Movie Reviews

Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa chronicles the rise and fall of democracy in Brazil from 1985 to the present in The Edge of Democracy.

Arts

'The Edge Of Democracy' Offers An Intimate Look At Brazilian Politics In Flux

5:01pm June 20, 2019

by Ela Bittencourt

Petra Costa's urgent, engrossing documentary mixes memoir and reportage, raising more questions than it manages to answer about the past, present and future state of Brazilian democracy.

The work and impact of iconic writer Toni Morrison is surveyed in a new documentary directed by filmmaker and portrait photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

Arts

'Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am': A Defiant Tour Of A Beloved Author's Life, Work

5:00pm June 20, 2019

by Andrew Lapin

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' discursive documentary features Morrison addressing the camera and dispensing earned wisdom and zingers by the bushel.

In the fourth installment of the Toy Story franchise, Bonnie comes home from kindergarten with Forky, a plastic fork with googly eyes and pipe cleaner hands voiced by Tony Hale. Sheriff Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) has aged into an avuncular figure.

Arts

To Infinity And ... Be Done: After 4 Films, Have We Finally Outgrown 'Toy Story'?

1:09pm June 19, 2019

by Justin Chang

Though it's as dazzling as you'd expect from a Pixar animation, Toy Story 4 is also more ungainly than its predecessors, with coarser humor and audacious plot leaps that don't always pay off.

Crime fighting is a family business in Shaft, the newest iteration of the 1971 film of the same name starring Jessie T. Usher, Samuel L. Jackson and Richard Roundtree.

Arts

In 'Shaft,' The Sex Machine Grinds Its Gears

5:01pm June 13, 2019

by Chris Klimek

The sequel to the sequel to the classic 1971 blaxploitation film is fueled by gay-panic jokes and poorly staged, violence-is-the-answer set pieces.

Neuralyze This: Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth team up as Agents M and H in the fourth installment of the Men in Black series.

Arts

Erase The Awful 'Men In Black: International' From Your Mind

5:00pm June 13, 2019

by Scott Tobias

The not-so-stealthy reboot of the sci-fi/comedy franchise skimps on comedy to focus on world-building, an overplotted story and set dressing.

Bill Murray, Chloë Sevigny, and Adam Driver are among the all-star cast in writer/director Jim Jarmusch's The Dead Don't Die.

Arts

'The Dead Don't Die' In Jarmusch's Latest, But Your Patience Will

5:00pm June 13, 2019

by Andrew Lapin

In Jim Jarmusch's archly pessimistic zombie comedy, characters repeat the same gags and prove humanity isn't worth saving. Sound like fun?

Emma Thompson plays Katherine, who is usually not this happy in Late Night.

Arts

'Late Night' Doesn't Quite Dazzle, But It Digs In

5:00pm June 13, 2019

by Linda Holmes

Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson star in the story of a young comedy writer and the legendary host she idolizes.

Arts

'Last Black Man In San Francisco' Reveals A Longing For Home In A Changing City

1:18pm June 13, 2019

by Justin Chang

Jimmie Fails plays a man who continues to visit the old Victorian house he grew up in — even though his family no longer owns it — in this comic fable about the toll of gentrification.

Queue Listen Now

Marcus Strickland, left, and Wayne Shorter, as seen in the documentary Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes.

New Documentary 'Blue Note: Beyond The Notes' Surpasses Its Purpose

9:00am June 13, 2019

by Nate Chinen

A new documentary, part of the label's 80th anniversary celebrations, transcends the promotional reasons behind its creation... more or less.

Bob Dylan, photographed in his Rolling Thunder Revue face paint.

To Capture Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, Martin Scorsese Had To Get Weird

10:00pm June 10, 2019

by Ann Powers

In trying to unpack one of the a stranger periods of Bob Dylan's strange life, Scorsese had to meet the bard on his home turf of half-truths and obfuscation.