Observer

Uncle Frank is fated to become the green bean casserole of this holiday's film streaming options: designed to appeal to everyone, but destined to remain uneaten.

Posted Nov 27, 2020

Persona (1966)

Tom Milne

There are so many threads... in this extraordinary, tantalising film that it ts impossible to give precise directions: more perhaps than any other film in the history of the cinema, it is a treasure trove in which each must seek his own jewels.

Posted Nov 20, 2020

3/4

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)

The contained staginess of the movie comes off as welcome, intimate and, in the hands of these boldly empathetic performers, quite thrilling.

Posted Nov 20, 2020

3/4

Ammonite (2020)

Ammonite has moments of delicacy and beauty, but it's not a movie for everybody.

Posted Nov 13, 2020

2/4

Jungleland (2020)

Hope springs eternal, but the surfeit of challenges in this turkey are too numerous to surmount.

Posted Nov 13, 2020

2/4

Dreamland (2019)

Dreamland doesn't quite work, but [Robbie] deserves an A for effort.

Posted Nov 12, 2020

3.5/4

Let Him Go (2020)

Let Him Go wastes no time pulling you into an emotional grasp so compelling you can't believe what happens as the narrative moves from one shocking scene to the next in a pandemic of violence.

Posted Nov 10, 2020

3.5/4

Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

Eric Vilas-Boas

Underneath it all it's got an empathy and an urgency the first Borat seemed to lack, thanks to its focus and the family at its center. That's very nice.

Posted Nov 6, 2020

3.5/4

Mank (2020)

Amanda Seyfried imbues Davies with joy, intelligence and a steely compassion that goes a long way towards rescuing the screen star from the skewering she received in Kane.

Posted Nov 6, 2020

3.5/4

One Night in Miami (2020)

While the film proudly remains a chamber piece very much in keeping with its roots in the theater, King opens it up in ways that show an innate knack for visual storytelling.

Posted Oct 23, 2020

2/4

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

By reshaping this charged moment culled from somewhat recent American history in his own image, Sorkin has made The Trial of the Chicago 7 about something else entirely: himself.

Posted Oct 21, 2020

3.5/4

Totally Under Control (2020)

Zach Schonfeld

The resulting film conveys the dizzying sensation of chronicling history while it's still unfolding.

Posted Oct 21, 2020

What the Constitution Means to Me (2020)

David Cote

Heidi Schreck's fiercely urgent and soul-restoring What the Constitution Means to Me keeps uncannily in step with the times.

Posted Oct 19, 2020

Apples (Mila) (2020)

Siddhant Adlakha

Apples lays bare the struggles of losing some vital part of your soul. It shines an unusual spotlight on what it means to experience, what it means to capture and hold on to memories, and what it means to find your way back-to the world, and to yourself.

Posted Sep 23, 2020

2/4

The Nest (2020)

It looks like a horror movie, swims like a horror movie, and quacks like a horror movie, but it isn't a horror movie. So then what the hell is it?

Posted Sep 18, 2020

2.5/4

Enola Holmes (2020)

Enola Holmes isn't a revolution or revelation that is going to forever alter the course of cinema, but it is enough of a charming and cheerful change to give Netflix a new franchise.

Posted Sep 9, 2020

2/4

Mulan (2020)

She's the Chosen One-basically an East-Asian Harry Potter but instead of the Boy Who Lived she's the Girl Who Lived As A Boy For A Couple of Weeks.

Posted Sep 3, 2020

2.5/4

Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)

What the movie proves definitively is just what a durable vehicle screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon stumbled onto when they first created the Candide-like Valley metalheads as UCLA undergrads.

Posted Aug 27, 2020

3/4

Tenet (2020)

Emily Zemler

Nolan is the sort of filmmaker who captures our imaginations for what could be possible, which is something that feels important right now.

Posted Aug 21, 2020

2/4

The One and Only Ivan (2020)

A movie that runneth over with squandered talent...

Posted Aug 20, 2020

3/4

Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula (2020)

Rafael Motamayor

If you want a zombie movie to do more than remind you of the bleakness of the real world, the high-octane fun of Peninsula will carry you to the gates of Valhalla.

Posted Aug 18, 2020

3/4

An American Pickle (2020)

An American Pickle is not Rogen's best movie. That is and always will be Superbad. But, in its own ridiculous and crass way, it may very well be his most mature.

Posted Aug 3, 2020

2/4

The Rental (2020)

Had the writing been deft enough to properly germinate them, there are seeds of ideas about the toxicity of aspirational real estate and those that indifferently own it that could have possibly have flowered into something worth exploring.

Posted Jul 24, 2020

3/4

The Painted Bird (2020)

All of this unvarnished evil is depicted with haunting beauty and uncompromising artistry.

Posted Jul 17, 2020

2.5/4

Greyhound (2020)

Greyhound doesn't move you emotionally the same way a war film like Hanks' own Saving Private Ryan, but it does fulfill its purpose.

