U.S. Release Date: 2021-11-19
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Profanity, Sexual Content)
Genre: Musical/Drama
Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, Vanessa Hudgens, Joshua Henry, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Judith Light, Bradley Whitford
The surprisingly intimate result is enjoyable in the moment but the mental footprint fades rather quickly.
U.S. Home Release Date: 2021-07-31
MPAA Rating: "R" (War Violence)
Genre: Documentary
Director: Peter Jackson
Cast: n/a
Peter Jackson’s assemblage of video and audio elements will likely be used for generations to come as the most accurate representation of what things were like.
U.S. Release Date: 2021-07-02
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence)
Genre: Science Fiction/Action
Director: Chris McKay
Cast: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, Jasmine Mathews, Edwin Hodge, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Mary Lynn Rajskub
Uses reliable science fiction/time travel/alien invasion tropes in ways that could be interesting but ultimately turn out to be regurgitations of stories we’ve seen before.
U.S. Home Release Date: 2021-08-03
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: Thriller
Director: Taylor Sheridan
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Finn Little, Aidan Gillen, Nicholas Hoult, Jon Bernthal, Medina Senghore, Jake Weber
Fundamentally, this is about the hunters and the hunted and, if you don’t look too deeply into the backstory, it works on that level.
U.S. Home Release Date: 2021-09-07
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Sexual Content)
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Nikole Beckwith
Cast: Ed Helms, Patti Harrison
Although not a romantic comedy (the central relationship is of a platonic nature), it has some of the rhythms one commonly associates with the genre.
U.S. Release Date: 2021-04-09
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Profanity, Cartoon Violence)
Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Ben Falcone
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer, Jason Bateman, Bobby Cannavale, Pom Klementieff, Melissa Leo, Taylor Mosby
Illustrates what happens when filmmakers take a moderately interesting premise and surround it with witless writing, cringe-inducing acting, stagnant action, humor-deprived comedy, and feckless drama.
U.S. Release Date: 2021-04-09
MPAA Rating: "NR" (Disaster Movie Scenes, Mild Gore)
Genre: Thriller
Director: Pal Oie
Cast: Thorbjorn Harr, Ylva Lyng Fuglerud, Lisa Carlehed, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Peter Forde, Daniel Alexander Skadal, Per Egil Aske, Silje Breivik
Although it might seem odd to call a disaster film “low-key,” the label applies in this case.
U.S. Release Date: 2020-10-16
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Violence, Drugs)
Genre: Drama
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Ben Shenkman, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mark Rylance, Danny Flaherty, Noah Robbins, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, John Carroll Lynch, Alex Sharp, Jeremy Strong, Sacha Baron Cohen, J.C. MacKenzie
The movie is both important in what it’s saying about freedom and democracy and enjoyable in its presentation of those themes.
U.S. Release Date: 2020-09-03
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: Science Fiction/Action
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Dimple Kapadia
Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been among a select group of “must see” releases during the summer of 2020. As things have turned out, it may be the only one.
U.S. Release Date: 2020-08-21
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Distrubing Content, Nude Images)
Genre: Drama
Director: Michael Almereyda
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Eve Hewson, Kyle MacLachlan, Jim Gaffigan, Josh Hamilton, Lucy Walters, David Kallaway, Donnie Keshawarz, Rebecca Dayan
More interested in applying non-standard cinematic tactics to enliven the facts rather than being enslaved by them.