‘The Electrical Life of Louis Wain’ Review: The Cat’s Meow
Movies, October 21
Benedict Cumberbatch plays a British artist who found love, both human and feline, and became famous as the man who drew cats.
‘Becoming Cousteau’ Review: The Old Man and the Sea
Movies, October 21
Liz Garbus’s new documentary is about the life of the French explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the fate of the oceans he loved.
‘Ron’s Gone Wrong’ Review: Still Under Warranty
Movies, October 21
This animated feature, with Zach Galifianakis voicing a malfunctioning robot, sends up technology addiction with a decent amount of wit.
‘No Future’ Review: On a Downward Spiral
Movies, October 21
A recovering addict and a grieving mother follow a self-destructive path in this bleak, understated drama.
‘Minyan’ Review: Cruising Delancey
Movies, October 21
This queer and Jewish coming-of-age drama builds up a vision of neighbors who speak through gestures of care and affection.
‘Learning to Live Together’ Review: Remaking a Once-in-a-Lifetime Band
Movies, October 21
Joe Cocker’s bacchanalian “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” tour gets a reconsideration and a revival in this documentary by Jesse Lauter.
‘Warning’ Review: Untethered From Humanity
Movies, October 21
Agata Alexander directs this contemplative collection of science fiction shorts set in the near future.
‘Night Teeth’ Review: You’re So Vein
Movies, October 20
In this spiritless Netflix movie, an unwitting chauffeur in Los Angeles is drawn into a murderous vampire plot.
‘Escape From Mogadishu’ Review: Conflict Abroad
Movies, October 19
South Korea’s entry for the 2022 Oscars is a fraught action-adventure thriller set in Somalia that leaves a bitter aftertaste.
‘Women Is Losers’ Review: A Woman Beaten but Not Defeated
Movies, October 19
The film follows Celina, a young Latina woman navigating sexism and systemic oppression in the 1960s.
‘Introducing, Selma Blair’ Review: An Actress in Her Second Act
Movies, October 14
A window into the actress’s battle with multiple sclerosis.
‘Halloween Kills’ Review: There Will Be (Copious Amounts of) Blood
Movies, October 14
The newest installment of the “Halloween” franchise, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, is a murderous mess that substitutes corpses for characters.
‘Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy’ Review: What We Talk About
Movies, October 14
In three stories, men and women circle one another as they casually and cruelly share intimacies, express desires and voice doubts.
‘The Velvet Underground’ Review: And Me, I’m in a Rock ’n’ Roll Band
Movies, October 14
Todd Haynes’s documentary paints a jagged, revelatory portrait of the New York avant-garde scene of the 1960s.
‘Bergman Island’ Review: Love Among the Cinephiles
Movies, October 14
In Mia Hansen-Love’s new film, Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth play filmmakers on the rocks in the Baltic Sea.
‘Hard Luck Love Song’ Review: A Glossy Take on a Gritty Tune
Movies, October 14
Drawn from the plotline of a Todd Snider song, the film follows a pool shark and an escort, taking twists that are both violent and silly.
‘Needle in a Timestack’ Review: Put a Pin in It
Movies, October 14
The director John Ridley, who wrote “12 Years a Slave,” tries to combine time travel and romance, and comes up short twice.
‘All About My Sisters’ Review: Family Matters
Movies, October 14
Wang Qiong’s debut feature traces the tragic effects of China’s one-child policy on her family.
‘The Trip’ Review: With This Gun, I Thee Shoot
Movies, October 14
In this Norwegian thriller on Netflix, a murderous couple get more bloodshed than they bargained for.
‘Held for Ransom’ Review: Negotiating With Terrorists
Movies, October 14
This thoughtful hostage drama from Denmark depicts the events surrounding the capturing of Daniel Rye, a photojournalist, by ISIS in 2013.
‘Noroît’ Review: In a French Vision, Pirates Inhabit a Jacobean Drama
Movies, October 14
When this unusual film, made in 1976 by the French director Jacques Rivette, opens in New York this week, it will be making its official debut here.
‘Luzzu’ Review: Capturing Culture on the Coasts of Malta
Movies, October 14
This subtle drama follows a young Maltese fisherman torn between fidelity to his trade and the demands of a modern world.
