Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is nearly three and a half hours long, but its length just means the great filmmaker did justice to this sweeping, fascinating story. Flower Moon moves like a long fuse tensely burning down to an inevitable explosion. It’s a hypnotic, gorgeous, grand work and Scorsese’s best in years. […]
Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is nearly three and a half hours long, but its length just means the great filmmaker did justice to this sweeping, fascinating story. Flower Moon moves like a long fuse tensely burning down to an inevitable explosion. It’s a hypnotic, gorgeous, grand work and Scorsese’s best in years. […]
Horror specialist Ben Wheatley’s Meg 2: The Trench is essentially a rehash of the giant monster shenanigans in 2018’s The Meg. It is exactly what its trailer leads you to expect: The prehistoric megalodon shark is back—along with its kinfolk—and they wreak havoc and devour a lot of people. It’s the definition of a big, […]
Based on Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus, writer/director Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer follows physicist Robert Oppenheimer as he develops and detonates the first atomic bomb, then spends his life regretting it. The subject is fascinating, but, despite Nolan’s visual razzle-dazzle, the film only works sporadically. The movie occurs mainly in […]
Director Lesley Chilcott’s three-part Netflix series Arnold has a subject so famous and ubiquitous that a first name is all the title requires. Arnold Schwarzenegger has lived an epic life, carving out his mythic existence with success in multiple arenas. In this series his biography is presented strictly by-the-numbers in a creatively unambitious documentary about […]
Throughout his career, writer-director Paul Schrader has excelled at creating challenging, dark movies with jagged moral edges and explosive antiheroes. His newest film, Master Gardener, continues in this vein, and offers the kind of demanding, character-driven, literate film that rarely gets made. The titular gardener is Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton), chief groundskeeper of the palatial […]
The beauty of Judy Blume Forever, Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok’s outstanding documentary, is, whether you’ve read Blume’s books repeatedly or not at all, you will be touched, amused, riveted, and even moved by her story. For generations of kids, Blume is a beacon of empathy, a haven of straight talk among the most awkward […]
Longtime pals Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have re-teamed to make Air, the true story of the development of Nike’s Air Jordan sneakers. If this doesn’t sound like promising material, it isn’t. Although Air, directed by Affleck, undeniably has its moments—and there is plenty of talent involved—overall, it’s a story that isn’t worth devoting an […]
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ 65 is a lean, tight science fiction adventure—an exceedingly simple survival story. Don’t expect anything new or revolutionary. But at its own pulp level, it’s an engrossing—and at times, touching—film. Spaceship pilot Mills (Adam Driver) leaves on a two-year exploratory mission that comes with a massive raise to pay for […]
For months, the publicity buildup for Elizabeth Banks’ horror-comedy Cocaine Bear has convincingly sold it as deliriously entertaining nonsense. The movie’s hilarious, unrepentantly trashy trailer boldly spelled the plot out: A hulking black bear high on cocaine rampages through the Georgia hills. Sadly, the film is a missed opportunity that doesn’t deliver on its very […]
Infinity Pool is the third feature by writer and director Brandon Cronenberg, and comparisons to his extraordinary father, Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg, are inevitable. With Infinity Pool, Brandon explores dark, grotesque territory similar to what his dad’s work has charted, but only superficially. The younger Cronenberg has a long way to go as a director […]