Now In Theaters
Glass
Exploring the gray area between heroes and villains is a worthy pursuit, nobody is all altruistic or all evil all the time - yet this theme feels unfinished. So does the characters’ search for their place. Mr. Glass, specifically, seeks revenge upon the world which has told him time and again has no use for him. It’s a shame even a film with his name as the title couldn’t find room for him either.
Drama/Mystery/Sci-Fi - 129 Minutes
Exploring the gray area between heroes and villains is a worthy pursuit, nobody is all altruistic or all evil all the time - yet this theme feels unfinished. So does the characters’ search for their place. Mr. Glass, specifically, seeks revenge upon the world which has told him time and again has no use for him. It’s a shame even a film with his name as the title couldn’t find room for him either.
Drama/Mystery/Sci-Fi - 129 Minutes
Stan & Ollie
It’s bold to create a biopic not about the famous person’s rise, their peak, or even their comedy in this case. Stan & Ollie follows their gradual descent, more gravitational than graceful. A career’s worth of baggage provides enough material to chew on, but this is more nostalgic remembrance about another time rather than a celebration.
Biography/Comedy/Drama - 97 Minutes
It’s bold to create a biopic not about the famous person’s rise, their peak, or even their comedy in this case. Stan & Ollie follows their gradual descent, more gravitational than graceful. A career’s worth of baggage provides enough material to chew on, but this is more nostalgic remembrance about another time rather than a celebration.
Biography/Comedy/Drama - 97 Minutes
The Upside
Offers nothing unique to audiences looking to laugh or enjoy the hijinks between polar opposites, but there is just enough chemistry between Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart to keep the film from drowning. While this remake will soon fade into obscurity, it will be remembered for wasting Nicole Kidman's time and effort.
Comedy/Drama - 125 Minutes
Offers nothing unique to audiences looking to laugh or enjoy the hijinks between polar opposites, but there is just enough chemistry between Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart to keep the film from drowning. While this remake will soon fade into obscurity, it will be remembered for wasting Nicole Kidman's time and effort.
Comedy/Drama - 125 Minutes
Aquaman
James Wan acknowledges Aquaman is unlike his superhero peers, but he is in on the joke, and that gives him license to experiment and run wild with madcap ideas. Feel free to laugh at Aquaman; yell at the screen and treat it like the Rocky Aquatic Picture Show. - the director wants you to.
Action/Adventure/Fantasy - 143 Minutes
James Wan acknowledges Aquaman is unlike his superhero peers, but he is in on the joke, and that gives him license to experiment and run wild with madcap ideas. Feel free to laugh at Aquaman; yell at the screen and treat it like the Rocky Aquatic Picture Show. - the director wants you to.
Action/Adventure/Fantasy - 143 Minutes
Bumblebee
Travis Knight takes the story back to the '80s, an era when the Transformers fan base first fell in love with the Autobots, and fashions a Spielberg-type coming-of-age tale about a girl and her car. The audience, who believes they know better after five sensory-numbing spectacles, inch cautiously toward a Transformers franchise which has jilted them before, but earns back some respect.
Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi - 113 Minutes
Travis Knight takes the story back to the '80s, an era when the Transformers fan base first fell in love with the Autobots, and fashions a Spielberg-type coming-of-age tale about a girl and her car. The audience, who believes they know better after five sensory-numbing spectacles, inch cautiously toward a Transformers franchise which has jilted them before, but earns back some respect.
Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi - 113 Minutes
Mary Poppins Returns
More remake than sequel, Mary Poppins Returns does not usurp the original, but the check-in on Cherry Tree Lane feels a full order of magnitude lesser in majesty and material. Most audiences will appreciate a return to the world of nanny magic, but that feeling of less is actually less hovers nearby. However, there is something about that nanny…
Comedy/Family/Fantasy - 130 min
More remake than sequel, Mary Poppins Returns does not usurp the original, but the check-in on Cherry Tree Lane feels a full order of magnitude lesser in majesty and material. Most audiences will appreciate a return to the world of nanny magic, but that feeling of less is actually less hovers nearby. However, there is something about that nanny…
Comedy/Family/Fantasy - 130 min
Vox Lux
I understand some will walk out feeling Vox Lux is a mess of conflicting ideas and moods, but Brady Corbet offers an exciting metamorphosis from low to high; a boundary-pushing shift in time and character directors rarely attempt.
Drama/Music - 110 min
I understand some will walk out feeling Vox Lux is a mess of conflicting ideas and moods, but Brady Corbet offers an exciting metamorphosis from low to high; a boundary-pushing shift in time and character directors rarely attempt.
Drama/Music - 110 min
Ben Is Back
Peter Hedges found a creative way to explore how the opioid crisis destroys families every single day and for the first half of his film, he almost achieves it. Unfortunately, the second half transformation into a mystery thriller obscures the family drama momentum ensuring the film's impact misses the mark.
Drama - 103 Minutes
Peter Hedges found a creative way to explore how the opioid crisis destroys families every single day and for the first half of his film, he almost achieves it. Unfortunately, the second half transformation into a mystery thriller obscures the family drama momentum ensuring the film's impact misses the mark.
Drama - 103 Minutes
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
A human attempting to be an animal within the state of nature would confront a host of psychological pitfalls and is ripe for kids to engage with it. Too bad most of them will beg their parents to turn off the blood and guts before they reach those parts.
Adventure/Drama - 104 Minutes
A human attempting to be an animal within the state of nature would confront a host of psychological pitfalls and is ripe for kids to engage with it. Too bad most of them will beg their parents to turn off the blood and guts before they reach those parts.
Adventure/Drama - 104 Minutes
Roma
Writing a semi-autobiographical story about a nanny, the bourgeois family she tends to, and how Mexican politics, culture, and social mores impact all of them is Cuarón exploiting his personal story for cinematic gains. Roma hits hard, but in a unique case, the way it looks and feels hits harder than the plot advancing scenes in a year in the life of Cleo the nanny.
Drama - 135 Minutes
Writing a semi-autobiographical story about a nanny, the bourgeois family she tends to, and how Mexican politics, culture, and social mores impact all of them is Cuarón exploiting his personal story for cinematic gains. Roma hits hard, but in a unique case, the way it looks and feels hits harder than the plot advancing scenes in a year in the life of Cleo the nanny.
Drama - 135 Minutes
The Favourite
Hewing close to historical fact, yet leaving ample room for comedy and hints of tragedy, The Favourite mocks the absurdity of Queen Anne’s court, shatters the genteel façade of regal refinement, and offers three fully-developed, three-dimensional characters played with aplomb by powerhouse female performers. Lanthimos’s version of historical drama twisted by a devious screenplay and spiced with contemporary flourishes will placate both genre purists and those who relish in experimentation.
Biography/Comedy/Drama - 119 Minutes
Hewing close to historical fact, yet leaving ample room for comedy and hints of tragedy, The Favourite mocks the absurdity of Queen Anne’s court, shatters the genteel façade of regal refinement, and offers three fully-developed, three-dimensional characters played with aplomb by powerhouse female performers. Lanthimos’s version of historical drama twisted by a devious screenplay and spiced with contemporary flourishes will placate both genre purists and those who relish in experimentation.
Biography/Comedy/Drama - 119 Minutes
Creed II
The franchise wheel keeps on turning. Creed II holds up its end of the recycled Rocky IV bargain with an insecure Michael B. Jordon, engaging boxing matches, and iconic training montages, but nobody will blame you if you sit this one out knowing you already saw a perfectly adequate version back in ’85.