‘The Last Duel’ Review: A Medieval Epic in the Age of #MeToo
Movies, October 13
Ridley Scott and his all-star cast rip the moldy fig leaf off chivalric romance in a he-said, he-said, she-said spectacle.
‘Son of Monarchs’ Review: Of Butterflies and Belonging
Movies, October 13
This lush Mexican drama tells a story about climate change and cultural identity using the allegory of monarch butterflies’ migration.
‘Fever Dream’ Review: Touching From a Distance
Movies, October 13
Claudia Llosa’s adaptation of Samanta Schweblin’s novel casts a spell, evoking more than it explains.
‘Convergence: Courage in a Crisis’ Review: Tracing a Pandemic’s Arc
Movies, October 12
This Netflix documentary, filmed in different countries throughout 2020, is grueling to watch.
‘Suzanna Andler’ Review: French Riviera Blues
Movies, October 7
This film takes place in a single afternoon, as Suzanna, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, contemplates her bourgeois marriage.
‘South of Heaven’ Review: Anything for Love
Movies, October 7
Jason Sudeikis plays a paroled felon who vows to give his dying lover the best year of her life.
‘The Rescue’ Review: Going All In on a Risky Mission
Movies, October 7
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s documentary recounts the 2018 Thailand cave rescue.
‘Mass’ Review: Stages of Grief
Movies, October 7
Years after a school shooting, two couples meet to discuss their children — the one whose life was taken, and the one who took his life.
‘There’s Someone Inside Your House’ Review: Problematic Secrets Exposed
Movies, October 6
This horror movie from Netflix is a muddled marriage of progressive politics and retrograde style.
‘Distancing Socially’ Review: Scenes from a Quarantine
Movies, October 5
Little happens in this comedy that follows Hollywood players lonely in lockdown.
‘Pharma Bro’ Review: Behind the Smirk
Movies, October 5
This documentary grasps at straws trying to prove that the former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli might not be as loathsome as his reputation suggests.
‘Karen Dalton: In My Own Time’ Review: An Elemental Musical Force
Movies, September 30
A documentary chronicles the turbulent life of a singer whose music made a substantial impression on New York’s 1960s folk scene and still resonates today.
‘Titane’ Review: Auto Erotic
Movies, September 30
Julia Ducournau’s new film, a prizewinner at Cannes, is a grisly, philosophical thriller that puts the pedal to the metal.
‘Coming Home in the Dark’ Review: No Picnic
Movies, September 30
A family outing attracts mysterious, menacing uninvited guests in this grinding New Zealand thriller.
‘Black as Night’ and ‘Bingo Hell’ Review: Marginalized Heroes
Movies, September 30
Two horror comedies that champion the downtrodden are part of the anthology series “Welcome to the Blumhouse,” streaming on Amazon.
‘Falling for Figaro’ Review: When the Overtures Are Operatic
Movies, September 30
An American finance executive leaves behind her cushy life in favor of a musical career in this humdrum romance set in the Scottish Highlands.
‘Enormous: The Gorge Story’ Review: A Musical Paradise
Movies, September 30
A loving documentary about a Pacific Northwest amphitheater, created by a long-ago natural catastrophe, that is a haven for concertgoers.
‘The Addams Family 2’ Review: Wednesday Goes West
Movies, September 30
America’s creepiest family takes a road trip in this animated sequel, though their antics are far more kooky than spooky.
‘Mayday’ Review: Misandry Is the Most Dangerous Game
Movies, September 30
A group of female insurgents hunt down weary men in this halfhearted, half-feminist fantasy from Karen Cinorre.
‘Stop and Go’ Review: Pandemic Aside, Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Movies, September 30
This trite Covid-19-era comedy follows a pair of kooky sisters on a cross-country mission to save their grandmother from a nursing home overrun with cases.
‘Old Henry’ Review: Can’t Keep Him Down on the Farm
Movies, September 30
Starring Tim Blake Nelson, the film tips its hat to classic westerns, even if it gets caught in their shadows.
‘The Guilty’ Review: Dial R for Redemption
Movies, September 30
Jake Gyllenhaal plays an imploding 911 operator in this riveting remake.
‘The Many Saints of Newark’ Review: The Best Really Is Over
Movies, September 29
In the movie prequel to “The Sopranos,” Tony returns as a child who learns to navigate his families on a difficult road to mob power.
