Movie Review

Aug. 18, 2017

Whitney: Can I Be Me Is a Remarkably Intimate Look at Whitney Houston’s Life“There is not one person out there not responsible for the demise of that beautiful woman.”

By Jen Chaney

Aug. 17, 2017

Logan Lucky Is a Delightful Trick of a Film That Constantly Flips ExpectationsSteven Soderbergh casts actors in roles that they were not exactly born to play, but do so with relish.

By David Edelstein

Aug. 17, 2017

Crown Heights Will Floor You With the Facts of Its Incredible True StoryIt’s a lot of telling, and not much showing — but what a story to tell.

By Emily Yoshida

Aug. 16, 2017

Lemon Is Not the Flailing-White-Male Sundance Comedy You Think It IsThe sublimely awkward debut feature from Janicza Bravo turns a subgenre on its head.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review Aug. 15, 2017

The Transcendent Marjorie Prime Is a Reflective Work of Science FictionThe latest from director Michael Almereyda is exquisite — beautiful, intense, shivering with empathy.

By David Edelstein

Aug. 11, 2017

The Trip to Spain Offers a Feast of Laughs and IntrospectionThe movie plays like it’s no big deal — a throwaway — but it’s consistently funny.

By David Edelstein

movie review Aug. 11, 2017

Annabelle: Creation Proves Slower Isn’t Always Better in HorrorThat doesn’t mean the jump scares won’t still floor you.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review Aug. 10, 2017

The Glass Castle Tries to Stuff a Complicated Family Story Into a Hallmark CardIt can’t help but attempt to tie an emotional bow around the messiness of real life.

By Emily Yoshida

Aug. 8, 2017

Good Time Is a Thrilling Turn for Robert PattinsonThe new film from New York duo Josh and Benny Safdie is brutal at times, but its protagonist is not a brute.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review Aug. 7, 2017

Ingrid Goes West Is a Barbed Satire of Dumb Instagram GirlsA snapshot of millennial emptiness, immortalized in Juno filter.

By Emily Yoshida

Aug. 4, 2017

An Inconvenient Sequel Is Almost As Fascinating As It Is DepressingAs a character study, it’s highly successful, but given the context it will be watched in, it feels a little too pat.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review Aug. 4, 2017

The Dark Tower Is Not That Terrible — But It Does Feel Like a Copy of a CopyThe fantasy epic, a handy target for everything derivative and dull-witted in the sci-fi–fantasy genre, feels wan and bloodless.

By David Edelstein

movie review Aug. 4, 2017

Step Is a Moving Story of the Triumph of EducationThe tear-jerking Sundance hit is most instructive in its moments of joy.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review Aug. 3, 2017

Kidnap Is a Summer-Doldrums Film That Has No Reason to ExistStarring Halle Berry and breakout star Red Chrysler Minivan.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review Aug. 3, 2017

Wind River Is an Overwritten Mystery-Thriller With a Crazily Powerful EndingLong after the gunshots of Wind River fade, you might think you hear the cries of the dead.

By David Edelstein

movie review July 30, 2017

Review: In Detroit, the Zero Dark Thirty Team Revisits TortureDirector Kathryn Bigelow induces a feeling of powerlessness in the viewer that’s beyond our capacity to imagine on our own.

By David Edelstein

movie review July 28, 2017

Atomic Blonde Has an Incomprehensible Plot, But the Action Is SmashingYou don’t see Atomic Blonde for anything but a badass female protagonist crunching bones and pulping faces in gratifyingly long takes.

By David Edelstein

movie review July 28, 2017

The Incredible Jessica James Is a Breakout Turn for Jessica WilliamsIt’s a strong argument for Jessica Williams as a cinematic avatar for a certain kind of city-dwelling, creative 20-something.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review July 27, 2017

The Emoji Movie Will Send You Into a Spiral Emoji of DespairI give up.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review July 25, 2017

Brigsby Bear, a Parable of Pop-Culture Obsession That’s Realer Than You’d ThinkWho among us didn’t grow up in a basement?

By Emily Yoshida

July 21, 2017

Movie Review: Landline Is a Gentle Nostalgia Piece From the Obvious Child TeamJenny Slate investigates infidelity in Giuliani’s New York.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review July 20, 2017

Review: Dunkirk Is a Great War Movie Marred by Christopher Nolan’s Usual TricksSomewhere inside the movie’s muddled timeline is a terrific linear movie.

By David Edelstein

movie review July 20, 2017

Girls Trip Is an Insanely Good TimeDear Hollywood: Please put Tiffany Haddish in everything.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review July 19, 2017

Valerian Is Magical, Even If the Script Isn’tI worry that people will minimize Besson’s achievement because of the herky-jerky plot, but Valerian is more than the sum of its effects.

