Movie Reviews : NPR

Movie Reviews Reviews of new movies, classic and art films, foreign films, and popular movies. Featuring Bob Mondello, Kenneth Turan, David Edelstein, and Mark Jenkins.

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Life Can Be A Mess, But So Is 'Life Itself'

This Is They: Abby (Olivia Wilde) and Will (Oscar Isaac) get caught up in Life Itself. jon pack/Stage 6/Amazon hide caption

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jon pack/Stage 6/Amazon

Life Can Be A Mess, But So Is 'Life Itself'

September 20, 2018 • Life Itself, from the creator of This Is Us, launches two family stories on two different continents. It offers some lovely moments, but its grand ambitions are beyond its grasp.

Willy (Dominic West) and Colette (Keira Knightley) audition prospective Claudines in Wash Westmoreland's Colette. Robert Viglasky/Bleecker Street hide caption

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Robert Viglasky/Bleecker Street

'Colette' Is A Thoroughly Modern Fille

September 20, 2018 • Wash Westmoreland's biopic of a French literary lioness is well-acted, gorgeously mounted and weighed down with incongruously modern speeches about sexuality and gender.

'The House With A Clock In Its Walls' Is An Eyesore

Magic is just a passing fez: Lewis (Owen Vaccaro), Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) and Mrs. Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) in The House with a Clock in its Walls. Quantrell Colbert/Universal hide caption

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Quantrell Colbert/Universal

'The House With A Clock In Its Walls' Is An Eyesore

September 20, 2018 • The exquisite atmosphere and sense of foreboding that made John Bellairs' 1973 book a children's classic gets discarded in favor of a relentless riot of jump-scares and visual noise.

'Love, Gilda': A Comedy Legend, In Her Own Words

Archival photos of Gilda Radner in Love, Gilda. Magnolia Pictures hide caption

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Magnolia Pictures

'Love, Gilda': A Comedy Legend, In Her Own Words

September 20, 2018 • This by-the-numbers documentary misses a step by focusing on the late Gilda Radner's celebrity over her comedy, but it's effective when it lets her recently discovered journals do the talking.

Widening The Lens: Integrating The Toronto International Film Festival

Barry Jenkins' adaption of James Baldwin's novel "If Beale Street Could Talk" premiered at this year's edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. Courtesy of TIFF hide caption

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Courtesy of TIFF

Code Switch

Widening The Lens: Integrating The Toronto International Film Festival

September 17, 2018 • The reckoning that is reshaping Hollywood is finally making its way to the critic's perch.

'Hale County This Morning, This Evening' Is A Fascinating And Frustrating Collage

Daniel Collins is one subject in the elliptical documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening. The Cinema Guild hide caption

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The Cinema Guild

'Hale County This Morning, This Evening' Is A Fascinating And Frustrating Collage

September 13, 2018 • First-time filmmaker RaMell Ross' camera captures fleeting moments in the lives of two black young men in rural Alabama, and refuses to supply us with context. We grow to care about them anyway.

After A Promising Start, 'The Predator' Loses The Scent

"'Hit Any Key?' Where's the 'any' key?" — The remorseless alien killing machine should probably just turn the console off and on again in The Predator. Kimberley French/20th Century Fox hide caption

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Kimberley French/20th Century Fox

After A Promising Start, 'The Predator' Loses The Scent

September 13, 2018 • Director/co-writer Shane Black's attempt to infuse snappy dialogue and dark humor into the alien-hunter franchise works until it, suddenly, doesn't. Blame a mess of a script and cheap-looking effects.

'Lizzie': A Film With An Ax To Grind, Slowly And Deliberately

Bridget (Kristen Stewart, left) and Lizzie (Chloe Sevigny, right) decide to take a whack at love in Lizzie. Saban Films, Roadside Atractions hide caption

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Saban Films, Roadside Atractions

'Lizzie': A Film With An Ax To Grind, Slowly And Deliberately

September 13, 2018 • Lizzie begins with the infamous double-homicide, and tells the story of the events leading up to it — a tale of repression, rage and desire — in an unhurried manner abetted by assured performances.

In The Wan, Airless 'The Children Act,' A Judge Shows Poor Judgment

Fiona Maye (Emma Thompson) presides over a humorless script in The Children Act. A24 hide caption

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A24

In The Wan, Airless 'The Children Act,' A Judge Shows Poor Judgment

September 13, 2018 • Emma Thompson stars as a British High Court judge who becomes embroiled in the life of a teenager brought before her, for reasons about which "it's hard to tell and harder to care."

'The First' Is A Human Mission To Mars, With A Focus On The Humans

Sean Penn plays a veteran astronaut who aspires to go to Mars in the Hulu series The First. Alan Markfield/Hulu hide caption

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Alan Markfield/Hulu

'The First' Is A Human Mission To Mars, With A Focus On The Humans

Fresh Air

September 13, 2018 • Hulu's new series features Sean Penn as a veteran astronaut facing the personal sacrifice of deep space travel. Critic David Bianculli says the characters are explored just as deeply as outer space.

