Reviews
351
in total
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Last Christmas
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-11-06
It takes a lot of talent, apparently, to make a movie like Last Christmas — a pile-on of dingle-bell schmaltz so deeply ridiculous it’s almost hard to believe all the top-tier names that went into it.Read entire review on -
Black and Blue
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-25
Harris, eyes blazing, brings a humanity and an urgency that serve the story maybe more than it deserves: a performance above and beyond the call of duty.Read entire review on -
The Cave
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-18
It delivers something more and better, too: a moving, beautifully humanistic story whose inevitable hardships are laced with real hope and levity.Read entire review on -
Tell Me Who I Am
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-18
But the truth, when it does come out, is devastating — to the point that it can feel invasive to watch such a profoundly private moment unfold on camera for our benefit.Read entire review on -
The Lighthouse
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-17
The mannered aye-matey dialogue often gives Lighthouse the performative feeling of a play, but Eggers (The Witch) is also a masterful stylist; judging by several cues, the story is set in some version of the 19th century, though it tends to treat time less as a set fact than a sort of metaphysical condition.Read entire review on -
Zombieland: Double Tap
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-16
For all the flying intestines and skulls that split open like past-due melons, Double Tap has another squishy organ at its center: a big, goofball heart.Read entire review on -
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-15
For kids maybe this is still magical; grownups, though, will waste many long, busily bedazzled minutes wondering why the powers that were able to bring Pfeiffer and Jolie together on screen couldn’t do at least marginally better by them both, and give them parts to truly sink their movie-star teeth into.Read entire review on -
The King
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-11
What’s left is primarily a series of grand battleground set pieces — filmed crunchily, and well — and a series of consistently strong performances. (Has Mendelsohn every not been menacing and great in anything?).Read entire review on -
Parasite
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-09
A serrating, brilliantly stylized portrait of class and fate and family in modern-day Korea.Read entire review on -
Little Monsters
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-09
It’s Nyong’o who makes Monsters worth spending 90 breezy, bloody minutes on; wielding her tiny guitar like she did a fateful pair of scissors earlier this year in Jordan Peele’s "Us," she’s both a warrior queen and a fallible, believable human woman — and never not a movie star in every scene.Read entire review on -
Gemini Man
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-08
Somehow though, the film registers as a strange, airless whiff — stale, inert, and oddly melancholy. The script rarely rises above the schematics of a thousand thrillers that languish on late-night cable, and the almost willfully cliché dialogue sounds as if it’s been generated by some kind of free-with-purchase screenwriting app.Read entire review on -
Dolemite Is My Name
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-03
Murphy...brings so much hope and hunger and pure life force to the role that he makes you believe in every punchline, pelvic thrust, and egregiously misplaced karate kick.Read entire review on -
The Laundromat
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-10-02
If a motley crew of movie stars is what it takes to shine more light on government malfeasance, then let Meryl carry that torch in a wig and a bucket hat. But as a pure movie-going experience, it’s all kind of a wash.Read entire review on -
The Irishman
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-09-28
It all becomes a sort of muddle for a while midway, one that’s not nearly as compelling as the acting itself, which is largely phenomenal, frequently surprising, and often more than a little bit heartbreaking.Read entire review on -
Pain and Glory
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-09-27
In the scheme of Almodóvar’s rich catalogue, Pain is probably too small, too sad, and too obtuse to really recommend as any kind of starting point. For longtime fans, though, it’s a gift; the kind of quiet glory worth waiting a few decades for.Read entire review on -
Marriage Story
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-09-11
Though it may not be an easy movie to watch, or even a particularly original one — there’s still Kramer vs. Kramer, after all — Marriage still feels like something special on the screen: a movie that somehow makes its intimacy seem like a radical act, one messy, heart-wrecking moment at a time.Read entire review on -
Harriet
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-09-11
If its aim to inspire and educate inevitably leaves the movie feeling a little classroom-bound, Harriet is still an impassioned, edifying portrait of a remarkable life, and a fitting showcase for the considerable talents of its star, Tony-winning British actress Cynthia Erivo.Read entire review on -
Hustlers
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-09-11
Beneath all the chinchilla and body glitter, there’s a smart, beating heart.Read entire review on -
Downton Abbey
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-09-10
Life is hard; Downton Abbey is easy.Read entire review on -
The Goldfinch
A review by Leah Greenblatt for2019-09-10
The Goldfinch feels like more than the sum of its disparate parts; a painting in the wrong frame, maybe, but one whose imperfect beauty still draws you in.Read entire review on
