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B
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Auction
(2024)
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David Ehrlich
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It’s all good fun, but the movie’s core truth is decidedly unsmiling: If you agree to play the game, you have to abide by its rules.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
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C
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Anniversary
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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Taut and well-acted as this queasy little thriller can be, its unflinching tale of corporate authoritarianism is much too streamlined to reflect the emotional truth of watching totalitarianism in motion.
Posted Oct 28, 2025
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B-
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Song Sung Blue
(2025)
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Christian Zilko
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At two hours and 11 minutes, the film often feels overstuffed and too melodramatic for its own good... But even with those flaws, it’s still hard to look away from the silly sincerity that powers the film.
Posted Oct 27, 2025
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B+
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Boorman and the Devil
(2025)
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Alison Foreman
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Romanticizing old anecdotes through illustration and packing in details, the documentarian pours his soul into Boorman’s for a possession that’s warmly and memorably religious.
Posted Oct 27, 2025
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B
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The Eyes of Ghana
(2025)
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Christian Zilko
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Hesse is infectiously charismatic, and seeing 15 minutes of his film footage digitized for the first time is a treat for history buffs.
Posted Oct 24, 2025
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B
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Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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Retroactively gracious by way of self-excoriation, “Nothing Is Lost” offers all of the biographical detail and archival video you would ever hope to see from a project like this one...
Posted Oct 24, 2025
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B+
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Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc
(2025)
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Wilson Chapman
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It’s one of the best films in the recent crop of anime TV expansions, and its bittersweet teen love story is certainly potent enough to make you cry.
Posted Oct 22, 2025
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C
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Regretting You
(2025)
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Kate Erbland
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Tucked into the melodrama of “Regretting You,” there is a sweet story about a mother and daughter trying to figure things out, but the reliance on their outside romances often detracts from it. That’s a shame.
Posted Oct 22, 2025
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C-
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The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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A small and plainly shot movie that spends most of its time on Gaslighting 101, sublimates its true premise into the stuff of a late reveal, and whose only sequence of genre-forward suspense is a predictable snooze.
Posted Oct 22, 2025
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B-
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Köln 75
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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Even the most formulaic scenes in the film bop with the zest of history being lived first-hand, as if the script were happily oblivious to its own clichés.
Posted Oct 18, 2025
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C+
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Good News
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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Just droll, twisty, and stylish enough to forgive this 136-minute film for using a lot more runway than it needs to be airborne, "Good News" is a veritable caricature of middle-management.
Posted Oct 16, 2025
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B+
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Blue Film
(2025)
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Ryan Lattanzio
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Blue Film leaves you feeling a little bit ill, and very uneasy about how you’re supposed to feel. But when most films either wouldn’t dare go here at all, or would tell you how to feel about the material, that’s rare and welcome.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
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C-
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Fuck My Son!
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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While Rohal’s agenda required a certain amount of cheekiness to validate the fun of its own shock value, it’s hard to overlook the reality that “F--k My Son!” is far less disturbing than the movie promised by its title.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
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C+
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The Woman in Cabin 10
(2025)
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Kate Erbland
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Stone’s film doesn’t spend nearly enough time with these fellow travelers, all of whom clearly have interesting backstories and personalities, and might as well have been heaved over the side of the boat before it even leaves the port.
Posted Oct 12, 2025
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C+
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Is This Thing On?
(2025)
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Ryan Lattanzio
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Though often lethargic and listless, "Is This Thing On?" does stir up a vivid portrait of the New York City underground comedy milieu, even when New York City as a character feels more like the afterthought it isn't supposed to be.
Posted Oct 10, 2025
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B-
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Unidentified
(2025)
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Beandrea July
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Visually, Al-Mansour’s approach is middle-of-the-road: it gets the job done without flair. The pacing feels right from the beginning: as the story unravels, the plot points neither dawdle nor lurch too quickly forward.
Posted Oct 08, 2025
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B
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Winter of the Crow
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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At a time when most budget-conscious period pieces are undone by the glossiness of modern digital formats, “Winter of the Crow” feels like nothing less than a small miracle of evocation.
