The Young Folks

The Prodigy never seems to work, even on its own terms. But that's difficult to say, namely because it's nearly impossible to pin down for certain what those terms are.

Posted Feb 11, 2019

8/10

Braid (2019)

This is the chilling inauguration of a filmmaker with enough promise and poise to continue turn heads for years to come.

Posted Feb 11, 2019

8/10

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)

A pretty decent follow up to what was a fantastic original idea five years before, with really great new songs that you will definitely not get stuck in your head.

Posted Feb 11, 2019

3/10

Cold Pursuit (2019)

Jon Winkler

A failure on all fronts. It's not funny as a black comedy nor is it entertaining as an action movie. It feels like someone imitating Martin McDonagh and the Coen brothers without actually putting in dramatic payoff or punchlines.

Posted Feb 11, 2019

8/10

Honey Boy (2019)

Undoubtedly, this is Shia LaBeouf's greatest hour, period, because he controls his story and how it's told. Har'el makes sure the vision stays coherent, of course, always guiding us along a difficult journey that looser hands may have dropped.

Posted Feb 11, 2019

5/10

Mega Time Squad (2019)

As a movie, it ultimately disappoints with flat humor and a tired plot.

Posted Feb 11, 2019

5/10

What Men Want (2019)

Mae Abdulbaki

What Men Want is well-intentioned, but lacks the care and thoughtfulness in the handling of its subject matter.

Posted Feb 11, 2019

7/10

Then Came You (2019)

Grant Jonsson

Then Came You may be simple, and may seem rushed considering the subject matter, but it shows the progression of a great friendship amidst terrible tragedy with such heart and emotion it is hard not to fall for its charms.

Posted Feb 8, 2019

5/10

Miss Bala (2019)

Jon Espino

There is a clear difference between something that is complex and something that is just complicated, and the story in this Miss Bala is an over-complicated mess.

Posted Feb 6, 2019

5/10

Relive (2019)

The premise itself is a bit tired, but the time travel wizardry at least tries to bend some rules and give audiences a new prototype for films that blend newer technology with established movie magic.

Posted Feb 5, 2019

8/10

Mike Wallace Is Here (2019)

It's worth the effort to go back and research whatever you may have missed, but this is certainly a drawback for what is otherwise a wholly brilliant documentary in both style and function.

Posted Feb 5, 2019

7/10

Light From Light (2019)

Light from Light is not loud or energetic. It's not frightening. It's simple. It's quiet and patient.

Posted Feb 5, 2019

2/10

Arctic (2019)

Andrea Thompson

Arctic becomes an exercise in moralistic, idiotic sadism, with the woman he's paired up with coming off a plot device, an excuse to throw more obstacles in the way of a man who's too skilled to encounter many of them on his own.

Posted Feb 4, 2019

8/10

To the Stars (2019)

If not for a few tonal shifts toward the end that halt the progress of these characters, To the Stars could already be one of the best films of the year. For now, it's certainly one of my favorites.

Posted Feb 4, 2019

7/10

The Mustang (2019)

It wants the audience to wonder about the effects of rehabilitation, but also about how angry creatures of different shapes and sizes should be let out into the open, freed from either themselves or society.

Posted Feb 4, 2019

8/10

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

The polarizing message is just one piece of a larger, more grating experience considering the subject matter, but also one that demands to be studied and taken seriously.

Posted Feb 4, 2019

9/10

The Report (2019)

Adam Driver spends a lot of time yelling at people in government buildings during The Report. And yet, this dry, simplistic approach to a film based on true events is a great political thriller that dives deep into the CIA's torture.

Posted Feb 4, 2019

7/10

The Tomorrow Man (2019)

There are a few lofty ideas at play in The Tomorrow Man, but they fall short of the film's true selling point: the sweetness between a couple of friends who build a romance from the ground up.

Posted Feb 4, 2019

8/10

Share (2019)

What intrigues about Share is that it focuses on newer territory. The "I" of the assault.

Posted Feb 4, 2019

8/10

Fighting with My Family (2019)

For all its reliance on sports movie clichés, Fighting with My Family still manages to be fresh and original where it truly counts, and for a lot of viewers, that's going to make this one a real knockout.

Posted Feb 1, 2019

8/10

The Brink (2019)

The message of The Brink is clear from start to finish, and it couldn't be a more timely presentation.

Posted Feb 1, 2019

I Am Mother (2019)

For all that the film succeeds in when it comes to technical artistry, there's simply not enough story to convey the large, universal truths I Am Mother goes for.

Posted Jan 31, 2019

10/10

Moi, un Noir (1958)

...a stunning portrait not just of disaffected youth, but of a country struggling to define and improve itself in the shadow of Western imperialism.

Posted Jan 30, 2019

8/10

Little Monsters (2019)

Little Monsters could so easily drop into heavy-handed sentimentality but never does. It's clever humor and complete understanding of its premise allows it to balance those dramatic moments with the often times raunchy humor.

Posted Jan 29, 2019

9/10

Imperium (2016)

Andrea Thompson

This is the kind of movie that uses the tagline "inspired by real events" to its best advantage, and using it to craft a compelling narrative that eschews bright shiny things and dares to take us on a journey into the worst impulses of the human heart.

