The King’s Man buttons up a franchise bent on mayhemSo many directors seem either trapped in the comics-to-movies pipeline or burnt out by it. Plenty of filmmakers have directed game-changing, career-making superhero pictures (Tim Burton, Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon), only to step back after a less… Dec 22 21December 22, 2021Article at Polygon
A Coen brother goes solo, with help from Denzel and Shakespeare, in a striking MacbethOver the course of 18 feature films, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have jointly taken their place among the most visually and verbally distinctive working filmmakers in America. Their credits have not always been identical—on films before 2004, Joel… Dec 22 21December 22, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
Ben Affleck is the only thing remotely intoxicating about George Clooney’s The Tender BarWhat is it about attending Yale that makes people feel compelled to write entire memoirs explaining how they got there and what happened when they arrived? The Tender Bar, adapted from a memoir by J.R. Moehringer, is a somewhat less insufferable… Dec 15 21December 15, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
For a movie that turns giant monsters into pro wrestlers, Rumble isn’t much funWhat if massive monster battles weren’t apocalyptic orgies of destruction, like in the world of Godzilla Vs. Kong, and instead became a source of delight and fierce pride, like in the audience of Godzilla Vs. Kong? That’s the question behind Rumble,… Dec 13 21December 13, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
One of the overlooked gems of the year was a lean, nasty thriller starring Megan FoxWatch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our inscrutable whims. This week: One more time, we’re accounting for our sins of omission and looking back on the best movies of 2021… Dec 13 21December 13, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
West Side Story is not an old man's movieAbout a week after West Side Story is released in theaters nationwide on Friday, Steven Spielberg will celebrate his 75th birthday. Though he shot the film when he was "only" 72, there's nothing about Spielberg's musical that creaks like an old man's… Dec 09 21December 09, 2021Article at The Week
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence cope with disaster in the despairing satire Don’t Look UpNearly two years after the onset of a global pandemic, there have been plenty of films made in a post-COVID world, and a brave and/or foolhardy few have even addressed it directly. But Don’t Look Up is the highest-profile movie so far to feel like a… Dec 07 21December 07, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem can’t act around the Sorkinisms of Being The RicardosDoes Aaron Sorkin love the storied and colorful history of classic television, as implied by the earnest wonder of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip? Or does Aaron Sorkin actually just love telling audiences that a bunch of years ago, something really… Dec 07 21December 07, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
Diary Of A Wimpy KidAre the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid movies among the least auspicious ever to reach the Run The Series minimum of four installments? Even the Chipmunks, the standard-bearers of film franchises that embrace their audience limitations, actually have some… Dec 03 21December 03, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
The dreamy music video aesthetics of Licorice PizzaWhen Paul Thomas Anderson arrived on the Hollywood scene in the late 1990s, it was common for filmmakers to cut their teeth in the field of music videos. But while some of his contemporaries like David Fincher and Spike Jonze started in that world… Nov 25 21November 25, 2021Article at The Week
The new Resident Evil movie finally embraces horror, but it should be trashierVideo game fans are justified if they feel some trepidation over the new movie Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Not only are cinematic adaptations of beloved games notoriously disappointing, this new Resident Evil movie (based on the… Nov 24 21November 24, 2021Article at Polygon
The Humans' Impressive Cast Thrives in Dinner Table Horror/DramaThere aren’t that many Thanksgiving movies—at least not compared to the onslaught of Christmas movies that are churned out, replayed and effectively remade annually. Thanksgiving, with its minimal decorations and uncinematic rituals of eating and… Nov 19 21November 19, 2021Article at pastemagazine.com
Will Smith knows best as the father of Venus and Serena in King RichardRichard Williams (Will Smith) is obsessed with tennis. He doesn’t really play it, mind—he has some unspecified trouble with his feet, evidenced by his quietly lopsided gait, and he didn’t grow up with the sport, as he’s told almost every great player… Nov 16 21November 16, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
Kristen Stewart’s “Five Really Good Films,” ExaminedPowered by Reelgood Kristen Stewart made headlines recently when she told The Sunday Times that she’s only made “five really good films, out of 45 or 50.” Though she was primarily explaining that choosing projects can be, in her words, a “crapshoot,”… Nov 11 21November 11, 2021Article at Decider
Clifford The Big Red DogIt’s comforting to know that not every bit of intellectual property becomes bombastically overblown in the transition to movie screens (or fledgling streamers, as the case may be). In nearly 200 children’s books, bright red canine Clifford appears… Nov 07 21November 07, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
Rebecca Hall's Debut Passing Is a Well-Acted If Strained Literary AdaptationMost actors making their feature directorial debut tend to focus on, well, other actors—and it’s certainly the case that Passing, the feature debut for the wonderful actress Rebecca Hall, is attuned to the performers at its center. Hall, who can… Oct 25 21October 25, 2021Article at pastemagazine.com
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a dispiriting nostalgia exerciseCallie (Carrie Coon) doesn’t much look like the daughter of bespectacled, deadpan-voiced, poofy-haired scientist and erstwhile ghostbuster Egon Spengler, brought memorably to life by the late Harold Ramis, whose specter haunts the new movie… Oct 09 21October 09, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
Review: Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Is Spectacular — And Spectacularly UnderwhelmingThis review originally ran as part of our coverage of the 2021 2021 New York Film Festival.The Pitch: Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel Dune gets its second big-screen treatment. The first was a notorious misfire directed by David Lynch, who… Oct 07 21October 07, 2021Article at Consequence
Joaquin Phoenix Gets Avuncular for the Warm, Low-Key C’mon C’mon: ReviewThis review originally ran as part of our New York Film Festival coverage.The Pitch: Every five years or so, Mike Mills — not the one from R.E.M., though, confusingly, he is a music video director and graphic designer for some of their contemporaries… Oct 04 21October 04, 2021Article at Consequence
Lamb is as much a strange domestic drama as an A24 horror movieFor anyone who sees the successful indie studio A24 as an insufferably curated brand, with periodic issuances of “A24 horror” as their showpiece moneymakers, Lamb may look like unconscious self-parody—like a snoozy, less scary spinoff of The Witch,… Oct 04 21October 04, 2021Article at The A.V. Club
