Movie Review: Stan & Ollie finds comic sweetness
Movie Review: Stan & Ollie
Jon S. Baird’s pathos-laden take on Laurel and Hardy allow Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly to explore the slow-boiling lunacy that fuelled the comic legends, yet lacks a light and loving touch.
Kidman falls prey to bad hair daze in Destroyer
Movie review: Destroyer
By tugging at the fake-looking locks sported by Nicole Kidman in Karyn Kusama’s ode to L.A. Noir, our critic coughs up a tangled knot of endemic sexism, and a latent desire for a little more destruction from downer Destroyer.
Widows buries thriller formula and finds female power
#OscarCheck2018
Movie Review - Widows
Steve McQueen's follow-up to 12 Years a Slave is a female-driven heist film based on a beloved British TV series. For most directors, making a genre thriller would put them out of Oscar contention. But the award-winning McQueen isn’t your average director, and in the wake of #MeToo, Widows could still blow things wide open.
The Front Runner circles lapse of judgment in a losing cause
Movie Review: The Front Runner
Jason Reitman recreates the late-80s political landscape to survey the moment when the sober Republic turned into All-American spectacle: Gary Hart’s soiled Presidential bid, spoiled by sex scandal and the rise of tabloid TV.
Boy Erased etches sketch of family versus faith into film history
Movie Review: Boy Erased
Director-actor Joel Edgerton brings Garrard Conley’s memoir of his time in conversion-therapy to the big screen with a cast of powerful voices. Veterans, and fellow Aussies, Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman form the harmony and chorus, while Lucas Hedges performs a heartbreaking solo as the son of a Baptist minister struggling with sexual identity. The combination of all three is close to a religious experience, writes critic Katherine Monk.
Bohemian Rhapsody misses Mercury’s sexy essence
Movie Review: Bohemian Rhapsody
Rami Malek does an awfully good job of manufacturing an English accent and a sense of sweet mischief, but for all his talent and ambition, he lacks the physical magnetism that defined Freddie Mercury and Queen’s unique place in the arena rock pantheon.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? finds redemption in unsympathetic Israel
Movie Review: Can You Ever Forgive Me?
McCarthy finds a morose incandescence in the conflicted and largely loathsome character of author Lee Israel, allowing the viewer to push past ribbons of inky deception and see a woman who felt wronged by the literary clique.
Free Solo transcends fear to achieve perfection
Movie review: Free Solo
Alex Honnold’s bid to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan without ropes or assistance gives filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi a chance to explore existential fears through character, and one man’s ability to focus on the moment.
