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Rollerball

“The nation state as we know it has fallen and there is only the mega-corporation that controls everything from entertainment to the political sphere. No, I’m not providing a generalized summary of Ned Beatty’s blistering monologue in Network, although the 70s had an eerily prescient vision of wh” read more

Dark Star

“Dan O’Bannon sure does love to reconfigure space travelers as truckers just doing their job. He gained cinematic immortality by taking that concept and grafting it to a haunted house in space structure in Alien, one of the 70s best science-fiction films from a decade filled with great science-fict” read more

Westworld

“The enduring appeal of Westworld can be summarized as thus: murderous cowboy robots. Does this ignore the other virtues that power Westworld? Yes, and I fully admit that it’s a bit of an opening joke to get things going.   Truth be told, Westworld endures because it’s fascinating, engaging, a” read more

Soylent Green

“When discussing his reaction to the film version of his book Make Room! Make Room!, author Harry Harrison described it as such: “murder and chase sequences [and] the ‘furniture’ girls are not what the film is about – and are completely irrelevant” and mentioned being only fifty percent sat” read more

The Omega Man

“Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend is a book that is nearly ready made for film adaptation. One that has been adapted three times, this is probably the most famous, and each somehow swinging and missing. The Omega Man makes the fatal mistake of requesting that the audience invest in Charlton Heston as” read more

No Blade of Grass

““It came from a brilliant book, but Cornel Wilde, God rest his soul, I don't think he did it justice when it came to the screenplay. He seemed to go over the top and get some bits of egg on his face.” – Wendy Richard   Cornel Wilde’s view of a global pandemic, this one a virus that dest” read more

The Two Popes

“A hagiographic portrait of the current pope that plays like something off PBS’ Great Performances, The Two Popes mistakes unnecessarily, often incongruous, camera flourishes with visual interest. The best argument for this movie is watching Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins deliver incredibly str” read more

Marriage Story

“There’s something of a tone problem with Marriage Story. Occupying a space that is nominally within raw melodrama, Marriage Story details a he said/she said back-and-forth that occasionally wanders into quirky comedy territory. It does eventually stick the landing but getting to that complicated e” read more

I Lost My Body

“I Lost My Body is an animated European art film if I’ve ever seen one. Is it good or bad? I’m not entirely sure, but it is very French. Literalizing the main character’s emotional disconnection by crafting the story from his disembodied hand, I Lost My Body is all about its main character’s ” read more

Toy Story 4

“Toy Story 4’s announcement was met with trepidation on my part. The prior trilogy of films was as perfect as a franchise could get, including a closure that recalled the very beginning. How many other trilogies managed to be successful picking up after so prolonged a breather? Disney/Pixar risked ” read more

Pain and Glory

“The aging director at the center of Pain and Glory may call himself Salvador Mallo, but one glance at the giant silhouette on the poster lets you know it’s really Pedro Almodóvar. Crafting one of his most personal and autobiographical works, Almodóvar reveals more of where his provocative worldv” read more

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

“Last year’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? was my introduction to Marielle Heller, and you can consider me a fan after the one-two punch of that movie and this one. She brings an eye that is both resolved and empathetic to stories that could easily transition into treacle in anyone else’s hands. After” read more

Harriet

“The only known portraits of Harriet Tubman are that of her in steely resolve in her old age, and they provide only a small glimpse of a towering figure. But this movie is not quite the addendum or correction to that incomplete vision. Not by a long shot.   Harriet removes Tubman’s numerous achi” read more

Missing Link

“Laika continues to create highly impressive visual worlds in Missing Link, but their elaborate dioramas feel incomplete this time around. There’s a great idea, likable characters, but a general sense of the various parts not quite coming together as they should. This is the weakest effort from the” read more

Picture This Live

“Crashing together bits of two shows recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour, Picture This Live was released to coincide with EMI’s 100th anniversary and shortly before the band released their comeback album. Eventually, it was rereleased under the name Blondie Live: Philadelphia 1978/Dallas 1980” read more

