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Pain and Glory (2019)
The filmmaker contemplating his own creation as a man and an artist...plays as a poetic remembrance of things past, a reconciliation of self, powerfully capturing the emotional essence of keenly formative experiences and deep loves.
Joker (2019)
Joker
isn’t the film to seriously tackle the issue[s]--it's more concerned with flair than genuine inquiry--but Phoenix’s pained, raw-nerve performance is one for the ages.
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019)
A primer...proves most valuable by gathering a number of Miles’ friends, lovers, musical collaborators, admirers, and musicologists...to share their recollections and perspectives on Davis, his musicality, and his personality.
Downton Abbey (2019)
Forgive me for suggesting that Conservative peer Fellowes—or, as he’s sometimes known, Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford DL—might consider
Downton
the cake he’s letting us eat.
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (2019)
A deeply moving story of a remarkable woman, its only real fault an arguable virtue: adhering to the old showbiz adage of leaving the audience wanting more.
Official Secrets (2019)
It’s a story worth shining a light on, Gun a hero deserving of a movie-star moment. And yet this docudrama struggles to give feature-length narrative shape to the story in a way that brings it to vibrant dramatic life.
Ready or Not (2019)
Thin characters...thinner satire...maybe best to think of
Ready or Not
not as trolling us but as gifting us a mosh pit for primal-scream therapy.
Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)
The film’s darkest-before-the-dawn middle passage honors the complexity of mental-health struggles for the sufferer and those who, unsure at every step, try to steer their troubled loved one down a path to healing.
Luce (2019)
Luce
primarily concerns itself with African-American identity, plagued by withering lowdown stereotypes and polar-opposite pressures...In some ways, the film’s subtle political satire proves even more distressing.
The Kitchen (2019)
Because of its hurried pacing, the film doesn’t quite make us feel the potentially Shakespearean sweep of this arc, and the leading performances feel similarly hemmed in by the script’s limitations.
The Farewell (2019)
The setup makes for genuinely amusing light farce, but in their patient observation, Wang and cinematographer Anna Franquesa Solano conjure a heartfelt intimacy with the family...[and] the actors always offer up finely etched emotional truths...
Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019)
Content finally joined by the movie gods to form—for at last, the moving-picture magpie has lighted on Hollywood as his setting and, in no small part, his subject.
Stuber (2019)
Unexciting action and unfunny comedy...Bautista and Nanjiani have star power, and could’ve made a buddy comedy work, but not with this script and this little help behind the camera.
Maiden (2019)
This
Maiden
voyage’s degrees of heroism and ugly behavior, of victory and defeat, illuminate a gripping and inspiring story that demands to be remembered.
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Marvel deserves credit for the ways it has so far managed to freshen up formula, harness genres to its purposes, and hold a mirror up to contemporary society.
Yesterday (2019)
Make the mistake of considering this feature-length stunt’s many logical fumbles and obvious but ignored questions, and you’re likely to get angry... All you need is love...and a better script.
Toy Story 4 (2019)
At a moment when studios and pundits have begun again to question the efficacy of sequels, Pixar’s graceful follow-up justifies the practice, when executed with smarts and heart.
Men in Black: International (2019)
Outside of the win for representation represented by the likeable Tessa Thompson’s leading role, there’s no creatively compelling reason to tell this story, which...drags on seventeen minutes longer than the 1997 original.
Crystal City (2019)
Potent... Crawford's empathy and care for his subjects shine through, inevitably taking the audience on an emotional journey.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
The CGI creatures impress—a star is reborn in Mothra...It’s just unfortunate that the picture as a whole lumbers a lot like its forty-story star.
Non-Fiction (2019)
Slyly addresses...how we think and how we consume media, how we tell stories to each other and ourselves, and what we need out of our personal connections.
Aladdin (2019)
The results aren’t exactly magical...Heck, I’d even take a low-rent theme-park version if it spared me this film’s descent into the uncanny valley.
All Is True (2018)
An elegiac valediction for Shakespeare’s genius...a celebration of the centuries of scholarship that got us here...[and] an ode to parental love, complicated as it is by ego.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)
With Reynolds cracking wise and a number of frantic action sequences, this looks like an effective enough franchise launcher. But...it all feels a little too much like work.
Long Shot (2019)
Diverting enough for date night...good enough for government work.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Marvel tourists may surprise themselves how much they care...while fanatics will have a geekgasm of heretofore undiscovered proportions at what amounts to the biggest series finale ever. To put it more politely, they’ll love it “times 3000.&rd
Teen Spirit (2019)
Serves mostly as a vehicle for star Elle Fanning, who provides her own vocals in the film’s multiple vocal-performance sequences and, more importantly, provides the film its soul of quietly defiant determination.
Peterloo (2019)
[Leigh] bustles his audience into a time machine and transplants them to a time and place--1819 England--for full immersion into the physical and social landscape where a politically charged tragedy played out.
Shazam! (2019)
DC’s answer to Marvel's
Ant-Man
: a family-friendly, comical comic-book adventure that never crosses the line into camp.
Dumbo (2019)
Dumbo
has morphed into a fable of modernized entertainment business models and the handling and packaging of IP...strange thematic material for a PG Disney movie aimed at families...and it gets stranger.
Us (2019)
Peele’s messy stew of allusive ingredients and jokey allusions...can taste overwhelming, but it gives us a helluva lot more to chew on than a Halloween reboot.
The Wedding Guest (2019)
I’ll be damned if I can detect a pulse...Proves deliberately withholding, as if to punish us, along with its unlikeable characters, for expecting too much.
Captain Marvel (2019)
To watch another obscure hero beget a franchise-building smash-hit movie means marveling at Marvel once again.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
The little franchise that could is all grown up and ready to leave the nest, so wipe that tear away, and say your goodbyes, kids...For now...
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Silly but...big dumb fun.
Arctic (2019)
While Penna shoots and edits the material well enough, its familiar paces probably wouldn’t be tolerable were it not for Mikkelsen, whose grim visage crucially gives the film a racing mind and a beating heart.
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
While adults will probably find somewhat diminishing returns in
The Second Part
, its cheeky variations on all the constructions that worked so well the first time also work pretty darn well, and to a good end.
Stan & Ollie (2018)
Labors a bit to create drama from what’s essentially a gentle, wistful story of two artists together eking out a last hurrah, but there’s a refreshing warmth to a family-friendly show business tale, one not about backbiting but about love...
Cold War (2018)
A sweet romance this isn’t, but Pawlikowski (
Ida
) balances the flatfooted realities of maddeningly thwarted love with swoony moments: smoky jazz clubs and songbird reveries.
At Eternity's Gate (2018)
Memorable moments come from its series of penetrating philosophical conversations... Dafoe expertly plays the keenness of Van Gogh's intellect and creativity against his searing drive, his raw emotions, and the haunting that was his depression.
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