Search for 2021

The problem with The King’s Man isn’t that it’s a bad film (it isn’t) but an unnecessary one. To the extent that there was a worthwhile story to be told in this comic book-based universe, it was presented in Matthew Vaughn’s 2015 feature...

Lamb, the feature debut of Valdimar Johannsson, is the latest export from Iceland to indicate that movies from that corner of the world may not be the most palatable to mainstream American audiences. Johannson has had plenty of experience with...

For most of Land, Robin Wright is the only human onscreen, but it would be unfair to say she’s alone. In fact, there are times when the grandeur of the scenery – the Rockies in all their untamed glory – threatens to overwhelm not only th...

When it comes to historical epics from director Ridley Scott, you never quite know what you’re going to get. On the one hand, he has crafted such gripping, compelling films as the Oscar-winning Gladiator and the tragically overlooked Kingdom...

Last Night in Soho has a great hook and starts out looking like it’s going to do something compelling with that hook. Unfortunately, as is too often the case with promising horror films, this one devolves into a disappointing mess toward the...

I wish there were more movies like this. Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson’s most uplifting movie to-date, may give some viewers a flashback to the days when Cameron Crowe was at the height of his powers. It’s that kind of movie: sweet and ...

The biggest thing The Little Things has going for it is that it’s not a run-of-the-mill mystery/thriller. The most significant potential problem, especially with respect to mainstream acceptance, is the ambiguity of the resolution. Some view...

Although not much happens during the course of The Lost Daughter, the film’s tone exerts a powerful spell. A character study of a woman who’s neither as composed nor as affable as she initially seems, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut ex...

In the arena of American animated films, Pixar represents the Gold Standard and it has been thus since the arrival of Toy Story in 1995. Over that span of more than 25 years, the animation studio has been responsible for very few duds so, when...

As a portrait of a romance in the throes of disintegration, Malcolm & Marie offers a balanced and heartbreaking examination of why it’s never easy to assign “fault” when love goes sour. Malcolm (John David Washington) is a narcissist who...