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A darkly comic fable about how humans deal with the unfamiliar and frightening
“Everything symbolizes something,” one character says to another during a secne in Steve Yockey’s Sleeping Giant—and it’s hard not to view that as both a thesis statement, and a bit of a challenge.
Catherine Called Birdy, Don't Worry Darling, Sidney, On the Come Up and more
Catherine Called Birdy ***
Whatever your thoughts about the oeuvre of Lena Dunham, it’s likely you wouldn’t be expecting her at the helm of a frisky period-piece romp like this adaptation of Karen Cushman’s novel. In 13th century England, 14-year-old Catherine (Bella Ramsey)—daughter of feudal Lord Rollo (Andrew Scott)—lives a mischievous life terribly unbecoming of a lady.
Pinocchio, Clerks III, Barbarian, Medieval and more
Barbarian ***
If narrative audacity alone were the measure of a film’s worthiness, writer/director Zach Cregger’s funky horror feature might be one of the movies of the year; as it stands, the excesses of ambition and some clunky execution can only knock things down a little. It opens on a rainy night in a Detroit neighborhood, where Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) arrives at her Airbnb rental to find that it’s been double-booked, forcing her to share the space for a night with fellow renter Keith (Bill Skarsgård).
Gigi & Nate, The Good Boss, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. and more
Burial **1/2
Genre films dig into genuinely meaty content all the time, and writer/director Ben Parker has a solid concept here that he just doesn’t deliver on. Opening in 1991 London with a break-in at the home of an elderly woman (Harriet Walter), the narrative then flashes back to 1945 Berlin, where Russian soldier Brana (Charlotte Vega) is part of a group attempting to deliver a very important package—the corpse of Adolph Hitler—to Stalin in the waning days of World War II.