‘No Time to Die’ Review: His Word Is His Bond
Movies, September 29
The 25th episode in the venerable franchise — and Daniel Craig’s last as 007 — finds its hero in a somber mood.
‘No One Gets Out Alive’ Review: Seeking Shelter, Finding Terror
Movies, September 29
In this horror movie on Netflix, an immigrant in Cleveland moves into a sinister boardinghouse.
‘The Grudge’ Review: A Curse That Can’t Be Lifted
Culture, January 3
Nicolas Pesce’s new horror movie remake has its chilling moments but ultimately remains cursed by a fatally hokey concept.
‘Watson’ Review: Environmentalism on the High Seas
Weekend, November 7
Lesley Chilcott’s documentary on Paul Watson includes snippets of his “eco-vigilante” group’s widely publicized skirmishes.
‘Doctor Sleep’ Review: A Duller ‘Shining’
Weekend, November 6
In this Stephen King adaptation, Ewan McGregor fights old and new demons.
‘Motherless Brooklyn’ Review: Edward Norton Fights the Power Broker
Weekend, October 31
The actor directs and stars (along with Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Alec Baldwin) in a big, ambitious adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s prizewinning novel.
‘Frankie’ Review: Troubled in Paradise
Weekend, October 23
Isabelle Huppert leads an impressive cast on a glum trip in Ira Sachs’s new film.
‘Mister America’ Review: The Returns Are In: Diminishing
Weekend, October 8
Tim Heidecker plays a bumbling candidate for district attorney in this satire with inspired moments but not much momentum.
‘The Mountain’ Review: Dutiful Minds
Weekend, July 25
Jeff Goldblum plays a genial freelance lobotomist in Rick Alverson’s joyless, yet weirdly beautiful vision of 1950s America.
‘Jirga’ Review: A Soldier Returns to the Scene of His War Crime
Weekend, July 25
This film, set almost entirely in Afghanistan, features striking landscapes that are rarely seen onscreen.
‘Alles Ist Gut’ Review: Surviving Sexual Assault, and All the Mornings After
Culture, June 6
The first-time director Eva Trobisch has made a searing drama about the everyday interactions that all women must navigate carefully.
‘The Curse of La Llorona’ Review: California Freakin’, With Scares, Laughs and a Murderous Ghost
Weekend, April 18
Linda Cardellini plays a widow with two children and a curse in this amusing, old-fashioned ghost story, the latest addition to the “Conjuring” series.
‘Someone Great’ Review: After a Breakup, One Last Night on the Town
Weekend, April 18
Netflix’s contribution to the “girls’ night out” genre has its clichés, but the cast has ample chemistry to pull it off.
‘Naples in Veils’: A Morgue Doctor Is Obsessed. The Movie Is Lifeless.
Weekend, April 18
Ferzan Ozpetek’s thriller tips its hat to the motifs of Hitchcock, only to wind up as a tedious muddle.
‘Little Woods’ Review: Life Is Thicker Than Blood
Weekend, April 18
Tessa Thompson holds the center in this drama about a former drug smuggler on probation who is forced to find a new life for herself and her sister.
‘Instant Dreams’ Review: Polaroid’s Too-Secret Ingredient
Weekend, April 18
Willem Baptist’s documentary is an impressionistic study of the end of the Polaroid camera and the “instant film” it used.
‘Grass’ Review: Eavesdropping in the Coffee Shop With Hong Sang-soo
Weekend, April 18
A sense of dislocation hangs over the South Korean director’s latest feature as a young woman writer observes mostly melancholy people, old and young.
‘Red Joan’ Review: I Spy, Reluctantly
Weekend, April 18
Trevor Nunn’s listless period drama about an English physicist who leaks atom-bomb secrets, drags when it should zing.
‘Family’ Review: Better Living Through Childcare
Weekend, April 18
Taylor Schilling plays a cold workaholic who improves her life by babysitting her unhappy niece.
‘Hail Satan?’ Review: Pitchforks, Black Clothes and Good Deeds
Culture, April 16
Members of the Satanic Temple are not your average devil worshipers.
‘Breakthrough’ Review: A Remarkable Story of Survival, Told Through a Religious Lens
Culture, April 15
After a 14-year-old boy falls into freezing water and his pulse stops, prayers and medical workers both seem to play a role in his recovery.
