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Weekend Film Reviews

666 episodes - English - Latest episode: 1 day ago - ★★★★ - 149 ratings

The best film reviewers in the business give you recommendations on what to see and what to skip each week.

TV & Film
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Episodes

The Skeleton Twins

September 13, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

Two luminaries of Saturday Night Live are reunited in The Skeleton Twins — Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. It’s hard to say if they give wonderful comic performances with a tragic dimension, or wonderful dramatic performances with a comic dimension.

If I Stay; The Trip in Italy

August 23, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

Joe Morgenstern reviews the new Chloe Grace Moretz film If I Stay, and the new comedy The Trip to Italy from Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

The Hundred-Foot Journey

August 09, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

For all of its gastronomic and cultural crosscurrents, The Hundred-Foot Journey boils down to comfort food.

Get On Up

August 02, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

Get On Up is about the transformative power of performance. James Brown was a performer of legendary gifts, immeasurable influence and almost infinitely renewable energy.

Lucy

July 26, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

Lucy doesn't keep track of its own logic, but it's gleefully bold, often funny, surprisingly concise, and 100% entertaining.

I Origins

July 19, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

I Origins, the second feature from director Mike Cahill, features intriguing characters, but the script lays out more highways and byways than a single movie could possibly navigate.

Boyhood

July 12, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

On rare occasions a movie seems to channel the flow of real life. Richard Linklater's Boyhood is one of those occasions.

Jersey Boys

June 21, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

In Clint Eastwood's film version of Jersey Boys, the first signs of trouble come in the opening scene...

How to Train Your Dragon 2

June 14, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a movie the world needs. This sequel is gleeful and smart, funny and serious...

The Fault in Our Stars

June 07, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

What can you say about a movie that brings two beautiful teens together in a cancer support group?

We Are the Best!

May 31, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

Disney's Maleficent and Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West are opening this week, but the significant event is a little independent film from Sweden.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

May 24, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

A film that's as remarkable for depth of feeling as it is for action....

Godzilla

May 17, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

The best film reviewers in the business give you recommendations on what to see and what to skip each week.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

May 03, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

This franchise needs more than a reset. It's ripe for retirement.

Locke

April 26, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

What makes the drama "Locke" so powerful is the quality of the writing.

Transcendence

April 19, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

A cautionary fantasy about artificial intelligence...

Only Lovers Left Alive

April 12, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

You don't have to be a fan if Jim Jarmusch's special brand of indie spookiness to enjoy his new film, "Only Lovers Left Alive."

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

April 05, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

With "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" Marvel has won a rebirth trifecta...

Noah

March 29, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" is a daring venture in mainstream entertainment, and it's pretty terrific for the most part.

Knight and Day; Restrepo

March 28, 2014 19:13 - 3 minutes

Knight & Day is a movie of thunderous comings and goings. The pretext for it all is a little battery that the hero has to keep out of the hands of the bad guys. We're told that the battery is "the first perpetual energy source since the sun..." Restrepo is a superb documentary by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Jugner. It's about American soldiers in one of Afghanistan's most dangerous areas, the Korengal Valley. The action is worlds away from the centers of power where generals and their pr...

Divergent

March 22, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

"Divergent" features a strong heroine battling for survival in a dystopian future.

Need for Speed

March 15, 2014 01:44 - 3 minutes

"Need for Speed" is nothing if not racy...

The Grand Budapest Hotel

March 08, 2014 02:44 - 3 minutes

Hardly a moment goes by in "The Grand Budapest Hotel" when there isn't something to make us smile...

Non-Stop

March 01, 2014 02:44 - 3 minutes

The suspense thriller "Non-Stop" plays a reliably old-fashioned game of finding the bad guy among 150 passengers and the crew.

In Secret; Barefoot

February 22, 2014 02:44 - 3 minutes

Joe Morgenstern warns movie-goers off two films opening this week.

Winter's Tale

February 15, 2014 02:44 - 3 minutes

One of my readers at the Wall Street Journal sent me an email: "Joe, Please tell me that "Winter's Tale" is a great movie befitting a wonderful book..."

Tim's Vermeer

February 01, 2014 02:44 - 3 minutes

The documentary "Tim's Vermeer" is a fascinating work about the porous border between technology and art.

Like Father, Like Son

January 25, 2014 02:44 - 3 minutes

Stories about babies switched at birth follow a familiar pattern in the era of DNA, but…

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

January 18, 2014 02:44 - 3 minutes

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is loosely based on the Tom Clancy canon...

Her

December 21, 2013 02:44 - 3 minutes

Spike Jonze offers a vision of our era's evolution in a blissfully inventive fantasy called "Her."

American Hustle

December 14, 2013 02:44 - 3 minutes

Ho, hum, another holiday season and another great movie from David O. Russell.

Inside Llewyn Davis

December 07, 2013 02:44 - 3 minutes

"Inside Llewyn Davis" is a wonder evocation of an important period in popular culture.

Frozen

November 30, 2013 02:44 - 3 minutes

Disney is at it again with a prince, a princess and a queen in "Frozen."

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

November 23, 2013 02:44 - 3 minutes

"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" is exceptional entertainment, a spectacle with a good mind and a pounding heart.

Nebraska

November 16, 2013 02:44 - 3 minutes

Nebraska, a classic road movie, is remarkable for its kindness and generosity…

The Armstrong Lie

November 09, 2013 02:44 - 3 minutes

Was iconic cyclist Lance Armstrong nothing more than a compulsive liar?

Dallas Buyers Club

November 02, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

"Dallas Buyers Club" is a showcase of fine performances, some of them distinguished by their restraint. 

The Counselor

October 26, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

"The Counselor" represents Cormac McCarthy's screenwriting debut...

12 Years A Slave

October 19, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

Movie audiences have never been presented with anything quite like the intertwined beauty and savagery of 12 Years A Slave...

Captain Phillips

October 12, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

The film is an exciting entertainment that makes us feel good about the outcome, and about the reach of American power, rather than its limits...

Gravity

October 05, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

In one form or another, motion pictures have been with us since the middle of the 19th century, but there's never been one like "Gravity."

Enough Said

September 28, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

"Enough Said" stakes a claim on our hearts before the first frame lights up the screen... 

The Best of the 2013 Telluride Film Festival

September 07, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

It was feast or feast at this year's 40th anniversary Telluride Film Festival, just one terrific movie after another...

Short Term 12

August 24, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

"Short Term 12" is a vividly intimate film, written and directed by Destin Cretton...

Cutie and the Boxer

August 17, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

Zachary Heinzerling's documentary gathers force slowly, but with such wisdom and calm mastery that...

The Spectacular Now

August 03, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

The Spectacular Now is a story of adolescents on the brink of adulthood is refreshingly unlike the overheated features that define the genre. 

The Conjuring; Blackfish

July 20, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

Joe considers two very different films this week: "The Conjuring," a saga of demonic possession, and the enthralling documentary, "Blackfish."

Fruitvale Station

July 13, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

Ryan Coogler's "Fruitvale Station" opens with a shaky cell phone video of a now-infamous event, the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant, a black unarmed 22-year-old...

The Way, Way Back

July 06, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

"The Way, Way Back" is a coming-of-age story...bursting with life -- and blissful silliness, along with sweet anguish...

White House Down

June 29, 2013 01:44 - 3 minutes

"White House Down" may or may not have certified Channing Tatum as an action hero, but it certainly displays his energy, bemuscled build and easy charm....