Standing Tall
By Kent Turner March 31, 2016
Emmanuelle Bercot’s empathetic and clear-eyed film presents a pungent portrait of a young adult. Its lead actor won the César Award, the French equivalent of the Oscar, for most promising actor.
Top Picks
Alice and the Extraordinary World
By Paul Weissman March 24, 2016
This is a perfect film for smart, preteen kids (as well as adults) and a welcome relief from the YA dystopian merry-go-round that Hollywood finds itself in.
Sweet Bean
By Christopher Bourne March 22, 2016
In this intensely moving movie, long, lovingly shot sequences of the titular food fits perfectly in the genre of culinary-based films in which food has metaphorical, cultural, and even spiritual significance.
A War
By Christopher Bourne March 17, 2016
Director Tobias Lindholm, employing a realistic, almost documentarylike style, explores the moral consequences of the choices men make. He has, with A War, made his finest film to date.
Barney Thomson
By Paul Weissman March 11, 2016
The best way to describe actor Robert Carlyle’s directorial debut is a black comedy or, more to the point, a bleak comedy. Emma Thompson costars as an epically self-centered harridan: loud, vulgar, frequently drunk, and with a complete lack of social inhibition.
Eye in the Sky
By Ted Metrakas
Gavin Hood’s new movie sets the benchmark for depictions of drone warfare in film. Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, and Barkhad Abdi star in this global tragicomic dance of uncertainty, fear, and godlike power.
The Automatic Hate
By Megan Fariello
An engaging and steady-paced drama, driven by the mystery of a family grudge and by its well-drawn characters.
Emelie
By Daniel Glenn March 4, 2016
Emelie preys on our nightmares and so has more in common with thrillers like Rosemary’s Baby than current pulpy horror flicks. Its scares are strongest when they’re coming from what’s hidden, and from what’s left unsaid.
The Witch
By Mahnaz Dar February 21, 2016
The woods: few phrases conjure up scares so visceral. This portrait of a Puritan family confronted with witchcraft is ultimately about our most fundamental fears: the dark, the unknown, and, of course, one another. Believing that their settlement’s way of practicing their faith is too liberal, a family of six—husband William, wife Katherine, eldest daughter […]