Weekend Film Reviews
660 episodes - English - Latest episode: 15 days ago - ★★★★ - 149 ratingsThe best film reviewers in the business give you recommendations on what to see and what to skip each week.
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Episodes
Star Quality That's Readily Detectable
September 26, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesMillie Bobby Brown was only 12 when she first played Eleven, the mysterious girl with psychokinetic powers, on the TV series "Stranger Things." Now she's all of 16 and starring as Sherlock Holmes's kid sister in "Enola Holmes." The mystery this time is how she carries the whole movie with nary a false note.
When Telluride Came To the Rose Bowl
September 19, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesAfter cancelling this year's Telluride Film Festival because of the pandemic, the festival set up shop for one night at a pop-up drive-in next to the Rose Bowl. Only one film was shown, but it was special, and beautiful--Chloé Zhao's "Nomadland."
What Are They Doing To Us?
September 12, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesA Netflix documentary, "The Social Dilemma," examines the myriad ways social media platforms hold our attention while they mine our minds for data and pollute them with news that ranges from trivial through questionable to flat-out counterfeit.
A Mobius Strip Of a Road Trip
September 05, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesCharlie Kaufman's "I'm Thinking of Ending It All" defies description but doesn't defeat it. The Netflix film starts with two people in a car on a road trip, then goes off on a trip of its own to explore matters of identity, relationships, projection (not the multiplex kind) and nothing less than the nature of reality. It can be exasperating, but also beautiful, a work of emotional impressionism with moments of rueful grace and startling images that evoke yearning.
In the Matter of Robin Williams's Death
August 29, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesA new documentary, "Robin's Wish," deals with the disease that took his life, but also celebrates his life, and his courage as his inner self came undone.
Heroism and Heartbreak
August 22, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutes"Desert One," a superb documentary by Barbara Kopple, examines the 1980 special forces mission launched secretly by President Jimmy Carter in an attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
Through a glass glibly
August 15, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesIn "Boys State," a documentary streaming on Apple TV+, 1,000 or so high school juniors come together in Texas for a week-long program in which they build their own state government and run for governor in mock elections. How they go about it inevitably reflects the state of participatory politics in supposedly adult America. It is not a pretty picture.
Rising from real ashes
August 01, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesRon Howard's "Rebuilding Paradise," a fine National Geographic documentary, reconstructs the 2018 wildfire that destroyed the town of Paradise in the foothills of Northern California. The film also has something to say, however indirectly, about our own rebuilding effort, once the pandemic is behind us, and about even greater challenges to come.
When the Nucleus Won't Hold
July 25, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutes"Radioactive," a biopic that starts to be about Marie Curie, can't resist a cause-and-effect survey of radiation that extends as far afield as Hiroshima, the Nevada Proving Ground and Chernobyl. But Rosamund Pike's vivid performance as the peerless scientist and two-time Nobel Prize winner comes close to redeeming the whole production.
Healing a soldier and his family
July 18, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesA Netflix documentary, "Father Soldier Son," spans almost a decade as it tracks a former platoon sergeant, gravely wounded in Afghanistan, and the two young sons who adore him.
A spectacle for the streaming domain in the time of the pandemic
July 11, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutes"Greyhound," with Tom Hanks as a destroyer captain during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II, brings an action adventure to home screens. But it also reminds us how much we've lost with the closing of theaters and their huge screens.
The Pain and Exquisite Joy of Performance
June 27, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutes"The Audition" stars the great German actress Nina Hoss as a violin teacher determined to turn a tender young student into a virtuoso.
When Not To Say No
June 20, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutes"Babyteeth" is a debut feature from Australia, and what a debut: Shannon Murphy, who's never done a full-length film before, directed from a screenplay by Rita Kalnejais. The genre is familiar, a lovely young girl with a disease that may kill her, but that's where the familiarity ends and a wonderfully unpredictable tragicomedy begins. The girl, Milla, is played by Eliza Scanlen, who was so radiant as Beth in Greta Gerwig's "Little Women." Toby Wallace is remarkable as Moses, the whacked-out...
A Movie Of and For the Moment
June 13, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesSpike Lee's "Da 5 Bloods," streaming on Netflix, is sprawling, enthralling and essential viewing. It comes on as an action adventure--a group of black Vietnam vets go back to Vietnam to find the remains of their squad leader and the gold bullion he helped them bury. But it's really about black lives--how much they matter, what blacks have endured in America's past and where they belong in its turbulent present.
The Pleasures and Perversities of Sisterhood
June 06, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutes"Shirley," a free-form fictional biopic about the writer Shirley Jackson, has two main settings: Bennington, Vermont, where, in the 1960s, her husband teaches English at Bennington College, and the turbulent landscape of Shirley's inner life, where she struggles with the same demons that populate her stories and books.
