Movie Reviews

HBO To Present Adaptation Of Broadway Hit 'David Byrne's American Utopia'

4:07pm October 16, 2020

by Eric Deggans

HBO will premiere on Saturday David Byrne's American Utopia, Spike Lee's adaptation of the hit Broadway show. It might be one of the best concert movies since Stop Making Sense more than 30 years ago.

'The Trial Of The Chicago 7' Is Passionate, Political — And Uncannily Pertinent

1:28pm October 15, 2020

by David Bianculli

Based on a trial from 1969, Aaron Sorkin's new Netflix film draws from actual transcripts — as well as a series of flashbacks to political unrest that took place in Chicago in the summer of 1968.

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HBO's David Byrne's American Utopia captures a live performance of Byrne's acclaimed Broadway show.

Arts

David Byrne And Spike Lee Conjure Up A Joyous Vision Of 'American Utopia'

2:52pm October 13, 2020

by John Powers

Lee's new film for HBO captures a live performance of Byrne's acclaimed Broadway show. David Byrne's American Utopia is a rousing blend of song, dance and revival meeting.

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Totally Under Control examines the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arts

'Totally Under Control' And 'Time' Are Two Very 2020 Documentaries

11:17am October 09, 2020

by Justin Chang

Two new movies reflect on the passage of time. One is an up-to-the-minute account of the Trump administration's response to COVID-19. The other follows a family impacted by long-term incarceration.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest ... you know what, never mind. I'm good." Michael (Jim Parsons) and Donald (Matt Bomer) in The Boys in the Band.

Arts

'The Boys In The Band': Raging Gracefully

5:02pm September 30, 2020

by Glen Weldon

Netflix's adaptation of Mart Crowley's 1968 play about a gay birthday party that goes off the rails features hard liquor, sharp tongues and broad types.

Filmmaker Radha Blank stars as a fictionalized version of herself in The Forty-Year-Old Version. The film, which began as a Web series, was inspired by Blank's own experience as a playwright and rapper in Harlem.

Arts

'The Forty-Year-Old Version' Is Fast, Funny, Multi-Faceted And No Small Feat

11:27am September 30, 2020

by Justin Chang

Radha Blank plays a fictionalized version of herself — a struggling artist from Harlem, who was hailed years earlier as a promising playwright. The film is gorgeously shot in black-and-white.

"The train's afoot!": (L to R) Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and Mycroft (Sam Claflin) literally look down on their younger sister Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) in Netflix's Enola Holmes.

Arts

In The Lively 'Enola Holmes,' Sherlock's Little Sister Goes Sleuthing

10:50am September 23, 2020

by Glen Weldon

This bright and breezy Netflix adaptation of a YA novel finds Millie Bobby Brown starring as the brilliant, fourth-wall-busting little sister of Sherlock Holmes.

Tom Holland plays Arvin, a young man who refuses to let evil go unpunished in The Devil All the Time.

Arts

Everyone's A Sinner In 'The Devil All The Time'

1:28pm September 18, 2020

by Justin Chang

The Netflix adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock's novel is grim in ways that can be both exciting and wearying: so many twists and betrayals, so many awful characters, so many horrific acts of violence.

Arts

Charlie Kaufman's 'I'm Thinking Of Ending Things' Is A Wildly Inventive Comic Thriller

2:08pm September 11, 2020

by Justin Chang

The relationship at the center of Kaufman's new Netflix film might not be long for the world, but the main characters are nevertheless awfully hard to get out of your mind.

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What Movies To Expect This Fall

4:27pm September 07, 2020

by Bob Mondello

NPR offers a selective preview of what Hollywood thinks it will be showing in cinemas this fall.