Empire of Light
“Empire of Light is a visually stunning, tonally inconsistent drama that never quite figures out what it wants to be.”
Roger Deakins’ eye-catching cinematography
Olivia Colman’s lead performance
Micheal Ward’s breakout per…
“Lee Jung-jae announces himself as a filmmaker worth paying attention to with Hunt, a pulse-pounding spy thriller that suffers primarily from its own overly convoluted and confusing plot.”
Lee Jung-jae’s slick, engaging visual style
Lee Jung-…
My Policeman
“My Policeman is an ambitious, introspective drama that is ultimately let down by a pair of disappointing performances from two of its lead stars.”
David Dawson’s revelatory performance
A cleverly structured script
Gina McKee…
Very few movies this year have received as much acclaim as TÁR. The new film from writer-director Todd Field is an ambitious and often captivating character study, one that dives headfirst into the niche world of classical music in order to tell a stor…
With its lush sets and perpetually probing camera, Decision to Leave looks and moves like any other Park Chan-wook film, but it reverberates with the same untempered passion present in Golden Age noirs like In a Lonely Place and Double Indemnity. Unlik…
Amsterdam could have been forgiven for being a lot of things, but dull is not one of them. The new film from writer-director David O. Russell boasts one of the most impressive ensemble casts of the year and is photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki, one of H…
Vesper does a lot with a little. Despite being made on an obviously lower budget than most other modern sci-fi movies, the new film from directors Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper takes place in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world that feels more wel…
From its chaotic, underwater first frame all way to its liberating, sun-soaked final shot, God’s Creatures is full of carefully composed images. There’s never a moment across the film’s modest 94-minute runtime in which it feels like co-directors …
The Invitation wears its influences on its sleeve. The film’s moody, effectively spooky opening prologue, which throws viewers headfirst into the deserted halls of a creepy British mansion on one fateful night, feels like something that could have been…
For better or worse, Spin Me Round is a worthy addition to writer-director Jeff Baena’s growing filmography.
The Alison Brie-led comedy has a lot in common with several of Baena’s past efforts. Like Life After Beth and The Little Hours, the film is a d…
It’s difficult these days to think that there used to be a time, very recently in fact, when it felt like Netflix was going to save the kind of midbudget rom-coms that Hollywood’s current, franchise-obsessed era has otherwise erased. But once upon a ti…
Bodies Bodies Bodies, the new film from Dutch director Halina Reijn, may offer more than its fair share of mangled and bloody corpses, but its gnarliest moments have nothing to do with death or murder. Instead, the new A24 horror comedy ultimately care…
Rebecca Hall is a force of nature. If her performances in films like The Night House and Christine hadn’t already proven that, her work in Resurrection does. The new psychological thriller from writer-director Andrew Semans stars Hall as a woman whose …
There are moments of inspired whimsy and comedy in Fire Island, the new queer rom-com from director Andrew Ahn and writer/star Joel Kim Booster. The film is based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, but offers a hyper-modern take on the classic story…
In the final act of director Terence Davies’ achingly beautiful new film Benediction, a son asks his father, “Why do you hate the modern world?” The father responds, “Because it’s younger than I am.” It is a wry, observant, and delicately funny respons…