‘Guava Island’ Review: Donald Glover’s Island Getaway Is a Casual Charmer
Culture, April 13
The star, along with Rihanna and his “Atlanta” collaborators, crafts a freewheeling paean to the pleasures of taking it easy.
‘The Most Dangerous Year’ Review: A Personal Look at Transgender Rights
Weekend, April 11
The director, Vlada Knowlton, who also narrates, is the parent of a transgender daughter.
‘Master Z: Ip Man Legacy’ Review: A Martial Arts Master Roams Free
Weekend, April 11
Several sequels in, the character based on the real-life Ip Man has been so throughly fictionalized that nothing is off-limits. He’s also good fun.
‘Stockholm’ Review: Seduced by a Hostage-Taker
Weekend, April 10
Ethan Hawke is the main reason to see this movie, which revisits the 1973 crime that inspired the condition known as Stockholm syndrome.
‘Little’ Review: Too Much Caution and Not Enough Regina Hall
Weekend, April 10
In this version of the body-switch comedy, Hall turns into her 13-year-old self, played by the amazing young actress Marsai Martin.
‘Unicorn Store’ Review: When It’s Never Time to Put Away Childish Things
Culture, April 5
The message of the movie, directed by and starring Brie Larson, is that there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for adulthood.
‘Peterloo’ Review: Political Violence of the Past Mirrors the Present
Weekend, April 4
Mike Leigh’s historical drama has the sweep of Tolstoy and the bustling energy of Dickens.
‘Pet Sematary’ Review: An Unsettling New Take on a Stephen King Classic
Weekend, April 4
This one has a smoother feel than the 1989 movie, our critic writes. But despite some great jolts, it’s an uneven horror film.
‘The Fate of Lee Khan’ Review: King Hu Directs Angela Mao
Weekend, April 4
Lady Kung Fu and a renowned wuxia director in their only feature together, this restored 1973 film.
‘The Public’ Review: Emilio Estevez Takes Us to the Library for a Civics Lesson
Weekend, April 4
The movie’s literary virtues are up for debate. Its sincerity, though, is not.
‘The Wind’ Review: Who’s That Knocking at My Log Cabin Door?
Weekend, April 4
Emma Tammi’s atmospheric horror-Western shines a gender-specific spotlight on isolation and hardship.
‘Reinventing Rosalee’ Review: A Centenarian Who Won’t Slow Down
Weekend, April 4
The documentary focuses on a feisty woman who survived a Soviet labor camp and went on to thrive in America.
‘Blowin’ Up’ Review: In a Queens Courtroom, Humanity Prevails
Weekend, April 4
Stephanie Wang-Breal’s fascinating documentary highlights a program in Queens that treats prostitutes as victims, not criminals.
‘Suburban Birds’ Review: A Spectacular Directing Debut
Weekend, April 4
In Qiu Sheng’s film, a team of engineers and a group of kids intersect, violating the rules of space and time, or so it would seem.
‘Super Deluxe’ Review: A Tamil Film, With a Cosmic Indie Vibe
Weekend, March 28
Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s second feature, with multiple spiraling plots, can’t sustain its raffish, oddball tone for three hours.
‘A Vigilante’ Review: Vengeance Is Hers
Weekend, March 28
Olivia Wilde stars as an avenger of domestic-abuse victims in Sarah Daggar-Nickson’s satisfyingly lean, mean genre movie.
‘Diane’ Review: A Vibrant Tale of Love, Sisterhood and Decline
Weekend, March 28
Mary Kay Place is astonishing as a weary widow dealing with guilt, heartache and a diminishing circle of friends.
‘The Brink’ Review: Considering the Unlikely Charm of Stephen Bannon
Weekend, March 27
This documentary trails the former White House adviser as he tours Europe and America promoting right-wing populist nationalism.
‘3 Faces’ Review: On the Road in Iran (and Off It, Too)
Weekend, March 7
In this pleasurably intelligent movie, Jafar Panahi explores the divide between fiction and documentary, past and present.
‘I’m Not Here’ Review: J.K. Simmons Stars in a Superficial Study of Regret
Weekend, March 7
A fragmentary structure and allusions to quantum entanglement are meant to add complexity, but it all comes across as a gimmick.