Kin can’t make good from a wonderfully bad Franco
Movie review: Kin
The Baker boys' debut feature may not be fabulous, but somewhere in this wannabe young adult franchise lies a message about the power of guns, and how it transforms one’s place in the American social order.
Juliet, Naked strips romance down to nagging self-doubt
Movie review: Juliet, Naked
Director Jesse Peretz brings alt-rock authenticity to Nick Hornby’s story of a singer-songwriter who fell off the map, only to be rediscovered by the long-suffering partner of an obsessive fan. Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd offer pure performance, but it’s Rose Byrne’s quiet navigation of personal desire that redeems the ego-fest.
Papillon escapes a gritty chrysalis with little flutter
Movie review: Papillon
Charlie Hunnam looks a little like the late Steve McQueen, which makes comparisons to the 1973 Frank Schaffner classic harder to ignore, and Hunnam’s task all the more challenging as he’s forced to escape an island of fortified expectations.
Skate Kitchen slices, dices dude culture
Movie Review: Skate Kitchen
Crystal Moselle’s follow-up to The Wolfpack returns the viewer to the margins of New York City, this time in fictional form as we hook up with some real-life skateboarders who kick-flip chick stereotype.
Crazy Rich Asians takes rom-com for a luxury ride
Movie review: Crazy Rich Asians
Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Kevin Kwan bestseller proves money trumps ethnicity and genre is universal as we watch a Romeo and Juliet romance unravel in the middle of Singapore.
Alpha to um, mega
Movie review: Alpha
Albert Hughes’s magical, 3D vision of post-Ice Age Europe forms the backdrop for a fictionalized account of how one generation of early humans domesticated the wolf.
Mile 22: 22 miles a minute and going nowhere
Movie Review: Mile 22
Mark Wahlberg plays a black ops specialist who meets his match in Iko Uwais’s cop-turned-double agent in Mile 22, a thriller that stalks, but never closes for the kill.
Dog Days lifts a leg on Hollywood hydrant
Movie review: Dog Days
A fluffy version of Crash for canines features the lives and leashes of various Angelenos intertwining, without once pausing to smell its own assumptions.
BlacKkKlansman gets under the all-white hood
Movie Review: BlacKkKlansman
Spike Lee's movie, based on the true story of a black policeman who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, focuses on America’s enduring cultural history of racism.
Puzzle puzzles but finds an odd fit
Movie review: Puzzle
Marc Turtletaub’s English remake of an Argentine art-house favourite is a pretty box of carefully crafted small moments that form a big picture of a still life.
