A diva lacking depth.
‘Maria’
Angelina Jolie stars as the opera star Maria Callas during her tumultuous final days in this biopic directed by Pablo Larraín.
From our review:
“Maria” feels like a portrait of the artist as narcissist, someone who insists on martyring herself on a pyre nobody asked her to climb. It’s hard to imagine this was the filmmakers’ intention. They know Callas lived a fascinating life, was a fascinating woman. There’s plenty to work with here. Perhaps the larger-than-life diva refused ultimately to be carefully read. But what we get here isn’t interesting, and it’s not told in an interesting way.
Watch on Netflix. Read the full review.
The villains are great; the action isn’t.
‘Kraven the Hunter’
The latest installation in the Sony Spider-Man universe, this one directed by J.C. Chandor, follows Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a ferocious hunter with a complicated relationship with his father and a bone to pick with Aleksei, a Russian mercenary.
From our review:
If the action in “Kraven the Hunter” was as well-conceived as its villains, it’d be a riot. Unfortunately, the brawls are physically detached from the earthy environment. The choreography lacks punch and design; the compositions are spatially unaware. Kraven and Aleksei’s final tussle, an anticlimactic mud fight in the middle of an African field, ends as quickly as it began.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A welcome return to Middle-earth, anime style.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’
Based on a tale mentioned in the appendices of “The Lord of the Rings,” this animated adventure directed by Kenji Kamiyama follows Héra (voiced by Gaia Wise) as she defends her kingdom from ruthless attackers.
From our review:
Although parts of the story feel predictable or familiar — particularly character tropes like the stubborn ruler, the loyal knight exiled from the kingdom and the one-dimensional villain hellbent on revenge — the film does succeed at recreating the fantasy world we know and love, just in a new anime format.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
All the beauty and the brutality.
‘Nickel Boys’
At a cruel reform school in the Jim Crow South, two adolescent boys, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), grow close as they face the institution’s abuses together.
From our review:
Different types of kids populate RaMell Ross’s painful, boldly expressionistic adaptation of the 2019 Colson Whitehead novel, “The Nickel Boys.” The children at the school are by turns determined, defeated and stunned, almost hollowed out. Ross cradles them all in a soft, beautiful light. With great sensitivity to the power of the cinematic image — and to the history of abject representations of Black humanity — he keeps on cradling them.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
A terrible news story, and we are there.
‘September 5’
This journalism procedural directed by Tim Fehlbaum follows the team of ABC News journalists who led the coverage of the terrorist attack on the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
From our review:
Fehlbaum leans heavily into the logistics of getting the crisis on the air, a focus on the labor and the deadline-fueled energy, which gives the movie the quality of a journalism procedural. … Among the movie’s stealthiest surprises is that each moving part, every rushed phone call and snap decision, is part of a feature-length argument that the filmmakers are making about journalism in the age of mass spectacle.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Buckle up for a bonkers takeoff.
‘Carry On’
A menacing passenger (Jason Bateman) blackmails Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton), a T.S.A. agent, into letting a dangerous a package onto a packed Christmas Eve flight in this thriller directed by Jaume Collet-Serra.
From our review:
While the character details are conventional and treacly — what do you know, Kopek’s beautiful wife (Sofia Carson) also happens to be pregnant with the couple’s first child! — the suspense mechanisms of T.J. Fixman’s script, which support a fat-free running time of nearly two hours, are consistently tightly wound.
Watch on Netflix. Read the full review.
Tired action and tired stereotypes.
‘Dirty Angels’
In this action thriller directed by Martin Campbell, a group of female soldiers lead by Jake (Eva Green) embark on a mission to rescue schoolgirls in Afghanistan.
From our review:
While the movie flouts traditional gender roles, it easily plays into stereotypes about race and religion. The saviors speak English and the terrorists speak Pashto; in one sequence, the commandos slip into enemy territory by donning niqabs as disguises.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A family’s affair.
‘Endless Summer Syndrome’
Delphine (Sophie Colon) suspects that her husband is having an affair with one of their children in this psychological thriller directed by Catherine Breillat.
From our review:
The script falters when it attempts to pinpoint the dysfunctions of a modern family in the age of fluid sexual identities and multiculturalism. But none of these potentially intriguing avenues play out with much thought, diminishing the emotional effect of a tragedy that winds up seeming like an exercise in style.
In theaters. Read the full review.
You’ve seen this creepy white van before.
‘The Man in the White Van’
Inspired by the crimes of Billy Mansfield Jr., this thriller directed by Warren Skeels follows Annie (Madison Wolfe), a young girl who believes she is being stalked by a man in a white van.
From our review:
While Wolfe is an engaging screen presence, the movie is too clumsy and clichéd to conjure tension. Virtually every sighting of the van is accompanied by a clashing-cymbals sound effect and camera angles that distractingly recall much better movies about malevolently motivated vehicles.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Turning sorrows to swoons.
‘Young Werther’
In this adaptation of the 18th-century novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” directed by José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço, the titular young man (Douglas Booth) finds himself in the middle of a love triangle after falling for Charlotte (Alison Pill), who is already engaged.
From our review:
He is all jokes and jolly energy, an irresistible foil to Charlotte’s typically constricted outlook. Booth and Pill make for a pair worth rooting for, but it’s Booth in particular, just barely but believably not of this world, who lends the film its winning sensibility.
In theaters. Read the full review.
The post 10 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week appeared first on New York Times.
