Despite the charming stars, it’s a failure to launch.
‘Fly Me to the Moon’
Set during the Apollo 11 mission, this rom-com directed by Greg Berlanti follows the budding romance between the mission flight coordinator, Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), and the ad executive Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) tasked with raising NASA’s public image and staging a fake moon landing should the mission fail.
From our review:
Cole and Kelly’s initial exchanges crackle with screwball energy; Johansson’s fast-talking dialogue and delivery honor the tradition established by Rosalind Russell and Katharine Hepburn. Tatum’s character is, in this same tradition, a bit of a stiff who loosens up after being shaken up; this actor is not Cary Grant, and doesn’t try to be, but he’s very good at looking silly without acting silly when a scene calls for it. But as the movie progresses, its story grows convoluted and belabored.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Chilling and stylish but frustrating, too.
‘Longlegs’
Maika Monroe stars as Lee Harker, a newbie F.B.I. agent with a mysterious connection to the serial killer she’s chasing (played by Nicolas Cage) in this horror thriller from Osgood Perkins.
From our review:
The movie’s echoing spaces — a snowy landscape, Lee’s wondrously gloomy home — and wily performances (especially from Kiernan Shipka as an institutionalized survivor of the killings) are too often undercut by a strangely off-kilter comedy. … As chilling and stylish as it is, “Longlegs” is a frustrating pleasure. In films like “I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives In the House” (2016) and “The Blackcoats Daughter” (2017), Perkins allowed his gift for ominousness and insinuation to take center stage. Here, we’re never quite sure if his tongue is in his cheek or his hand is on his heart.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
A prison drama with a breakout performance.
‘Sing Sing’
This moving drama directed by Greg Kwedar follows Divine G (Colman Domingo) and Divine Eye (Clarence Maclin, a formerly incarcerated newcomer) as they clash and come together in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts theater program at the titular maximum-security prison.
From our review:
The Divines couldn’t appear more different. Which in the hands of other actors or a different director, might come off as a cliché. Instead, Domingo and Maclin offer a muscular minuet of wariness and trust. And, though it does not exactly flip allegiances, the film begins to unmask Eye’s vulnerabilities and reveal G’s blind spots. … In honor of their characters’ (and their own) truths, growth and transformation, Domingo, Maclin and company earn our trust.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Sweet and substantive.
‘Touch’
Kristofer (Egill Olafsson), an Icelandic widower recently given a diagnosis of dementia, travels back to the site of his first love — a Japanese restaurant in London — in this sweeping romance from Baltasar Kormakur.
From our review:
“Touch” rekindles a treacly genre that I didn’t realize I missed. Its tender performances and gut-punch reveals are classic tear-jerker ingredients. Add to this a natural, inordinately sensitive approach to intercultural love — mercifully, without a sense of righteousness or obligation.
In theaters. Read the full review.
More than a message movie.
‘The Convert’
After arriving in New Zealand and meeting local Maoris, the 19th-century missionary Thomas Munro (Guy Pearce) finds his allegiances shifting in this Kiwi western.
From our review:
In a welcome twist, “The Convert,” directed by Lee Tamahori, does not patronizingly tell the story of a violent colonizer who begins to sympathize with an uncomplicated, passive Indigenous population. Much of the drama concerns conflict among the Maori themselves. That their dialogue is sometimes subtitled and sometimes not is indicative of the movie’s — and maybe the screenwriters’ — tentative perspective.
In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. Read the full review.
No Auto-Tune here.
‘Dandelion’
This musically driven drama from Nicole Riegel follows an emerging singer-songwriter named Dandelion (KiKi Layne) as she falls for fellow musician Casey (Thomas Doherty) in the Midwest.
From our review:
You may think you’ve heard this song before — two musicians tumble into love and duets — but maybe not quite like Riegel arranges it. Their time together — nature walks, motorcycle rides, cuddling — really does feel like time they spend together, rather than some perfectly staged romantic vision. Moments between them can be warm, silent, awkward or serene. Riegel and the cinematographer, Lauren Guiteras, use the camera like a vessel for Dandelion’s sense memories.
In theaters. Read the full review.
The post 6 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week appeared first on New York Times.
