Boy Erased etches sketch of family versus faith into film history
Movie Review: Boy Erased
Director-actor Joel Edgerton brings Garrard Conley’s memoir of his time in conversion-therapy to the big screen with a cast of powerful voices. Veterans, and fellow Aussies, Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman form the harmony and chorus, while Lucas Hedges performs a heartbreaking solo as the son of a Baptist minister struggling with sexual identity. The combination of all three is close to a religious experience, writes critic Katherine Monk.
Outlaw King reimagines tribal history, bares Pine’s parts
New on Netflix/Movie Review: Outlaw King
Chris Pine plays national folk hero Robert the Bruce in David Mackenzie's blood sausage of a costume epic that rewrites a few historical details to serve its dramatic cause, and quench our thirst for more Game of Thrones.
Bohemian Rhapsody misses Mercury’s sexy essence
Movie Review: Bohemian Rhapsody
Rami Malek does an awfully good job of manufacturing an English accent and a sense of sweet mischief, but for all his talent and ambition, he lacks the physical magnetism that defined Freddie Mercury and Queen’s unique place in the arena rock pantheon.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? finds redemption in unsympathetic Israel
Movie Review: Can You Ever Forgive Me?
McCarthy finds a morose incandescence in the conflicted and largely loathsome character of author Lee Israel, allowing the viewer to push past ribbons of inky deception and see a woman who felt wronged by the literary clique.
Free Solo transcends fear to achieve perfection
Movie review: Free Solo
Alex Honnold’s bid to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan without ropes or assistance gives filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi a chance to explore existential fears through character, and one man’s ability to focus on the moment.
Hunter Killer: A canful of manliness
Movie Review: Hunter Killer
Gerard Butler’s ode to Cold War formula serves up sub tropes and B-movie baloney for those seeking junk and hunk comfort food.
Halloween gets all dressed up as the original but has nowhere to go
Movie review: Halloween
David Gordon Green’s ambitious reset of the Halloween franchise showcases a badass Jamie Lee Curtis as trauma survivor Laurie Strode, but for some stupid reason, fails to exploit the post-menopausal character with an axe to grind and a villain to kill.
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch-alypse
Movie review - Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
Baichwal, Burtynsky and de Pencier are back with another gorgeously lensed documentary that almost comes too close to redeeming human ugliness through photographic acts of beauty.
Goosebumps 2 almost too scary
Movie review: Goosebumps 2 - Haunted Halloween
Jack Black returns as R.L. Stine and turns Goosebumps’ Haunted Halloween into a meta horror movie for young adults, but with an evil ventriloquist dummy as the villain and a scene that compromises Mom’s goodness, even grown-ups may get the shivers.
