Movies
Published on December 3, 2021 - Page 18
Christmas is just around the corner and Paul Verhoeven has left a present for us during this hallowed season: A film with lesbian nuns, full-frontal...
Published on December 3, 2021 - Page 18
Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film, “The Hand of God,” is a catalog of wonders. The glittering night vista of the Naples harbor. The soft thump of a...
Published on December 3, 2021 - Page 18
Filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen was 15 when he encountered Amin (a pseudonym), who lived with a foster family and had come from Afghanistan. They...
Published on November 26, 2021 - Page 6
Everything in “House of Gucci” is over the top. The accents. The performances. The fashion. The settings. The runtime. The music. The greed. This...
Published on November 26, 2021 - Page 6
Mirabel is extraordinary in that when it comes to her family, she is totally normal. That’s the set-up for Disney’s absolutely charming new animated...
Published on November 26, 2021 - Page 6
It’s school picture day at a high school in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley in the opening scene of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1970s-set “...
Published on November 24, 2021 - Page 16
Stephen Karam’s “The Humans” is a film entirely comprised of one Thanksgiving meal. It’s based on a play written nearly a decade ago. Karam is...
Published on November 19, 2021 - Page 22
“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” — the direct cinematic follow-up to the 1984 classic — is haunted. But not in a good way. Director and co-writer Jason...
Published on November 19, 2021 - Page 22
We got “Beginners” because of Mike Mills’ father and “20th Century Women” because of his mother. Because of his child, we have “C’mon C’mon.” This...
Published on November 19, 2021 - Page 22
“King Richard” is the story of the father of tennis greats Venus Williams and Serena Williams when they were just talented kids from Compton trying...
Published on November 18, 2021 - Page 20
“Tick, Tick... BOOM!” is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s affectionate, well-crafted adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s “rock monologue.” It captures all that’s...
Published on November 18, 2021 - Page 20
Tracking shots of a solitary figure striding across a Western plain, seen from within the darkened interiors of a home, bookend Jane Campion’s “The...
Published on November 12, 2021 - Page 9
It’s not complicated. Kids love dogs. Dogs love kids. Despite obvious efforts to link the beloved and durable “Clifford” story, about a huge dog and...
Published on November 12, 2021 - Page 9
There’s a joke on Twitter about releasing the “all-Julia cut” of “Julie & Julia.” Nora Ephron’s generation-hopping tale of Julia Child’s rise and...
Published on November 12, 2021 - Page 9
If you didn’t know Kenneth Branagh’s new film “Belfast ” was based (somewhat) on his own childhood, you probably wouldn’t know it by the end either....
Published on November 5, 2021 - Page 18
“Eternals” actually swipes language from the Book of Genesis. The Marvel Cinematic Universe just got biblical. “Eternals” is the creation myth for...
Published on November 5, 2021 - Page 18
Tom Hanks doesn’t need a human or even a sentient acting partner to make a film or a scene sing. Think Wilson the volleyball, Hooch and even that...
Published on November 5, 2021 - Page 18
The casting, with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, is brilliant. The ending is sublime. So why is the rest of Pablo Larraín’s “Spencer” such a...
Published on October 29, 2021 - Page 20
One of the unlikeliest heroes to emerge from Zack Snyder’s horror-action flick “Army of the Dead” this year was an oddball safecracker named Dieter...
Published on October 29, 2021 - Page 20
There’s nothing quite like a decaying industrial town in the middle of a chilly, grey-skied fall to set an immediately gloomy mood in a film. Not...
Published on October 29, 2021 - Page 20
As Eloise Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) gleefully packs for London, her grandmother (Rita Tushingham) watches with trepidation. Eloise’s mother embarked...
Published on October 29, 2021 - Page 20
“Passing” is the hugely impressive directorial debut of actor Rebecca Hall. At its core, this film is about shades of gray. Motivations, desires and...
Published on October 22, 2021 - Page 19
A cool wind sweeps through the sands of “Dune,” Denis Villeneuve’s chilly, majestic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fiction novel. It’s...
Published on October 15, 2021 - Page 13
The poor folks of Haddonfield, Illinois, are having the worst and longest Halloween ever. It seems one movie wasn’t enough to contain Michael Myers’...
Published on October 15, 2021 - Page 13
On its surface, “The Last Duel” seems like a familiar slog. The film, directed by Ridley Scott, begins with all the expected medieval trappings:...
Published on October 8, 2021 - Page 19
Welcome back, Mr. Bond. This is your most important mission yet. The fate of the movie business depends on your success. The 25th James Bond...
Published on October 8, 2021 - Page 19
The outcome is right in the title. Yet “The Rescue,” about the harrowing 18-day ordeal in which 12 young soccer players and their coach were saved...
Published on October 8, 2021 - Page 19
The piercing traumas of school shootings in movies have seldom carried quite the right tone. Fran Kranz’s “Mass” is a sober and wrenching exception...
Published on October 1, 2021 - Page 15
When “The Sopranos” is brought up, it’s usually for that now-famous cut-to-black final scene in a crowded diner while Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin...
Published on October 1, 2021 - Page 15
“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” is best when it’s not trying to be a comic book movie. Director Andy Serkis, screenwriter Kelly Marcel and star/...