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Hereditary, Damsel, A Stupid and Futile Gesture, Puzzle, Jane Fonda in Five Acts and more
Hereditary [Midnight] ***1/2
I’m not saying that directors of horror films are better than other directors; I am saying that horror is a genre that is going to expose who’s got “it,” and who doesn’t. First-time feature director Ari Aster absolutely has “it” in this thriller about a woman named Annie (Toni Collette) who is dealing with the recent death of her mother when she begins to see spectral apparitions, and her family faces a variety of fresh terrors. Lurking around the edges of Aster’s story are possible metaphors for parents who fear what they might pass on to their kids—things like mental illness—but the thematic stuff is almost incidental.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 25, 2018 7:07 am
Wildlife, King in the Wilderness, Bad Reputation, You Were Never Really Here and more.
Wildlife [U.S. Dramatic] **1/2
Unlike many actors-turned-directors, Paul Dano shows a real visual sensibility for his first feature behind the camera; it’s too bad he’s not working with a story that has more meat on its bones to sustain that feature. Dano and Zoe Kazan adapt Richard Ford’s novel set in 1960 Great Falls, Montana, where peripatetic Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal) has moved his wife Jeanette (Carey Mulligan) and 14-year-old son Joe (Ed Oxenbould) to take a job as a golf pro.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 24, 2018 6:52 am
The Tale, Sorry to Bother You, Come Sunday, RBG, Studio 54 and more
The Tale [U.S. Dramatic] ***1/2
It feels virtually impossible to separate Jennifer Fox’s harrowing personal memoir of childhood sexual abuse from the fact that it’s arriving at the #MeToo moment, but it’s also fascinating enough as a piece of filmmaking to make it far more than just Trigger Warning: The Motion Picture. Fox casts Laura Dern as her surrogate, a successful documentary filmmaker whose world is shaken when her mother (Ellen Burstyn) finds a story Jennifer wrote as a middle-schooler, forcing her to re-examine her memories of that time.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 23, 2018 6:15 am
Leave No Trace, Lizzie, Eighth Grade, The Death of Stalin and more
Leave No Trace [Premieres] ****
This is a true rarity: a film filled with nothing but good people. Indeed, I’d struggle to name another such adult film with a conventional number of characters and real conflict.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 22, 2018 8:58 am
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind; Juliet, Naked; The Kindergarten Teacher; and more
Juliet, Naked [Premieres] ***
Nick Hornby creates the kind of amiable comedic character studies tailor-made for cinematic translation, and this latest film version of a Hornby novel hits one of his favorite themes—namely, how men's relationships with their obsessions can interfere with their relationships with other people. In a seaside British town, the 15-year-relationship between Annie (Rose Byrne) and Duncan (Chris O'Dowd) begins to unravel, just as Annie is striking up an email correspondence with Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), the obscure, long-retired singer-songwriter Duncan reveres.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 21, 2018 7:15 am
Blindspotting, American Animals, Clara's Ghost, The Price of Everything, The Guilty and more
Blindspotting [U.S. Dramatic] **1/2
It feels near-impossible to make a movie that's both a satirical look at a gentrifying city and a blistering piece of political drama, so it's impressive that the creative team here comes as close as they do to pulling it off. In Oakland, Calif., best-friends-since-childhood Collin (Daveed Diggs) and Miles (Rafael Casal) work together by day for a moving company, while Collin tries to make it through the last few days of a post-incarceration probation without getting into the trouble that perpetually surrounds him.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Jan 20, 2018 6:34 am
