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2017 theatrical releases

Darkest Hour movie review: a surrender to open-and-shut history

Fri, Jan 12, 2018
18 comments

A feature-length Oscar clip, two hours of Gary Oldman stomping around in a Winston Churchill suit. There’s too little drama and too much inevitability in what amounts to a reanimated Madame Tussaud’s waxwork scene.

| 18 Comments

Final Portrait movie review: the not-so-fine making of fine art

Wed, Jan 10, 2018
4 comments

A bleakly funny, genteelly twisted gloss on the clichés of temperamental creative genius, via the relationship between an artist and his subject, one that questions the sometimes high personal price of great art.

| 4 Comments

Call Me by Your Name movie review: met a boy cute as can be…

Tue, Jan 09, 2018
30 comments

You can feel the stillness and the heat of this sultry, sensual summer in Italy. This is a glorious romance about falling in love with life itself, and living with gusto.

| 30 Comments

Brad’s Status movie review: when a white man can’t bear not having all the privilege

Fri, Jan 05, 2018
no comments yet

Ben Stiller is having another midlife crisis, and only his sincere, heartfelt performance saves this pile of unchecked white male privilege from self-parody. But only just.

| Leave a comment

All the Money in the World movie review: cashed out

Tue, Jan 02, 2018
3 comments

The most interesting thing about this all-over-the-place drama-thriller is Ridley Scott’s last-minute Hail Mary pass to replace a disgraced cast member. The finale is tense and exciting, but it’s a slog to get there.

| 3 Comments

Molly’s Game movie review: absolutely aces

Fri, Dec 29, 2017
15 comments

Bold, tough, hugely entertaining. Like a new GoodFellas, except about a woman caught up in her own impudence and daring. Jessica Chastain is badass.

| 15 Comments

The Post movie review: printing truth to power

Fri, Dec 29, 2017
2 comments

Crackles with life and energy, depicting a grand adventure in journalism from almost half a century ago with vigor, suspense, and an urgent relevance for today.

| 2 Comments

Bright movie review: every little thing it does is the opposite of magic

Fri, Dec 22, 2017
142 comments

Trolls the viewer and condescends to genre fans. A smirking, tone-deaf parable about racism that is itself racist, including about its made-up orcs and elves.

| 142 Comments

Pitch Perfect 3 movie review: pitch, please…

Wed, Dec 20, 2017
6 comments

The slim charms of the previous movies have been tossed away in favor of cringe-inducing cattiness and a ridiculous plot. There’s barely even any music. Aca-palling.

| 6 Comments

Downsizing movie review: let’s get small (LFF 2017)

Wed, Dec 20, 2017
4 comments

Absolutely stupendous: smart, funny, poignant, a true original. A thrilling odyssey of ideas that takes its sci-fi concept to the very edges of extrapolation.

| 4 Comments
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