Out of Blue movie review: murder most muted
A limp noodle of a cinematic noir that drains Patricia Clarkson of her usual eccentric charisma. And where it aims for intriguingly oblique pseudoscientific philosophizing, it ends up merely obtuse.
mystery
Captain Marvel movie review: superpowered female SJW invites manbaby nerds to suck it
An indie ethos comes to the comic-book movie, upending the origin story and offering a female superhero who throws out the boys’ rule book, goes her own way, and stalks among us with easy confidence.
Everybody Knows (Todos lo saben) movie review: weak wedding whodunnit
Asghar Farhadi attempts to meld melodramatic mystery with his usual humanistic drama, but leaves little space for either impulse to be satisfied. Disappointing and strangely anticlimactic.
Serenity movie review: gonna need a bigger nope
Accidental hilarity turns ugly in this baffling exercise in genre-hopping that thinks it justifies its Hollywood-typical adolescent-boy attitudes about women, sex, violence, and morality. It does not.
Burning (Beoning) movie review: same old Mr Nice Guy
Oh hey it’s The Nice Guy’s Complaint done up arthouse style, meant to render male entitlement, unwarranted sexual jealousy, and personal ineffectualness as something deep and meaningful. It’s not.
Lost Child (aka Tatterdemalion) movie review: little devil? or little boy?
An extraordinarily delicate balancing act between drama and horror, visually and psychologically expansive, set in a place where stories of monsters are not mere entertaining fun, and where superstition is not harmless.
A Simple Favour movie review: suburban mom stumbles into mystery!
Witty, tense, and thrilling, but also cheerful, escapist, and fun, this is a perfect cinematic cozy mystery, kept on an even keel by the irresistibly charming Anna Kendrick. Merrily absurd pure entertainment.
Searching movie review: real virtuality
With smarts, warmth, and humanity, this mystery that unfurls entirely on computer screens becomes an ode to the new digital lives we are all leading, from how we use our devices to what they say about us.
The Happytime Murders movie review: schlock puppets
Ugly, sordid, and proud of it, with less than no justification. “Meet the Feebles meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit” conveys a far greater sense of dignity, cohesion, and purpose than this witness movie deserves.
Anon movie review: brings a whole new meaning to ‘private eye’
This sci-fi riff on the end of privacy is not as provocative as it would like to be, and its mystery completely falls apart in the end. But its visual worldbuilding is fascinating.
