The Lost City of Z movie review: archaeology was his religion
An adventure of the intellect and of the heart with the real-life explorer who inspired Indiana Jones, one more about the journey than the destination.
reviews
Free Fire movie review: guns a-boring
A 90-minute shootout that never makes us care who lives and who dies. In attempting to send up a cinematic cliché, this only becomes a tedious example of same.
The Handmaiden movie review: the women pushing back against misogyny, thwarted by their own film
The intrigue, shifting alliances, and twisted revenge? Delicious, pulpy fun. The male-gazey soft-core porn that undermines the female protagonists? Not so much.
Fast & Furious 8 (aka The Fate of the Furious) movie review: notes from the critics’ ward
EMPs and nukular codes and cyber crap and submarines, oh my! “What does this have to do with us?” Michelle Rodriguez cries, and I’m like I know, right?
God Knows Where I Am documentary review: into her mind
A meditative, enormously sad, and sometimes angry-making portrait; provides a stark peek into a mind mentally ill yet remarkably confident and determined.
The Belko Experiment movie review: team-killing exercise
A one-note scenario that never ups the ante on itself, and never even bothers to use its extreme situation to send up office politics or corporate policies.
Going in Style movie review: pabulum and circuses
Bland, tasteless entertainmentstuff intended to neither move nor offend, and succeeds as such. A sad pile of unfunny nothing that falls painfully flat.
City of Tiny Lights movie review: mushy modern noir
Doesn’t hit all the noir tropes so much as it wrings all the gloomy joy from them, and the mystery is underwhelming and unmysterious, but still: Riz Ahmed.
Aftermath movie review: a series of unfortunate events
Deeply uninvolving, often weirdly stilted and amateurish, and emotionally inert, which is pretty unforgivable given its subject matter of grief and despair.
Their Finest movie review: keeping calm and carrying on making movies
Delightful dry and snarky satire on wartime propaganda, sharp feminist commentary, and a brilliant cast make this snappy historical dramedy a real corker.
