Scream
Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past.
RATED R FOR STRONG BLOODY VIOLENCE, LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT, AND SOME SEXUAL REFERENCES.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Scream still packs enough sardonic thrills to leave one looking forward to the announced sixth installment.” – Sean Farrell, AFPL Journal
“This new Scream is a killer. Smartly scary and scary smart, consistent with the history of this series but unafraid to piss off fans if it’s for the good of the story. This satire of requels may very well be the first requel done right. It’s a scream, baby.” – William Bibbiani, The Wrap
“Thanks to the razor-sharp screenplay by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick and the stylish and Wes Craven-influenced direction by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and the ease with which Campbell, Cox and Arquette return to their roles, the new Scream stabs and jabs at our memories of the original and creates some bloody fresh twists of its own.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Parallel Mothers
Two women, Janis and Ana, coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn’t regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatized. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops and complicates, and changes their lives in a decisive way.
RATED R FOR SOME SEXUALITY.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“On the surface, Parallel Mothers is an engaging melodrama centered around a fabulous performance by Penélope Cruz. But, as is typical of Pedro Almodóvar’s movies, this easygoing, entertaining film is deeply layered, dealing with issues of personal morality and family ties, mixed with a reminder of Spain’s dark and not-so-distant fascist past.” – Karen Gordon, Original Cin
“Veteran Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s latest feature, Parallel Mothers, is as much about his enduring fascination with motherhood as it is the capacity to heal through our connections to the past.” – Christopher Machell, Cinevue
“Every shot, every narrative beat, every decision exudes not merely confidence, but the touch of a master.” – David Jenkins, Little White Lies
Jockey
An aging jockey (Clifton Collins Jr.), hopes to win one last title for his longtime trainer (Molly Parker), who has acquired what appears to be a championship horse. But the years – and injuries – have taken a toll on his body, throwing into question his ability to continue his lifelong passion. And the arrival of a young rookie rider (Moises Arias), who claims to be his son, and whom he takes under his wing, further complicates the path to fulfilling his dream.
RATED R FOR LANGUAGE.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“American drama Jockey is superb, the perfect confluence of a great story expertly directed, with outstanding performances, stunning cinematography, and a dazzling score.” – Kim Hughes, Original Cin
“Jockey could be seen as a fairly conventional estranged-family drama. As sports movies go, it’s far more radical, showing relatively little interest in the outcome of any particular race. But in either genre, the movie stands apart from — and above — its peers. That’s a testament not only to the performances but also to Bentley’s approach, which begs to be seen on the big screen.” – Peter Debruge, Variety
“This is more than just a career-best for Collins — it’s a career-redefining performance. His talent for profundity was always there but previously untapped to this extent. Now the hope is that this won’t be a zenith for him, but instead a revitalizing rebirth.” – Carlos Aguilar, The Wrap
Vicious Fun
Joel, a caustic 1980s film critic for a national horror magazine, finds himself unwittingly trapped in a self-help group for serial killers. With no other choice, Joel attempts to blend in or risk becoming the next victim.
NOT RATED. STRONG BLOODY VIOLENCE THROUGHOUT AND LANGUAGE.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The gritty, glowing neon textures of the ‘80s cover practically every frame of director Cody Calahan’s Vicious Fun, a horror-comedy caper that lovingly sends up the era’s genre tropes while never breaching egregious self-indulgence.” – Natalia Keogan, Paste
“Vicious Fun is a hoot, packed with references without ever feeling like studied post-Scream meta chin-stroking.” – Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle
“This sidestep into comedy horror is a bold one – because it’s not easy to balance laughs and scares as competently as this – but it all works.” – Dan Stubbs, NME
Spider-Man: No Way Home
For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a Super Hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
RATED PG-13 FOR SEQUENCES OF ACTION / VIOLENCE, SOME LANGUAGE, AND BRIEF SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The film’s real superpowers are its endearing performances, and a screenplay by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers that interweaves teen-angst soap opera and cosmic calamity with all the goofy logic and tonal nimbleness that make the best superhero comics so appealing.” – Nicholas Barber, BBC
“This is how superhero movies are supposed to be: thrilling and funny and moving and full of popcorn-fueled joy.” – Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times
“A monumentally successful Spider-instalment which pulls off a tricky and ambitious narrative trick with all the grace of a balcony-top backflip. At the risk of getting cheesy, it won’t just make you cheer, it’ll make you want to hug your friends, too.” – Dan Jolin, Empire
C’mon C’mon
Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) is a kindhearted radio journalist deep into a project in which he interviews children across the U.S. about our world’s uncertain future. His sister, Viv (Gaby Hoffmann), asks him to watch her 8-year-old son, Jesse (Woody Norman), while she tends to the child’s father, who’s suffering from mental health issues. After agreeing, Johnny finds himself connecting with his nephew in ways he hadn’t expected, ultimately taking Jesse with him on a journey from Los Angeles to New York to New Orleans.
