T/movie-reviews

In ‘Avedon,’ a Portraitist’s Work Speaks for Itself

This illuminating documentary about the photographer Richard Avedon shows how much of his personality was infused into his art.

Heartland

As a former country music star, Jessica Chastain strides into this Nashville-set thriller just in time for the Country Music Association Awards.

An Actor Returns, Cast as a Grouch

Johnny Depp returns as the miser of the Dickens holiday classic. But he isn’t playing Scrooge so much as trying to mount a comeback on a get-up and déjà vu.

Heist Humor Worthy of TikTok

A gang of thieves runs brazenly amok with guns and cameras in a movie that has something on its mind but not nearly enough sense.

threeASFOUR: FULL CIRCLE

Sean Ono Lennon directs this documentary about the experimental fashion collective and its struggles despite its high-profile status.

‘Victorian Psycho’ Review: Who’s the Sanest of Them All?

A deliciously deranged psychological horror thriller pokes at the patriarchy and spills a lot of blood.

‘Paper Tiger’ Review: An American Tragedy

Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller star in James Gray’s moody period crime thriller about a family caught up in gangland violence.

‘Bitter Christmas’ Review: A Layered Spanish Melodrama

Pedro Almodóvar combines the stories of two filmmakers into a movie about the pleasure and the price of turning one’s life into art.

‘Being Heumann’ Review: Righting Wrongs and Claiming Rights

A weekslong occupation of a federal building by activists, including Judy Heumann, the “mother of the disability rights movement,” is detailed in this lively docudrama.

‘Ghost Soldier’ Review: As Good as His Word

Jim Caviezel stars in this action film as a former Special Forces officer facing off against a ruthless corporate behemoth razing homes in a rural Wyoming town.

In ‘Birds of War,’ Romance Unfolds Against a Backdrop of Strife

Two filmmakers tell the gripping story of how they fell in love long-distance as they covered protests and uprisings in Syria and Lebanon.

‘Club Kid’ Review: When the Lights Come Up

In his confident and exuberant directorial debut, Jordan Firstman stars as a party promoter who has to grow up.

Climbing With Sly To ‘Rocky’ Stardom

The movie follows Sly (a charming Anthony Ippolito) from hard-scrabbling anonymity in New York to the first flush of success as a screenwriter and actor.

‘Jimmy’ Review: Cornball? Absolutely. But Heck, It’s Got Heart.

Aaron Burns’s sticky-sweet biopic maps a connection between Jimmy Stewart’s military service and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

‘Zi’ Review: The Perpetual Past

Kogonada’s experimental feature tracks one endless night, suffused with the hazy melancholy of nostalgia.

‘Wild Horse Nine’ Review: A C.I.A. Holiday

In Martin McDonagh’s latest laugh- and blood-flecked romp, John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play C.I.A. agents who do more than just sightseeing in Chile.

‘Soul Patrol’ Review: A Veteran’s Past Continues to Haunt Him

J.M. Harper’s Vietnam War documentary captures the emotional dissonance of Black soldiers fighting for a country that continued to deny them their rights.

Ramayana: Rise of a Legend

This respectful adaptation rolls out the converging stories of the prince Rama and the demon king Ravana with brawny blockbuster-style action.

‘Mouse’ Review: The Awkward Etiquette of Unexpected Loss

The actor Sophie Okonedo embodies the quiet anguish of a bereaved mother of a high school girl in this tale of grief and connection in Arkansas.

Hen

In this peculiar story, the Hungarian filmmaker Gyorgi Palfi follows a chicken who escapes slaughter and ends up in a pen alongside a criminal enterprise.

‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Review: Reprieve of Destruction

The belligerent beastie returns to terrorize the survivors of his previous rampage and battle a new foe in this dazzling, darkly haunted sequel.

‘De Gaulle: Résistance’ Review: Uniting a Country at War

This two-part film centers on Charles de Gaulle’s exile from France. As the Nazis close in, the Free French movement emerges.

‘The Cat in the Hat’ Review: What Need Be Added to It That Is New?

The peppy animated version is filled with bold colors, half-decent jokes and a couple of catchy tunes.

‘The Last Temptation of Becky’ Review: ‘You Had Me at Nazi’

In the third installment of this revenge fantasy, Becky (Lulu Wilson) travels to Poland to confront an innkeeper with fascist plans (Neil Patrick Harris).

A 1985 Pipe-Bombing Refuses to Fade

Manhood

Gleeful Sportsmen Who Tackle the Battlefield

Dementia’s Torments, Terrifying To Watch

Danger, Tenacity And Tragedy

The Mongoose

Christmas at the Kringles

Apocalypse Z: New World

When the Cringe Starts to Fizzle

On the Road

A Portrait of Grief and Obsession

The Changing Dynamics Of a Family on the Move

Feted by a Postwar Germany of Ghosts

Inequities Widen Social Fissures

To Get Her Brother Back, She’ll Face What’s in the Forest

A Family Tree Begins With a Handmade Man

When a Con Artist Meets His Maker

Maybe You’re an Easier Mark Than You Think

Making Marie Antoinette

Let’s Just Say She’s One Eccentric Android

Clayface

Making a Case for Innocence With a Little Help From A.I.

Interrogating a Slippery Mind

At a House Party Of Luminaries

Showdowns Galore in a Punchy Slugfest

Pearls of Wisdom in the Belly of a Beast

The Climb And Peak Of a Pioneer

It Can’t Buy Love, But Money Sure Can Pay the Bills

Sacrifice

Searching for Freedom, and Love, in Spain

California Schemin’

Love of Your Life

Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net

This documentary chronicles the reboot and reopening in Las Vegas of the acrobatic show “O,” which shutdown during the pandemic.

Fire Through Dry Grass

This enlightening, troubling documentary chronicles life (and death) among residents in a long-term care facility during the heights of the pandemic.

Backstage, Challenged By Covid

Stakeholders including Patti LuPone and Lynn Nottage share their real-time reactions to New York theater’s shutdown and reopening in Amy Rice’s documentary.

Bad Axe

The filmmaker David Siev chronicles his family’s struggle to keep their Michigan restaurant afloat through the pandemic in this hermetic documentary.