‘Michael’
Made with the cooperation of Michael Jackson’s estate, this biopic, directed by Antoine Fuqua, focuses on the singer’s life until 1988, emphasizing certain parts of his life and ignoring others.
From our review:
What we are left with is a string of musical set pieces, like a greatest hits album, performed ably by the stars — in his debut role, Jaafar Jackson dances like he is possessed by his uncle’s talent — but strung together in repetitive false-note ways that are insulting both to audience and subject.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Remarkable subject, standard biopic.
‘I Swear’
This biopic directed by Kirk Jones depicts the life of John Davidson, an activist who lives with Tourette’s syndrome.
From our review:
It’s no surprise that Jones, in compressing decades of a life into two screen hours, has taken liberties. The problem is that he hasn’t just glossed over some of the more agonizing moments that Davidson deals with head-on (including how his condition affects his intimate life); Jones has turned a life into a hackneyed survivor’s story with cartoon villains, cardboard saints, pretty scenery, mewling piano notes and expedient, drama-goosing epiphanies.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A road trip goes off-course.
‘Omaha’
A single father takes his two children on a road trip with a baffling destination.
From our review:
Directed by Cole Webley from a screenplay by Robert Machoian, it is mostly a road movie in a classic American mode: one father, two kids and a dog in a car, driving against the backdrop of a big sky. But whereas many of these movies are heartwarming, or at least bittersweet, this one is relentlessly gutting. And it’s not clear, by the end, why this story ends where it does, or what it’s intended to mean.
In theaters. Read the full review.
A nature-based nail-biter.
‘Apex’
Charlize Theron plays a gruff adventurer in southeastern Australia who faces off against a deranged killer (Taron Egerton) in this thriller directed by Baltasar Kormakur.
From our review:
As the film eventually turns toward the provocatively macabre, there is a pulpy quality to the thrills. But it’s a thrill ride nonetheless, even if you know the drops are manufactured, and that you might not ever bother to get back on it again.
Watch on Netflix. Read the full review.
A real ticking time bomb.
‘Fuze’
What initially seems to be an unexploded bomb left over from World War II ends up being part of an absurd heist plot in this crime thriller directed by David Mackenzie.
From our review:
Despite a plot (by Ben Hopkins) bursting with double- and triple-crosses, the movie feels programmatic, its characters bland cogs in a Rube Goldberg machine. Thank goodness, then, for the cinematographer Giles Nuttgens, who grounds the action in a city teeming with diversity and saturated in surveillance.
In theaters. Read the full review.
‘Two Seasons, Two Strangers’
Based on two works by the manga artist Yoshiharu Tsuge, this drama directed by Sho Miyake sees a screenwriter at a creative crossroads.
From our review:
A portrait of writer’s block that, in its narrative approach, seems to reflect the boundless possibilities of a blank page, “Two Seasons, Two Strangers” is a film of loose ends, structural surprises and a general openness to the felicities of pouring rain and falling snow.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Epic in scale, modest in ambition.
‘Desert Warrior’
Set in seventh-century Arabia, this action-adventure epic directed by Rupert Wyatt centers on Hind (Aiysha Hart) as she leads an army rebelling against a cruel emperor.
From our review:
This isn’t “Lawrence of Arabia,” but that’s not Wyatt’s aspiration here. Rather than extend the epic sweep of this picture into the cosmic ineffable, he just wants the viewer bouncing along and rooting for its female hero. And the film succeeds admirably in this respect.
In theaters. Read the full review.
‘Over Your Dead Body’
Jason Segel and Samara Weaving star as a married couple trying to murder each other for insurance money in this gory comedy directed by Jorma Taccone.
From our review:
Intentionally juvenile humor can have a way of breaking down even the stoniest viewer with the right levels of sincerity and self-awareness, but the film (a remake of the Norwegian thriller “The Trip”) is too slick and giddy about its own crudity to nurture these elements.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Frisky and featherweight.
‘Two Women’
This sex comedy directed by Chloé Robichaud follows a pair of mothers who seduce local handymen as a protest against monogamy.
From our review:
Ultimately, “Two Women” is less a message movie than a featherweight comedy, gesturing at big ideas about sexual politics before settling in as an amusingly mischievous diversion.
In theaters. Read the full review.
Compiled by Kellina Moore.