Posted Jan 28, 2019

6/10

The Standoff at Sparrow Creek (2019)

Jon Winkler

Dunham's script has nuggets of juicy twists with character reveals and developments in the whodunit case at the center of the story, but the line delivery is so rushed and practically whispered that some of the details might be lost in the scuffle.

Posted Jan 28, 2019

4/10

Serenity (2019)

Mae Abdulbaki

The film is slow to pick up the pace and, besides Hathaway's performance, which is a highlight, Serenity lacks any thrill, entertainment value, and sense.

Posted Jan 28, 2019

5/10

King of Thieves (2019)

To borrow the brand of crude, hand-holding humor that the film so readily indulges in, King of Thieves is too flaccid to get the job done.

Posted Jan 28, 2019

9/10

The Nightingale (2019)

Maybe The Nightingale didn't need every one of those scenes. But with them, Jennifer Kent creates a film not easily forgotten. Now, maybe we'll remember our history is ugly, and we won't repeat ourselves.

Posted Jan 28, 2019

6/10

Tale of the Sea (Hekayat-e Darya) (2018)

For each scene's impressive beauty and superb acting, there's precious little momentum keeping the whole together.

Posted Jan 26, 2019

7/10

Pig (2018)

Haghighi seems to take many cues from the Coen Brothers in his juggling of philosophical nihilism, veritable slapstick violence, and genre pastiche.

Posted Jan 26, 2019

7/10

I Want To Dance (Delam mikhad) (2018)

...once it finds its feet the film becomes strangely compelling and charming.

Posted Jan 26, 2019

8/10

Hendi & Hormoz (Hendi va hormoz) (2018)

Amini's eye towards the simple humanity of his subjects keeps the film from drowning in predictable clichés.

Posted Jan 26, 2019

8/10

76 Minutes and 15 Seconds With Abbas Kiarostami (2016)

Samadian shows us through actions just who [Abbas Kiarostami] was: a man of endless curiosity, gentle playfulness, yet bottomless emotional depths.

Posted Jan 26, 2019

4/10

Ashes in the Snow (2019)

In a tale that is at once overexplained and undercooked, there's almost no trace of recognizable humanity. So even when we are shown truly disturbing images, we are so far removed from them that they are stripped of any real emotive weight.

Posted Jan 22, 2019

7/10

Buffalo Boys (2019)

Preoccupied with pure, unabashed enjoyment, a decision that leads to its chief triumphs. It may not lead to any grand revelation about colonialism, but it certainly is a wild and electrifying journey.

Posted Jan 22, 2019

Adult Life Skills (2019)

AJ Caulfield

Familiar for its focus on a young person finding their way and still mostly enjoyable though too quirky for its own good, Adult Life Skills is neither a hit nor a miss.

Posted Jan 22, 2019

6/10

The Upside (2019)

Jon Winkler

It might be better fit for a TV movie of the week than something widely theatrical but there's still something satisfying in seeing it.

Posted Jan 14, 2019

8/10

The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)

Kids will recognize a film that takes their opinions on these topics seriously, which gives the adventure even more purpose beyond the standard formula of good vs. evil.

Posted Jan 14, 2019

4/10

Replicas (2019)

Grant Jonsson

If this story had been handled by any one of the filmmakers behind one of the other science fiction indie darlings of recent years, Replicas could have been made into something special.

Posted Jan 14, 2019

6/10

Genèse (2018)

Too many moments in "Genesis" come off as too deterministically 'by design' to achieve the aching loneliness Lesage so obviously wants to convey.

Posted Jan 7, 2019

5/10

Annabelle: Creation (2017)

Too fixated on the explosive and bombastic properties of shock horror to understand the kind of fear truly effective horror movies leave in their wake.

Posted Jan 7, 2019

10/10

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Stands as perhaps the greatest inquiry into the myth of the "Old West."

Posted Jan 7, 2019

4/10

The Student ((M)uchenik) (2017)

Ironically allows antireligious pedagogics and dogmas overtake [Kirill Serebrennikov's] story, itself a cautionary tale on the dangers of pedagogical and dogmatic thinking.

Posted Jan 7, 2019

8/10

Bad Lieutenant (1992)

The greatest New York City depiction of repentance in the deepest, darkest slums of the human soul since Scorsese's "Mean Streets."

Posted Jan 7, 2019

6/10

Train to Busan (Busanhaeng) (2016)

[It's] nothing we haven't seen before but Train to Busan takes a unique and surprisingly intimate spin on the high-octane zombie genre.

Posted Jan 7, 2019

7/10

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Using interpolated rotoscoping techniques Linklater manage[s] to capture a unique visual style for "A Scanner Darkly" just absurd enough to be comical and just human enough to be tragic.

Posted Jan 7, 2019

6/10

A Bigger Splash (2016)

[Luca Guadagnino's] cathartic visual style seems to fluctuate too loosely between complimenting his script's character nuances and shameless superficiality.

Posted Jan 7, 2019

9/10

Munich (2005)