Drama/Sport - 130 Minutes
The franchise wheel keeps on turning. Creed II holds up its end of the recycled Rocky IV bargain with an insecure Michael B. Jordon, engaging boxing matches, and iconic training montages, but nobody will blame you if you sit this one out knowing you already saw a perfectly adequate version back in ’85.
Drama/Sport - 130 Minutes
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Imagine the nerve required to make your best character only one-sixth of your movie. The rest had better be good. It is! I do not claim all of the six short stories are as good as "Buster Scruggs", they are not, but they are all mesmerizing and delivered in that peculiar Coen brothers method. It’s not six Coen films for the price of one; it feels like six stories the brothers had to get out of them somehow.
Comedy/Drama/Musical - 132 Minutes
Imagine the nerve required to make your best character only one-sixth of your movie. The rest had better be good. It is! I do not claim all of the six short stories are as good as "Buster Scruggs", they are not, but they are all mesmerizing and delivered in that peculiar Coen brothers method. It’s not six Coen films for the price of one; it feels like six stories the brothers had to get out of them somehow.
Comedy/Drama/Musical - 132 Minutes
Green Book
Green Book is a light-hearted, odd couple, road trip movie with a few scenes displaying nauseating Deep South racism for tension. You’ll have a marvelous time in the movie theater, but the gut punch, that feeling you’ve just seen something you’ve never seen before, is missing.
Biography/Comedy/Drama - 130 Minutes
Green Book is a light-hearted, odd couple, road trip movie with a few scenes displaying nauseating Deep South racism for tension. You’ll have a marvelous time in the movie theater, but the gut punch, that feeling you’ve just seen something you’ve never seen before, is missing.
Biography/Comedy/Drama - 130 Minutes
Boy Erased
Joel Edgerton's adaptation of a gut-wrenching real-life memoir about a kid forced to 'pray the gay away' because his parents declare divine providence says he's on his way to hell through this learned homosexual behavior is a stark reminder we are not all on the same page in this country regarding sexuality. "Dog help us all."
Biography/Drama - 114 Minutes
Joel Edgerton's adaptation of a gut-wrenching real-life memoir about a kid forced to 'pray the gay away' because his parents declare divine providence says he's on his way to hell through this learned homosexual behavior is a stark reminder we are not all on the same page in this country regarding sexuality. "Dog help us all."
Biography/Drama - 114 Minutes
Burning
Burning is not political, nor is it a true mystery or dramatic unrequited romance; it is contemporary Korea through the eyes of a 'have not' as he stares in befuddlement at the Jay Gatsbys buzzing around him. Director Chang-dong Lee creates a mesmerizing, metaphor-laden story by way of Murakami and Faulkner, a most impressive lineage.
Drama/Mystery - 148 Minutes
Burning is not political, nor is it a true mystery or dramatic unrequited romance; it is contemporary Korea through the eyes of a 'have not' as he stares in befuddlement at the Jay Gatsbys buzzing around him. Director Chang-dong Lee creates a mesmerizing, metaphor-laden story by way of Murakami and Faulkner, a most impressive lineage.
Drama/Mystery - 148 Minutes
Bohemian Rhapsody
Freddie Mercury may have broken the mold, but his biopic does not. Rhapsody is far more engaging when it’s about the music, about how the eponymous tune came to be, about how We Will Rock you figured out its foot stomps and claps. When it comes to band dynamics, their ups and downs, Freddie’s ego, and Freddie’s sexuality, the film comes off as cookie cutter and episodic. We’re here for the tunes, not the facts.
Biography/Drama/Music - 134 Minutes
Freddie Mercury may have broken the mold, but his biopic does not. Rhapsody is far more engaging when it’s about the music, about how the eponymous tune came to be, about how We Will Rock you figured out its foot stomps and claps. When it comes to band dynamics, their ups and downs, Freddie’s ego, and Freddie’s sexuality, the film comes off as cookie cutter and episodic. We’re here for the tunes, not the facts.
Biography/Drama/Music - 134 Minutes
Now On DVD
