Peterloo movie review: it’s a battle just to get through it
The saddest ever Regency cosplay. Behold, a tableaux of thespians who shall teach us about the Corn Laws! Well-intentioned this would-be epic may be, but it’s dull and dry as dirt.
based on fact
Bohemian Rhapsody movie review: dynamite with a laser beam
Rami Malek brings warmth, humor, and a down-to-earth humanity to the larger-than-life Freddie Mercury. But it is the power of Queen’s music — the rousing good cheer, its sheer rock ’n’ roll joy — that fills up this pure brash entertainment.
Beautiful Boy movie review: emotionally wrenching drug depiction (LFF 2018)
This portrait of drug addiction and its impact on a family may be Hollywood sleek and smooth, but its authenticity is in the empathy, in the lack of judgment. Steve Carell is absolutely heartbreaking.
First Man movie review: over the moon
Damian Chazelle finds a dreamlike reverie amidst rocket-powered mechanical brawn. As wonderfully, nerve-wrackingly exhausting as it is movingly intimate.
The Rider movie review: when the work that makes a man is taken away
An extraordinary semidocumentary drama, beautifully accomplished, about dignity, work, and masculinity. Heartbreaking and yet utterly unsentimental, this is one of the most important films of the year.
Memoir of War (La Douleur) movie review: woman on the homefront
Marguerite Duras’s semifictionalized memoir of psychological survival and emotional endurance in Paris during the Nazi occupation makes an uneasy, listless transition to the screen.
The Happy Prince movie review: in the gutter, looking at the stars
Writer, director, and star Rupert Everett’s labor of cinematic love, about the last years of Oscar Wilde, is a small wonder of contradictions: nightmarish yet sanguine, a bit sordid yet full of grace.
Borg vs McEnroe movie review: they get served
Excruciatingly suspenseful and unexpectedly moving portrait of the on-court rivalry between the two great tennis players… and the intriguing secret layer to the public dynamic between them.
Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero movie review: dogged soldier
In this centenary year of the end of World War I, this story of a real-life dog who served in the trenches is a gentle, engaging way to introduce kids to an essential piece of history.
Crowhurst movie review: the worse things that happen at sea
A little bit psychedelic, a little bit queasy, a little bit experimental, a lot existential, this is a jarring, visceral portrait of the around-the-world sailor in over his head.
