Is this the cure to male loneliness?
‘Friendship’
Tim Robinson stars as Craig, a lonely, awkward suburban dad who develops an obsession with the effortlessly cool Austin (Paul Rudd) in this comedy directed by Andrew DeYoung.
From our review:
Robinson’s performance … injects Craig with a quality most similar to an erratically ticking time bomb. Not having developed an interior life, he’s all vibe and reaction: Shame or provocation might make him shrivel, or explode, or some unimaginable third thing. That results, at times, in a movie that feels like it’s spinning its wheels, going nowhere for long stretches, with Craig just getting more and more exasperated. Yet that same energy keeps the movie watchable even in its lagging stretches.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
A once-in-a-lifetime opus.
‘Caught by the Tides’
Directed by Jia Zhangke, this sweeping drama follows a woman and her lover across decades as China changes rapidly around them.
From our review:
As emotionally effective as it is formally brilliant, it draws on a trove of material — both fiction and nonfiction — that Jia began shooting in 2001 while working on another movie. He continued to document a dizzyingly changing China, a heroic project that has finally resulted in “Caught by the Tides,” a tour de force that is at once an affecting portrait of a people in flux and a soulful, generous-hearted autobiographic testament from one of our greatest living filmmakers.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A bit too al dente.
‘Nonnas’
After his mother’s death, Joe (Vince Vaughn) decides to honor her memory by opening a restaurant staffed by Italian grandmas in this comedy directed by Stephen Chbosky.
From our review:
Corny and cloying, “Nonnas” struggles to gin up energy in a plot whose every roadblock (the dwindling finances, the failed building inspection, the opening-night disaster, the desperate plea for critical attention) is comfortably predictable. The movie’s real drag, though, is a main character with no identity beyond his mother’s depressing house and no personality beyond nostalgia.
Watch on Netflix. Read the full review.
A killer crop that doesn’t yield much.
‘Clown in a Cornfield’
Killer clowns who dress like the local company mascot, Frendo, terrorize a small farming community in this slasher directed by Eli Craig.
From our review:
In adapting Adam Cesare’s novel, Carter Blanchard and Craig have crafted a screenplay that focuses more on grisly (and often gnarly) slaughters than on providing answers to the killer cabal’s motivations. A gay romance provides a sweet if underdeveloped detour. A lackluster horror movie gets points if the leading villain is a real bugaboo. But the Frendos, alas, look like poser versions of Pennywise, Art the Clown and other, scarier horror bozos.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A bumpy ride stabilized by charisma.
‘Fight or Flight’
On a trip from Bangkok to San Francisco, an alcoholic mercenary (Josh Hartnett) tries to take down an assassin with the help of a flight attendant (Charithra Chandran) in this action flick directed by James Madigan.
From our review:
Hartnett and Chandran’s laid back chemistry steady the film’s turbulent tonal shifts, adding a punch that the shakily choreographed action lacks. Hartnett and Chandran are so good together, Madigan’s last-second setup for a possible sequel doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.
In theaters. Read the full review.
She’s underpaid, the film is overworked.
‘Lilly’
This biopic directed by Rachel Feldman centers on Lilly Ledbetter (Patricia Clarkson), the equal-pay activist who sued her company for gender discrimination.
From our review:
Distracting pop-music needle drops and hammy performances give “Lilly” the feel of a Lifetime movie. When the story jumps forward to the 2000s, shifting from black-and-white to color, the film speeds through Ledbetter’s initial court case and positions her as something of a celebrity.
In theaters. Read the full review.
This adaptation is a tragedy.
‘Juliet & Romeo’
The star-crossed lovers sing and use contemporary slang in this reimagining of the Shakespearean tragedy by writer-director Timothy Scott Bogart and his composer-songwriter brother, Evan Kidd Bogart.
From our review:
The Bogarts are sons of Neil Bogart, the blockbuster record exec who empowered both Kiss and Donna Summer back in the day. Watching this largely misbegotten movie (which seems to fulfill all of its aspirations with an utterly tacky ending), then, sometimes brought to mind the sardonic Steely Dan tune “Show Biz Kids.”
In theaters. Read the full review.
A teen sex comedy that focuses on the foreplay.
‘Summer of 69’
To win over her crush, an awkward teenager named Abby (Sam Morelos) hires a stripper (Chloe Fineman) to teach her about sex in this comedy directed by Jillian Bell.
From our review:
In her feature directorial debut, Bell conjures a mood of gentle bawdiness cut with sincerity. There’s a visit to the vibrator shop, and a running joke in which Abby misunderstands the nature of certain sex acts. But for the most part, the movie is free of the cutting loose and potty mouthing endemic to its genre.
Watch on Hulu. Read the full review.
Compiled by Kellina Moore.
