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And although we know what eventually happens to Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton), the ending feels unpredictable and quietly inspiring...

Posted Jan 10, 2022

4/5

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

McDormand similarly rips into Lady Macbeth with the zeal of someone who's always wondered how she'd handle the role. Turns out she's a natural.

Posted Dec 30, 2021

1/5

The King's Man (2021)

You could celebrate the season watching Ralph Fiennes in one of the dumbest movies of the year, but why would you want to?

Posted Dec 22, 2021

2/5

The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Neo, as you may recall, took the red pill. But The Matrix Resurrections takes the blue one, settling for rehashing the original film rather than reinventing the series.

Posted Dec 21, 2021

4/5

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley is not for everyone. But in the right light, it's a treasure.

Posted Dec 20, 2021

5/5

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Anderson is going backwards to the terrain of Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love, but now with the maturity we see in his recent work, as if he's hanging his own growth as a filmmaker onto this story.

Posted Dec 19, 2021

2/5

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

The latest, laboured movie in Tom Holland's up-to-this-point winning iteration of the web-slinger is all about webbing characters through multiverse magic from previous iterations of the franchise to deliver fleeting dopamine hits.

Posted Dec 14, 2021

5/5

West Side Story (2021)

The director's new adaptation of the Sondheim/Bernstein classic is a brilliant new remount, shaking the material back to life.

Posted Dec 10, 2021

3/5

C'mon C'mon (2021)

Some of C'mon C'mon's gestures - which position people of colour as props in a white family drama - can get icky.

Posted Nov 22, 2021

3/5

The Power of the Dog (2021)

Dunst packs a lifetime of hurt into a handful of moments as Rose...

Posted Nov 19, 2021

3/5

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Even when it gets clumsy - and maybe especially then - Afterlife's heart is in the right place.

Posted Nov 19, 2021

4/5

tick, tick...Boom! (2021)

This is a film that was made by theatre lovers - and it shows.

Posted Nov 15, 2021

2/5

Red Notice (2021)

I just wish I could cite a single moment that made me laugh out loud, or surprised me, or got my heart racing the way any of the movies Red Notice has digested...

Posted Nov 12, 2021

4/5

Last Night in Soho (2021)

Edgar Wright's latest applies the dream logic of Italian thrillers to its story of two young women living in London, half a century apart.

Posted Oct 29, 2021

3/5

The French Dispatch (2021)

I'd say this one's "for the fans," except I thought I was a fan too...the filmmaker's latest is never unpleasant, but feels like a collection of sketches for larger movies.

Posted Oct 22, 2021

2/5

Dave Chappelle: The Closer (2021)

What's frustrating about Chappelle's special is that there are bits of shrewd, intelligent observations in the act.

Posted Oct 22, 2021

4/5

The Harder They Fall (2021)

The movie goes hard with a great train robbery, breathtaking vistas and dynamite shootouts where the camera feels like it's part of the action, ducking and weaving between bullets and finding new positions for the best shot.

Posted Oct 19, 2021

2/5

Halloween Kills (2021)

Halloween Kills is just here to push the corpse around in the hopes of grossing people out. Maybe that's all you want from this franchise; if it is, you're welcome to it. Me, I'm thinking Jamie Lee Curtis and Judy Greer deserve a lot better.

Posted Oct 15, 2021

5/5

Mass (2021)

Kranz finds a centre of gravity in Linda that brings Dowd's performance to the fore, but the entire quartet is heartbreaking...

Posted Oct 15, 2021

5/5

Night Raiders (2021)

A dystopian thriller that feels utterly of the moment.

Posted Oct 15, 2021

4/5

Acts of Love (2021)

Bethel's documentary offers up a bold, brave look at intimacy, honesty and power dynamics.

Posted Oct 14, 2021

2/5

No Time To Die (2021)

Daniel Craig's cruel, blunt take on 007 remains incompatible with the franchise's need to give audiences the comfortable ride they demand.

Posted Oct 1, 2021

3/5

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

The sequel to the 2018 Marvel spinoff might not be good, exactly, but everyone's having a lot more fun this time...

Posted Oct 1, 2021

3/5

Cry Macho (2021)

I don't imagine I'll think too much more about Cry Macho, but I won't look back on it as a waste of time, either. At this point I'll consider that a win.

