Scrapper movie review: girlhood interrupted
A singular portrait of a girl full of verve and personality. An astonishing feature debut from Charlotte Regan, with a film as cheeky and imaginative, as pleasantly messy and chaotic, as its heroine.
reviews
Oppenheimer movie review: a particle of concern, a wave of complicity
With human paradoxes at its nucleus, this is a riveting portrait, both intimate and epic, of the self-involved men who think they make the world go round… and too often, tragically, do.
Paris Memories (Revoir Paris) movie review: healing after horror
A deeply humane, delicately constructed journey through trauma and recovery that cuts like a knife and soothes like a hug, somehow, miraculously, managing both bundles of feeling at the same time.
Sympathy for the Devil movie review: schtick the landing
Rote cat-and-mouse thriller spins its wheels getting somewhere obvious, just so wild-eyed Nic Cage can cartoonishly Rage again. Look, the actor has found his schtick, and he’s sticking with it, okay?
Mavka: The Forest Song movie review: the dark of the woods comes too late
Traditional folk music and beautifully animated mythic motifs may be rightfully validating for homegrown Ukrainian audiences, but there’s little else beyond that novelty to capture others’ imagination.
What’s Love Got to Do with It? movie review: the boy next door, and a world away
Lily James and Shazad Latif? Delightful, even when they’re not together and sparking. No surprise where they’re going, but this amiable rom-com gets them there with genuine smarts and real sentiment.
Renfield movie review: it mostly sucks
Nicholas Hoult is lovely. Hammy Nicolas Cage is amusing. But everyone in this movie is in a different movie; the tonal mismatches are baffling. Was it the first draft of this script that was greenlit?
Rare Objects movie review: broken things, on the mend
It’s overstuffed and often jarring. But it’s also honest and unassuming, never insipid or sentimental, with a rough power, a generous spirit, and performances that are warm, wise, and perceptive.
The Pope’s Exorcist movie review: ham and cheese on why?
More of the same old religious-horror hoohah, plus Russell Crowe hamming it up, complete with terrible Italian accent. Its only twist on the usual exorcist-movie nonsense is genuinely pretty appalling.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline movie review: it means the earth to them
A heist drama, incendiary and intense, with planetary stakes. These young people are desperate, with nothing to lose, and everyone older than them made them this way. Nihilism is their only optimism.
