U.S. Release Date: 2020-12-25
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity)
Genre: Drama
Director: Regina King
Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr.
Although inconsistently paced, there’s enough compelling material here to make for a challenging and thought-provoking fly-on-the-wall’s perspective.
U.S. Release Date: 2021-01-07
MPAA Rating: "NR"
Genre: Documentary
Director: Bryan Fogel
Cast: Jamal Khashoggi, Mohammed Bin Salman, Hatice Cengiz, Omar Abdulaziz
Although there is a fair amount of regurgitation of the news story, "The Dissident" offers sufficient new material to justify its existence.
U.S. Release Date: 2021-02-12
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Adult Themes, Profanity)
Genre: Drama
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Cast: Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Will Patton, Yuh-jung Youn
Although the characters are “foreign,” they seem familiar.
U.S. Release Date: 2021-03-19
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Profanity, Brief Nudity)
Genre: Thriller
Director: Dominic Cooke
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Angus Wright, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley
A sometimes-riveting old-fashioned spy thriller that is occasionally reminiscent of the fictional works of John Le Carre and Len Deighton.
U.S. Release Date: 2021-04-30
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity)
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Ben Sharrock
Cast: Amir El-Masry, Vikash Bhai, Kais Nashif
What starts out as an exercise in absurdist and surreal comedy turns into a serious examination of the artificial boundaries that divide humanity in the name of nationalism.
U.S. Release Date: 2021-05-21
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Adult Themes)
Genre: Documentary
Director: Luke Holland
Cast: Karl Hollander, Otto-Ernst Duscheleit, Hans Werk, Marianne Chantelau, Klaus Kleinau, Heinrich Schulze, Herbert Fuchs, Karl-Heinz Rinne, Margarete Schwartz, Franz Spalek, Herman Knoth, Friedrich Eder
It’s the words of the men and women giving their “final account” that makes the movie sufficiently important to warrant viewing.
U.S. Release Date: 2021-05-28
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Gore)
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: John Krasinski
Cast: Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cillian Murphy, Djimon Hounsou, Scoot McNairy, John Krasinski, Dean Woodward
Krasinski makes the most out of the meager material - the story, limited though it may be, moves like a juggernaut, gaining momentum as it rolls downhill.
U.S. Release Date: 2020-04-03
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Profanity, Adult Themes)
Genre: Drama
Director: Eliza Hittman
Cast: Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Theodore Pellerin
Made with such care and focus on the particulars of the situation that one doesn’t have to agree with Hittman’s perspective to be moved by the film.
U.S. Release Date: 2020-07-03
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Profanity)
Genre: Musical/Drama
Director: Thomas Kail
Cast: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Christopher Jackson, Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff, Jasmine Cephas Jones
Provides nearly three hours of superior entertainment both for those who consider themselves devotees and those without previous viewing experience.
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.