Posted Sep 17, 2021

4/5

Learn to Swim (2021)

You should see this movie.

Posted Sep 15, 2021

3/5

The Guilty (2021)

A nail-biting plot and a ferocious (if unrestrained) performance by Jake Gyllenhaal are the main reasons for watching this remake of the superior 2018 Danish thriller.

Posted Sep 15, 2021

4/5

Spencer (2021)

Like its enigmatic and tragic subject, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, Spencer will haunt you.

Posted Sep 15, 2021

4/5

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

I would not have expected Jessica Chastain to give one of the most heartfelt performances of her career buried under several pounds of latex and rhinestones, but here we are, and here is The Eyes Of Tammy Faye.

Posted Sep 13, 2021

3/5

Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

Well-meaning and at times very effective...

Posted Sep 10, 2021

3/5

Playing God (2017)

There's a profound moral question at the heart of this profile of American attorney Ken Feinberg... But it's not the question you might think.

Posted Sep 9, 2021

4/5

Candyman (2021)

Review: The new Candyman reminds us why the character still haunts us...

Posted Aug 27, 2021

4/5

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Simu Liu is Shang-Chi, master of kung-fu, and Marvel has its first Asian leading man. About damn time.

Posted Aug 24, 2021

2/5

Free Guy (2021)

[A] big, empty effects comedy.

Posted Aug 20, 2021

3/5

The Green Knight (2021)

The Green Knight is lavishly realized but strangely hollow.

Posted Jul 30, 2021

3/5

Jungle Cruise (2021)

The studio's been working on a Jungle Cruise movie for a decade and a half, and this film is a decent enough adventure picture until it gets bogged down in elaborate mythology and CGI.

Posted Jul 30, 2021

3/5

Stillwater (2021)

Tom McCarthy has a hard time making the unconvincing thriller and procedural elements his own. They intrude on the tender and warm human drama, which is where the director behind The Station Agent and The Visitor excels.

Posted Jul 27, 2021

5/5

Pig (2021)

Cage commits fully to the role of an Oregon recluse out to retrieve his stolen truffle pig...don't read anything further, don't watch the trailers. Just go see Pig.

Posted Jul 23, 2021

2/5

Old (2021)

I can't see it working with audiences who've white-knuckled their way through what's come before.

Posted Jul 23, 2021

3/5

Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021)

I don't think it's too much to ask that - as with parody - a genre homage can function as a project on its own terms, rather than just re-creating its source material with new actors and more advanced visual effects...

Posted Jul 20, 2021

3/5

A Quiet Place Part II (2021)

Writer/director John Krasinski's sequel to his 2018 horror hit delivers more scares, near-misses and last-minute rescues. It's fine.

Posted Jul 16, 2021

4/5

Black Widow (2021)

Finally the hero of her own story, Scarlett Johansson knits together a decade of Natasha Romanoff's inconsistent characterization in a satisfying action thriller.

Posted Jul 9, 2021

2/5

The Forever Purge (2021)

Of all the high-concept horror movies that became indestructible franchises over the decades - your Halloweens, your Saws, your Children Of The Corns - the Purge series might be the strangest.

Posted Jul 2, 2021

4/5

The Tomorrow War (2021)

[The movie] somehow make us uncertain about how everything's going to work out. It takes real skill to pull that off these days, but The Tomorrow War does it. You'll see.

Posted Jul 2, 2021

3/5

F9 (2021)

Director Justin Lin makes a welcome return to the franchise he saved with Tokyo Drift... and he's brought some really big magnets.

Posted Jun 28, 2021

4/5

Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (2021)

One section recounting a trip to Ischia in which the two were vacationing with their long-term lovers calls out to be dramatized. If only the two were alive to do it justice.

Posted Jun 18, 2021

2/5

Luca (2021)

Luca is a delicate animated fantasy that seems afraid of its own metaphors.

Posted Jun 18, 2021

1/5

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

I'm sure their bank accounts, and not the devil, made them do it.

Posted Jun 4, 2021

4/5

This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2021)

Between the textures of Twala's aged but defiant face and the deep, contemplative landscapes behind her, I doubt you'll see more beautiful and awe-inspiring images this year.

Posted Jun 4, 2021

3/5

Undine (2020)