Posted Oct 07, 2025
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C+
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TRON: Ares
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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It’s a film whose only goal is to make “Tron” into a renewable resource in its own right... If nothing else, “Ares” might just be relevant, palatable, and undemanding enough to pull that off.
Posted Oct 07, 2025
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C+
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The French Italian
(2024)
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Christian Zilko
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The film appears to be made by and for the kinds of people who might find themselves in a similar state of cozy ennui. If you’re drowning in comfort, you might find “The French Italian” to be a comforting watch.
Posted Oct 06, 2025
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B-
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Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror
(2025)
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Wilson Chapman
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Anyone who lives, breathes, and bleeds “Rocky Horror” will find comfort in “Strange Journey” and its celebration of the musical’s enduring legacy. Anybody else won’t find much to grab onto.
Posted Oct 03, 2025
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B-
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Are We Good?
(2025)
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Katie Rife
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In “Are We Good?,” even the confessional segments have an undercurrent of resistance to them -- an interesting dynamic, but one that this filmmaker doesn’t know what to do with.
Posted Oct 03, 2025
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C+
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V/H/S Halloween
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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All of the bits are diverting enough, and even the weakest among them boast spooktacular effects, but only one of them leverages Halloween into something creepier than empty calories.
Posted Oct 02, 2025
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B-
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Gavagai
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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“Gavagai” remains worthwhile because it constantly adds new dimensions to the question of who this -- or any -- film is “for” in a world where even the simplest gestures can be lost in translation, and every viewer is left to arrive at their own meaning.
Posted Oct 01, 2025
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B-
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Play Dirty
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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While this isn’t quite the stuff of vintage Black, it’s close enough that I wouldn’t mind seeing him crank another one out every two years for the next decade.
Posted Sep 30, 2025
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B
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Anemone
(2025)
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Ryan Lattanzio
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“Anemone” is a miserable movie top to toe, but it’s directed with enough promising skill to suggest actual smarts and talent on the part of its director/writer.
Posted Sep 29, 2025
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B-
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Dead of Winter
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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Hardly a scene goes by where Thompson isn’t beaten, chased, and/or shot at in sub-zero temperatures, but you get the sense that all of the frostbite in the world couldn’t have stopped her from getting her own little taste of “Fargo.”
Posted Sep 24, 2025
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B
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A Life Illuminated
(2025)
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Kate Erbland
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She's got way too much to say. And that compulsion -- a genuine, profound desire to share her findings with the world -- makes for a classic, stick-to-your ribs documentary experience about a fascinating person.
Posted Sep 23, 2025
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B-
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Black Phone 2
(2025)
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Katie Rife
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The best things about this movie come from other movies, whether they be the creative team’s previous efforts or iconic titles from decades past. These elements are enjoyable, which is precisely why they’re recycled here.
Posted Sep 21, 2025
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C-
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Swiped
(2025)
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Ryan Lattanzio
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The film’s anti-patriarchal thesis is a worthy one that feels oddly undeveloped given that it’s the entire point, the actors here merely reading lines from a script as pat as a canned solicitation to swipe right.
Posted Sep 19, 2025
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C-
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HIM
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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“Him” knows that it’s silly as hell, but it has no idea how to balance that against the ostensible seriousness of its social critique, which is how you wind up with leaden dialogue sandwiched between moments of broad satire.
Posted Sep 19, 2025
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B+
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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
(2025)
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Kate Erbland
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It works, and it’s no big mystery why -- Johnson knows his form and format, and delivers on it, playing with tone and message but never losing sight of why these stories are so damn entertaining to watch and unravel.
Posted Sep 18, 2025
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A
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One Battle After Another
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
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This $150 million rallying cry is the work of an artist and a father who’s determined to convince himself that getting older doesn’t have to be the same thing as giving up.
Posted Sep 17, 2025
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D+
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A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
(2025)
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Ryan Lattanzio
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“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” is miscalculated as a romance and a fantasy, and while I’m loath to blame a craftsman as intelligent as Kogonada entirely for the outcome, he did, after all, agree to direct this lousy script.
Posted Sep 16, 2025
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B-
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Karmadonna
(2025)
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Zachary Lee
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It’s off-putting and not exactly pleasant viewing, but there’s some apt appeal in its refusal for easy agreeability.