RATED R FOR LANGUAGE.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Poetic and bittersweet, C’mon C’mon is a special film, one that asks us to recognize the mistakes we make, the people we wound, the feelings we hurt, and to maybe give ourselves a break in the process and hold on for what better future tomorrow may bring.” – Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
“The film finds a raw beauty in the wonders and heartbreaks of everyday life. It’s a humble portrait of a family’s deepening connections supported by a number of cinematic pleasures — expert sound design and cinematography; touching performances by Norman and Hoffman; and a tremendous showing from Joaquin Phoenix, operating at a register he’s rarely found before. It’s a career best for him — lovely, empathetic, humane.” – Angelica Jade Bastien, Vulture
“Going into C’mon C’mon, you may think you know exactly what it’s going to be. Coming out, you’ll probably see that you were mostly right, but that you also got a million little firefly flashes of feeling you weren’t expecting. And that right there is the Mike Mills touch.” – Stephanie Zacharek, Time
Last Looks
Charlie Waldo (Charlie Hunnam) is an ex-LAPD superstar who left the force and now lives a life of simplicity and solitude deep in the woods. Alistair Pinch (Mel Gibson) is an eccentric actor who spends his days drunk on the set of his TV show. When Pinch’s wife is found dead, he is the prime suspect and Waldo is convinced to come out of retirement to investigate what happened. The case finds Waldo contending with gangsters, Hollywood executives and pre-school teachers, all in pursuit of clearing Pinch’s name… or confirming his guilt.
RATED R FOR PERVASIVE LANGUAGE.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Last Looks works best in its twisted often-incoherent plot, where no character is generic. Everyone has a secret. No one is on the level. Surfaces lie.” – Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com
“Last Looks doesn’t bring anything new to the table, but it’s a fun crime caper that makes us want to see Charlie Hunnam’s Charlie Waldo again.” – Scott Campbell, We Got This Covered
“Director Tim Kirkby successfully walks the line between sustaining a flip, irreverent tone and laying it all on a bit thick.” – Peter Debruge, Variety
Chucky: Season 1
A series of murders begins soon after a “Good Guy” doll is found at a suburban yard sale in this spin-off of the Child’s Play/Chucky film franchise.
RATED TV-MA FOR GRAPHIC VIOLENCE, STRONG LANGUAGE, SEXUAL CONTENT, THEMATIC MATERIAL, AND DRUG USE.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Chucky walks a fascinating tonal tightrope as a funny, absurd series that engenders sympathy as well as shock for characters who are more than worthy of our derision. It creates a world of malleable, alienated kids failed to varying degrees by their parents, and then it expresses the danger of what they find once they’re pushed away.” – Steven Scaife, Slant
“Mancini’s most impressive feat is balancing Chucky between serious topics and ridiculousness, while always keeping it fun to watch.” – Austen Goslin, Polygon
“Frankly, this Chucky series makes plenty of good decisions when it comes to tone, walking a very fine line between self-awareness and self-consciousness in its storytelling—it knows what it is, but it’s not meta. The show is fully ridiculous, but it’s not trying to be anything else. It’s also creepy and gory and a slashin’ good time.” – Allison Keene, Paste
Jackass Forever
Celebrating the joy of being back together with your best friends and a perfectly executed shot to the dingdong, the original Jackass crew return for another round of hilarious, wildly absurd, and often dangerous displays of comedy with a little help from some exciting new cast. Johnny and the team push the envelope even further in Jackass Forever.
RATED R FOR STRONG CRUDE MATERIAL AND DANGEROUS STUNTS, GRAPHIC NUDITY, AND LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“I don’t say this lightly, but I think Jackass Forever is exactly what we need right now.” – Sarah Jane, Austin Chronicle
“It is equal parts Buster Keaton-Jackie Chan slapstick extravaganza, WWE-styled spectacle, and ‘geek trick.'” – Matt Zoller-Seitz, RogerEbert.com
“Two things continue to hoist Jackass above its legion of imitators, many of whom are now found on TikTok. First, the razor-sharp slow-motion cinematography, which immortalizes writhing men in wet underpants with the devotion of Michelangelo sculpting ‘The Pietà.’ Second — and more important — is the crew’s friendship.” – Amy Nicholson, New York Times
Cyrano
A man ahead of his time, Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage) dazzles whether with ferocious wordplay at a verbal joust or with brilliant swordplay in a duel. But, convinced that his appearance renders him unworthy of the love of a devoted friend, the luminous Roxanne (Haley Bennett), Cyrano has yet to declare his feelings for her — and Roxanne has fallen in love, at first sight, with Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.).
RATED PG-13 FOR SOME STRONG VIOLENCE, THEMATIC AND SUGGESTIVE MATERIAL, AND BRIEF LANGUAGE.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Cyrano is a delicate dream of a movie, the kind of film that feels like you might have merely imagined it — light on the surface but long on subconscious impact.” – Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
“Dinklage’s performance here is crushingly sad, and he is never more persuasive than as a man convinced he is unworthy of love despite his substantial social standing and towering intellect.” – Kim Hughes, Original Cin
“Not only do Wright and Dinklage fashion an unrequited anguish worth crying over, again and again. Cyrano is the best movie musical of the last decade.” – Robert Daniels, Polygon
The Humans
Erik Blake has gathered three generations of his Pennsylvania family to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter’s apartment in lower Manhattan. As darkness falls outside and eerie things start to go bump in the night, the group’s deepest fears are laid bare.
