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Sinners, The Wedding Banquet, Sneaks, The Ugly Stepsister, One to One: John & Yoko
One to One: John & Yoko ***
I completely understand the idea that, after 50-plus years, we really don’t need another documentary about any of the Beatles—and if this one works, it’s because director Kevin Macdonald kind of understands that, too. Because this is less a documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono than it is about the world that shaped them at a particular moment in their lives: approximately 18 months between 1971 and 1973 when they were living in New York’s Greenwich Village, absorbing American culture and politics from television, including a documentary about conditions at a home for developmentally-disabled children that inspired the “One to One” benefit concert in August 1972.
The Amateur, Drop, The Ballad of Wallis Island, Warfare, King of Kings, Sacramento
The Amateur **
It’s a deeply individual thing to conclude that a movie’s plot machinations are utter nonsense, but by the end, I simply couldn’t help throwing my hands in the air at the sheer “no gotdam way” of it all. This adaptation of a Robert Littell novel starts with a pretty great spin for an espionage concept: When CIA computer expert Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) learns that his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) was murdered in a terrorist incident overseas, the veteran desk jockey decides to train with a badass field agent (Laurence Fishburne) to see if he can nerd his way to vengeance.
Discussing the logistics, finances and politics of the festival's relocation
Michael Casey—film critic for the Boulder Weekly newspaper—shared thoughts via email and phone about the Sundance Film Festival’s announced move to Boulder, Colo. in January 2027. This interview has been edited for length and for clarity.
A Minecraft Movie, The Friend, Hell of a Summer, Bob Trevino Likes It, Freaky Tales
Bob Trevino Likes It ***1/2
Full disclosure: At this moment, I’m particularly susceptible to stories about human beings just being decent to one another, and writer/director Tracie Laymon has crafted a lovely tale about someone trying to believe that she’s worth being treated decently. Based on events from the filmmaker’s own life, it follows 25-year-old live-in caregiver Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira) as she wrestles with legacy of being abandoned by her drug-addict mother and left with her self-absorbed father, Robert (French Stewart).
A Working Man, The Woman in the Yard, The Penguin Lessons, Death of a Unicorn, Audrey's Children
Audrey’s Children ***
A lot of little things can add up to a potentially formulaic biopic feeling just a notch above its kin, and this profile of pioneering pediatric oncologist and Ronald McDonald House co-founder Dr. Audrey Evans (Natalie Dormer) takes the edge of almost all of the possible clichés. It opens in 1969, with Dr. Evans joining the staff of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and beginning the research into combination chemotherapy that would revolutionize treatment of childhood cancer. Director Ami Canaan Mann and screenwriter Julia Fisher Farbman aren’t shy about focusing on the science involved; they refuse to dumb down their terminology, and the discoveries Dr. Evans and her colleagues make are treated as the process of hard work, rather than simplistic “a-ha” moments.
Snow White, The Alto Knights, Locked, The Assessment, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl and more
The Alto Knights **
All actors want a challenge, so maybe it sounded interesting in theory to Robert DeNiro to attempt a variation on GoodFellas where he played both his character and Joe Pesci’s character. He’s back working with writer Nicholas Pileggi in a biographical drama about 1950s New York gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese (both played by DeNiro), childhood friends who come into conflict after Genovese returns from exile overseas after the war and expects to get control of his criminal empire back from Costello.
Black Bag, Novocaine, The Electric State, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Control Freak
Black Bag ***1/2
After a couple of underwhelming collaborations in Kimi and Presence, director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp hit paydirt with a satisfying espionage caper that doubles as an effective portrait of relationship trust and fidelity. Michael Fassbender plays George Woodhouse, a British intelligence agent tasked with finding the mole who may have sold off a dangerous government technology—but when he’s handed the list of five prime suspects, it includes his wife and fellow government spook, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett).
Mickey 17, The Rule of Jenny Pen, Queen of the Ring, CHAOS: The Manson Murders and more
CHAOS: The Manson Murders **1/2
Generally speaking, Errol Morris’s documentaries have been at their best when he’s able to turn his Interrotron camera on interesting (and sometimes awful) people and just let them talk—which is why it seems so odd that Morris chooses to sideline the person who inspired this movie for so long. The title comes from a 2019 book by writer Tom O’Neill, inspired by his research into the infamous 1969 Southern California murders by members of the “Manson family,” and his subsequent theory that Manson was somehow connected to U.S. government research into mind control, perhaps as a way to discredit the anti-war movement.
The Monkey, The Unbreakable Boy, Oscar-nominated Documentary Shorts, No Other Land and more
Oscar-Nominated Short Films – Documentary ***1/2
This year’s crop of short docs is one of the best in recent memory, in large part because even when they’re approaching hot-button topics, they do so without being strident. Kim A. Snyder’s Death by Numbers deals with the legacy of the 2018 Parkland, Florida high-school mass-shooting, but does so through the compelling words of survivor Samantha Fuentes.
