They movie review: the most important decision of their young life
Tender and contemplative, but as it meanders to its not-quite conclusion, it misses a ripe opportunity to give a stronger voice to a character the likes of which isn’t often heard.
drama
Beast movie review: a monstrous love
Electrifying and genre-busting, this romantic mystery thriller toys with our expectations and plays with ambiguity. Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn are mesmerizing separately and explosive together.
Sweet Country movie review: an essential confrontation with the ugly not-so-past past
As harshly beautiful as its landscape, this is a stark corrective to the American western it echoes, and a pragmatic confrontation with the deep, tenacious roots of modern racism.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society movie review: the stories too painful to tell
A wonderfully old-fashioned tearjerker, with a thoroughly delightful cast, where cosy quaint Englishness is leavened by a harsh reality of World War II that pop culture has ignored.
Every Day movie review: a slightly more challenging teen romance
It’s not as daring as its endearing protagonist, and its fantastical scenario plays out rather lifelessly. But its gentle exploration of the fluidity of human physical and emotional expression is very welcome.
Funny Cow movie review: standing up for herself
This is scorched-earth cinema that challenges us to find moments of grace and triumph among misery, cruelty, and emotional frugality. Maxine Peake is absolutely incendiary.
Beirut (aka The Negotiator) movie review: an American man finds absolution in the messy Middle East
A same-old story of a white man’s angst, set against the “exotic” backdrop of 1980s war-torn Beirut. This brand of Hollywood myopia is tired, uninteresting, and no longer acceptable.
The Titan movie review: bad science, worse science fiction
The science is ludicrous, the story is almost entirely free of drama, and the finale descends into the hoariest, most ridiculous clichés of the genre. But the future smart-house porn is lovely.
Custody (Jusqu’à la garde) movie review: family ties, slashered
Transforms a straightforward story of domestic violence into something like a horror movie, and it’s so harrowing and so incredibly tense that I’m not sure that it’s not exploitive.
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.
