“With ‘Dead & Beautiful,’ Verbeek foreshadows the inevitable clash between the progressive leaders of tomorrow and conservative vampires who seek blood. As new generations of wealth emerge, will the enlightened prioritize reality over their personas?”
“‘Like the very best of Wes Anderson, ‘The French Dispatch’ is large and contains multitudes.”
“The multifaceted, nuanced quality of music is vital to ‘Last Night in Soho,’ in which people aren’t so easily defined.”
“Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune: Part One’ is a worthy addition to the collection, besting the Lynch film in certain ways but still flummoxed and frustrated by the source material’s conversation-heavy downside.”
“Like its predecessor, ‘The Souvenir Part II’ is defined by its open spaces; the silences in conversation, the gap between ‘action’ and ‘cut,’ the clouds between the memory of how something happened, and the reality of it.”
“‘Halloween Kills’ may not be to everybody’s tastes, but there’s a reason for that ‘kills’ in the title, beyond attention-grabbing marketing. The word refers not just to Michael himself but the rot at the core of Haddonfield…”
“The ‘cinematic’ moviegoing experience is gradually taking shape once more, not just the notion of spectacle, but stimulation of the mind and conscience.”
“Holland and Sodaro are so effortlessly good together, their characters evoking the kind of visual contrast unforgettably rendered by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy…”
“‘The Medium’ is arguably the horror movie of the year, one that should be seen on the biggest screen possible.”
“‘Red Rocket’ is Baker’s strongest work to date, a film much smarter (and far funnier) than its provocative synopsis would suggest.”
“There is a general sense of otherworldliness that feels enrapturing in ‘Spencer,’ even if Larraín stumbles while addressing the heavier themes.”
“Despite a variety of shortcomings that encompass eye-rolling fan-service lollipops and unresolved narrative threads, there is much to savor in ‘The Many Saints of Newark.'”
“‘V/H/S/94’ is a thoroughly decent installment despite its relatively slight nature. It’s a film which invites the audience to have a lot of fun but keeps an air of spooky credibility intact…”
“Kilmer’s personal observations and insights are always engaging in ‘Val’ and occasionally yield details and particulars that allow viewers to peek behind the curtain of fame.”
“While ‘Cry Macho’ succeeds with the set-up character scenes, it fails with its overall execution.”
“The magic of Hadzihalilovic’s ‘Earwig’ comes in the form of its suggestion that viewers abandon their expectations and preconceptions about what cinema should be and what a story can be.”
“‘Kid 90’ is a story that could have used more unguarded introspection.”
“‘Sundown’ is in the curious position of being a step backwards, while at least not plumbing to the ideological depths of ‘New Order’ to quite the same extent.”
“‘Medusa’ is so overstuffed that it can’t find a way to tie its myriad conflicting tones together…”
“At just 20 years old, Luàna Bajrami has an assured artistic vision that makes ‘The Hill Where Lionesses Roar’ a stunning debut feature.”