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Searching (2018)
Twisty thrills also result in a climactic pileup, a resolution that strains credibility...with a dynamic leading performance by Cho, Chaganty manages an engaging popcorn suspense picture that also speaks to technology enabling and frustrating...
The Wife (2018)
The ultimate secret of the Castlemans’ marriage isn’t entirely convincing in Joan’s every rationale, but Close’s sheer force of acting makes it possible to believe in the character, at minimum in the emotional broad strokes.
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
By the film’s climax, a $40 million wedding, conspicuous consumerism has been glamorized beyond the point of no return, and the difference between romance and showmanship becomes, at least momentarily, irrelevant.
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Can be overtly funny in its absurdity. For the most part, however,
BlacKkKlansman
isn’t a comedy at all, but an earnest, vintage Spike Lee joint recounting history and projecting it onto our present.
Eighth Grade (2018)
With Fisher’s endearingly open face projecting every insecurity along the way, Kayla’s journey of baby-steps self-empowerment resonates.
Mission: Impossible—Fallout (2018)
Fallout
proves deliberately dizzying, not just with its oft-vertiginous action, but in its outrageous plotting, its deliriously absurd entanglements of double agents, double crosses, and just plain doubles...
The Equalizer 2 (2018)
Suggests intriguing questions about the moral and ethical imperatives of justice...answers these questions with an Old Testament zeal: evil must be smitten by self-appointed good men.
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)
This is the kind of lackluster animated movie at which you’ll lose count of how many times the characters randomly break into dance--and that’s in addition to the...not one but two dance parties incorporated into the plot.
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
A good time at the movies... If the first film felt more carefully laid out, the sequel succeeds in stoking some Pixar-style emotion in its family dynamics...
Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)
A straight procedural, consumed by its plot at the expense of thematic nuance. Nevertheless...a darkly compelling reminder of the multifaceted folly of our War on Drugs.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
In what starts to feel like a 'meta' running joke (or admission of creative exhaustion), the characters keep stumbling upon the leftovers of the earlier films...
Incredibles 2 (2018)
Plays it safe...another issue of the
Incredibles
comic book, another big-scale adventure with full-throttle action sequences, a bit of mystery, and career complications testing the structural integrity of this nuclear family of superheroes.
Ocean's Eight (2018)
Ross brings a reasonably sure hand and plenty of eye candy to this slick, glitzy fantasy, which is no more or less than an amiable, star-powered trifle.
First Reformed (2018)
It’s Schrader’s on-point filmmaking--a nouveau spin on the spiritual films, character studies, and transcendental style of cinematic Old Masters like Bergman and Bresson--that functions as what Toller calls 'another form of prayer.'
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Like estimations of how many parsecs it takes to make the Kessel Run, your mileage may vary when it comes to
Solo: A Star Wars Story
.
Life of the Party (2018)
Since
Life of the Party
shows little interest in investigating the satiric possibilities of the two-decade cultural gap in play, or a weirdly one-sided May-December romance, the movie wafts into disposable irrelevance long before the credits roll
The Rider (2018)
The Rider
acknowledges the tender side of masculinity, of brotherly love and supportive friendship, but also recognizes the damage men can inflict on themselves and others just by trying to be men.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
[Spoiler-free review:] Marvel’s superhero movies may not run the risk of being called 'elegant,' but they’re sure as hell sturdy, well-built popcorn flicks that send audiences out unequivocally satisfied.
Lean on Pete (2017)
The animal holds a mirror up to the human protagonist...how prone youth can be on the cusp of adulthood, how reckless when desperate or threatened, how vulnerably pure of heart.
You Were Never Really Here (2017)
Ramsay’s limber direction and another phenomenal leading performance by Joaquin Phoenix lend the material an aching sensitivity and an arrhythmic but persistent heartbeat.
A Quiet Place (2018)
There’s plenty...that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny and even more that feels conspicuously derivative. But tell that to your pants as you pee them.
Ready Player One (2018)
Conjures plenty of empty spectacle...but doesn’t underpin it with characters that move beyond the generic or, more crucially, the productively sharp satire that just maybe could have saved this ain’t-it-cool story from itself.
The Death of Stalin (2017)
Tales of the venal, the selfish, and the desperate, lurking--when not preening--in the halls of power.
Tomb Raider (2018)
One can see the wheels turning, literally and figuratively...
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Galumphing narrative and flatfooted whimsy...a downright awkward kiddie blockbuster.
Red Sparrow (2018)
A guy’s fantasy of an empowered woman’s story. She’s smart! She’s capable! She’s sexy! She’s nude! She’s degraded! Wait...
Game Night (2018)
Just manages to sustain its 'is it real or is it a game?' tension through to its climactic twists.
Black Panther (2018)
Boilerplate Marvel, with a sleek, colorful look, cheeky humor, and familiar action beats...But Coogler brings enough to the table for a fresh vision, broadly appealing as well as inspirational in its representation for black audiences and women.
Peter Rabbit (2018)
This Peter is...the Ferris Bueller of rabbits. As such, many will love him, and many will find his zany wisecracks, blatant selfishness, and borderline amorality repulsive.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
McDonagh’s admirable shading of ostensible heroes and villains backfires as character inconsistency...Nevertheless,
Three Billboards
wickedly entertains and provokes...
Hostiles (2017)
A contrived but effective parable of the American West, its painful legacy, and small measures of redemption...But our focus frustratingly remains on the white people and Blocker’s struggle to reach empathy...
Phantom Thread (2017)
Work[s] out some timely issues of the runaway male ego, the dubious excuse of great art for grotesque personality, and the shock and awe attendant to the select few who can see through genius and, for better or for worse, cut to the quick.
The Post (2017)
The heroic journalism depicted in
The
Post
could hardly be more timely, it’s true, but Spielberg’s take rarely achieves dramatic traction.
Molly's Game (2017)
Sorkin’s flair for whip-crack dialogue, structural shenanigans, and character chemistry remains a winningly shameless three-ring circus for the screen, and his thoroughly excellent ensemble help to distract from his infamous artifice.
All the Money in the World (2017)
Much in it is invented or misrepresented...more easily forgiveable if the film had any subtlety or depth, but this ain’t that kind of party: it’s a wannabe thriller that unnecessarily stretches its running time along with the truth.
Call Me by Your Name (2017)
Guadagnino has coaxed from his cast a film unmatched this year for lifelike rhythms and attention to human behavior.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
[SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:] Johnson sticks with the Star Wars house style and seems pleased to have the opportunity to inspire children with this story of overcoming inner conflict to become one’s best self, the key ingredient being hope.
The Disaster Artist (2017)
Like the hilariously inept melodrama of
The Room
itself, Tommy Wiseau offers Franco a gold mine of oddities.
Lady Bird (2017)
Lady Bird
’s unvarnished, unglamorized high-school drama has the quirky humor one expects from Gerwig...Ultimately, it’s a mother-daughter love story, replete with the tribulations of painful individuation.
Logan Lucky (2017)
Soderbergh’s here to have fun, and his mood is contagious.
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