‘Black Bag’
Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender star as Kathryn and George, a married couple of glamorous spies who turn their espionage skills against each other.
From our review:
“Black Bag” is the third movie written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Soderbergh that’s been released since 2022, and it’s a banger. It’s also sleek, witty and lean to the bone, a fizzy, engaging puzzler about beautiful spies doing the sort of extraordinary things that the rest of us only read about in novels and — if we’re lucky — watch onscreen. It’s nonsense, but the kind of glorious grown-up nonsense that critics like to say they (as in Hollywood) no longer make.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
Lost in the role.
‘The Actor’
After suffering a traumatic brain injury that impacts his memory, Paul Cole (André Holland) tries to piece his life back together in this melancholic mystery directed by Duke Johnson.
From our review:
Filmed in a warehouse in Budapest, “The Actor” feels at times like a horror movie about the struggle between amnesia and agency. Scenes snap off, as if the thread of events between has evaporated, and this sense of being unmoored pervades Holland’s beautifully controlled performance. His Paul might be discombobulated, but he’s also terrified of facing a life that could be no more than one endlessly recurring charade.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
Lights, camera, quarantine.
‘An Unfinished Film’
A film crew attempts to pick up a production in Wuhan that stalled ten years prior, only to be derailed when coronavirus spreads and the crew must be isolated in this slightly meta, semi-fictional drama directed by Lou Ye.
From our review:
There’s a sense of space and time compression throughout, of Lou’s movie’s world crashing into our own, and of the familiar, tricky roles that screens and cameras played during those times, whether the holders were under strict lockdown, as in China, or under looser social recommendations, as in much of the United States.
In theaters. Read the full review.
No pain, all gain.
‘Novocaine’
Jack Quaid stars as Nate Caine, a man who embarks a dangerous mission to save his crush with the advantage of a genetic condition that prevents him from feeling pain in this action romp directed by Robert Olsen and Dan Berk.
From our review:
The violent comedy works most of all through Quaid, who is natural and nimble in embodying the funny paradox of a nebbishy hero who just won’t go down. That spin on the indestructible man is, on paper, what’s meant to make “Novocaine” stand out from the John Wicks and Jason Stathams we know so well. But what keeps it from deflating into tiresome shtick (which it very nearly does) is Quaid with his gawky, boyish charisma, an actual tough guy who just doesn’t know how to act it.
In theaters. Read the full review.
This pop star sings to a different tune.
‘Opus’
Directed by Mark Anthony Green, this horror film follows a journalist (Ayo Edebiri) as she joins the reclusive pop star Moretti (John Malkovich) in his remote mansion, where oddities and conspiracies abound.
From our review:
Whoever “Opus” is supposed to be sending up, its aim is a bit wide of the mark. But even if the movie’s only real goal is to frighten, it bets far too much on its eventual twists. The explanations for Moretti’s behavior aren’t nearly as diabolical — or original — as Green appears to think. If that’s the film’s upshot, it’s hard to say anything but: How retro.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Th-th-th-that’s all?
‘The Day the Earth Blew Up’
In this Looney Tunes feature directed by Peter Browngardt, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig uncover an alien mind-control plot involving bubble gum.
From our review:
The action is frenetic and gleefully vulgar; at one point a dome of bubble gum emerges from a dog’s rear end. There’s also some old-school slapstick; chattering fake teeth turn out to be practically world-saving. But the movie’s energy doesn’t pay off in dividends of real pleasure. Anarchy has never been so mere as it is ultimately rendered here.
In theaters. Read the full review.
This ‘90s grunge sci-fi doesn’t reach nirvana.
‘The Electric State’
In an alternate version of the 1990s where mankind has barely triumphed in a war against technology, a teenager (Millie Bobby Brown) teams up with a roguish smuggler (Chris Pratt) and a few friendly robots in this action-comedy directed Anthony Russo and Joe Russo.
From our review:
The design team clearly had fun creating a gallery of retrofuturist animatronics that heavily draw from mid-20th-century mascots and brands — their leader is Mr. Peanut (voiced by Woody Harrelson). But there is no logic in what the movie is saying about the relationship between humans and machines, or about anything in general. You can’t blame some of the actors for appearing confused or bored.
Watch on Netflix. Read the full review.
Masculinity that misses the forest for the trees.
‘Who by Fire’
In this ensemble drama directed by Philippe Lesage, a group of men gather and grapple with each other at a remote house in the woods.
From our review:
Lesage’s characters may talk a lot, but because he avoids exposition, he ends up overloading the story with dramatically heightened episodes. These keep things simmering, but they often overstate the obvious as much as any telegraphing dialogue might: A lost soul goes missing; men hunt with bows and arrows; a nubile woman bares flesh. It’s very fraught, but so is the movie, starting the instant that Albert and Blake reconnect.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Dread and breakfast.
‘The Parenting’
After a young couple (Brandon Flynn and Nik Dodani) brings their parents (played by Lisa Kudrow, Dean Norris, Edie Falco and Brian Cox) to a weekend getaway, the families discover that their rental home has a lingering ghostly tenant in this horror-comedy directed by Craig Johnson.
From our review:
When the demonic intrigue ramps up, the tone shifts to full-blown slapstick lunacy, with heads spinning “Exorcist”-style, family members projectile vomiting, and in a meanspirited fashion, more than one Pomeranian getting brutally butchered. The cast is game — especially Cox, who gets to do some over-the-top Linda Blair mugging — but the script, by a “Saturday Night Live” writer, Kent Sublette, is puerile and abrasive, lacking the wit of “Evil Dead” (an obvious influence) and the brio of “Scary Movie.”
Watch on Max. Read the full review.
A tender story of first love.
‘Young Hearts’
This coming-of-age drama directed by Anthony Schatteman follows Elias (Lou Goossens), a 14-year-old boy who struggles to accept his sexuality after falling in love with his neighbor.
From our review:
The film shifts between Elias’s states of blissful surrender and angsty repression, capturing him in emotionally baring close-ups. Naturalistic performances and quiet scenes of summertime idling bring to mind Luca Guadagnino’s drama “Call Me By Your Name,” though “Young Hearts” is a more wholesome, and ultimately more cliché, endeavor.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Compiled by Kellina Moore.
