The Marksman is a sturdy and uncomplicated but mostly satisfying entry into the Neeson oeuvre of stoic, righteous masculinity. Another exercise in stoicism and dignified masculinity, replete with a dash of reactionary violence and a grizzled lead performance? Smells like a Liam Neeson movie. In…
Soul is another complex, cosmic effort from Pixar, and a quietly joyous send-off to a relentlessly bleak year. It makes a certain sense to end 2020, a year of profound uncertainty, by asking ourselves what it all means. Why are we here and does any…
Wonder Woman 1984 is bloated at 151 minutes, but the chemistry of its leads and throwback hokey vibes are enough to recommend its particular superhero pleasures. In case you couldn’t guess from the title, we catch up with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), last seen just…
News of the World is a film of dangerously naïve messaging, erratic pacing, limited stakes, and little formal or technical craft to otherwise distract from such weaknesses. The Western was arguably the most popular genre in the world from roughly 1910 until the 1960s,…
Monster Hunter suggests that Paul W.S. Anderson has exhausted his bag of tricks and is soullessly recycling familiar fare to diminishing results. The lore of Monster Hunter, the latest film from vulgar auteurist favorite Paul W.S. Anderson, concerns itself with the entanglement of two realms:…
Greenland does well to focus on its human center rather than CGI spectacle, but its pleasures remain mostly minor. The disaster film is a genre as old as cinema itself, dating back at least to Edwin Porter filming a house burning down in 1903. The…
All My Life adopts the familiar form of any number of tragic romances without building any depth into its vision. Jessica Rothe is undoubtedly one of the most promising young actresses working in film today. Her calling card is the particular brand of charm and…
Superintelligence undermines its innocuous silliness and any potential rom-com aspirations with needlessly complicated stakes and a fixation on its own high concept. There’s a genuinely charming romantic comedy hiding somewhere within the edges of Superintelligence, the new Melissa McCarthy vehicle directed by her husband, Ben…
Freaky is a playful and genuinely funny ’90s slasher revamp that boasts both surprising commentary and appropriately gnarly kill thrills. There’s a lot to like about director Christopher Landon’s latest feature, Freaky, in which a bullied high schooler named Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) swaps bodies…
May the Devil Take You Too is a Raimi-esque bloodbath, gore-fest, and goop-show that understands how to set up and execute its thrillingly gnarly set pieces. Timo Tjahjanto has charted an interesting career path, alternating between insanely violent, bone-crunching kung-fu movies and aggressively visceral horror…