Projecting the future of the big screen
May 30, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesCan the theatrical experience survive? Movie theaters will reopen sometime soon, though not all of them, but the streaming revolution was changing viewing habits long before the pandemic, and has only gained force, and converts, since the coronavirus struck. Balancing the gains and losses is hard for a child of the movie palaces.
The End of the Line For a Decade-Long Trip
May 23, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesEvery few years since they joined forces to do "The Trip" in 2010, the English funnymen Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have done another installment--"The Trip To Italy" followed by "The Trip To Spain." The latest and final one, "The Trip To Greece," follows their formula of visiting photogenic spots, eating fancy meals and talking funny talk that includes spot-on celebrity impressions. After this there'll be no one to do Michael Caine except Michael Caine.
Spike Lee's love doc to New York
May 16, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesIn less than four minutes, on Super 8 film, Spike Lee has captured the pain and surreal stillness of New York's pandemic moment.
When a Nanny Needs A Friend
May 09, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutes"Saint Frances" is a feature debut for its director, Alex Thompson, and its writer, Kelly O'Sullivan, who also co-stars with a remarkable child actor named Ramona Edith Williams. They play, respectively, Bridget, a nanny, and Frances, the kid who changes the nanny's life. "Mary Poppins" it is not.
A Man and His Jacket
May 02, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutes"Deerskin" is a tale of murderous obsession and a deerskin jacket, though not in that order. The star is Jean Dujardin, who won an Oscar in 2012 for his buoyantly funny portrayal of George Valentin, a silent-film actor on the way down. Once again he's playing a Georges, with an 's' but without the buoyancy.
Circus of Books
April 25, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutes"Circus of Books," a new Netflix documentary, centers on an old West Hollywood landmark, the porn shop on the corner of La Jolla and Santa Monica Boulevard. But the center of the center is about prejudice, and how it can arise in the unlikeliest places.
Selah and the Spades
April 18, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesIn "Selah and the Spades," Tayarisha Poe's impressive debut feature, a tyrannical teen rules the prep-school roost.
Deliver us from tedium
April 11, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesAt a time when the luckier among us are having food, booze and even weed delivered to their doorsteps, movies about delivery services may be a fitting accompaniment. ("Deliverance" isn't one of them.)
A new genre: empty-space operas
April 04, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesLook outside your window these days and what you see is a sci-movie with silent streets devoid of life. Here are a few movies that have turned empty cities into art.
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution
March 28, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutes"Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution," evokes the history of a camp for disabled kids that flourished in the Catskills in the 1960s and 1970s. More than a camp, though, it was a seedbed for radical political action. The film streams on Netflix.
Streamers
March 21, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesWhat's a movie lover to do? No new openings because theaters are shutting down for the duration. But new releases are coming. It will just take a week or so before they find their way to video on demand. Meanwhile, a few ideas for streaming in the madness of our moment.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
March 14, 2020 01:44 - 3 minutesEliza Hittman's "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" is provocative--some might consider it explosive, since it follows a pregnant 17-year-old from rural Pennsylvania to New York City in search of a safe abortion she can't get at home. But it's also one of the most beautiful films I've seen in a long time, the odyssey of a lost child in poorly charted territory.
First Cow
March 07, 2020 02:44 - 3 minutesKelly Reichardt has endeared herself to fans of independent film with a string of heartfelt features shot on a modest scale. None of them has been as endearing, or as funny and wise, as her new one, "First Cow"
The Invisible Man
February 29, 2020 02:44 - 3 minutesAlmost 90 years ago "The Invisible Man" thrilled audiences with special effects they'd never seen. In the latest version of the story, the focus is on a visible and all-too-vulnerable woman who's either being chased by a vengeful ex she can't see or is suffering from florid delusions.
The Call of the Wild
February 22, 2020 02:44 - 3 minutesA new screen version of "The Call of the Wild" is calling to us; it's the Jack London story of a California dog named buck who goes native in the Yukon of the Gold Rush days. This time the dog is digital, which lends the film at least one distinction.
Beanpole
February 15, 2020 02:44 - 3 minutes"Beanpole" is a new Russian drama directed by the prodigiously gifted Kantemir Balogov. The setting is Leningrad during the first autumn after World War II, and it's a profound--and profoundly beautiful--tale of two women who've been traumatized by the war.
Birds of Prey
February 08, 2020 02:44 - 3 minutesThe Harley Quinn of "Suicide Squad" is back in "Birds of Prey," though with a difference, even though she's still played, with skill and zest, by Margot Robbie. In the earlier film, a torture chamber for actors and audiences alike, Harley was a flamboyantly brutal criminal, rather than an entertaining one. She's flamboyant in "Birds of Prey," but joyously so.
The Assistant
February 01, 2020 02:44 - 3 minutesKitty Green's "The Assistant" is audacious in a deadpan way, a #MeToo drama that comes on like an HR video illustrating the responsibilities of an entry-level job. The heroine, Jane (Julia Garner), is a junior assistant to the chairman of the company. His name is not Harvey Weinstein. In fact he's never named, or seen. This is a story of sexual abuse in which the predatory behavior, like the abuser, remains behind closed doors, but increasingly obvious to the decreasingly innocent assistant.
