B-
Shazam! zaps an old-fashioned superhero into a blockbuster world
A phenomenon of the 1940s, the superhero formerly known as Captain Marvel embodies a simpler era of comics, the…
C+
Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt makes even the viewer feel the need to shower afterward
There’s a scene about 30 minutes into The Dirt, the biopic loosely adapted from the Mötley Crüe memoir of the same…
B-
Food, family, and history combine in the sweet, slight broth of Ramen Shop
Food is one of the most powerful emotional forces on Earth. For many people, the smell and taste of a favorite…
B+
Jordan Peele doubles the horror and doubles the fun in the expertly crafted Us
You know you’re in the hands of a natural born filmmaker when you can feel yourself being tugged, as if by invisible…
C
This week, and maybe any other, the terrorist-attack docudrama Hotel Mumbai is a grueling watch
Hotel Mumbai, a brutally realistic dramatization of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, can’t help but inspire some…
B
Mel Gibson is a cop on the edge in the equally queasy and thrilling Dragged Across Concrete
In more ways than one, and true to its title, Dragged Across Concrete is abrasive. It comes from the mind of S. Craig…
B+
The director of the Oscar-winning Son Of Saul dives back into the disturbing past with Sunset
Three years ago, something rather extraordinary happened: A Holocaust drama won the Academy Award for Best Foreign…
C
There are few signs of life in the curiously dour alien-occupation drama Captive State
It’s really rather impressive, the extent to which Captive State sucks everything even potentially fun out of the…
B+
With Ash Is Purest White, one of the world’s greatest filmmakers cuts together his greatest hits
Just shy of an hour into his new movie, Ash Is Purest White, the great Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke offers up a truly…
C+
The Hummingbird Project could have used some of the crazed vision of its computer-age bandits
Benjamin Franklin’s well-worn adage that time is money has led us, some centuries later, to the business of…
B
Giallo gets a porno-chic makeover in the kinky, queer, and colorful Knife + Heart
Gaspar Noé’s Climax opens with a title card proclaiming this is “a French film—and proud of it!” But it isn’t the only…
C
At the animated Wonder Park, the view is lovely but the attractions don’t fit together
Wonder Park represents at least one milestone: Here, finally, is a computer-animated movie where the human characters…
C+
The maudlin Five Feet Apart anoints a new pair of winning young stars
What Five Feet Apart has going for it is Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse. And that’s no small…
C+
Keira Knightley steps into the dully familiar post-war love triangle of The Aftermath
Steven Soderbergh’s initial idea for Sex, Lies, And Videotape, as jotted down in his journal, was a mere eight words…
B+
The Mustang doesn’t buck indie convention—it gives it a surge of new dramatic life
A man and a horse lay sprawled on the ground. Dust swirls around them. One has a knee in his back. A tranquilizer…
B-
The gripping, numbing Combat Obscura detonates fantasies of military heroism
Miles Lagoze, a former combat cameraman for the U.S. Marine Corps, opens his war documentary Combat Obscura with a…
C+
Nancy Drew is still smart and engaging, but her new movie is a little dull
Do kids today still know Nancy Drew, the prodigious teenage detective who’s been skulking around novels, occasional…
B
A mystery is solved and a late master eulogized in the playful and humanistic 3 Faces
“What if it’s a prank?” So asks Behnaz Jafari, the famous Iranian actress, in the opening minutes of 3 Faces. Jafari,…
B-
Oscar Isaac and Ben Affleck blunder through a heavy heist in J.C. Chandor’s Triple Frontier
Exactly 50 years ago, the U.S. Federal Reserve, which had previously issued bills with values as high as $10,000, made…