Movie Reviews

Detective Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy) and private eye Phil Philips (Bill Barretta) investigate underhanded goings-on in The Happytime Murders

Arts

Raunchy But Thin 'The Happytime Murders' Isn't Deeply Felt

5:00pm August 23, 2018

by Scott Tobias

Unlike the more allegorical Meet the Feebles or Team America: World Police, this latest excuse to make jokes about puppet-sex isn't interested in doing anything more than make jokes about puppet-sex.

John Cho stars as a Silicon Valley widower whose 16-year-old daughter has disappeared in Searching.

A Desperate Father Goes 'Searching' For His Missing Daughter In A Taut New Film

1:56pm August 23, 2018

by Justin Chang

Searching takes the mundane details of a typical computer session — from video chats to browser windows — and spins them into a surprising, sometimes uncomfortably voyeuristic crime thriller.

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Mélanie Thierry is writer Marguerite Duras in Memoir of War.

Arts

Life — Or Something Like It — During Wartime: The Wrenching 'Memoir Of War'

5:18pm August 16, 2018

by Andrew Lapin

Mélanie Thierry's quietly devastating performance anchors this adaptation of Marguerite Duras' wartime memoir chronicling her life in a perpetual state of uncertainty over her husband's fate.

She's With The Headband: Annie (Rose Byrne) and reclusive singer-songwriter Tucker (Ethan Hawke) share a moment in Juliet, Naked.

Arts

An Aging Rocker, A Fawning Fanboy — And Thou: 'Juliet, Naked'

5:01pm August 16, 2018

by Mark Jenkins

In this beguiling, decidedly un-frothy adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel, Annie (Rose Byrne) exchanges emails with a singer-songwriter (Ethan Hawke) her inattentive boyfriend (Chris O'Dowd) reveres.

CIA officer James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) escorts Li Noor (Iko Uwais) in Mile 22.

Arts

Muddled Action Thriller 'Mile 22' Should Have Pulled Off At Mile 3 Or So

5:01pm August 16, 2018

by Chris Klimek

Mark Wahlberg plays a CIA operative trying to extricate a mysterious informant (Iko Uwais) from a fictional country in this disjointed film that underuses Uwais and overuses Wahlberg.

L to R: Jonah (Evan Rosado) draws while Ma (Sheila Vand) and Paps (Raul Castillo) drowse, in We the Animals.

Arts

When The Wild Rumpus Stops: 'We The Animals'

5:00pm August 16, 2018

by Bob Mondello

Documentarian Jeremiah Zagar's first feature film adapts Justin Torres' impressionistic autobiographical novel of boyhood; the dreamlike result is "intense, scary and ecstatically lyrical."

Arts

Satire, Soap Opera, Duty, Devotion: 'Crazy Rich Asians' Is A Movie Milestone

1:59pm August 15, 2018

by Justin Chang

The romantic comedy based on Kevin Kwan's 2013 novel has been saddled with cultural and commercial expectations. Critic Justin Chang was happy to find the film doesn't collapse under the weight.

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Detective Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) goes undercover, brother, in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman.

Arts

'BlacKkKlansman' Entertains, But Falls Short Of Lee's Best

5:00am August 13, 2018

by Justin Richmond

It's being hailed as Spike Lee's best film in years, but NPR's Justin Richmond says BlacKkKlansman breezes over its main character's inner conflicts and lets polemics get in the way of storytelling.

'Madeline's Madeline' Toys With Viewer's Perception Every Step Of The Way

4:18pm August 10, 2018

by Bob Mondello

In the film Madeline's Madeline, a teen acting student finds herself living the part she thought she was playing.

Arts

'BlacKkKlansman' Is A Blisteringly Funny, Urgent Story Of Race And Identity

2:29pm August 10, 2018

by Justin Chang

In 1979, a black police officer named Ron Stallworth successfully infiltrated a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Director Spike Lee presents his story with humor and honesty in BlacKkKlansman.

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