By David Edelstein

July 13, 2017

Movie Review: Wish Upon Is an Enjoyably Silly Teen-Horror FilmWish Upon is the kind of horror movie where expendable characters constantly find themselves balancing on ladders while wielding chainsaws.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review July 12, 2017

Review: In the Torrid Lady Macbeth, Oppression Flows in All DirectionsIt eats into the mind with its vision of evil as a contagion that transforms victims into oppressors.

By David Edelstein

movie review July 11, 2017

War for the Planet of the Apes Isn’t the Apocalypse Now Remake It Wants to BeIt’s an awesome, dull movie that manages to be both alienating and sappy.

By David Edelstein

movie review July 7, 2017

Movie Review: A Ghost Story Has a Ghost, But Maybe Not a StoryStill, even at its most self-conscious, there’s something lovable about A Ghost Story.

By David Edelstein

July 5, 2017

Movie Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming Is a Breezy DelightIt’s the most convivial Marvel movie in ages.

By David Edelstein

June 30, 2017

Movie Review: The House Doesn’t Win This TimeWill Ferrell and Amy Poehler star in an unfocused comedy that’s always about two steps from being actually amusing.

By Emily Yoshida

June 23, 2017

Movie Review: Nowhere to Hide Is a First-Person View of a Disintegrating IraqThe new documentary will shock you into confoundment, demonstrating, moment by moment, how irrational the world really is.

By David Edelstein

movie review June 23, 2017

Review: Transformers: The Last Knight Is Utterly Ridiculous, and Knows ItThe Last Knight is barely coherent, but it’s more fun than Age of Extinction.

By Emily Yoshida

June 21, 2017

Review: The Little Hours Is the Best 14th-Century Sex Farce You’ll See This YearDave Franco, Aubrey Plaza, and Alison Brie star in this adaptation of two stories from Boccaccio’s The Decameron.

By David Edelstein

movie review June 21, 2017

Movie Review: Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver Is a Cinematic JoyrideThis is the first thriller I’ve seen in a long time that feels handmade.

By David Edelstein

June 21, 2017

Movie Review: The Big Sick Is Joyful Escape From Summer TentpolesThe best thing you can say about The Big Sick is that having Kumail Nanjiani as a romantic lead is maybe the 11th most remarkable thing about it.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review June 20, 2017

Review: Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled Is a Remake With a New PerspectiveCoppola’s Civil War drama has a probing and powerful “female gaze.”

By David Edelstein

June 16, 2017

Movie Review: Sally Hawkins Stars in the Colorful MaudieHawkins’s facial features are big and clear, at times suggesting the radiant plainness of Maude Lewis’s art.

By David Edelstein

June 16, 2017

Review: All Eyez on Me Feels Like the Movie Version of Tupac’s Wikipedia PageThe biopic dutifully covers the major events of the rapper’s life, but the real Tupac is missing.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review June 15, 2017

Review: The Book of Henry Is Terribly Unlike Any Other Terrible Film You’ve SeenThis movie isn’t just bad – it’s nonfunctional.

By Emily Yoshida

June 14, 2017

Rough Night Review: Women Can Have It All, But How About Studio Comedies?The first female-directed R-rated comedy since 2009 has a premise that’s often funnier than the execution.

By Emily Yoshida

June 9, 2017

Review: It Comes at Night Is a Slow-burning, Nerve-racking Horror FilmThe atmosphere is so thick with dread that nothing much needs to happen to make you sweat.

By David Edelstein

movie review June 9, 2017

Review: Rachel Weisz Keeps You Guessing in My Cousin RachelBecause Weisz is one of the least artificial actresses alive, you find yourself asking: She can’t be as evil as the movie is suggesting, can she?

By David Edelstein

movie review June 9, 2017

Review: The Mummy Resurrects a Franchise That Should Have Stayed DeadYou can practically hear the executive pounding the table and yelling, “Make this my next tent pole!”

By David Edelstein

movie review June 7, 2017

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? In ‘Beatriz,’ It’s TrumpIn Mike White’s new film, you can almost feel the Zeitgeist congealing.

By Emily Yoshida

movie review June 1, 2017

Movie Review: Wonder Woman Is a Star Turn for Gal GadotBut the rest is pretty clunky.

By David Edelstein

movie review May 31, 2017

Review: Christopher Plummer Is Glorious in The ExceptionAs he proves yet again as the aged Kaiser Wilhelm II, Plummer can put more shading into fewer syllables than any actor alive.

By David Edelstein

movie review May 26, 2017