Movie Reviews

Red Shoes, Brown Acid: Selva (Sofia Boutella) and her troupe have a bad night after their sangria is laced with LSD in Gaspar Noé's Climax.

Arts

When Dancers Trip: Gaspar Noé Stages A Visceral But Vacuous Freakout In 'Climax'

5:00pm February 28, 2019

by Mark Jenkins

A French dance troupe drinks sangria spiked with LSD and descends into carnal violence in a film that turns into "just another Noé freakout, familiar in tone and stylistic tics."

Arts

'Transit' Offers An Extraordinary Vision Of Nazi-Occupied France

1:30pm February 28, 2019

by Justin Chang

A new film by German director Christian Petzold is set in a suspended-in-time version of the present. Critic Justin Chang calls it "a piercingly sad lament for the lost and forgotten souls of Europe."

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Toothless Flies Into Theaters For 'How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World'

6:13pm February 21, 2019

by Bob Mondello

Hiccup and Toothless will return to theaters this weekend when the conclusion of the animated How To Train Your Dragon trilogy takes viewers to a hidden world.

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New Zealand, old tropes: Laura (Erana James) and Carmody Braque (Timothy Spall) look vaguely concerned in the thriller The Changeover.

Arts

Supernatural Thriller 'The Changeover' Doesn't Change Up Its Genre Cliches

5:00pm February 21, 2019

by Scott Tobias

An evocative setting and a chewily fun performance from Timothy Spall as a mysterious and malevolent figure can't keep this New Zealand film from trafficking in tired tropes.

Rapayet (José Acosta) and Zaida (Natalia Reyes) perform a public dance in Birds of Passage.

An Indigenous Community Is Drawn Into The Drug Trade In 'Birds Of Passage'

2:44pm February 15, 2019

by Justin Chang

An epic new film by Colombian director Ciro Guerra taps into the family versus business tension captured in great American mob sagas like The Godfather and The Sopranos.

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Jeremy Comte's live-action short film "Fauve" took home a Special Jury prize at Sundance. It's nominated now for an Oscar at the 91st Academy Awards.

Arts

More 2019 Short Film Oscar Nominees, Reviewed: Live-Action And Documentary

5:01pm February 14, 2019

by Andrew Lapin

Critic Andrew Lapin reviews the 10 short films nominated in the live-action and documentary categories this year, and offers his picks for both what will — and what should -- win.

Alita: Battle Angel leaves the Uncanny Valley behind to map the Uncanny Canyon. Eye-yi-yi.

Arts

Teenage Wasteland: 'Alita: Battle Angel' Doesn't Quite Earn Its Wings

5:01pm February 14, 2019

by Chris Klimek

Despite a surfeit of impressive talent behind and before the camera, and solid set-pieces, Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of a popular manga about a deadly teenage-ish robot feels thin, and dated.

Ki Joo-bong stars in Hotel By The River, the latest from South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo.

Arts

In A 'Hotel By The River,' Guests Contemplate Love, Death And Art

5:00pm February 14, 2019

by Mark Jenkins

The latest from South Korean director Hong Sang-soo explores his usual theme of existential regret. The film's complex structure leads its characters to simple, if revealing, insights.

Movie Review: 'The Gospel Of Eureka' And 'The Lego Movie 2'

5:41pm February 09, 2019

by Bob Mondello

Two movies about communities-in-conflict open in theaters this weekend, and though they come to basically the same conclusion, they could hardly be more different.

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Penélope Cruz stars as Laura and Javier Bardem as Paco in Asghar Farhadi's Everybody Knows.

Details Make The Difference In 'Everybody Knows' And 'Cold War'

1:41pm February 08, 2019

by John Powers

Cold War's richness comes from being steeped in detail. And it demonstrates what Everybody Knows does not: that the road to the universal begins with the specific.

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