Boston Globe

Though he belabors the obvious and sensationalizes the carnage and sadism, Schwentke is dealing with some relevant issues.

Posted Sep 6, 2018

Older Than Ireland (2016)

Fegan draws on the wealth of Irish beauty: fairyland landscapes, quaint interiors, gaily painted doors and windows and the people who live there. He puts these snapshots together with a puckish wit.

Posted Sep 1, 2018

3/4

The Little Stranger (2018)

With its closely observed sympathy for thwarted lives, it could be a Terence Davies movie. And with all that, it's a ghost story, too, but of a very special sort.

Posted Aug 30, 2018

3/4

Juliet, Naked (2018)

You have to swallow a lot to buy into "Juliet, Naked" - including the preposterous notion that anyone could ignore Rose Byrne - but the direction and the playing turn it into comfort food.

Posted Aug 30, 2018

2.5/4

Kin (2018)

Truitt's quiet wariness is the finest thing in a movie full of good acting.

Posted Aug 30, 2018

1.5/4

A Midsummer Night's Dream (2018)

Amelia Nierenberg

Time and again, Mott's arrogance crushes the play.

Posted Aug 30, 2018

2.5/4

The Wife (2018)

What unites the film's two halves - what makes it worth watching, period - is the road Close's Joan travels as she decides whether to reclaim authorship of her own life.

Posted Aug 30, 2018

3/4

Operation Finale (2018)

A respectful chronicle of retribution, one that's suspenseful while resisting sensationalism.

Posted Aug 28, 2018

3.5/4

Support the Girls (2018)

Amelia Nierenberg

Herein lies the quiet magic of "Support the Girls" - the reason to see it, the reason that keeps it coming back from the recesses of this reviewer's psyche: Lisa is kind. That's the secret, the reason the film is a little diamond.

Posted Aug 23, 2018

2.5/4

The Happytime Murders (2018)

Once our initial LOL shock at the tone of "Happytime Murders" wears off, we begin hankering for something more - yet the movie is content mostly just to up the outrageousness, piling on material as liable to make us cringe as laugh.

Posted Aug 23, 2018

3/4

Mile 22 (2018)

Berg and Wahlberg deliver a relentlessly paced, addictively slick paramilitary thriller actively catering to fans of gonzo brutality and turbocharged machismo.

Posted Aug 17, 2018

2.5/4

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (2018)

Hearing about all this TLC will make watching TCM a very different experience.

Posted Aug 16, 2018

2.5/4

Alpha (2018)

The stylishly crafted film mostly succeeds in its engaging (and tagline-ready) ambition to chronicle "how mankind discovered man's best friend," even if its naturalistic strengths are swapped out for an exaggeratedly epic tone in the later going.

Posted Aug 16, 2018

2.5/4

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

For a while, "Crazy Rich Asians" has the airborne, happy preposterousness of a good screwball comedy. Those first 60 minutes or so are a treat: lighthearted, sure-handed, zippy.

Posted Aug 16, 2018

3.5/4

Skate Kitchen (2018)

Graham Ambrose

The entire movie hangs like a varial kickflip on the strength its star. Vinberg is quiet, subdued, and affected when the situation demands.

Posted Aug 15, 2018

3/4

Nico, 1988 (2018)

"Nico, 1988" is worth a look... for its portrait of a spirit absolutely unyielding, who expected the worst from life and found cold, beautiful comfort when she got it.

Posted Aug 9, 2018

3/4

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)

"The Miseducation of Cameron Post" is a scrapbook made by the people who were there.

Posted Aug 9, 2018

2.5/4

Puzzle (2018)

The indie drama's aptly metaphorical goings-on have real warmth, and get an added boost from charming performances by Macdonald and Irrfan Khan...

Posted Aug 9, 2018

3.5/4

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

One of the director's strongest yet most entertaining works in years.

Posted Aug 9, 2018

Reunification (2015)

A layered documentary that is as much an inquiry into the nature of time and memory as it is an individual's diary.

Posted Aug 8, 2018

3/4

Christopher Robin (2018)

What's so satisfying about these telegraphed messages is the earnest, old-fashioned charm that McGregor and longtime Pooh voice actor Jim Cummings bring to them.

Posted Aug 2, 2018

3/4

Far From the Tree (2018)

At its most radical and empathetic, "Far From the Tree" urges us to start thinking of disability in terms of identity, not as a locus of struggle but a place of being.

Posted Aug 2, 2018

2.5/4

McQueen (2018)

Christopher Muther

If you have any intention of seeing "McQueen" make sure you see it in a theater for full effect.

Posted Aug 2, 2018

2/4

The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)

A forced McKinnon is a diminished McKinnon. She's able to put together a caricature, but never a character.

