Lost Girls movie review: and still unfound
Based-on-fact drama puts the focus where it rarely is onscreen: on women who are victims of male violence. Yet a terrific central performance and an abundance of empathy cannot overcome its clichés.
based on a book
The Call of the Wild movie review: a very good boi (mostly)
An old-fashioned kiddie adventure, sweetly earnest, equal parts scary, funny, exciting, sad, and happy, with only a bit of uncanny valley in its CGI doggo star. Definitely had something in my eye.
Emma. movie review: this queen bee has a bitter sting
A sly, penetrating zing and a frisson of Insta-influencer horror — of the oppression of performative perfection against a marzipan backdrop — renders Austen’s fluff and nonsense deadly serious.
Daniel Isn’t Real movie review: or is he?
Stylistically sophisticated and psychologically insightful, this is an exquisitely ambiguous and inventively disturbing mashup of body horror, demonic possession, and Lovecraftian science fiction.
The Rhythm Section movie review: out of tune
Poor Blake Lively does her de-glammed best in this poor Xerox of much better Turn The Urchin Into A Spy thrillers. But there isn’t a single human interaction in this hamfisted movie that rings true.
The Turning movie review: it’s screwed
Strips away the ambiguity of the source story to leave us with lazy jump scares, visual gloom, and a cheap cheat of an ending. Gaslights its protagonist and, incredibly enragingly, the viewer, too.
Color Out of Space movie review: pink elephant
Body-horror SF via Lovecraftian grotesquerie, with a now tedious rampage from Nic Cage. As if a man needs to be influenced by unfathomable aliens to turn to violence. I need more from my pulp fiction.
Just Mercy movie review: fighting the never-ending good fight
This true origin story of a literal social-justice warrior is earnest, passionate… and exhausting. We need to keep telling these stories, yet each is but another tiny drop of water in a rough ocean.
Little Women (2019) movie review: looking askance, with love, at a classic
A very welcome feminist interpretation of Alcott’s beloved novel, layered in sly, winking awareness of Hollywood clichés and the cultural pressures on women. Alive and electric, an absolute treasure.
Richard Jewell movie review: innocent man, guilty movie
Cluelessly simplistic rendering of a 1990s media injustice ignores all the context in which it happened and demonizes the one journalist who acted professionally. Fails even as a conservative screed.
