Makes a point, then blunts it.
‘Onslaught’
In the latest from the director Adam Wingard (“The Guest”), traumatized soldiers turned into killing machines by the government run rampant.
From our review:
At its best, “Onslaught” uses its overblown butchery to underline carnage of another kind, the sort that soldiers experience both on the battlefield and when they return home. … It’s difficult to make a movie like that without reveling in the slaughter, and Wingard hardly seems to try.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
A grisly story told with restraint.
‘Cocoon — One Summer of Girlhood’
Inspired by real-life events, this animated drama directed by Yukimitsu Ina centers on San and Mayu, two teenage girls in Okinawa, Japan, enlisted to help nurse members of the Imperial Army.
From our review:
While it would be easy for “Cocoon” to indulge in gratuitous wartime horror, its grisliest moments are instead filtered through San’s fearful imagination. … The most remarkable part of “Cocoon” is not just how neatly it tells a wartime story, but how tastefully it tells a story of the girls cut down before blooming during that brutal summer.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
Bringing the page to life.
‘Chronovisor’
Béatrice, an academic spending a late night in the library, becomes obsessed with a mysterious machine in this eerie thriller directed by Kevin Walker and Jack Auen.
From our review:
The construction here operates at its own frequency, and builds to an eerie climax that extends beyond the books. When it gets there, it becomes a unique little marvel: One whose initial momentum is in enlivening the most basic of images — words on a page — only to lead Béatrice to a visual world that feels entirely, mesmerizingly, all its own.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Cold War, warm banter.
‘Mayday’
After crash-landing in the Soviet Union in 1987, Troy (Ryan Reynolds), an American fighter pilot, must take refuge with Nikolai (Kenneth Branagh), a former K.G.B. officer living in the woods, in this action comedy directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.
From our review:
In what becomes a plane, train and automobile (not in that order) chase flick, Reynolds once again asserts his gift for the understated one-liner. Branagh takes pleasure in Nikolai’s skill set and mind-set. He embraces the lunatic action (as does the directors’ longtime cinematographer, Barry Peterson).
Watch on Apple TV. Read the full review.
Violently clashing tones.
‘By Any Means’
This crime-thriller directed by Elegance Bratton follows an F.B.I. agent (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who teams up with a notorious mafia hit man (Mark Wahlberg) to investigate the killing of an N.A.A.C.P. leader.
From our review:
What Bratton has made is at once an earnest civil rights picture and a largely untroubled, occasionally gleeful endorsement of gangland enforcement tactics. … “By Any Means” can’t declare itself: It might have approached the material as either film noir or straight-up exploitation, but its sincerity exists uneasily with its head smashing, and the buddy-cop elements feel out of place.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A lose-lose love triangle.
‘The Sun Never Sets’
Dakota Fanning stars as Wendy, a young woman in Alaska torn between her overly protective boyfriend and her flighty ex.
From our review:
In “The Sun Never Sets,” from the writer and director Joe Swanberg (“Win It All,” “Drinking Buddies”), the problem facing Wendy is which partner to choose. But the problem facing the audience is that her options are terrible.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A limping race against time.
‘The Runner’
After a mysterious kidnapper takes her son hostage, a prosecutor (Gal Gadot) has an hour to run five miles across London.
From our review:
The director Kevin Macdonald masks Gadot’s actorly inadequacies with lens flares, crash zooms and motion blur, a style that often recalls “Run Lola Run” (1999). But the didactic script by Mark Gibson deflates the intended freneticism.
Watch on Amazon Prime Video. Read the full review.
Compiled by Kellina Moore.
The post 7 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week appeared first on New York Times.
