Starring Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh and many tears.
‘We Live in Time’
Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield star as Almut and Tobias, a couple whose triumphs and tragedies play out over the course of three time periods in this weepy drama directed by John Crowley.
From our review:
For the most part, Pugh and Garfield are pleasantly watchable, and they fit together persuasively enough to convey their characters’ mutual attraction. That’s the case even if Almut is more convincingly fleshed out than Tobias, who, as the story continues, can seem like both an obstacle and an appendage to this complicated woman.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Colorful bricks; bland biopic.
‘Piece by Piece’
This inventive biopic directed by Morgan Neville uses animated Legos to tell the story of the producer, musician and entrepreneur Pharrell Williams.
From our review:
The playfulness fits Williams’s aesthetic, which ranges from producing beats and albums for that dizzying array of artists to recording his own megahit “Happy” to collaborating on lines of streetwear, fragrances, eyeglasses, sneakers and skin care. He’s clearly bursting with ideas all the time, and that’s the narrative of the film: This is a man who never stops dreaming of ways to remix the world. It’s his playground, his sandbox. Legos fit right in.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
A surprisingly humane portrait.
‘The Apprentice’
Directed by Ali Abbasi, this fictionalized retelling of Donald Trump’s early rise to prominence stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as his mentor, the lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn.
From our review:
“The Apprentice” is arriving in theaters less than a month before the U.S. presidential election, but it would be a strain to call this energetic, queasily funny if finally very bleak portrait an October surprise. … The only news here — and, really, the greatest surprise — is how thoroughly this ribald, at times predictably unflattering movie humanizes its protagonist, a classic American striver.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A May-December muddle.
‘Lonely Planet’
At a writers’ retreat in Marrakesh, the novelist Katherine (Laura Dern) falls for a young writer’s boyfriend (Liam Hemsworth) in this rote romance written and directed by Susannah Grant.
From our review:
There’s nothing here really about desire or difference or revelation. Instead, “Lonely Planet” locates the impetus for self-discovery in travel itself, with several characters discussing the benefits of removing yourself from familiar surroundings to learn more about who you really are. That is, of course, absolutely true. But what these characters are trying to discover is muddy and vague and ultimately unsatisfying.
Watch on Netflix. Read the full review.
The real nightmare before Christmas.
‘Terrifier 3’
The maniacal Art the Clown is back to ruin Christmas in the latest entry in the gory horror franchise written and directed by Damien Leone.
From our review:
Leone’s new “Terrifier” film sags under its predecessors’ trappings: a bloated running time, an unfocused script, uneven pacing. But when Leone steps on the gas with Art the Clown — the franchise’s signature psycho-butcher, fiendishly played again by David Howard Thornton — he gets a jump on Santa, delivering an extreme and gruesome early Christmas gift.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A scholarly scheme gets middling marks.
‘Bad Genius’
Directed by J.C. Lee, this remake of a Thai heist thriller from 2017 follows a high school student who starts an elaborate cheating ring to pay for college.
From our review:
Despite the film’s aims at spiky commentary, the class rebellion mostly serves as the thin wrapping to, at best, a middling heist movie that loses some of the punchy tension of the original’s getaway sequences. At its worst, it’s no more than a teenage soap opera.
In theaters. Read the full review.
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