The Gentlemen
January 25, 2020 02:44 - 3 minutesGuy Ritchie is back, mostly for the better, in crime-caper mode with "The Gentlemen," a tale of criminal toughs and toffs in London trying to take down Matthew McConaughey's Mickey Pearson, an ex-pat American who's made a king's ransom growing marijuana in subterranean, tech-intensive farms under some of England's statelier homes.
Dolittle
January 18, 2020 02:44 - 3 minutes“Dolittle” is the latest in a long, undistinguished line of movies about the veterinarian who can talk to animals. It doesn’t speak well for the film that one of its only affecting moments involves a stick insect that doesn't seem to listen and has nothing to say.
The Rise of Skywalker
December 21, 2019 02:44 - 3 minutesLog line. The Star Wars party is over, or at least a significant part of it. Forty-two years after George Lucas put the saga in motion, the Skywalker trilogy has come to an end with "The Rise of Skywalker."
Uncut Gems
December 14, 2019 02:44 - 3 minutesEnergy flows from anxiety in "Uncut Gems." You may be exhausted but you'll never be bored by Adam Sandler's astonishing performance.
The Aeronauts
December 07, 2019 02:44 - 3 minutes"The Aeronauts" is in the Jules Verne vein of "Around the World In 80 Days," but on a slightly more modest scale. It's around and above London during a few hours with an intrepid pilot played by Felicity Jones and her scientist companion, who's played by Eddie Redmayne. Without giving away too much, I can tell you that the higher they go the colder they get.
Knives Out
November 30, 2019 02:44 - 3 minutesIt's tempting to say that "Knives Out" is the sort of movie they don't make any more, but they didn't make all that many way back when, because it's really hard to pull off a production of such startling quality. If there's a false note in it I must have been laughing or gasping when it sounded.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
November 23, 2019 02:44 - 3 minutesTom Hanks is Fred Rogers, the children's TV host in "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." The movie was made for grownups, of course, so sticky sweetness threatens at every turn. But the movie bets on goodness, and wins.
Ford v Ferrari
November 16, 2019 02:44 - 3 minutes - 3.37 MBMovies about car racing sound like operas scored entirely for bassos. "Ford v Ferrari" fills that bill, but it also has significant things to say on a variety of worthy subjects. It's a great spectacle with a resonant soul to go with its smarts.
Marriage Story
November 09, 2019 02:44 - 3 minutes - 3.28 MBEvery divorce story is a marriage story, but every movie about divorce is not on the level of Noah Baumbach's "Marriage Story." Marvelous performances, steel-trap writing that also manages to be heartfelt--it's a deeply affecting classic.
The Irishman
November 02, 2019 01:44 - 3 minutes - 3.29 MBHere's an all-points bulletin about Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman." It's a huge movie, made to be seen on big screens, but it's a Netflix production that will be playing in theaters, and not all that many of them, only for three weeks. See it if you can before this genuine epic shrinks down to the size of a streaming attraction.
Synonyms
October 26, 2019 01:44 - 3 minutes - 3.43 MBWords, words, words. "Synonyms," an Israeli film set in Paris, is all about them. For once, though, wordiness in a movie is a good thing, even a delightful thing.
The Lighthouse
October 19, 2019 01:44 - 3 minutes - 3.38 MBThree years ago Robert Eggers made his dark mark with a remarkable debut feature called "The Witch." Now he's back with "The Lighthouse," a horror fantasy in a dramatic and aesthetic class by itself.
Parasite
October 12, 2019 01:44 - 3 minutes - 3.11 MBThink about "Parasite" as a home-invasion story unlike any other. This funny, smart and genuinely profound social satire from Korea was directed by Bong Joon Ho, and it's one of the most original films in memory.
Joker
October 05, 2019 01:44 - 3 minutes - 3.46 MBIf you’re feeling insufficiently anxious in your life, “Joker” could be just the ticket. If not, look elsewhere to be entertained.
Judy
September 28, 2019 01:44 - 3 minutes - 3.26 MBRenée Zellwegger plays Judy Garland with heart-stopping brilliance in "Judy." It's a performance that no one could have predicted, not even on the basis of her bedazzling portrayal of Roxie Hart in "Chicago." She sets the film on fire every time she sings a Garland classic in her own voice.
Tigers Are Not Afraid
August 24, 2019 01:44 - 3 minutes - 3.4 MBIn the past few years there's been a very real invasion from Mexico--by remarkably gifted filmmakers. Now a woman named Issa López joins their ranks with an interesting horror film called "Tigers Are Not Afraid."
Aquarela
August 17, 2019 01:44 - 3 minutesA remarkable documentary called "Aquarela" is about water--really and truly about water and its effect on the planet. The film makes the stuff almost palpable, as no motion picture I've ever seen before.