Carol Kane and Jason Schwartzman bond Between the Temples

Just as he did in Rushmore, Jason Schwartzman plays a young man with an irrational longing for one of his teachers, a woman much older than him. Great awkwardness ensues.


0 Comments11 Minutes

Nine reasons to see Didi

Sean Wang's Sundance Award-winning coming-of-age film is a joy and one of the year's most promising directorial debuts. Here are some of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.


0 Comments10 Minutes

Lee Isaac Chung gets carried away with Twisters

The personal touch of Minari director Lee Isaac Chung is evident in this surprising sequel to a 1996 summer blockbuster, which turns some blockbuster cliches sideways.


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Kings of infinite space: Inmates of Sing Sing stage a prison break through art

The latest entry in the "Art Can Change Your Life" genre has particular strengths—it's a true story, it avoids narrative contrivance, and, most of the time, it shows admirable restraint.


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Wicked Little Letters serves up wisdom with a clustercuss of conflict

Now streaming on Netflix, Wicked Little Letters should not be overlooked. It's much more than a swear-word showdown between Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley.


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Dazzled and disappointed by Furiosa, “the darkest of angels”

While it's a thrill to be back in George Miller's awe-inspiring cinematic universe, Furiosa's story feels too narrowly focused on revenge.


0 Comments33 Minutes

A Quiet Place: Day One is a decent exercise in an exhausting, exhausted genre

Nyong’o shines in an otherwise unremarkable prequel about an alien invasion, a cat, and the search for transcendent pizza.


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Hail any cab but Daddio’s

Why I probably won't revisit Daddio, a movie about a Manhattan cab driver and his fare.


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Stranded on Janet Planet, a young girl struggles to survive

Annie Baker's directorial debut is a discomforting, intimate portrait of a struggling mother and a wide-eyed, intuitive daughter who draw difficult neighbors into their orbit.


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Not so fast, but oh so furious: Thelma is a blast.

June Squibb is 2024's funniest and most endearing action hero in this delightful play on Mission: Impossible clichés.


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Ghostlight celebrates the healing power of community theater

Kelly O'Sullivan's film about grief, reconciliation, and community theater deserves major acting awards.


0 Comments14 Minutes

Inside Out 2 gives us all some strong anti-anxiety treatment

While it doesn't quite reach the heights of Pixar's golden-age masterpieces, we can be grateful for the wisdom and whimsy of this surprising sequel.


0 Comments17 Minutes

Hit Man hits and hits… but misses when it matters most

Linklater's smart, good-humored comedy looks ready to launch a fantastic franchise starring Glen Powell... and then fumbles the ball and loses the game just when it seemed like a sure win.


0 Comments8 Minutes

Civil War — It’s not about picking a side

Some of my favorite critics have serious issues with Alex Garland's speculative fiction about a near-future collapse of democracy in the U.S. And I just don't get it.


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Still recovering from an evening with Hundreds of Beavers

The most original movie I've seen in years is also the most outrageous comedy I've seen in years. It's an endurance test for your brain, body, and sense of humor. Brace yourselves. And dress warmly.


0 Comments14 Minutes

Unworthy of Gosling or Blunt, Fall Guy’s screenplay falls short of my summer movie standards

If this is your idea of a satisfying summertime movie, well... knock yourself out. Me? Life's too short, and there are just so many better ways for me to spend my summer.


0 Comments9 Minutes

Love triangle aside — what is Challengers really about?

Despite its tangled web (net?) of bad behavior, Luca Guadagnino's smash hit gets a lot right about the transcendence artists pursue and sometimes reach.


0 Comments14 Minutes

Low-budget, high imagination: Riddle of Fire may someday be an all-ages cult classic

This retro adventure—which sends kids questing for an egg that'll help them bake a pie and save a sleeping beauty—will puzzle many moviegoers and win the hearts of a special few. I'm one of the few.


