Kelly Macdonald gets a rare chance to shine in a leading role as a wife and mother who reaches her 40s and finally figures out what she wants from life. Watching her blossom is sheer joy. And while solving jigsaw puzzles may not sound like the most cinematic pursuit, “Puzzle”...
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Reviews
RogerEbert.com — Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
The sequel to the 2008 schmaltzy smash “Mamma Mia!” features even more characters and more subplots and more romantic entanglements. But it’s also less entertaining, the stakes are lower, and despite its frantic energy, it goes absolutely nowhere. It has its moments, though, so if you want an empty summer...
Read moreChristy by Request — The Pagemaster
“The Pagemaster” is the kind of movie first-grade teachers would have popped into the VCR in the 1990s to kill time on a rainy afternoon. With its rudimentary animation and lame pop-culture puns, it’s simultaneously ghastly and inoffensive. It does what it aims to do for its (very young) target...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Skyscraper
Dwayne Johnson battles a Hong Kong high-rise in “Skyscraper.” It’s “Die Hard” meets “The Towering Inferno”: just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Fireworks
“Fireworks” is a strange little anime movie with an uncomfortable sexist streak. It’s essentially an animated incarnation of “Sliding Doors,” with a couple of teens experiencing the same series of events in slightly different ways over the course of a day, leading up to their town’s annual fireworks extravaganza. But...
Read moreChristy by Request — The Lives of Others
“The Lives of Others” is about the transformative power of the human connection — its capacity for opening even the most calloused and closed-off hearts and minds. That may seem like a quaint concept in these contentious times, but it’s certainly a welcome one. I hadn’t seen writer-director Florian Henckel...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Damsel
Mia Wasikowska may be a damsel but she’s certainly not in distress in the Zellners brothers’ quirky, revisionist Western. “Damsel” is a sly feminist manifesto disguised as a shaggy, amiable hangout movie. And it features another wonderfully weird performance from Robert Pattinson, who continues to take chances post-“Twilight.” My review, at...
Read moreChristy by Request — Body Double
“Body Double” is Brian De Palma’s Alfred Hitchcock movie, with clearly affectionate references to “Rear Window,” “Vertigo” and other classics scattered liberally about. But it’s also every bit a De Palma film in the vein of the director’s “Carrie,” “Dressed to Kill” and “Scarface,” with all of its fascinating contradictions....
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Ocean’s 8
“Ocean’s 8” is a complete blast of a heist movie featuring an all-star cast of formidable actresses in to-die-for designer gowns. But beneath the glitz and glamour of this sequel lies a statement about the way women still unfortunately tend to be underestimated. The entire cast enjoys great chemistry, but...
Read moreChristy by Request — Big Wednesday
My father moved to Los Angeles from the Bronx in 1965. He was 23, and enraptured by the romantic notion of surf culture his beloved Beach Boys personified at their early peak. He and my mom were living in a little apartment a block from the sand in the low-key...
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