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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.
Alfonso Cuarón—
Roma
—1/4/2019
I was very lucky to be raised by two strong and very generous women...[Cleo] embodies, in one hand, those scars that I share with my family, but in the other hand, those scars that I share with a whole society.
Pawel Pawlikowski—
Cold War
,
Ida
—10/5/2018
The more you think about [your parents], the more contradictory they get...A lot of people find themselves in this film. You'd expect it's such an unusual, eccentric story, but...
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
In Jenkins’ sure hands, Baldwin’s novel becomes an exquisite, impeccable, indelible piece of cinema of the ages.
2018 Top 10
Vice (2018)
As strikingly original in form as Oliver Stone’s
JFK
...infotaining Hollywood history that’s equal parts funny and horrifying in its high-stakes political gamesmanship...
Ben is Back (2018)
Roberts’ role as an intense mama bear cleverly corrupts her famous smile to an “everything’s okay” mask. Ultimately,
Ben is Back
is about the lies addicts tell their loved ones, and those their loved ones tell th
Peter Hedges—
Ben is Back
,
The Odd Life of Timothy Green
—10/12/2018
Who wants to be directed by their father? Particularly at an age when—the fun part of being 21 is that you fire your parents. Y'know, you're free of them.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
McCarthy clearly feels a connection to Israel’s outsider artistry, her utter commitment to become someone else for a few stolen moments, and her pride in a job well done...
Green Book (2018)
Though breezily entertaining, this cinematic vehicle also lurches into and out of the usual racial potholes, making its song of the South--and North--catch in the throat.
Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
Productively acknowledges real-life dangers, with stellar animation and designs shoring up the storytelling of Johnston and Pamela Ribon's witty script...a useful all-ages fable for our time.
Instant Family (2018)
Humor is subjective, of course, but the film offers this litmus test: do you laugh when a sane adult finally slaps Ellie ('You listen to me, you crazy woman!') and when another slaps cuffs on Pete? Or do you cheer?
Paul Dano—
Wildlife
,
Love & Mercy
—10/5/2018
[I] immediately felt a sort of uncanny personal relationship to it: the characters, the sense of love in this really great struggle...a lot of pain. [Richard Ford] somehow wrote about this very difficult situation with a great amount of compassion.
Boy Erased (2018)
On the side of truth, social justice, and human dignity...despite all that,
Boy Erased
never quite coalesces into the deeply moving and insightful film its pedigree seems to promise.
Wildlife (2018)
First-time director Dano, who co-scripted with partner Zoe Kazan, has a knack for capturing quotidian daily struggles as well as moments of discovery that hearten or, more often, horrify.
Beautiful Boy (2018)
Makes a good case for itself as the addiction movie America needs right now...[offers] a primal 'you are not alone' catharsis for sufferers under the powerful grip of addiction or with a front-row seat to it.
Fail State (2018)
Takes a cogent look at the issues, making comprehensible the complex history of American higher education, the government's shifting role in supporting it, and the increasingly corporate exploitation of the American-Dreaming underclass.
Halloween (2018)
Because Green loves the material enough to have some good, old-fashioned fun in this playground, he’s able to bring the audience along with him.
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