movie reviews
‘Pillion’ is a wildly entertaining dark comedy about sex and power
A mild-mannered young man enters into a dominant-submissive relationship with the leader of a gay biker gang. Pillion approaches the subject without judgment and with a great deal of sly humor.
Timothée Chalamet brings a lot to the table in ‘Marty Supreme’
Chalamet stars as a scrappy shoe salesman who dreams of becoming the greatest table tennis player in the world — and is willing to steal, cheat, sweet-talk and hustle his way to the top.
There’s a ‘Dead Man’ in church in this snarky ‘Knives Out’ mystery
A firebrand fundamentalist is stabbed to death at church in Rian Johnson's new film, Wake Up Dead Man. This over-the-top whodunit uses mystery conventions to open up a spiritual inquiry.
These 10 terrific movies emerged from a tumultuous year for the film industry
Fresh Air film critic Justin Chang says most of his favorite films this year were made overseas, including his No. 1 pick, Sirāt.
28 new movies worth checking out this fall
Rom-coms, heist flicks, a sports/horror mashup, a pair of Broadway musicals, a biopic of The Boss, festival award winners and lots of showbiz sagas — here's what NPR critics are watching this fall.
In ‘Lurker’ a social striver squirms his way into a star’s inner circle
This new film about a fan who gets close with an up-and-coming pop star lingers on the ways a relationship that might seem parasitic is closer to symbiotic.
I can’t stop thinking about this plotline in ‘Materialists’
A money-obsessed NYC matchmaker is wooed by a financial investor and a cater waiter in a romantic drama that has its protagonist finding strength and emotional growth via a side character's suffering.
The math in Celine Song’s ‘Materialists’ doesn’t add up
The characters in the romantic comedy Materialists, Celine Song's follow-up to Past Lives, see the dating pool in terms of the "market" – people are evaluated by how "competitive" they are and marriage is treated like an equation to be solved.
Wes Anderson peers into the hollowness of extreme wealth in ‘The Phoenician Scheme’
Benicio Del Toro plays a globe-trotting tycoon trying to convince his estranged daughter (Mia Threapleton) to be his heir. The film is darker, angrier and more violent than Anderson's usual fare.
‘The Shrouds’ introduces a new stage of grief: Watching your loved one decompose
David Cronenberg's thriller centers on an unusual technology that allows people to watch their loved ones decompose in real time. The Shrouds is both deeply morbid and disarmingly funny.
‘Sinners,’ ‘The Wedding Banquet’ remake, and more in theaters this weekend
Michael B. Jordan plays twins Smoke and Stack in a music-besotted, blood-drenched supernatural thriller, Sinners. And Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone in a remake of the groundbreaking 1993 rom-com, The Wedding Banquet.
