T/movie-reviews

‘We Beat the Dream Team’ Puts a Twist on the Sports Movie Formula
Culture, February 21

This film tells the story of the college players who defeated the 1992 U.S. men’s basketball team, filled with N.B.A. All-Stars, during a scrimmage before the Olympics.

‘The Unbreakable Boy’ Review: Surmounting Hardships With Joy
Weekend, February 20

This family drama by Jon Gunn, based on a true story, is told from the perspective of a young boy with autism.

‘Compensation’ Review: Still Rebellious
Weekend, February 20

Finally getting a theatrical run, Zeinabu irene Davis’s 1999 film about two Black couples in Chicago in two different eras earns its landmark status.

‘The Quiet Ones’ Review: Getting Swindled in Copenhagen
Weekend, February 20

Inspired by a real heist, this Danish thriller has more moving parts than it can keep track of.

‘Old Guy’ Review: The Veteran and the Rookie
Weekend, February 20

Christoph Waltz plays an aging hit man begrudgingly training his replacement in Simon West’s stale action movie.

‘Millers in Marriage’ Review: Squall in the Family
Weekend, February 20

Three siblings navigate midlife crises in Edward Burns’s glossy look at marriages in transition.

‘Ex-Husbands’ Review: Three Unweddings and a Funeral
Weekend, February 20

In this Griffin Dunne dramedy, a father and his sons face different kinds of relationship troubles at the same time.

‘Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse’ Review: Graphic Doom
Weekend, February 20

In this straightforward documentary, the acclaimed cartoonist reflects on his Holocaust memoir, “Maus,” and other masterworks of subversion.

‘The Monkey’ Review: Death Beats a Little Toy Drum
Weekend, February 20

A gruesome horror comedy adapted from a Stephen King story mixes nihilism, fatherhood and carnage.

‘The Strike’: When Collective Action Leads to Prison Reform
Culture, February 14

The film focuses on a series of hunger strikes organized by those incarcerated at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison, in protest of conditions in highest-security prisons.

‘The Annihilation of Fish’ Review: A Gem That’s Worth the Wait
Weekend, February 13

The director Charles Burnett’s deeply humane, singular film from 1999, starring James Earl Jones, is finally receiving a theatrical release.

‘The Gorge’ Review: How Deep Is Your Love?
Weekend, February 13

Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy don’t exactly meet cute in this action movie, but they do find romance as well as horror.

‘Notes on Displacement’ Review: Seeking a Fresh Start in Europe
Weekend, February 13

The artist and director Khaled Jarrar accompanies a group of people from Syria on their way to Germany in this documentary.

‘Paddington in Peru’ Review: Homeward Bound
Weekend, February 13

The genial bear embarks on an Amazonian journey of self discovery in this movie, which cannot measure up to “Paddington 2” despite its charms.

‘The 2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films’ Review: Bite-Size Stories, Big Ideas
Weekend, February 13

The themes run from sweet to harrowing in this year’s selections.

‘Universal Language’ Review: If Tehran Were Winnipeg
Weekend, February 13

A lightly satirical and surrealist comedy imagines the snowy Canadian city in the style of the Iranian New Wave.

‘Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)’ Review: Struggling to Transmit
Weekend, February 13

Questlove’s new documentary aims to dissect the forward-looking brilliance of Sly Stone and his band, but mostly it traces their downward arc.

‘La Dolce Villa’ Review: Sweet Italian Nonsense
Weekend, February 13

A light as air romantic comedy about a cheap villa in a fictional town capitalizes on the “Emily in Paris” model, with pasta.

‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’ Brings a Screwball Heroine Back
Weekend, February 13

The madcap Londoner returns in a third sequel that is just as deliciously satisfying as the first movie in the series — maybe even more.

‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ Review: The Master Blasters
Weekend, February 13

A new documentary looks back at the band’s early years, featuring interviews with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in retrospective mode.

‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Review: This One’s Red
Weekend, February 12

The latest Marvel movie introduces a new Captain America in the form of a political thriller.

‘Paint Me a Road Out of Here’: Faith Ringgold’s Gift to Prisoners
Culture, February 7

In this documentary, the artist depicts what a more just and beautiful world might look like.

‘Love Hurts’ Review: A Valentine Full of Action
Culture, February 7

Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose play reunited former associates from a criminal outfit. Sparks don’t exactly fly.

‘Heart Eyes’ Review: Love Is in the Air, Along With a Machete
Weekend, February 6

Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding meet cute, then meet killer in this rom-com masquerading as a horror movie.

‘Kinda Pregnant’ Review: The Belly of the Beast
Weekend, February 6

Amy Schumer plays a jealous best friend who fakes her own pregnancy in this Netflix comedy filled with dopey men and miserable women.

‘Bring Them Down’ Review: Sinister Revenge in Rural Ireland
Weekend, February 6

Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan are beleaguered sheep farmers at war in this gory drama.

‘Parthenope’ Review: Goddess Worship
Weekend, February 6

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino, this decadent drama about a beautiful young woman is a one-sided meditation on art, desire and spirituality.

‘Armand’ Review: When a School Is a Trap
Weekend, February 6

Renate Reinsve stars in a drama about an insular community that is intermittently interesting.

‘The Fishing Place’ Review: A Village Under Suspicion
Weekend, February 6

Rob Tregenza’s latest film, set in a German-occupied Norwegian village, follows a housekeeper dispatched to spy on a priest.

‘No Other Land’: An Eye-Opener About the West Bank and the Movies
Culture, January 31

A team of Palestinian and Israeli directors take a daring approach to the subject. But the Oscar-nominated film could not find a U.S. distributor.

‘Love Me’ Review: A Romance Six Billion Years in the Making
Weekend, January 30

Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun star in a marvelously inventive sci-fi romance that spans eons yet pokes at a simple question.

‘Marcello Mio’ Review: All About My Father
Weekend, January 30

Chiara Mastroianni enacts a warped sort of paternal cosplay in this French farce, also starring her mother, Catherine Deneuve.

‘Green and Gold’ Review: Betting the Farm on Football Games
Weekend, January 30

Craig T. Nelson plays a stubborn farmer in Wisconsin whose devotion to the Green Bay Packers could save his business.

‘Companion’ Review: Girl, Corrupted
Weekend, January 30

A lakeside getaway becomes a battleground for couples in this fast, furious and exceptionally fun horror-comedy.

‘You’re Cordially Invited’ Review: Here Come the Brides
Weekend, January 30

Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon star in a romantic comedy about double-booked weddings that never quite hits its stride.

‘Dog Man’ Review: Best Friends Forever
Weekend, January 29

A police officer and a dog get fused into one crime-fighter in this antic, enjoyable adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s comic series.

‘Eternal You’ and the Ethics of Using A.I. to ‘Talk’ to Dead Loved Ones
Culture, January 24

Examining what it means to make money by selling the bereaved on an illusion, the film feels like something of a warning.

‘Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net’ Review: How the Magic Happens
Weekend, July 25

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

‘Fire Through Dry Grass’ Review: Unsafe Space
Weekend, September 28

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

‘Broadway Rising’ Review: Surviving the Pandemic
Weekend, December 27

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’ Review: A Pandemic Family Portrait
Weekend, November 17

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