Drama
A Hidden Life
4 stars Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” the true story of a World War II conscientious objector, is one of his finest films, and one of his most demanding.
Hala
3 Stars Directed by Minhal Baig (from Chicago). It was released in a limited release on November 22, 2019, followed by digital streaming on December 6, 2019, by AppleTV+. Wikipedia “Hala” possesses something inherently extraordinary by just being about a young, female Muslim-American. It’s an unassuming film that hops on a casual rhythm and shines its wisdom to let its lead character Hala (Geraldine Viswanathan)
Burning Cane
4 stars. Phillip Youmans’ extraordinary debut feature. A drama about a church, a religious family and a preacher played by Wendell Pierce (Selma).
Chained For Life
3.5 stars. A film within a film that looks really good.
The movie they're filming is helmed by an autocratic German director (Charlie Korsmo), and rumors swirl that 1.) he is not even German and 2.) he was "raised in a circus." The pretentious fictional film ("it's called 'God's Mistakes' in German" someone is overheard saying) is the story of a mad scientist doctor and his evil nurse sidekick operating on their disabled patients, removing their disabilities so they can re-enter society. I haven't seen Charlie Korsmo in a movie in a long time, maybe not since 1990 when he was in Dick Tracy.
Low Tide
3 stars. Described as an adolescent “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” with echoes of '80s adventure classics like "The Goonies" and "Stand by Me." I was not a fan of the show Stranger Things but this might be more to my liking.
Waves
4 stars. It’s about how a series of compounding very bad decisions can ultimately impact good ones. Trey Edward Shults has written and directed an empathetic commentary on the interconnectivity of human nature—a film filled with great, almost unimaginable pain, but also incredible beauty. And it ultimately feels like a call for kindness and forgiveness. Even after the one-two punch of “Krisha” and “It Comes at Night,” “Waves” is unexpectedly ambitious and confident, the work of a filmmaker in complete control of his talents and using them to challenge himself. This is a deeper and more profound film than your average character drama, a masterpiece that’s hard to walk away from without checking your own grievances and grief. Music by Trent Reznor. With Lucas Hedges.
Dolemite is my Name
3.5 stars. Eddie Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, the chameleon-like hustler who parlayed his ability to change and his tenaciousness into a career as a stand-up comedian whose signature character, Dolemite, made him famous.
Honey Boy
3.5 stars. An autobiographical story written by Shia LaBeouf. Normally I wouldn't care for his work but he impressed me in The Peanut Butter Falcon so I might give this a watch one day.
Seberg
Only received 1.5 star, but still looks interesting with Kristen Stewart playing Jean Seberg.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
4 Stars. French director Céline Sciamma fourth feature has been called one of the best films of the year.
Comedy
Jojo Rabbit
2.5 stars. A satirical comedy that looks really interesting from the trailers I've seen.
Greener Grass
3 stars. DeBoer and Luebbe have created a psychotic suburban world where surface conformity is all, where everyone strives to look and be the same. The smiling faces perch on top of roiling emotions, not even necessarily anti-social emotions, just regular ones, like need, loss, pain. "Keeping up with the Joneses" is pushed to its most surreal extreme. Everyone in the town has braces. Everyone dresses the same, in pinks and light blues and light purples. Everyone drives golf carts. It's like they live in a mini village placed on a country club golf course somewhere.
Between Two Ferns
3.5 stars. One of the most amiable comedies of the year. Starring Zach Galifianakis and based on a skit/web series that I haven't seen but this movie sounds interesting.
Jexi
2.5 stars. This movie sounds alot like Her, which might be a good second feature to pair this movie up with to watch one day.
Horror/Thriller
Paradise Hills
1.5 stars. But looks like it could be good....a sci-fi thriller follows an unruly young woman of the future who’s sent to a re-education camp for young ladies to become more docile and compliant. Starring Emma Roberts, Mila Jojovich and Awkwafina.
Portals
Only 2 stars given, but sounds like my kind of movie, a horror anthology.
Little Monsters
Only 2 stars, but it sounds like it could be an interesting zombie comedy. Haven't seen a bad film with Lupita Nyong’o so this could be interesting.
Villains
3 stars. There is an inherent level of tonal ambiguity baked into the home invasion thriller-cum-comedy “Villains,” the third feature collaboration of the filmmaking duo Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. Also serving as the co-scribes of a story that tiptoes around notes both absurd and unsettling.
With Maika Monroe (so good in The Guest and It Follows) and Kyra Sedwick.
Girl on the Third Floor
3.5 stars. Looks like it could be a good darkly comic haunted house thriller.
Documentary
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
3.5 stars. A woman leaves behind over 30 years of recorded tv programming.
63 Up
4 Stars. The latest from Michael Apted and his subjects that he has been following for over 50 years.
The Cave
3.5 stars. Feras Fayyad’s follow-up documentary to “Last Men in Aleppo,” “The Cave" about a last resort hospital staffed by dogged professionals underground.
Midnight Traveler
3 stars. Afghan filmmaker Hassan Fazili and his family shot the documentary entirely on three mobile phones while on the run from the Taliban, which had put out a hit on him.
Gay Chorus Deep South
3 stars. When chorus member Jimmy White admits how painful it will be if his long-estranged father fails to show up to their concert in Jackson, Mississippi—which just so happens to be his parents’ hometown—Seelig stresses the importance of White telling his folks how important their presence will be, rather than assuming they already know.
Varda by Agnes
3 stars. A combination autobiography and career survey overseen by the filmmaker
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael
3 stars. Looks good.
Where's My Roy Cohn
3 stars. We get the impression from this film that, right up to the bitter, agonized end, he was engaged in an internal battle to justify himself to himself, and to the world. There was also a television movie about Cohn from years ago that I've been wanting to see. One day when I'm in the mood to learn more about his life I might pair up these two films.
The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash
3 stars. Available on demand from YouTube Originals.
The Disappearance of My Mother
3 stars. Looks like a really thought provoking film about a former fashion model now in her late 70s.
International/Non-English language
Chinese Portrait (China) - Documentary
4 Stars. Comprised of about 60 vignettes.
I Lost My Body (France) - Animated
3 stars. Jérémy Clapin’s “I Lost My Body,” a surprise winner of the Critics’ Week Grand Prize this year at Cannes (the first animated movie to do so), is a visually sumptuous slice of macabre storytelling that works best when it uses its director’s magical sense of composition and less when it feels weighed down by narrative.
Atlantics/Atlantique (France-Senegal)
4 Stars. Thrills throughout its runtime, matches its gorgeous imagery with a compelling story, and defies easy categorization. Mati Diop’s haunting narrative feature debut “Atlantics” is one such movie. It’s unlike few other movies you’ll see this year or possibly this decade.
Britt-Marie Was Here (Sweden)
3 stars. Based on a novel by Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove), whose themes often include cranky people who isolate themselves and community sports that bring people together. Thankfully, he and director Tuva Novotny keep the characters astringent and his tone wry, so it never gets cuddly or cloying. This sounds depressing but still looks like it could be a very good character study.
Monos (South American)
3 stars. Alejandro Landes’ third feature, a fascinating and sometimes frustrating film. These kids—maybe orphans or street kids, maybe kidnapped or pressed into service—and then brutalized by military discipline and indoctrination—are left totally alone, no adults in sight, to create their own world.
In My Room (German)
3.5 stars The German lo-fi sci-fi character study “In My Room” is for anybody who’s dreamed and/or panicked about the existential terror and romantic solitude that attends a classic doomsday scenario: what if you were the last person on Earth?
Synonyms (France)
2.5 stars. Sounds like a really good film.