movie reviews
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‘Surge’ Film Review: Ben Whishaw’s Powerhouse Performance Bolsters Otherwise Flimsy Drama
This tale of one man’s mental breakdown in an uncaring city never gets too far below the surface
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‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ Film Review: Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand Play Shakespeare in the Dark
New York Film Festival 2021: Joel Coen’s brutally stark, nightmarish vision of “the Scottish play” features both dazzling performances and contemporary resonance
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‘The Auschwitz Report’ Film Review: Dark Drama Finds a New Side of the Holocaust to Explore
Peter Bebjak’s film starts in the camps, but also finds horror in Western bureaucracy that couldn’t accept what it heard
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‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Film Review: Broadway Musical Adaptation Sneaks Up on You
If you have a heart and any kind of tolerance for musicals, at some point you will probably surrender to Stephen Chbosky’s adaptation
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‘The Starling’ Film Review: Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd Have Wings Clipped by Conventional Drama
Kevin Kline co-stars in this predictable and familiar tale once featured on the Black List
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‘Wife of a Spy’ Film Review: Gripping Japanese Thriller Explores Married Couple Embroiled in Espionage
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s first period film is a tense, well-acted and clever spy drama with contemporary resonance regarding Japan’s imperial past
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‘Listening to Kenny G’ Film Review: Entertaining Documentary Won’t Make You Stop Hating the Guy
TIFF 2021: Penny Lane’s film lets Kenny G make a case for himself, but it also gives lots of screen time to people who can’t stand his music
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‘My Name Is Pauli Murray’ Film Review: Meet a Historical Trailblazer You May Have Never Heard Of
“RBG” directors explore life of the pioneering civil rights attorney who rebelled against mid-century limitations placed on race and gender
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‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’ Film Review: Teen-Drag Stage Musical Maintains Dazzle as a Movie
A star is born with Max Harwood’s absolutely fabulous yet thoroughly heartfelt turn as the unapologetic Jamie
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‘Prisoners of the Ghostland’ Film Review: Nicolas Cage Grimaces and Bears It Through Baffling Genre Mishmash
Working in English for the first time, Japanese auteur Sion Sono’s greatness gets lost in the translation
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‘Blue Bayou’ Film Review: Justin Chon’s Timely Immigration Story Slips From Lyrical to Overwrought
The family drama tackles important U.S. policy issues but gets undercut by the melodrama
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‘The Nowhere Inn’ Film Review: St. Vincent Meta-Documentary Becomes Tedious and Trite
Annie “St. Vincent” Clark and Carrie Brownstein play “themselves” in a concert film that isn’t a concert film, but isn’t much else, either
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‘Cry Macho’ Film Review: Clint Eastwood’s Latest Neo-Western Offers Less Grit, More Sentiment
The 91-year-old star-director eases his way into the uneven but heartfelt Mexico-set story of a grizzled ex-rodeo star and a troubled boy
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‘The Survivor’ Film Review: A Haunted Ben Foster Dominates Real-Life Drama
Toronto 2021: Barry Levinson most substantial film in years stars Foster as Holocaust survivor Harry Haft
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‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ Film Review: Jessica Chastain Applies Heart and Soul to Televangelist Biopic
Toronto 2021: Sympathetic (and not unfunny) look at Bakker scandals is also a rollicking tale of religious hypocrisy
