Run, Glen Powell, run!
Set in a dystopian future, this action flick directed by Edgar Wright follows a desperate man (Glen Powell) who participates in a deadly reality TV show.
From our review:
As a metaphor for capitalism at its most rapacious, the game couldn’t be more obvious. … As a filmmaker, though, Wright likes to amuse, and he can’t help but gild every lily, which means that he keeps everything merrily spinning amid the occasional righteous declamations.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
Left us breathless.
Directed by Richard Linklater, this homage to French new wave cinema tells of the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless.”
From our review:
When I saw “Nouvelle Vague” at Cannes earlier this year, I initially classified it as a delightful, explicitly non-Godardian homage. Watching it again, I recognized that Linklater’s film is itself an expression of a certain approach — a consciousness — toward cinema’s pleasures and possibilities, one that at once embraces the art’s past and insists on its future.
Watch on Netflix. Read the full review.
A bit of movie magic.
‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’
The do-gooder magicians called the Horsemen gain new recruits and conspire to take down a vicious criminal in this franchise entry directed by Ruben Fleischer.
From our review:
It might be the best in the series, or at least it’s a very pleasantly diverting two-ish hours. … It’s got all the fun stuff that you expect — globe-trotting, quips, elegant parties, a skosh of sexual tension and, yes, lots of illusions.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
It’s easy to fall for this horror about love.
In the latest from the director Osgood Perkins, things get weird and wacky for a couple on a remote weekend getaway.
From our review:
Employing a mixture of practical and digital effects, Perkins creates ghouls that are both disgusting and poignant. Their back story is a lot to swallow, but their role in the movie’s denouement is such sick, satisfying fun that I didn’t mind.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Hayao Miyazaki meets ‘Interstellar.’
This animated film follows a young boy who travels through time with the help of a colorful cape.
From our review:
Like a cross between a Studio Ghibli joint and “Interstellar,” “Arco,” by the French comic-book artist turned filmmaker Ugo Bienvenu, strikes a lovely balance between fantastical kid-friendly wholesomeness and real-world bleakness.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Hark! The Jonas Brothers sing.
‘A Very Jonas Christmas Movie’
The Jonas brothers star in a surprisingly self-aware (and self-deprecating) Christmas movie directed by Jessica Yu.
From our review:
The musical-comedy is pure festive sugar rushes and nostalgic kitsch — very Jonas, indeed. … While the vanilla songs lack magic, the dad jokes and brotherly roasting feel like their own kind of delightfully unserious gift.
Watch on Disney+. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
A surprisingly sensitive western.
After a wildfire razes his ranch, a gruff cowboy (Josh O’Connor) turns to his neighbors, his wife and child to regain his sense of self in this drama directed by Max Walker-Silverman.
From our review:
One could surmise that it takes a village of women to save a stubbornly reticent man. But the lesson of “Rebuilding” is gentler, broader and timelier: Accepting help is a necessary step toward offering it to others in lasting ways.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
Good neighbors in a great movie.
In an East Village tenement, a gigolo and his neighbors deal with residential dramas and a dead body in Ben Jacobson’s film.
From our review:
The pleasures of the chaos lie in the true-blue camaraderie of the characters, a group bound by nothing more than circumstance. “Bunny” is a New York movie that eschews realism but still brims with authentic affection, and in doing so, bursts with life.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Critic’s Pick
Inspired, but with a vision of its own.
A university professor questions the circumstances of his mother’s death.
From our review:
The plot alone could serve as the basis for an enticing thriller, but “The Things You Kill,” directed by the Iran-born, Canada-based filmmaker Alireza Khatami, is slipperier than that.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Religious horror in need of salvation
Nicolas Cage and FKA Twigs play Joseph and Mary raising a troubled Jesus in this horror movie reimagining of the Apocryphal Gospels directed by Lotfy Nathan.
From our review:
It’s hard to take seriously, perhaps most of all because of Cage and Twigs, one of the most bizarre manifestations of Joseph and Mary one could ever conjure.
In theaters. Read the full review.
An attempt at sensitivity riddled with bullet holes.
This action thriller directed by John Swab tells five interconnected stories about the fentanyl trade.
From our review:
While this slick film wants to use their stories to put faces to the fentanyl epidemic, Swab’s genre instincts get the better of him.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Compiled by Kellina Moore.
The post 11 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week appeared first on New York Times.
