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A Working Man, The Woman in the Yard, The Penguin Lessons, Death of a Unicorn, Audrey's Children
Audrey’s Children ***
A lot of little things can add up to a potentially formulaic biopic feeling just a notch above its kin, and this profile of pioneering pediatric oncologist and Ronald McDonald House co-founder Dr. Audrey Evans (Natalie Dormer) takes the edge of almost all of the possible clichés. It opens in 1969, with Dr. Evans joining the staff of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and beginning the research into combination chemotherapy that would revolutionize treatment of childhood cancer. Director Ami Canaan Mann and screenwriter Julia Fisher Farbman aren’t shy about focusing on the science involved; they refuse to dumb down their terminology, and the discoveries Dr. Evans and her colleagues make are treated as the process of hard work, rather than simplistic “a-ha” moments.
Snow White, The Alto Knights, Locked, The Assessment, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl and more
The Alto Knights **
All actors want a challenge, so maybe it sounded interesting in theory to Robert DeNiro to attempt a variation on GoodFellas where he played both his character and Joe Pesci’s character. He’s back working with writer Nicholas Pileggi in a biographical drama about 1950s New York gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese (both played by DeNiro), childhood friends who come into conflict after Genovese returns from exile overseas after the war and expects to get control of his criminal empire back from Costello.
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. Michael Fassbender plays George Woodhouse, a British intelligence agent tasked with finding the mole who may have sold off a dangerous government technology—but when he’s handed the list of five prime suspects, it includes his wife and fellow government spook, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett).
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.
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.
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.
