in Gold
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2015 Films (Coming Soon)
Baskin
- Excerpt: Call it torture porn, if you will, but the final thirty minutes are revoltingly shocking – replete with all manner of eviscerations, eye gouging, flesh burning and – my personal favourite – sodomy involving a half-woman-half-goat.
Body
Samuel Castro @ Ochoymedio.info [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Una película que intenta ser reflexiva y termina siendo una visión banal y desordenada de algunos fenómenos sociales del mundo actual.
Catch Me Daddy
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
Cub
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Demon
- Excerpt: Demon raises many questions, but supplies no easy answers. What it delivers, however, is one of the scariest, most sickeningly creepy horror films of the year.
Der Nachtmahr
[New Today] James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
Dhanak
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Eva Nova
- Excerpt: Eva Nová is a sobering character study.
G – A Wanton Heart
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Ghosthunters on Icy Trails
Darren Mooney @ the m0vie blog
- Excerpt: We ain’t afraid of no ghost.
Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World
- Excerpt: Haida Gwaii shows us a corner of the world that evokes an image of Canada before the fall. It’s a shame the rest of the country isn’t as beautiful.
Hellions
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous
- Excerpt: Christopher Doyle’s docudrama is gorgeously bizarre.
The Last Time You Had Fun
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
The Lobster
Kenji Fujishima @ Slant Magazine
Miss Sharon Jones!
- Excerpt: The inspiring Miss Sharon Jones! hits a very high note.
Parisienne
- Excerpt: Do stories of migration need to be tragic in order to be compelling?
The Program
- Excerpt: … you’ll want to get with The Program, if only for Foster’s focused performance, which is bound to be an honest competitor come award’s season.
Seashore
Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
Singh Is Bliing
[New Today] Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Solace
Songs My Brothers Taught Me
- Excerpt: The debut feature from Beijing-born Chloe Zhao focuses on the unlikely subject matter of adolescent Lakota indians in South Dakota. Beautifully photographed and confidently directed, Songs My Brothers Taught Me is a notable first film, marred only by a rather cliched coming-of-age narrative, albeit in an original and intriguing setting.
This Changes Everything
- Excerpt: A great film and a rallying cry for change.
A Wedding in Castañer
Francisco Cangiano @ CineXpress [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Una Boda en Castañer es una entretenida comedia romántica puertorriqueña llena de personajes simpáticos y bastante risas. Aunque tiene fallos en varios departamentos, el largometraje logra salir a flote gracias a un director que pone a Puerto Rico como uno de los personajes principales, y un elenco variado con mucho talento.
Where to Invade Next
Kenji Fujishima @ Slant Magazine
The Witch
- Excerpt: The Witch is bargain basement Terence Malick crossed with a Roman Polanski wannabe and dollops of half-baked Bergman, but worse yet, is not unlike lower-drawer M. Night Shyamalan. That, my friends, is truly chilling.
