Spirited proceeds as a parade of limply ironic pop-culture references and name-drops.
In spite of the film’s troublingly naïve take on mental trauma, Riz Ahmed vividly and empathetically captures a man’s wounded soul.
This is a sleeker-looking vehicle that’s eager to be scary but not comfortable being ugly.
While Onward begins as a story of bereavement, it soon turns to celebrating the payoffs of positive thinking.
Dolittle’s inability to completely develop any of its characters reduces the film to all pomp and no circumstance.
The series attempts to derive excitement solely from its overly calibrated performances.
On the whole, the film is an unvarnished reflection of the ugliness of American attitudes toward assimilation.
In the end, the filmmakers settle for stigmatizing victimhood, abusing Sue Ann almost as much as her former tormentors.
Silas Howard’s film feels like a scenario from a textbook about handling a child’s gender nonconformity.
The tea leaves tell us that this is a more unpredictable Oscar race than most people are perhaps willing to admit.
The impudent, unruly streak that so often gives Guillermo del Toro’s films their pulse has been airbrushed away.
The Shape of Water’s setting yields an inherent coldness that Guillermo del Toro must work to overcome.
Gifted’s notes are crowded out by the screenplay’s plot machinations and emotional manipulations.
Let’s honor Viola Davis’s impending win for what it is: a moment of truth, clarity, and justice.
Taraji P. Henson triumphantly articulates the pained dignity of Katherine Johnson’s pent-up frustration.
Glenn Close’s face teems with a flawlessly controlled gravitas that’s completely at odds with the film’s ordinariness.
The film’s weird reformulation of the Electra complex is nothing short of a sexist fantasy of salvation.
A Little Golden Book version of drastically simplified socialism accompanied with a healthy dose of warmongering bravado.
Kevin Costner scowls and darts around the dubious thin line between “racism” and un-sugarcoated “truthfulness.”
As if taking a cue from its own title, the movie emphatically sets its sights on the upward trajectory of Brown’s career.