'The First' Is A Human Mission To Mars, With A Focus On The Humans

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'Peppermint': A Revenge Thriller That's Neither Cool Nor Refreshing

"You can't see me I'm not here!": Jennifer Garner and a leather jacket co-star in the revenge thriller Peppermint. STXfilms hide caption

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STXfilms

'Peppermint': A Revenge Thriller That's Neither Cool Nor Refreshing

September 7, 2018 • The director of Taken tries out the formula with Jennifer Garner, but the result is a "desultory drag" of cliched emotional stakes and dark, muddy action scenes.

'Bisbee '17': Rich, Compelling Documentary Evokes The Brutal Past Of An Arizona Town

A still from Robert Greene's Bisbee '17, which combines re-enactment with interviews (and songs!) to relate a dark chapter in American labor history. Jarred Alterman/4th Row Films hide caption

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Jarred Alterman/4th Row Films

'Bisbee '17': Rich, Compelling Documentary Evokes The Brutal Past Of An Arizona Town

September 6, 2018 • Filmmaker Robert Greene combines documentary and theatrical performance to tell the tale of a deadly mass deportation of copper miners in 1917.

The Music Soars As A Singer Burns Out In A Muddled 'Blaze'

Singer-songwriter Blaze Foley (Ben Dickey) met Sybil Rosen (Alia Shawkat) in 1975. Later, the two lived together in a tree house in the woods. Courtesy of IFC Films hide caption

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Courtesy of IFC Films

The Music Soars As A Singer Burns Out In A Muddled 'Blaze'

Fresh Air

September 6, 2018 • Critic David Edelstein says Ethan Hawke's new film about country singer-songwriter Blaze Foley is best at its simplest: "When [star Ben] Dickey performs, the movie is great."

The Music Soars As A Singer Burns Out In A Muddled 'Blaze'

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Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'To All The Boys I've Loved Before'

Noah Centineo and Lana Condor star in the Netflix adaptation of the young adult novel To All The Boys I've Loved Before. Netflix hide caption

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Netflix

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'To All The Boys I've Loved Before'

September 5, 2018 • The Netflix young adult romance To All The Boys I've Loved Before tells the story of a high school pair who may or may not — but come on, they will — end up together. You've probably seen it on your Twitter feed, and today we assemble a very special panel to talk about it.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'To All The Boys I've Loved Before'

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To Catch A Nazi: 'Operation Finale' Is More A Talker Than A Thriller

Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley) models the banality of evil in the historical drama Operation Finale. Valeria Florini/MGM hide caption

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Valeria Florini/MGM

To Catch A Nazi: 'Operation Finale' Is More A Talker Than A Thriller

August 30, 2018 • Director Chris Weitz seems ill-at-ease with the rhythms of action scenes, but this Hollywood-zed version of history comes to life when it features Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley verbally sparring.

In 'A Paris Education,' A Film Student Takes Stock Of His Art, And Himself

Lyon-Hearted: Etienne (Andranic Manet) travels from provincial Lyon to the City of Lights in A Paris Education. Kino Lorber hide caption

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Kino Lorber

In 'A Paris Education,' A Film Student Takes Stock Of His Art, And Himself

August 30, 2018 • A young man in Paris studies film and has a lot of sex and meandering, passionate conversations about the state of cinema in this "honest, reflective, a little pretentious" (and very French) movie.

Saving The World, One Science Fair At A Time: 'Inventing Tomorrow'

Indonesian high school student Nuha Itan (L) and a classmate gaze out from the deck of a tin-mining ship in the documentary Inventing Tomorrow. Fishbowl Pictures hide caption

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Fishbowl Pictures

Saving The World, One Science Fair At A Time: 'Inventing Tomorrow'

August 29, 2018 • This documentary "makes for riveting viewing" as it follows four teams of brilliant young people with ideas for combating environmental threats as they compete in an international science fair.

T'Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) settle their differences, Wakanda style. Matt Kennedy/Marvel Studios hide caption

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Matt Kennedy/Marvel Studios

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Black Panther'

August 29, 2018 • Ryan Coogler's Marvel film, set largely in the richly imagined Afro-futurist utopia of Wakanda, is by turns intimate, immediate and — most importantly — original. Guest: Code Switch's Gene Demby. (This episode originally aired on February 16, 2018.)

'Black Panther'

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'What Keeps You Alive': When You Marry A Killer, The Anniversary Gifts Are Murder

In What Keeps You Alive, Jackie (Hannah Emily Anderson) and Jules (Brittany Allen) head to a cabin in the woods and everything works out fine, because nothing bad ever happens in cabins in the woods. IFC Midnight hide caption

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IFC Midnight

'What Keeps You Alive': When You Marry A Killer, The Anniversary Gifts Are Murder

August 23, 2018 • In writer/director Colin Minihan's slack but stylish horror thriller, two women visit a remote cabin to celebrate their anniversary; a deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues.

In 'Support The Girls,' The Script ... Doesn't

August 23, 2018 • Regina Hall stars in this comedy set in a chain sports bar where young female servers scramble for tips, but the underwritten screenplay relies on a ceaseless stream of clunky one-liners.