Recent Reviews
These are our latest reviews of movies at theaters, at the art house, or at festivals.
Minions: The Rise of Gru
***1/22022
There are no political or cultural agendas on tap here, this one is for the fun of it.
Minions: The Rise of Gru is so good, it’s the antithesis of Pixar’s Lightyear in virtually every way.
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Elvis (2022)
****2022, Baz Luhrmann
Ultimately, Elvis’ life isn’t just a great story, it’s a great American story.
In Elvis, Baz Luhrmann ditches the caricature, magnifies the mythology and reintroduces an American hero.
Lightyear
**1/22022, Angus MacLane
Instead of being honest about the past, in Lightyear Pixar tries to rewrite it.
Lightyear is one of Pixar’s most problematic and disappointing productions.
Jurassic World: Dominion
**2022, Colin Trevorrow
Dominion loses the courage to stay in the concrete jungle.
Jurassic World: Dominion completes the devolution of a once proud series.
Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story
**1/22022, Frank Marshall, and Ryan Suffern
Jazz Fest is too orchestrated.
Frank Marshall’s documentary on the New Orleans Jazz Fest is an average overview that misses a few notes.
Top Gun: Maverick
****2022, Joseph Kosinski
Butter the popcorn. Pour the soda. Settle in for the thrills.
Top Gun: Maverick marks a major milestone for post-COVID moviegoing. It’s the return of the classic summer movie experience.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
***2022, Sam Raimi
Multiverse of Madness doesn’t hit all the marks, but it’s a good piece of entertainment.
It’s Sam Raimi’s masterful third act that makes the Multiverse of Madness worth visiting.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
****2022, Tom Gormican
When it’s Cage-on-Cage sparring, it’s taken to a whole new level.
If more movies were this purely entertaining, life would be sooo fuhrrrrriiiccckkkking awesome!
The Northman offers moments of singular vision and intensity, but the story spends too much time in the land of the familiar.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
**1/22022, David Yates
The energy simply isn’t there this time around.
The adventures of Newt Scamander take a strange, dark detour through a case of election fraud that’s lacking in magic.
With Ambulance, Michael Bay has discovered the thrill of filmmaking with drones and the audience suffers because of it.
The Lost City
***2022, Aaron Nee, and Adam Nee
Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum are safely working in their comfort zones with this material.
A trove of comedy gold is found in The Lost City, but some of it’s fool’s gold.
The Batman
***1/22022, Matt Reeves
This Batman has a way of creeping into the psyche long after the movie ends.
The Batman slogs through a morass of franchise baggage and expectations; the effort is rewarded with a deft reset and a strong setup for future adventures.
Undefined characters and an underwhelming story send Uncharted into uninspired territory.
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The Cursed (2022)
**1/22022, Sean Ellis
This atmospheric film’s ambitions aren’t enough to shake the specter of the overly familiar.
While technically well-crafted, the story in The Cursed doesn’t go far enough to escape the tried-and-true tropes and trappings of the werewolf legend.