A feature-length stunt reel (in a good way).
‘The Fall Guy’
After the lead of a blockbuster action movie goes missing, his stunt double, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling), must try to find him. This action romp includes an impressive array of stunts.
From our review:
Directed by David Leitch, “The Fall Guy” is divertingly slick, playful nonsense about a guy who lives to get brutalized again and again — soon after it starts, Colt suffers a catastrophic accident — which may be a metaphor for contemporary masculinity and its discontents, though perhaps not. More unambiguously, the movie is a feature-length stunt-highlight reel that’s been padded with romance, a minor mystery, winking jokes and the kind of unembarrassed self-regard for moviemaking that film people have indulged in for nearly as long as cinema has been in existence. For once, this swaggering pretense is largely justified.
In theaters. Read the full review.
CRITIC’S PICK
Fresh out of the toaster, a corporate saga.
‘Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story’
Jerry Seinfeld imagines a heavily embellished version of the invention Pop-Tarts in this kooky comedy. The film also features Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan and a host of other famous faces.
From our review:
As junk food goes, “Unfrosted” is delightful with a sprinkle of morbidity. Building on last December’s publicity stunt where an anthropomorphic Pop-Tart cooked and served itself to the Kansas State Wildcats, we’re here treated to a funeral where the deceased is given Full Cereal Honors. I will spoil nothing except to say Snap, Crackle and Pop have a ceremonial duty. The jokes spill forth so fast that there’s no time for the shtick to get soggy.
Watch on Netflix. Read the full review.
It’s not technically Harry Styles fan fiction, but it’s close.
‘The Idea of You’
Anne Hathaway stars as Solène Marchand, a 40-year-old mom who has a chance encounter with a (much younger) member of a wildly popular boy band. The two must navigate the complications of celebrity and romance.
From our review:
It’s probably coincidental that “The Idea of You” comes on the heels of Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on which she strongly implies that her carefully cultivated fandom has made her love life a nightmare. But spiritually, at least, they’re of a piece — even if the origins of the film’s plot seem as much borne of parasociality as a critique of it. And that makes Hathaway’s performance extra poignant. She’s been dragged into that buzz saw before. And somehow, she’s figured out how to make a life on the other side of it.
Watch on Prime Video. Read the full review.
Jeanne du Boring.
‘Jeanne du Barry’
The most prominent mistress of King Louis XV, Jeanne du Barry, gets the “girl boss” treatment in this historical drama written, directed by and starring Maïwenn alongside Johnny Depp.
From our review:
The meticulous and lush production design by Angelo Zamparutti, captured with practically dewy appreciation by the cinematographer Laurent Dailland, makes the movie easy on the eyes, but every so often its prettiness edges over into souvenir-shop kitsch.
In theaters. Read the full review.
CRITIC’S PICK
Through the TV looking glass.
‘I Saw the TV Glow’
In this feature from writer-director Jane Schoenbrun, two teenagers bond over their love for a mysterious television show, but the fictional universe starts to feel more real (and less stifling) than their suburban reality.
From our review:
We’ve forgotten how hard being a fan used to be. You had to labor at it in multiple media: scouring listings and keeping tabs on schedules, reading books of lore and compiling episode recaps. … “I Saw the TV Glow” captures this obsessive, anticipatory submersion in a long-form weekly TV show, to the point where it ignites the same feeling. A lot of movies tell you stories, but the films of the writer and director Jane Schoenbrun evoke them; to borrow a term, they’re a vibe. Like “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” Schoenbrun’s previous film, this one isn’t quite horror, but it gives you the same kind of scalp crawl. In this case I think it’s the mark of recognition, of feeling a tug at your subconscious.
In theaters. Read the full review.
The coming-of-age movie goes to therapy.
‘Turtles All the Way Down’
Adapted from John Green’s YA novel of the same name, Hannah Marks’s drama follows Aza (Isabela Merced), a teenager with obsessive-compulsive disorder, as she struggles to manage her anxieties.
From our review:
What “Turtles” does offer in surplus is texture, thanks to Marks’s springy, stylish direction. Any time Aza confronts a thought spiral about germs, Marks pairs voice-over of Aza’s frantic inner monologue with images of neon-colored microbes writhing in a petri dish. These moments are intrusive and unsettling, and together form one of the more dynamically authentic on-screen depictions of O.C.D. that I’ve seen.
Watch on Max. Read the full review.
Who’s afraid of Flannery O’Connor?
‘Wildcat’
Ethan Hawke directs his daughter, Maya Hawke, in a Flannery O’Connor biopic that mixes in visualizations of the American writer’s famously unnerving short stories.
From our review:
Maya Hawke’s performance, in turn, is muddled; she can be strong as O’Connor, but in the fictional pieces, her portrayals are often reduced to clumsy caricatures. The period re-creation is striking and helps generate occasionally spellbinding imagery, but the enduring sense of the film is of a family project that is by turns frustrating and briefly enlightening.
In theaters. Read the full review.
CRITIC’S PICK
The dark side of glamping.
‘Evil Does Not Exist’
In a small village outside Tokyo, Takumi (Hitoshi Omika) and his daughter (Ryo Nishikawa) contend with a development company that plans to build a glamping site that may well spoil their rural oasis. It’s the latest from writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”).
From our review:
I have watched “Evil Does Not Exist” twice, and each time the stealthy power of Hamaguchi’s filmmaking startles me anew. Some of my reaction has to do with how he uses fragments from everyday life to build a world that is so intimate and recognizable — filled with faces, homes and lives as familiar as your own — that the movie’s artistry almost comes as a shock.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Bonus Review: An Asexual Romance
“Slow,” a relationship drama from Lithuania in theaters now, offers an understanding of intimacy that is rare in romance movies.
Elena (Greta Grineviciute), a contemporary dancer, meets Dovydas (Kestutis Cicenas), a sign language interpreter, at a class for deaf adolescents — she teaches the steps; he translates her instructions. The 30-somethings begin a modest flirtation that inches toward the physical, but Dovydas pulls out a wild card when Elena invites him to her room: He is asexual.
“Slow,” directed by Marija Kavtaradze, takes this difference as its point of departure. What does a relationship look like when you factor out the sex? It’s clear that Elena has a hard time accepting Dovydas as he is. Grineviciute and Cicenas, however, give depth to a story that becomes stuck on the sorrows of the couple’s discrepancies. Throughout Dovydas enthusiastically performs a kind of sign language karaoke. The film makes too little of this intuitive connection between lovers, both adept, in their own ways, at communicating passion by other means. — Beatrice Loayza
