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Black Bag, Novocaine, The Electric State, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Control Freak
Black Bag ***1/2
After a couple of underwhelming collaborations in Kimi and Presence, director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp hit paydirt with a satisfying espionage caper that doubles as an effective portrait of relationship trust and fidelity.
Mickey 17, The Rule of Jenny Pen, Queen of the Ring, CHAOS: The Manson Murders and more
CHAOS: The Manson Murders **1/2
Generally speaking, Errol Morris’s documentaries have been at their best when he’s able to turn his Interrotron camera on interesting (and sometimes awful) people and just let them talk—which is why it seems so odd that Morris chooses to sideline the person who inspired this movie for so long. The title comes from a 2019 book by writer Tom O’Neill, inspired by his research into the infamous 1969 Southern California murders by members of the “Manson family,” and his subsequent theory that Manson was somehow connected to U.S. government research into mind control, perhaps as a way to discredit the anti-war movement.
Last Breath, My Dead Friend Zoe, Riff Raff, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
Last Breath ***
In essence, this real-life survival thriller feels like an underwater variation on Apollo 13—and like that predecessor, it works better at capturing the simple mechanics of dealing with a life-and-death scenario than the melodrama surrounding it. Adapted from the 2019 documentary of the same name, it deals with a trio of deep-sea divers—Chris Lemons (Finn Cole), Duncan Allock (Woody Harrelson) and Dave Yuasa (Simu Liu)—repairing oil platforms in the North Sea when a massive storm and technical difficulties strand Chris 300 feet below the surface.
The Monkey, The Unbreakable Boy, Oscar-nominated Documentary Shorts, No Other Land and more
Oscar-Nominated Short Films – Documentary ***1/2
This year’s crop of short docs is one of the best in recent memory, in large part because even when they’re approaching hot-button topics, they do so without being strident. Kim A. Snyder’s Death by Numbers deals with the legacy of the 2018 Parkland, Florida high-school mass-shooting, but does so through the compelling words of survivor Samantha Fuentes.
Utah native writer/director discusses his artistic origins and the idea for the movie
Delicate Arch—a 2024 psychological thriller/horror feature from Utah native writer/director Matt Warren, and filmed in Utah—is now available for rental and purchase on platforms including Apple and Amazon, and streaming on Screambox.
Captain America: Brave New World, Paddington in Peru, The Gorge, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and more
Armand **1/2
There’s so much going on in this psychological drama from writer/director Halfdan Ullman Tøndel that I wish I could cherry-pick the interesting stuff, and leave behind everything that feels forced and unfocused. It opens after-hours at a Norwegian school, where Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve) has been called to a meeting about an “incident” involving Elisabeth’s 6-year-old son Armand and classmate Jon.
City Weekly contributor visits for book-signing and game demonstrations
If you've been reading City Weekly for any length of time, you're likely familiar with our regular contributor Bryan Young, both from his Big Shiny Robot A&E columns and from contributions to Small Lake City. But that's only the tip of the iceberg for this prolific writer, who has written books in the universes of Star Wars, Doctor Who, Robotech and more.
Love Hurts, I'm Still Here, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Bring Them Down, Kinda Pregnant
Bring Them Down ***
In both narrative structure and thematic undercurrents, writer/director Chris Andrews takes familiar “revenge thriller” elements and twists them into something both viscerally gripping and heartbreaking. In contemporary Ireland, sheep farmer Michael O’Shea (Christopher Abbott) finds himself in a dangerous battle with his neighbor, Gary Keeley (Paul Ready), when he suspects that Gary has stolen two of Michael’s valuable rams and tried to pass them off as his own.
