‘Spa Weekend’ Review: Leslie Mann and Isla Fisher Go Underserved in a Lukewarm Bath of a Comedy
Anna Faris and Michelle Buteau also star in the film by ‘Bad Moms’ directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, about four childhood friends on a birthday trip that spirals out…
‘Spa Weekend’ Review: Leslie Mann and Isla Fisher in a High-Concept Comedy Without the Comic Highs
I watched “Spa Weekend” and realized that the genre it’s in — the high-concept movie with the concept in the title, the comedy that puts out a vibe of “Look,…
‘The Marching Band’ Review: Brothers From Opposite Worlds Are United by Music in a Finely Tuned French Crowdpleaser
“The Marching Band” blasts through more story in its first 12 minutes than many films now manage in two hours. In those first 720 seconds we meet Thibaut (Benjamin Lavernhe),…
‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ Review: Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield in an Exhaustingly Cutesy Kid Flick
The visually colorful adaptation of Enid Blyton’s beloved children’s book also features Rebecca Ferguson, Nicola Coughlan and Jessica Gunning.
‘Snapshot’ Review: A Nifty Calling-Card Debut Refashions the Jack the Ripper Story as Found-Footage Horror
Found footage may be a fairly stale gimmick in horror these days, but the low-budget British indie “Snapshot” finds a way to freshen up the idea — and if that…
‘You Don’t Belong Here’ Review: A Potentially Involving Story Is Weakened by Airless Dialogue and a Misguided Finale
Florin Şerban’s “You Don’t Belong Here” opens with great promise and finishes with a stupefyingly misguided coda: The lengthy minutes in between are rigorously filmed and sharply observed, but would…
‘The Wrong Girls’ Review: Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat Are a Good Time in Dylan Meyer’s Shaggy Stoner Comedy
Debut writer-director Dylan Meyer practically achieves liftoff with her absurdist stoner comedy “The Wrong Girls,” starring Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat. If Method Man and Red Man once posited “How…
‘Donkey Princess’ Review: A Princess Escapes the Kingdom, but Not the Patriarchy, in an Inventive, Shape-Shifting Fairytale
Chilean duo Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña made a dream nightmare debut with “The Wolf House,” a stop-motion fantasy that turned heads both with its wholly original design — incorporating…
‘Cookie Queens’ Review: A Doc About Girl Scout Cookies, Produced by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Is Too Much of a Reality-Show Ramble
As a director, Alysa Nahmias thinks like a reality-show producer — she frames the movie as a contest, inviting us to chortle in admiration at what eager-beaver achievers all four…
‘I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming’ Review: An Affecting Trans Relationship Drama Brings Fresh Perspective to the War in Ukraine
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has prompted a wealth of urgent nonfiction filmmaking documenting the harsh realities of life under siege, but comparatively little dramatic storytelling — a space that…