RATED R FOR SOME SEXUAL MATERIAL, AND LANGUAGE.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The Humans is magic.” – Mary Siroky, Consequence
“It gives you a family hanging on by a thread, and makes the careful tending of that thread feel so desperate it’s more than a little terrifying.” – Tim Robey, The Telegraph
“Every one of the performances is, to say the least, an example of what talented actors can bring to a piece of character-driven tragedy; there’s not a single weak link in this chain, while the collective chemistry suggests an instant history of affection, conflict, and shared cringing. ” – David Fear, Rolling Stone
The Desperate Hour
Recently widowed mother Amy Carr (Naomi Watts) is doing her best to restore normalcy to the lives of her young daughter and teenage son in their small town. As she’s on a jog in the woods, she finds her town thrown into chaos as a shooting takes place at her son’s school. Miles away on foot in the dense forest, Amy desperately races against time to save her son.
RATED PG-13 FOR THEMATIC CONTENT, AND SOME STRONG LANGUAGE.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“In the end, I’m not sure if thriller, drama, or action would be best suited to describe The Desperate Hour. Maybe it is not quite the edge-of-the-seat movie one might expect, but it is entertaining enough to keep one fully engaged.” – Hanna B., Film Threat
“The filmmaking works in and of itself, but that The Desperate Hour feels so emotionally in tune with its lead actress is a feat all on its own.” – Siddhant Adlakha, Observer
“Directed with brisk efficiency by Philip Noyce, the mix of adrenaline-rush emotion, manipulative melodrama and moralising is surprisingly entertaining in the moment.” – Allan Hunter, Screen Daily
V/H/S/94
After the discovery of a mysterious VHS tape, a brutish police swat team launch a high intensity raid on a remote warehouse, only to discover a sinister cult compound whose collection of pre-recorded material uncovers a nightmarish conspiracy.
NOT RATED. CONTAINS GRAPHIC VIOLENCE AND STRONG LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Even its weakest pieces are still entertaining, and the good stuff is exceptionally so.” – Jason Bailey, The Playlist
“I suppose it doesn’t cohere into anything more than the sum of its parts. But this is the first time I’ve felt the anthology horror format really worked, and gosh, the parts are really good.” – Calum Marsh, New York Times
“The heavy focus on cults feels like its tapping directly into our current fears about some of our recent national discourse, which only serves to make everything feel just that little bit more unsettling.” – Sean Farrell, AFPL Journal
Moonfall
In Moonfall, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler (Halle Berry) is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) and conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley) believes her. These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find out that our Moon is not what we think it is.
RATED PG-13 FOR VIOLENCE, DISASTER ACTION, STRONG LANGUAGE, AND SOME DRUG USE.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It’s so unapologetically absurd and so very fun.” – Alison Willmore, Vulture
“The bad news is that Moonfall isn’t a great movie. The good news is that it’s hugely enjoyable for most of its running time.” – James McMahon, NME
“The best parts of Moonfall feel like a sharp and cogent reproach to the corporate stolidity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and other superhero-franchise movies. The ridiculous proves occasionally sublime.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Expired
As Jack (Ryan Kwanten) works as a hitman, his lonely life is altered by two strangers—one a club singer (Jillian Nguyen), the other a scientist (Hugo Weaving). Jack and the singer fall in love, but as their relationship grows stronger, Jack grows physically weaker, unable to assassinate the targets he seeks. Soon the scientist discovers the shocking reasons behind Jack’s deadly affliction.
RATED R FOR SOME VIOLENCE.
Description provided by Metacritic.
“…stylish and impressively realised.” – Erin Free, FILMINK
“Best known for outback noirs Mystery Road and Goldstone, here writer-director Ivan Sen displays the kind of confident film-making thats increasingly rare in Australian features.” – Anthony Morris, ScreenHub
The Great: Season 2
The second season sees Catherine taking charge of Russia and fighting against not only the men around her but also her own mother (Gillian Anderson).
RATED TV-MA FOR STRONG LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT, STRONG BLOODY VIOLENCE, THEMATIC MATERIAL, SEXUAL CONTENT, AND BRIEF NUDITY.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The series is a strange, funny, ridiculous, trundling carnival of ideas, genres, and characters. It is great in both size and quality—ambitious, reckless, and always a joy.” – Allison Keene, Paste
“The Great remains one of the smartest shows on TV, one of the few programs that can thrill with a clever turn of phrase or unexpectedly rich conversation. It’s just a joy to live in the world of a show with characters who are this richly drawn, spitting such smart dialogue around the room.” – Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
“It’s as bawdy, profane, and thoroughly enjoyable as ever, as it makes fun of political battles, the hollowness of hedonism, the contradictions of marriage, the insatiable hunger of warmongers, and how our unresolved parental issues can drive us to extremes.” – Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe