‘Mickey 17’
The latest from Bong Joon Ho follows Mickey (Robert Pattinson) on a dangerous space expedition as he repeatedly dies and is resurrected via cloning and develops a relationship with a fellow crew member, Nasha (Naomi Ackie).
From our review:
Like the working-class crew of the extraterrestrial tugboat in Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” Mickey, Nasha and the rest of the workers are headed into uncharted, dangerous territory. There will be monsters and, yes, blood. There will, as well, be love, kindness, camaraderie, heroism and sacrifice in a movie that teeters close to apocalyptic despair but also, because Bong is finally an idealist and not only one of the great filmmakers working today, lifts you to the skies.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
The bases are loaded — with heart.
‘Eephus’
Before a small town’s baseball field closes permanently, two local recreational teams gather for one final game in this dramedy directed by Carson Lund.
From our review:
It dwells in some languid liminal space between hangout movie and elegy, a tribute to the community institutions that hold us together, that introduce us to one another and that, in an age of optimized life choices and disappearing public spaces, are slowly fading away. That makes it sound very serious, which “Eephus” is not.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
A bruising cultural reckoning.
‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’
After Shula (Susan Chardy) discovers the dead body of her uncle on the side of the road, family secrets begin to surface in this dark dramedy directed by Rungano Nyoni.
From our review:
Rungano Nyoni, who was born in Zambia and grew up in Wales, knows how to make an entrance, and so does Shula. She’s a great character, and while her arresting introduction grabs you from the start, Shula keeps you tethered throughout. Hers is a story of discoveries both minor and monumental, one that’s flecked with troubling visions and an escalating sense of urgency.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
Black and white with lots of nuance.
‘There’s Still Tomorrow’
This drama directed by and starring Paola Cortellesi centers on Delia, a mother of three living in Rome after World War II, who is mistreated by her husband Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea).
From our review:
Cortellesi, as both director and performer, doesn’t sink into miserabilism. The beautifully built-out sense of place, populated by memorable personalities (Ivano’s bedridden father; Delia’s best friend, who runs a vegetable stand; the mechanic with whom Delia is in love), demonstrates the richness of Delia’s life in an effortless balance of humor and tragedy.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A photographer rom-com that doesn’t take long to develop.
‘Picture This’
When a medium predicts that the highly independent Pia (Simone Ashley) will meet the love of her life within her next five dates, her family rushes to set her up in this rom-com directed by Prarthana Mohan.
From our review:
The palette here is vivid. Screens split — sometimes vertically, other times horizontally — all in the spirit of playfulness, while the music is a mix of international pop grooves. For all the potentially crushing challenges Pia faces — losing her business, not living out her dream of being a photographer, alienating her beloved younger sister — “Picture This,” keeps it light, never letting the sharp edges of potential failure come into focus.
Watch on Prime Video. Read the full review.
The humor is far, far away.
‘The Empire’
Two alien races, One and Zero, descend on a small fishing village in Northern France where they fight for control and get involved in an interspecies love triangle.
From our review:
Reveling in galactic absurdity, “The Empire,” the latest from the fiercely unconventional French filmmaker Bruno Dumont, plunks us down in a fishing village in Northern France to witness an extraterrestrial war for control of humankind. What that looks like, however, is less a space opera than a banal, metaphysical farce — a “Star Wars” parody of increasing daftness and diminishing fun.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Apocalyptically bad.
‘In the Lost Lands’
Dave Bautista and Milla Jovovich star as a body hunter and a sorceress in pursuit of a shape-shifter in this dystopian action romance directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.
From our review:
Though Anderson and his trusted cinematographer Glen MacPherson remain capable of framing and lighting engrossing shots, the cheap effects used for the film’s many firefights and explosions look like a flurry of pixels. The editing attempts to hide these shortcomings, cutting around the action to the point of being incomprehensible. And maybe that’s for the best.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A wrestling film that’s stuck in one corner.
‘Queen of the Ring’
This sports drama directed by Ash Avildsen follows Mildred Burke (Emily Bett Rickards), a waitress who becomes a wrestler in the 1930s.
From our review:
In its plot-heavy second half, “The Queen of the Ring” loses coherence when it speeds through a storyline about rival women’s leagues and sidelines characters it had only recently introduced. The muddle causes any sincere emotion to turn into schlock. One senses that Avildsen was desperate to pack an emotional punch, but he could have pulled a few instead.
In theaters. Read the full review.
This robotics team presses all the right buttons.
‘Rule Breakers’
Four young girls become Afghanistan’s first robotics team, traveling to a worldwide competition in Washington and facing trials and triumphs along the way.
From our review:
This is a story of heartening firsts: Roya Mahboob, who spearheaded the initiative for schoolgirls, is the first woman to own a tech company in Afghanistan. The director Bill Guttentag and his cast get the can-do spirit at its core, as well as the societal constrictions that make such perseverance especially impressive, but it’s also a story that could have been told with more concision and subtlety.
In theaters. Read the full review.
All dolled up and nowhere to run.
‘The Rule of Jenny Pen’
John Lithgow stars as Dave Crealy, a patient at an assisted living facility who antagonizes the other residents with a creepy baby doll puppet in this horror movie directed by James Ashcroft.
From our review:
The director remains near-merciless in his approach, never shying away from showing his vulnerable characters (and the tormentor played with twisted relish by Lithgow is, ultimately, as unprotected as any of the others) in states of utter abjection.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A dramatist’s trauma.
‘Seven Veils’
In this drama directed by Atom Egoyan, Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried) directs a production of an opera that resurfaces traumatic memories.
From our review:
“Seven Veils” offers plenty to think about. But fans who mourn that Egoyan’s dramatic instincts have slipped in recent years won’t quite be getting a return to form. Seyfried in particular seems out of place, and although the apparent miscasting might be intentional (Jeanine, giving an interview to a podcaster, pointedly explains that she is older than she looks), certain plot points and motifs, such as home movies featuring a blindfold and tangerines, approach self-parody.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Compiled by Kellina Moore.
