XY Chelsea documentary review: the truth will out
Pensively melancholy, this jagged, humane portrait of US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning is a massive challenge to the notion of soldiering as a good way for a lost young person to find oneself.
female protagonist
Trial by Fire and My Days of Mercy movies review: two (rare) new dramas about the US death penalty
Two very different films, replete with emotionally engaging performances, examine the impact of the American death penalty from the large-scale legal and political to that of intimate personal grief.
Booksmart movie review: these kids today, with their academic overachievement and their niceness…
A rare treat: a perfect film. Smart, funny, wise, sparkling with wit both visually and in its snappy dialogue. A self-assured directorial debut from Olivia Wilde, confident and effortless. Pure joy.
Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé documentary review: Beychella inside and out
If you don’t get why Beyoncé is worshipped as a goddess, this glorious pop spectacle — part concert film, part myth-in-the-making — will fix that. Enormously entertaining, and absolutely landmark.
A Dog’s Journey movie review: Does the Dog Die? The Movie
Pure rerun of A Dog’s Purpose: Pooch Bailey returns again and again (again) in different bodies to love and serve his humans. A sappy tail, pleasantly daydreamy. I’m not crying you’re crying.
Long Shot movie review: not-so-radical romantic agenda
House of Cards as a satirical workplace comedy, with just a touch of rom-com thrown in to render it genuinely sweetly sexy. Theron and Rogen share palpable chemistry, both comic and romantic.
Bel Canto movie review: Stockholm syndrome, a love story
This tonal misfire never hits the notes of drama and romance it aims for with its ickily problematic terrorist-hostage relationships. Facile and uncomfortably implausible, emotionally and practically.
The Silence movie review: I have only the faintest of muted praise
Not a knockoff of that other quiet horror flick, though this familiar monster movie works hard to convince otherwise. But the terrific cast makes it worth a look, at least for Netflix subscribers.
Unicorn Store movie review: a fantastic beast
More movies like this, please: a piquant mix of whimsy and snark; an insistence that it’s not crazy to forge your own oddball path; an embrace of girly uncool. Bring on the weird, difficult women.
Greta movie review: twisted sisterhood
Complete nonsense, and not in a good way, with an enraging side dish of male undercutting of women’s friendships. For a movie to be both this ludicrous and this predictable is quite an achievement.
