On high alert, though sometimes just high.
‘Queer’
This adaptation of William S. Borough’s autobiographical novella directed by Luca Guadagnino follows William Lee (Daniel Craig), a louche, lonely soul who pines after a younger man.
From our review:
Guadagnino does some very nice things in “Queer,” including employing obvious soundstages and beautiful miniatures that play with the realism and that underline Lee’s otherworldly sensibilities. There’s also a trippy scene in which Lee and Allerton’s naked bodies fuse together, a vision of ecstatic union. Yet Guadagnino can’t help but sand every coarse surface; even the filthiest walls here look carefully buffed to perfection.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Doesn’t make many waves.
‘Moana 2’
Moana (voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho) leaves home once again, charting a course to a new island in this sequel directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller.
From our review:
Onscreen, the details of this fabricated, composite mythology get a little murky. But squint your eyes against the specifics, and the odyssey tends to deliver a mood that fluctuates along a scale of benign to bright. The musical numbers, from Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear (picking up the reins from the original movie’s Lin-Manuel Miranda), as well as Opetaia Foa‘i and Mark Mancina, are competently written and arranged (save for one painful rap sequence).
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
A fractured family stands in for a divided nation.
‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’
After Iman gets a job in Tehran’s revolutionary court, tensions begin to rise with his family members, who have differing opinions of the government. The director, Mohammad Rasoulof, made the film in secret and was sentenced to eight years in prison because of Iran’s strict censorship laws.
From our review:
This story unfolds slowly and methodically, mostly contained in the family’s apartment — no wonder, given the film was shot in secret. But the small-scale family drama feels like a model of the full country in miniature. As the members of the family become more suspicious, they turn on one another. Home begins to feel like a prison of its own.
In theaters. Read the full review.
You might want to keep the gift receipt.
‘Nutcrackers’
Ben Stiller stars as Michael, a big city big shot who, just before Christmas, becomes the legal guardian of his four unruly nephews in this holiday comedy directed by David Gordon Green.
From our review:
I don’t know what to do with this movie, mostly because I can’t quite figure out who it’s for. It’s not really a family film, at least not for many families — the home-school lesson tells you why — but it’s not really a grown-up comedy either. It hovers in an uncanny valley, and the tonal swing is unpleasant.
Watch on Hulu. Read the full review.
Growing up in a time of decline.
‘Reinas’
Amid the political turmoil of Peru in the 1990s, two young girls (Luana Vega and Abril Gjurinovic) grow up and get caught between their parents, who disagree about leaving Lima, in this intimate drama directed by Klaudia Reynicke.
From our review:
More compelling than this somewhat unconvincing family dynamic, structured around the coming-of-age arc and the trite theme of learning to let go, is the film’s intimate sense of time and place, and the subtly effective manner by which the grim social context is made known (such as a citywide curfew and sugar shortage).
In theaters. Read the full review.
A Thanksgiving tale that doesn’t bring much to the table.
‘Sweethearts’
Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) and Ben (Nico Hiraga) hatch a plan to dump their high school sweethearts when they return home from college for Thanksgiving.
From our review:
Bright, breezy and requiring little in the way of close attention, the teen rom-com “Sweethearts” is perfect for those who prefer their movies to be barely more than background noise. Otherwise, the lame plotting (by Dan Brier and Jordan Weiss, who also directs) and lack of jokes soon become painfully obvious.
Watch on Max. Read the full review.
The post 6 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week appeared first on New York Times.