Search for 2018

Hunter Killer is not going to challenge Das Boot for the title of “best submarine warfare film of all time.” By tossing aside the reliable characteristics of the genre (claustrophobic atmosphere, sense of isolation, simmering tension), di...

Amy Schumer is a little like Woody Allen in one way – both actors use cinema as therapy, working through various personal neuroses in arguably the most public and visible manner possible. For Schumer, it’s about body image and personal emp...

Rarely is New York merely a setting in a movie. Whether big, bright, and garish or dark and dingy, the city more often serves as a background character. And, although the New York of a Woody Allen film couldn’t be more different than the one...

Sequels generally exist for one of two reasons: because there’s a creative, story-based purpose or because the earlier film made a ton of money. Like most of the Pixar sequels, Incredibles 2 has been brought to the screen because Disney saw ...

This is what horror has become in 2018: a jump-scare fest where things like suspense and slowly-building dread have been pushed to the side. Darkness passes for atmosphere and intensity is bypassed because it’s too strong for the all-importa...

With a running length of 30 or 40 minutes, Isle of Dogs might have been brilliant. Unfortunately, this concept, although suitable for a short, is too thin for a full animated feature. Wes Anderson’s sly humor, like the film, wears out its we...

What’s in a name? It would be disingenuous to assume that Nick Hornby was ignorant of the titillation value of calling something “Juliet, Naked.” However, to be clear, there’s nothing prurient about the movie. The title refers to a son...

The only thing that separates Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom from the lamentable Jurassic Park III is that the filmmakers of the newest sequel didn’t opt for cheap production values the way they did back in 2001. Both films feel tired an unin...

Spoilers abound! Beware if you care.It’s rare to find a film as discombobulated as Kin, a would-be franchise-starter that begins as a dysfunctional family drama, changes into a road movie, and concludes as a science fiction-tinged siege film...

Leave No Trace is one of the most moving motion pictures thus far of 2018 and it achieves its power without resorting to the overt manipulation favored by many movies. An atypical coming-of-age story, the film examines the relationship between...