Posted Jul 9, 2020

3.5/4

Palm Springs (2020)

What it has to say about loneliness and finding purpose when our lives are stripped of impact and progression is quite profound and brims with urgency.

Posted Jul 9, 2020

3/4

The Truth (La vérité) (2020)

Kore-eda's film... is nonetheless a quiet, Gallic gift to these orphans in the dark who are forever sorting through old stories and new movies in an attempt to find beauty in both the truth and the lies.

Posted Jun 30, 2020

1/4

Irresistible (2020)

Irresistible takes the bloated piñata that is the corrupting influence of money in electoral politics and proceeds to beat it with a wet noodle.

Posted Jun 22, 2020

3.5/4

Da 5 Bloods (2020)

Da 5 Bloods sees Spike Lee continuing in his late-career tour as Mr. Lee, everyone's favorite radicalized and truth-telling AP U.S. history teacher.

Posted Jun 11, 2020

1.5/4

Artemis Fowl (2020)

Why Branagh has devoted his recent career to Disney's sanitized sandbox is a mystery, but the director can still flash from time to time.

Posted Jun 11, 2020

2.5/4

The King of Staten Island (2020)

Even for those who are keenly attuned to Davidson's limitations, there is a certain charm, not to mention hard-won truth that informs his sheepish honesty.

Posted Jun 9, 2020

3/4

Shirley (2020)

By the time Shirley draws to a close, you end up feeling pleasingly spent, like you just stayed up all night drinking a bottle of Canadian Club while discussing literary theory with a dear old confidant you hadn't seen in years.

Posted Jun 5, 2020

3.5/4

On the Record (2020)

Zach Schonfeld

The rare #MeToo documentary that grapples frankly with its accusers' uncertainty about coming forward.

Posted Jun 1, 2020

3.5/4

The High Note (2020)

The High Note is both a comic lark and a profoundly transporting cinema experience that comes at a time when such a thing has hardly ever felt less possible and more necessary.

Posted May 27, 2020

1.5/4

The Lovebirds (2020)

The humor is meant to derive from how out of place these two are in this seedy milieu, but it is difficult to have a fish out of water comedy when all you have is a couple of empty hooks.

Posted May 22, 2020

1/4

Inheritance (2020)

Inheritance may have been more successful if it had been willing to embrace its own strangeness. Instead, despite the bizarre set-up, there is a paint-by-numbers quality to the writing and the storytelling.

Posted May 18, 2020

2.5/4

Scoob! (2020)

The series' trademark blend of character comedy and absurdist sight gags is in full display, served up with just the proper amount of postmodern self-awareness that adds to the fun rather than detracts from it.

Posted May 15, 2020

2.5/4

Arkansas (2020)

No matter the size of the screen or the corniness of dialogue, Arkansas proves that strong acting from game performers can make even the most harebrained of endeavors brim with vitality and necessity.

Posted May 6, 2020

3/4

All Day and a Night (2020)

More than simply being a showcase for violence, what All Day and a Night presents with intimate and devastating authority are the sad rituals surrounding gun death and poverty that mark life for too many.

Posted Apr 30, 2020

3/4

Beastie Boys Story (2020)

Zach Schonfeld

[I]t's more like a memorial service that takes place months or years after the person's death, when the initial shock of their passing has subsided and friends are ready to laugh again about the good times they shared.

Posted Apr 24, 2020

3/4

True History of the Kelly Gang (2020)

Kurzel's film doesn't simply show us the shattered masculinity and class rage that fueled Kelly's infamous late 19th-century crime spree, it shoots that energy outward like sparks from a forge.

Posted Apr 24, 2020

1.5/4

Selah and the Spades (2020)

Selah and the Spades comes off as little more than a artfully rendered location and a cool concept that is desperately in search of a story to tell that's as compelling as its trappings.

Posted Apr 17, 2020

2/4

The Roads Not Taken (2020)

After an hour of this tedium, you stop worrying about where this disaster is going-or if it's going anywhere at all.

Posted Mar 14, 2020

2/4

Inside the Rain (2020)

A film about mental health issues needs a good script and a first-rate cast to sustain a viewer's interest, and this one has neither.

Posted Mar 13, 2020

2/4

The Postcard Killings (2020)

The problem is, there is no fun.

Posted Mar 13, 2020

3/4

The Way Back (2020)

The plot may be formulaic, but there's nothing predictable about Ben Affleck's commitment to the role of Jack, or the subtlety and sincerity with which he plays it.

Posted Mar 6, 2020

4/4

Hope Gap (2020)

Hope Gap is pithy, engaging, and insightful-the kind of movie we desperately need more of.

Posted Mar 6, 2020

0/4

Beneath Us (2020)

Everything you can think of goes wrong in this clueless farrago of tasteless stupidity and faulty timing, including a theme song, "My Little Corner of the World," sung repeatedly by-get a grip-Anita Bryant!

Posted Mar 5, 2020

2/4

The Banker (2020)