It’s irresistible whenever Isabelle Huppert plays someone dangerous (see her Oscar-nominated role in Elle). As the title character in the English-language Greta, a thriller directed with mirth and malice by the Irish provocateur Neil Jordan, the great French actress is up to demented, delicious mischief. And Chloë Grace Moretz, doing …
Read More »'How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World' Review: Fantasy Trilogy Soars to an Epic Conclusion
Writer-director Dean DeBlois brings his wondrous Dragon trilogy to a spectacular finish with How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. The third and final part of the story from DreamWorks Animation faced an uphill battle since the first sequel, in 2014, earned $40 million less than the $217 million …
Read More »'Velvet Buzzsaw': Gore Steals the Show From Art-World Satire's Talented Cast
In theaters for a week before being served up to Netflix subscribers (it’s a new world, folks…), Dan Gilroy’s satire of the Los Angeles art scene gets off to a deliciously depraved start. Velvet Buzzsaw is a bonbon spiked with wit and malice, inviting us to join a nest of …
Read More »'Arctic' Is an Ice-Cold Killer of a Movie
It’s eyeball-freezing cold up there in the Arctic. You can feel it in this movie’s bones. Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen does wonders with the role of Overgård, the downed pilot of a small cargo plane who’s awaiting a rescue that may never come. Overgård doesn’t bang on about his troubles, …
Read More »'Escape Room' Review: Six People, One High-Concept Horror Movie, No Exit
The premise is simple: A group of folks who don’t know each other receive a mysterious box in the mail. Inside this elaborate gift — think the Hellraiser cube, only a wee bit more benign — is an invite for a free session at an exclusive Chicago escape room. They …
Read More »'If Beale Street Could Talk' Review: Barry Jenkins' Ode to Love and Heartbreak
Love — intimate, familial and fraternal — infuses director Barry Jenkins‘ ravishing adaptation of the 1974 James Baldwin novel about a battered romance that refuses to be a tragedy. Following up his Best Picture Oscar win for Moonlight, the writer-director opens his third film with Tish Rivers (KiKi Layne), 19, …
Read More »Keira Knightley Gives 'Colette' an Exhilarating Kick
Colette was a pioneer in women’s rights, an author who was nominated for the Nobel prize in literature six years before her death in 1954. But director Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice) — working from a script he wrote with his late husband Richard Glatzer and Rebecca Lenkiewicz — has rightly …
Read More »'The First' Review: Plodding Series About Space Travel Fails to Achieve Liftoff
Hulu’s The First is being sold as the story of Sean Penn leading the crew chosen for the first manned mission to Mars. This is two bait-and-switches for the price of one. For starters, when the series begins, Penn is not actually part of that first crew until something goes …
Read More »'BlacKkKlansman' Review: Spike Lee Delivers a Hellraising Masterpiece
Heads up: Spike Lee is coming at you with his greatest and most galvanizing movie in years. BlacKkKlansman is right up there with Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X in the Spike’s Joint pantheon of game-changers. For starters, it gets your blood up about the toxic and enduring power …
Read More »Travers on 'Godard Mon Amour': Biopic Won't Exactly Leave You Breathless
Jean-Luc Godard is one of the founders of the French New Wave – and, at 87, he’s still kicking at the limits lesser intellects erect around cinema. (His new film, a video essay called Le Livre d’Image, will compete at Cannes in May). Now Michel Hazanavicius, director of 2011’s Oscar-winningsalute …
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