As you surely can tell from this photo, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” is insane — but that’s what makes it such a superior sequel. It’s as if everyone involved realized that the silliness was the strength of the 2018 original and leaned into that, hard. I laughed a lot...
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Reviews
RogerEbert.com — El Planeta
A mother-daughter bond shines through stark black-and-white cinematography and surreal humor in “El Planeta.” The debut feature from writer/director/star Amalia Ulman recalls the scrappy, low-budget look and feel of the movies that marked the indie film explosion of the early ‘90s, but its dialogue and details are unmistakably personal. My review,...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Come From Away
A musical about 9/11 might not exactly sound like a feel-good experience or even your cup of tea, but the filmed version of the Broadway hit “Come From Away” is joyous and deceptively layered. It takes place in the tiny town of Gander, Newfoundland, where 7,000 stranded airline passengers landed...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Afterlife of the Party
Heaven can wait for Victoria Justice in “Afterlife of the Party,” a shrill and derivative Netflix comedy. The former Nickelodeon star brings all the incessant perkiness of her sit-com roots to the role of Cassie, a stunning and self-centered party girl who dies in a freak accident the morning after her...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Vacation Friends
Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji, John Cena and Meredith Hagner travel to Mexico in “Vacation Friends,” but they never really go anywhere. All four actors are trapped in one-note roles in repetitive scenarios that become increasingly tedious. My 1 1/2-star review of his straining, late-summer raunchfest, at RogerEbert.com Read the...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — The Protege
Maggie Q and Michael Keaton have such snappy, sexy chemistry with each other in “The Protégé,” it’ll make you wish their connection were in the service of a better movie. Instead, they bounce off each other—often quite literally—in this capable but ultimately forgettable late-summer action-thriller. My review, at RogerEbert.com. Read...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Don’t Breathe 2
What are the odds that a second group of people would be foolish enough to break into Stephen Lang’s home to try and steal something valuable to him? That’s the unlikely premise of “Don’t Breathe 2,” which can’t quite match the novelty and thrills of the surprise-hit 2016 original. My...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Vivo
What begins in lively and vibrant fashion as the title would suggest gets bogged down in a literal and figurative swamp in “Vivo.” When the Lin-Manuel Miranda animated musical is about the power of songs to transform and connect people across years and miles, the film is at its strongest....
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Stillwater
Director and co-writer Tom McCarthy is telling several different stories with “Stillwater,” the most compelling of which finds a movingly understated Matt Damon seeking redemption for himself and his daughter in France. But there’s so much else going on as the film hurtles toward its wild third act. My mixed...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — The Boy Behind the Door
The premise alone is terrifying: Two 12-year-old boys get abducted in broad daylight, tied up and taken to a creepy, remote house. If you’re a boy mom — as I am, of a son around the same age — that may just be enough for you, and you won’t to...
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