Posted Aug 2, 2018

3/4

Blindspotting (2018)

See the movie, for its urgency, for its performances, and for the vibrant portrait of a community being erased in the names of progress and profit.

Posted Jul 26, 2018

3/4

Dark Money (2018)

Engrossing, lucid, and unsettling...

Posted Jul 26, 2018

3/4

Custody (Jusqu'à la garde) (2018)

Legrand in his feature debut shows laudable technical ability and discipline.

Posted Jul 26, 2018

3/4

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

At its best, an exercise in pure action-movie propulsion and an essay in how to get from Point A to Point B in the most ingenious and exhausting way imaginable.

Posted Jul 26, 2018

Grey Gardens (2009)

Matthew Gilbert

Lange is flat-out extraordinary as she reveals the extent of Big Edie's big narcissism without demonizing her.

Posted Jul 24, 2018

3/4

The Green Fog (2018)

Eerie, witty, and unexpectedly moving.

Posted Jul 19, 2018

2.5/4

Love, Cecil (2018)

An unavoidable shortcoming of the documentary is the absence of Beaton's peers. Somewhat making up for that is an even more dazzling lineup of period film clips and vintage photographs.

Posted Jul 19, 2018

3/4

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)

I wish I could tell you that "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" is ridiculous and I hated it, but the fact is that it's ridiculous and I loved every minute.

Posted Jul 19, 2018

2.5/4

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (2018)

There's a truth to life in that shagginess, let alone a life as unusual as Callahan's. But it does make it hard for "Don't Worry" to hang together.

Posted Jul 19, 2018

3.5/4

Eighth Grade (2018)

Burnham's filmmaking is unfussy yet thought through, so Fisher's seemingly artless performance is actually a pretty brilliant piece of acting.

Posted Jul 19, 2018

2/4

Equalizer 2 (2018)

A narratively and visually muddled disappointment, one that regularly confuses numbing brutality with vicariously thrilling righteous vengeance.

Posted Jul 19, 2018

2/4

Skyscraper (2018)

As a streaming option on a slow night or a long flight, the movie has its uses. But you've seen almost all of this before, with more wit and a better villain.

Posted Jul 13, 2018

Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018)

Matthew Gilbert

It almost doesn't matter whether the documentary is any good. Williams is compelling enough on his own, in his run-on comedy bits - Elmer Fudd singing Bruce Springsteen's "Fire" anyone? - and in his more sincere moments, as well.

Posted Jul 12, 2018

3/4

The King (2018)

At its best, "The King" is a fever dream of American glory and American weirdness - between which there can be an even thinner line than the one separating love from hate.

Posted Jul 12, 2018

4/4

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

While the narrative of "Sorry to Bother You" follows an over-familiar arc of ambition, pride, fall, and atonement, the details are hilarious and quite a bit sharper than you may first realize.

Posted Jul 12, 2018

3.5/4

Three Identical Strangers (2018)

Well after the astonishment of its narrative fades, "Three Identical Strangers" is a movie to make you think twice about your own siblings - and maybe take a long look in the mirror at yourself.

Posted Jul 5, 2018

4/4

Zama (2018)

Some movies unfold as dreams; "Zama" dances us playfully toward the edge of nightmare and then asks us to open our eyes.

Posted Jul 5, 2018

3/4

Whitney (2018)

Graham Ambrose

Far-reaching interviews with friends, relatives, and colleagues cover a winding - and, by now, somewhat familiar - terrain of personal scandals and family secrets.

Posted Jul 5, 2018

3.5/4

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

"Ant-Man and the Wasp" is disposable pop trash, not worth taking seriously for a moment and therefore eminently worthy of your attention at this moment.

Posted Jul 5, 2018

2/4

Boundaries (2018)

The film... crosses a line - between engaging idiosyncrasy and floundering improbability, amusing and cringeworthy.

Posted Jul 5, 2018

Gallipoli (1981)

Michael Blowen

Gallipoli is a predictable war movie filled with all the gung-ho cliches of the genre -- and I loved it.

Posted Jun 28, 2018

2.5/4

Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)

{Soldado] dithers away into subplots, including one that is ludicrously contrived and seems designed to continue the franchise.

Posted Jun 28, 2018

2/4

Damsel (2018)

The frontier as a symbol not of manifest destiny but of man's idiocy? There's an interesting movie in that. "Damsel" gets about halfway there.

Posted Jun 28, 2018

3.5/4

Leave No Trace (2018)

The movie shines a gentle but insistent light on America's underclass and walking wounded, the people in the cracks just getting by.

Posted Jun 28, 2018

2/4

Uncle Drew (2018)