Movie Reviews

Shinobu Terajima stars in Oh Lucy! — a complex, comic, and dark character drama about cross-cultural exchange.

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In 'Oh Lucy!,' A Woman Leaps, Wig-First, Across A Cultural Divide

5:01pm March 01, 2018

by Andrew Lapin

In writer-director Atsuko Hirayanagi's movie, a depressed Tokyo office drone discovers an impulsive American persona when she takes an ESL course. The result is "quiet, and a little devastating."

A college professor (Stanley Tucci) develops an erotic fascination with a talented writing student (Addison Timlin) in Submission.

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In The Caustic 'Submission,' Stanley Tucci Is Small-Man-On-Campus

5:00pm March 01, 2018

by Ella Taylor

Based on the Francine Prose novel Blue Angel, this tale of a writing professor's affair with a precocious student is bound to "usefully ruffle feathers" by refusing to take sides.

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Spy Thriller 'Red Sparrow' Is A Long Slog With Minimal Suspense

2:09pm March 01, 2018

by David Edelstein

Jennifer Lawrence is unconvincing as the star of the Bolshoi Ballet in the espionage thriller Red Sparrow. Critic David Edelstein says the film features "one bad note after another."

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In Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? director Travis Wilkerson dissects an act of racial violence in his family's past — and the systemic racism that endures today.

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'Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun?': Filmmaker's Searing Indictment Of His Ancestor — And Himself

5:00pm February 27, 2018

by Scott Tobias

Director Travis Wilkerson's great-grandfather killed an unarmed black man in 1946 Alabama and got away with it. With self-lacerating fury, the film posits racial violence as a kind of erasure.

Drawing Connections Between 'Young Karl Marx' And 'The Cured'

4:24pm February 23, 2018

by Bob Mondello

What do a costume drama and a zombie flick have in common? Critic Bob Mondello sees a connection in empathy between The Young Karl Marx and The Cured.

In Mute, Alexander Skarsgård plays Leo, a mute bartender searching for his lost girlfriend. The film is Duncan Jones' return to the kind of moody Sci-Fi that marks his early work.

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'Mute' Is 'Blade Runner' Without An Edge

11:06am February 23, 2018

by Scott Tobias

Director Duncan Jones' latest film, a direct-to-Netflix sci-fi/noir tale set in a dystopian Berlin, so narrowly focuses on its hero's traumatic backstory it neglects its fantastic setting.

In Game Night, Annie (Rachel McAdams) and Max (Jason Bateman) spend a night as pawns in someone else's game.

Arts

'Game Night' Is Winning

5:39pm February 22, 2018

by Glen Weldon

A breezily charming cast, ceaseless jokes and a tightly constructed script keep this film about a gaming night gone bad from going wrong.

L to R: Jennifer Jason Leigh and Natalie Portman star in Annihilation.

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A Masterful Glimpse Of Humanity's Physical — And Emotional — 'Annihilation'

5:21pm February 22, 2018

by Andrew Lapin

Alex Garland's disquieting sci-fi/horror film isn't just a meditation on fatalism (but it is that), it's an "atom bomb of a movie, fiery and all-consuming and quite unnatural."

In November, Hans (Jörgen Liik) is the object of a village girl's desire. What unfolds is a dark and surreal love story with spirits, werewolves, plagues, and even the devil himself.

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Occult Forces (And Human Hearts) Stir In Darkly Gorgeous 'November'

5:00pm February 22, 2018

by Mark Jenkins

Set in a 19th-century Estonian village, writer-director Rainer Sarnet's fairy tale is filled with dark magic — and mesmerizing cinematography that's even darker.

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Tense, Moody 'Golden Exits' Finds Drama In Everyday Gossip And Betrayal

2:07pm February 21, 2018

by Justin Chang

Reviewer Justin Chang says "not much happens — and yet everything seems to be at stake" in Alex Ross Perry's film about six moderately unhappy Brooklynites and the visitor who interrupts their lives.

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