Posted Sep 13, 2025
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B-
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Easy's Waltz
(2025)
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Kate Erbland
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Vaughn pours himself into the role, but he also seems to understand that going big and broad for this one is a misstep. Easy isn’t a caricature, even if the people and events around him increasingly feel that way.
Posted Sep 12, 2025
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B-
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The Fence
(2025)
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Vikram Murthi
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Brooding sensuality courses through the atmosphere in “The Fence,” which partially compensates for the film’s stilted staging and clumsy, thesis-underlining dialogue.
Posted Sep 11, 2025
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B-
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Honey Bunch
(2025)
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Jake Cole
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Unlike many of its obvious influences, “Honey Bunch” is built on a foundation of its characters’ genuine love and desire to help, but in some ways that makes their actions all the more horrific and troubling.
Posted Sep 11, 2025
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B
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The Long Walk
(2025)
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Ryan Lattanzio
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“The Long Walk” doesn’t tell you or ask you anything new if you’re feeling pent up with rage by American leadership these days, but the film’s grim commitment to the bit is a rarity for a studio movie.
Posted Sep 11, 2025
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C
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Barrio Triste
(2025)
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Ryan Lattanzio
|
There is beauty in the ugliness of “Barrio Triste,” but the film feels like a half-started sentence, a germ of an idea that doesn’t bloom. More to come, I’m sure, but Stillz’s movie doesn’t justify waiting it out.
Posted Sep 11, 2025
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C+
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Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
(2025)
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Ryan Lattanzio
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A heart-on-its-sleeve, inoffensive, and amusing sequel about the legacies we run away from only to come crashing back into them in middle or later age.
Posted Sep 11, 2025
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B
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Dust Bunny
(2025)
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Marya E. Gates
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Mikkelsen, in one of the most tender performances of his career, and Sloan, whose expressive eyes stay impossibly wide for the duration of the film, craft an easy chemistry together, his mordant humor matching hers like a glove.
Posted Sep 11, 2025
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B-
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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
(2025)
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David Opie
|
From intricate backgrounds to propulsive fight choreography, everything is vividly rendered to perfection. Infinity Castle really looks like it belongs on the big screen. The problem is that it feels like it belongs on the small screen in some key aspects
Posted Sep 10, 2025
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B
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Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
|
Little Amélie and the Character of Rain isn’t a moment too short for its material, and yet its brevity allows it to maintain that delicate balance between joy and grief -- discovery and heartache -- from start to finish.
Posted Sep 10, 2025
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B
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Silent Friend
(2025)
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Leila Latif
|
Tony Leung Again Proves Why He’s One of the Greats
Posted Sep 10, 2025
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A-
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100 Nights of Hero
(2025)
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Leila Latif
|
Emma Corrin and Maika Monroe Shine in This Joyous and Exquisitely Composed Feminist Fable
Posted Sep 10, 2025
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C+
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Nuremberg
(2025)
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Kate Erbland
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It’s delivered in the most plain-faced way possible. There is no cat-and-mouse here. There are few surprises.
Posted Sep 09, 2025
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C+
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Eternity
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
|
The cast is game for the challenge, even if their best efforts aren’t quite enough to give “Eternity” the emotional undertow it needs to become more than a semi-charming thought exercise.
Posted Sep 09, 2025
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B-
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Normal
(2025)
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Katie Rife
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Like a firecracker with a long fuse, “Normal” builds up, burns fast, makes a big noise, and then it’s gone.
Posted Sep 09, 2025
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B-
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California Schemin'
(2025)
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Kate Erbland
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It’s the oldest story in the book, but it’s made all the more crushing in “California Schemin'” because Gavin and Billy are so very convinced they’re the ones pulling one over on the brass.
Posted Sep 09, 2025
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B
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The Christophers
(2025)
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David Ehrlich
|
I never would have guessed that the answer to Soderbergh’s listlessness might be an 86-year-old man, but Ian McKellen is so full of vim and vigor in “The Christophers” that he threatens to revitalize his director by osmosis.
Posted Sep 09, 2025
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