Writer-director Lauren Hadaway makes her bold and gripping feature filmmaking debut with “The Novice,” set in the competitive world of collegiate rowing. (She based the story on her experiences on the rowing team at my alma mater, Southern Methodist University, Go Mustangs.) The sound design is exquisite and Isabelle Fuhrman...
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Reviews
RogerEbert.com — The Last Son
A group of barely-there characters are on a collision course with each other that feels more like a slog in “The Last Son.” The film offers some striking visuals and a couple of compelling performances, but for the most part, this high-concept Western is too much of an empty drag...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Licorice Pizza
I could not possibly love “Licorice Pizza” more. I didn’t want it to end, I was so wrapped up in its cozy, wistful spell. And yes, a lot of that comes from the fact that this is my childhood, too — the San Fernando Valley in the ’70s — a...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Belfast
In recalling his youthful days in an insular neighborhood in the titular city, Kenneth Branagh has made a film that’s both intimate and ambitious—his “Roma,” if you’ll forgive the inevitable comparison to Alfonso Cuaron’s recent masterpiece. That’s quite a balancing act the writer/director attempts to pull off, and for the most...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Violet
To the outside world, Violet would seem to have it all. But inside her head, she tells herself a different story—or rather, “The Committee” does. That gaping disparity provides the central conflict within writer/director Justine Bateman’s feature filmmaking debut, “Violet.” Olivia Munn shows dramatic range unlike any we’ve seen before, but...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Eternals
Director Chloe Zhao applies her distinctive aesthetic imprint to “Eternals,” but she can only do so much to bend the Marvel Cinematic Universe to her will. The result is a blockbuster of unusual gentle beauty that also strains to fulfill the gargantuan requirements of a massive action spectacle. My mixed...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Hypnotic
“Hypnotic” is a thriller about the dangerous power of hypnotherapy, but is it powerful enough to stick in your brain even a week after you’ve watched it? What’s actually going on here is so simple, yet so insane, that you wish the filmmakers had explored it for maximum screaming-at-the-screen enjoyment....
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Ron’s Gone Wrong
“Ron’s Gone Wrong” is an indictment of the invasive, insidious tactics of Big Tech, and of the ways we relinquish a little more of our privacy with every click and view. It’s also a celebration of the positive power of technology, of its ability to connect us with others who share...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Introducing, Selma Blair
Selma Blair needs no introduction. And yet we get to meet the actress anew—and she comes to know and eventually embrace a different version of herself—over the course of the documentary “Introducing, Selma Blair.” Working with director Rachel Fleit, she gives us an intimate, unflinching look at her life as...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Diana: The Musical
In retrospect, I may have been too kind to “Diana: The Musical,” which is full of peppy, forgettable tunes with clunky, pedestrian lyrics. At the center, as Diana, Princess of Wales, Jeanna de Waal is capable but stiff. And the whole production — which was supposed to open on Broadway...
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