Blonde and Beyond

“Not a greatest hits compilation, not quite a rarities collection, but a weird hybrid of the two with various lesser-known singles (“Picture This”) and album-only tracks (“English Boys”) thrown in for good measure. Blonde and Beyond exists in a strange nebulous zone that is not quite the test” read more

Ford v Ferrari

“If you like cars or movies that are clearly aimed for the dads in the audience, then Ford v Ferrari will hit you right in that sweet spot. A nearly three-hour tale of male bonding, father/son dynamics, and a haloed vision of the American dream. There’s a far more entertaining two-hour movie squeez” read more

Knives Out

“Wouldn’t it be great if Agatha Christie had a sense of humor and individual characterization? Well, here’s Rian Johnson to take Christie’s infamous template – cramped location, a dozen suspects, an eccentric outsider to take the case – and distorts them through a parodic point-of-view that” read more

Bombshell

“Hmm, this is an odd to talk about. It bares a striking resemblance to the likes of Vice in which complicated, thorny material is presented with a degree of insouciance that is perhaps at odds with itself. Satire is all well and good but treating a glimpse behind the curtain with buffoonery may be a ” read more

Klaus

“If I told you there was an animated film about the origins of the Santa Claus mythology would you picture something treacly and gushy? Granted, nothing involving Christmas can escape heavy sentimentality and requisite story beats, but Klaus counterbalances the sweet with the sour. Of course, the sou” read more

1917

“It would be easy to write off 1917 as a technical display lacking in anything else, but that complaint is rooted in an inability to get past the central gimmick. Sam Mendes’ directorial achievement is from the school of Rope and Birdman: everything is presented as one long shot. Unlike those films” read more

The Irishman

“The Irishman finds Martin Scorsese once again in a sprawling crime saga, but this one is in a more muted key than previously explorations of this genre. Not to say that large portions of the film don’t have the energy of GoodFellas or Casino, but The Irishman is an overall more reflective and fune” read more

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

“Full disclosure: Quentin Tarantino’s cinema is something I’ve never responded to with the reverence and prosaic rhapsody of others. I find his comfortability with certain types of language empty provocations and his increasingly lackluster female characters are certain hardening of grossly mascu” read more

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

“I have always admired and enjoyed the How to Train Your Dragon franchise for its maturity and distinct lack of Dreamworks clichés. Their lone franchise that’s blissfully free of never-ending lazy pop culture references and jokes, celebrity voices that don’t fold into the material but stand apar” read more

Jojo Rabbit

“Well, you certainly must give Taika Waititi point for audacity if nothing else. The first thirty minutes or so of Jojo Rabbit had me clenched up wondering where it was going and what it was trying to do. It had a distinct possibility to go completely off the rails, if not into outright offense, and ” read more

Judy

“Judy Garland was one of the greatest screen performers of the 20th century, if not of all time. She was not merely a triple-threat capable of singing, dancing, and performing, but possessing that ephemeral thing dubbed “it.” She remains an impossibly charismatic star and an actor that often appe” read more

Joker

“A stitched together dolly of Martin Scorsese’s halcyon auteur days as envisioned by a dudebro with no understanding of Scorsese’s artistry, sophistication, or poetry. Add to this a patina of DC Comics and a suffocating aura of self-seriousness that pervades in the worst possible ways and you’l” read more

Jamaica Inn

“For all the flourishes that demonstrate Alfred Hitchcock was at least somewhat engaged with material, Jamaica Inn still evinces the sight of the controlling director being overrun by his star with his mind largely elsewhere. Coming right before his transatlantic crossing to work with a minor America” read more

The Phantom of the Opera

“God knows I love musical theater, but I have cared for the ponderous and thunderous work of Andrew Lloyd Weber. He of the simplistic and pedestrian musical and lyrical refrain, of crafting stage shows with scores that all sounds the same except for the one big song, of being nearly single-handedly r” read more

It's Always Fair Weather

“It’s Always Fair Weather is a film filled with some of the best, under heralded dance sequences in the MGM canon and a story that is underwhelming. There’s very much a tonal and narrative problem at play here as Fair Weather tries to be a satire of television, an exploration of post-war malaise,” read more