Carolina Caroline (2025)
Hot stars add heat to ‘Carolina Caroline’ Novelty is at a premium in the romantic crime drama “Carolina Caroline,” an alluring, ultimately pale imitation of Terrance Malick’s “Badlands.” Everything about it feels recycled and preordained. You correctly sense impending doom from the first moment the naive West Texas bumpkin Caroline makes eye contact with the dangerously […]
Renoir (2025)
Beautiful ‘Renoir’ paints coming-of-age masterpiece Death is a concept 11-year-old Fuki Okita has so little grasp of that she’s flippantly written a school essay titled “I’d Like to Be an Orphan.” It’s a case study on being careful what you wish for, as the Reaper fixes to come calling on her family in the mesmerizing coming-of-age tale “Renoir.” […]
Pitfall (2025)
Woeful ‘Pitfall’ most definitely is the pits The laughably awful “Pitfall” is slasher trash of the lowest order. It fails at every level, from the wooden acting to the rote script to the sloppy direction by its helmer, James Kondelik. You expect the characters to be subjected to bloodletting torture, but their encounters […]
The Last Viking (2025)
Oh, brother, is ‘The Last Viking’ fabulous Some of the best films about autism aren’t about autism. They’re more autism adjacent. And of late, there have been a trio of such gems in “The Stranger,” “I Swear,” and perhaps the best of them all, Anders Thomas Jensen’s “The Last Viking.” It stars the incomparable […]
Giant (2025)
Middling ‘Giant’ falls short of a knockout If the boxing biopic, “Giant,” lacks punch, it’s through no fault of Pierce Brosnan and Amir El-Mesry, both knockouts in their portrayals of legendary trainer Brendan Ingle and feather-weight hall of famer Naseem “Naz” Hamed, aka “The Prince.” No, the onus rests with a flat, cliched script […]
Ask E. Jean (2025)
In ‘Ask E. Jean,’ Carroll gets the best of The Donald For more than two decades, journalist E. Jean Carroll thoughtfully, and often entertainingly, doled out advice to readers through her monthly Elle column “Ask E. Jean.” But that all ended the minute she summoned the courage in 2019 to confront the lasting guilt […]
Tuner (2025)
Flawed ‘Tuner’ has fun mixing etudes with attitude You don’t notice it immediately, but there’s something a bit off with “Tuner,” Oscar-winning director Daniel Roher’s feature-film debut about an apprentice piano technician lending his acute hearing skills to a criminal enterprise. It’s like an E sharp sounding too much like an F flat, an […]
The Wizard of the Kremlin
‘Wizard’ chronicles Putin’s rise to Russian dictator Condensing 22 years of Russian history into one 136-minute film is a big ask, and one that co-writer-director Olivier Assayas doesn’t quite pull off. But there’s still plenty to like about his adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s novel, “The Wizard of the Kremlin.” And much of that […]
Magic Hour (2025)
Sugary ‘Magic Hour’ far from to die for With the exasperating “Magic Hour,” the multi-hyphenate Katie Aselton continues her facile fascination with elements of fantasy and the supernatural. And she somewhat smartly heads off at the pass any criticism by making the picture so rife with potential spoilers that it’s nearly rendered review-proof. I […]
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Sally Field supplies most of ‘Creature’s’ comforts If you’re looking for octopi to occupy your time, you could do a lot worse than “Remarkably Bright Creatures.” After all, the Netflix feature features one of Sally Field’s finest performances, refuting the old showbiz adage of never acting opposite a critter, especially a sage cephalopod sporting […]