0 Comments15 Minutes

Playful, nightmarish, fantastical, political: Problemista is all over the place

Julio Torres's leap from television's Los Espookys to the big screen has some remarkable highlights... and some complicated challenges.


0 Comments16 Minutes

Cabrini celebrates a true Christian vision of embracing immigrants and opposing cruelty

Angel Studios' new film celebrates a woman who helped America practice what it preaches about welcoming immigrants and serving the poor. And this time, the studio gets it mostly right.


0 Comments15 Minutes

Love Lies Bleeding “hulks out” with surreal surprises

This wild, weird, violent, genre-dodging thriller from Rose Glass suggests we're seeing a B-movie auteur on the rise.


0 Comments16 Minutes

The spirit of ’80s Tim Burton is alive in Lisa Frankenstein

This Halloween-y rom-com is an '80s cosplay party that should scratch itches for Tim Burton fans and those who thrilled to the audacity of Heathers.


0 Comments9 Minutes

Adam Driver plays a driver — again! — in Michael Mann’s Ferrari

Michael Mann's passion project has finally arrived. Is it a victory lap for the master? Or does it crash and burn?


0 Comments13 Minutes

Teyana Taylor deserved an Oscar nomination for A Thousand and One

When I reviewed this film, I predicted that Teyana Taylor would be unjustly overlooked for an Oscar nomination. I was right. But we still have the movie and her outstanding performance.


0 Comments7 Minutes

Kore-eda’s Monster keeps us guessing

The prolific director Hirozaku Kore-eda's latest is a complex braid of stories about secrets that seem too scary to reveal.


0 Comments13 Minutes

It’s allergy season, and I’m allergic to Godzilla

You'll think about Japanese wartime and post-war history. You'll find a focus on redemption and grace. You'll cheer for great special effects. And if you're luckier than me, it might become your favorite Godzilla movie.


0 Comments10 Minutes

Haynes hits a tense, hilarious high with May December

Just as Todd Haynes's new film keeps us guessing about Julianne Moore's deceptive ex-con and Natalie Portman's scheming method actor, it keeps us guessing what kind of movie it really means to be.


0 Comments18 Minutes

The great Nicolas Cage shows up for Dream Scenario, but is the movie worthy of him?

No, Nicolas Cage is not "funnier than he's ever been." But he's really funny. And while everyone complains about the lackluster ending, let me praise what it does so well.


0 Comments27 Minutes

The Holdovers lives up to its name

Alexander Payne's latest has its highlights, even if it holds us a little too long, and strains a little too hard for a crowd-pleasing conclusion.


0 Comments11 Minutes

Beauty and the rock’n’roll beast: Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla

A double-feature of Priscilla and Spencer might be a fascinating study. Or it might seem merely redundant.


0 Comments23 Minutes

Misgivings about “a masterpiece”: Killers of the Flower Moon

Scorsese's new epic features some of the strongest and most conscientious work of his career. But the fact I'm opening with words about him here hints at what gives me mixed feelings about the film.


0 Comments38 Minutes

Three Colors: Blue at 30

My 10,000-word deep-dive on Kieslowski's masterpiece is published in a new anthology.


0 Comments5 Minutes

Bottoms (2023)

Here's a high school comedy about hormones and hijinks that goes to violent extremes, afflicting the comfortable and making the uncomfortable laugh until they're sick.


0 Comments27 Minutes

The Unknown Country (2023)

You're probably hearing a lot about Lily Gladstone's performance in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. In fact, she was just as magnetic earlier this year in The Unknown Country, a film worth seeking out on streaming services, and one of my favorites of 2023.


0 Comments10 Minutes

Barbie, Pt. 3: My full review!

My three-part series on Greta Gerwig's Barbie culminates with my full review.


0 Comments1 Minute

Looking Closer with Jeffrey Overstreet

(now the ears of my ears awake andnow the eyes of my eyes are opened)

– e. e. cummings, “i thank You God for most this amazing”