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.
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.
Venom pits Tom Hardy against an oily Zeitgeist
Movie Review: Venom
Ruben Fleischer’s movie about supervillain Venom fails to sink its fangs into genre, leaving Tom Hardy to wrestle a dark alien force that’s colonized his DNA. It’s a perfect metaphor for the times, but can filmmakers capitalize on the moment when they’re working in the Marvel universe?
A Star is Born is a gassy giant, indeed
Movie review: A Star is Born
Bradley Cooper writes, directs and stars in this latest revamp of a seminal Hollywood yarn that proves the nexus of progressive America remains completely conservative when it comes to its own story. On the bright side, Cooper and Lady Gaga use their first-timer adrenaline to fuel this bumpy rocket ride, creating great spectacle -- if not deep drama.
