Ruby Barnhill and Mark Rylance star in The BFG
Review by Zach Dennis
The BFG is not near the upper echelon of Spielberg’s work, but it is yet another recent reminder of how talented he is as a director. It has echoes of the past and allows for more playful moments near the end — creating both one of the more enjoyable family films of the year and one that will surely be re-evaluated in later years as a hidden gem of the director’s canon.
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Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe star in Swiss Army Man
Review by Jessica Carr
Swiss Army Man has the ability to make the viewer laugh and cry simultaneously. Underneath the absolutely ridiculous plot, lies a heartfelt message about accepting the truths of life while also learning to accept your own truths.
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Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart star in Central Intelligence
Review by Lydia Creech
Central Intelligence may not display the same level of craft or acerbic verbal wit that The Nice Guys does, but it is the perfect light summer fun.
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Directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow center their documentary, De Palma, around a single-shot interview with the esteemed filmmaker.
Review by Nadine Smith
Though Baumbach and Paltrow seem hesitant to encourage De Palma to dig deep into his art, I commend their choice to let De Palma speak for himself instead of leaning on the opinions of others.
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Elle Fanning stars in director Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon
Review by Lydia Creech
It’s not the what or how of The Neon Demon that bothers me, it’s the why. I’m not sure what insight Refn has to say with this film, nor that Refn needed to be the one to say it.
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Travis Fimmel and Paula Patton star in director Duncan Jones' Warcraft
Review by Zach Dennis
The film has its holes, and the plot seeps with cliche, but there is something admirable about Warcraft and the work by Duncan Jones. The film is weird and wild, but it comes from a place of pure adventure and creativity and that isn’t something we should dispel — video game or not.
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Wu Jing and Tony Jaa star in director Cheang Pou-soi's film SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
Review by Nadine Smith
Like the best action movies, SPL 2: A Time for Consequences is a surficial melodrama in visual communion with its subtext. It isn’t about the disruptive power of violence, but about bodies jointed in impact and contact, united in their movement through space.
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Ellen DeGeneres voices Dory and Ed O'Neill voices Hank in Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane's Finding Dory
Review by Zach Dennis
Finding Dory does a lot of things in a lazy manner, but it succeeds in its small attempt to reckon with mental health and stigma around it. It also helps that Dory’s parents build off the rich tradition of these films coming to terms with what a parent means, and may be one of the best cinematic examples of parents with a child with disabilities.
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Sterling Jerins (as well as Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) stars in director James Wan's The Conjuring 2
Review by Alison Swafford
There’s very little consistency or logic to how the monsters in this world operate, and that’s because they don’t have a greater motivation or reason for existence outside of giving the characters (and therefore the audience) a big scare.
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Colin Farrell stars in director Yorgos Lanthimos's film The Lobster
Review by Alison Swafford
The Lobster’s universe never feels like a riff on something else. While sitting in the theater and figuring out how all the pieces fit together in this monogamy-obsessed society, the thought that crossed my mind most often was: This is unique. There is nothing like this.
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Andy Samberg stars in Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone's Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Review by Zach Dennis
For the most part, Popstar succeeds as both a comedy and satire, but it also leaves a hollow and disappointed feeling because it never seemed to hit the high aspirations it had for itself.
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Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult star in X-Men: Apocalypse
Review by Nadine Smith
Unlike Batman v. Superman and its blundering nihilism or Civil War and its cynical sense of social consciousness, Apocalypse seems more interested in mysticism. It sheds politicking for emotion; its mythology is rooted in spirituality, not history.
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Takeru Satoh and Aoi Miyazaki star in director Akira Nagai's If Cat's Disappeared From the World
Review by Alison Swafford
If Cats Disappeared From the World is ridiculous and amusing enough, but it’s also surprisingly powerful, and is able to communicate its ideas and emotions solely through cinematic style.
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Chloe Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale in director Whit Sillman's Love & Friendship
Review by Zach Dennis
Love & Friendship is an invigorating flower that blooms into yet an even more pronounced and remarkable work of cinema. The technical and creative craft involved seem something foreign yet utterly comfortable and the acting is both dignified and dirty at the same times.
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San Claflin and Emilia Clarke star in director Thea Sharrock's Me Before You
Review by Jessica Carr
Me Before You transcends most of the recent romance films in that it allows the human element to shine through rather than just focusing on two attractive people supposedly falling in love.
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Anne Hathaway, Johnny Depp, and Mia Wasikowska star in dirctor James Bobin's Alice Through the Looking Glass
Review by Zach Dennis
Alice Through the Looking Glass is a half-baked, snoozer of a movie that asks you why you hate yourself rather than anything constructive over the course of its two hour runtime.
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Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton star in director Luca Guardagnino's A Bigger Splash
Review by Zach Dennis
A Bigger Splash is fun for the first two acts, but as the storm comes and the limits are pushed over the edge, we are left with a conclusion that feels more finite and unearned rather than something truly realized.
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Zac Efron and Chloë Grace Moretz star in director Nicholas Stoller's Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Alternate take by Alison Swafford
(Read original review by Zach Dennis here)
Not only does Neighbors 2 not develop or connect any of its ideas about gender in the Greek system, but it unfortunately takes many ugly and unwarranted passes at other sensitive social issues as well, lacking any of the tact or nuance needed to make insightful humor out of some of our world's most depressing realities.
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Cara Gallo, Ike Barinholtz, Zac Efron, Seth Rogen, and Rose Byrne star in writer/director Nicholas Stoller's 'Neighbors 2'
Review by Zach Dennis
Neighbors 2 has its silly studio comedy tendencies, but it also is a comedy that is interested in much more than just making you laugh at a dick joke. It is a small examination at the growth in life and the in between nature that comes from growing out of the comfortable roles of college or no children or easy job and challenges both the characters and you to examine yourself and whether this is space you are supposed to be in.
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Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe star in writer/director Shane Black’s ‘The Nice Guys’
Review by Zach Dennis
The Nice Guys is a movie we need more of — pure, unadulterated fun that plays within its lines with expertise and precision.
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