In Theaters Archives - FilmFisher

Cold War (R)

Paweł Pawlikowski’s austerely beautiful Cold War begins with villagers performing a folk song about a man standing at his lover’s door, begging her to “open up.” This sense of longing courses through the film: to watch Cold War is to feel oneself hovering on the threshold of something mysterious, inaccessible, and slow to open itself […]
The Favourite (R)

According to Hegel, every major historical event repeats itself twice; according to Marx’s notorious addendum, the first time is a tragedy, the second a farce. Most things happen twice in The Favourite, but director Yorgos Lanthimos reverses the rhythm so farce gives way to tragedy, or else layers the two over each other until we cannot tell […]
Mary Poppins Returns (PG)

Although it’s somewhat of a cornball statement, and it’s certainly not applicable to this modern era of the House of Mouse, there really is some kind of Disney Magic. You’d have to go back several decades at this point to see that magic in action, but there was a time when Walt Disney Pictures knew […]
Aquaman (PG-13)

When FilmFisher’s managing editor Timothy Lawrence asked me to review Aquaman, I groaned. I had only seen one DC film since Man of Steel (which I loathe), and that was the Marvel-esque Wonder Woman. I have heard tales of how Batman v. Superman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League are incredibly awful. Therefore I was not […]
Green Book (PG-13)

Peter Farrelly’s Green Book is a lesson to all Americans: Black Lives really do Matter, and, just maybe, all lives matter too. A house divided against itself cannot stand, but the division this country is now faced with is not one of race, sex, gender, sexuality, or any other label. It is a division of […]
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (PG)

I love Spider-Man. To be more specific, I love Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. That isn’t to say I don’t love any other iteration of the character but it is the standard with which I judge all other iterations. Perhaps it isn’t the most objective, and it certainly isn’t the most ideal. While I think it is the […]
Widows (R)

You’ll have to forgive me. It’s been nearly three weeks since I initially saw Widows. Immediately after the screening, I felt very positively about the film, which I thought leveraged some really great technical filmmaking and a game cast to offset a messy script with too many threads and a pretty weak late-game twist. But in […]
Ralph Breaks the Internet (PG)

I would probably do well to confess up front that I am not really the right person to review Ralph Breaks the Internet. I harbor no fondness for its predecessor, Wreck-It Ralph, which I saw once upon its release in 2012 – and, while I’m being frank, I have not really enjoyed a new animated […]
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (R)

The films of the Coen brothers are replete with dark ironies, but few rival the fact that the staunchest moralists working in Hollywood today have been so consistently labeled as cynics or dismissed as nihilists. Their impeccable new effort, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, is the latest in a streak of masterpieces now over a […]
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (PG-13)

I have dreaded writing this review ever since I left the theater, and don’t think I will get much enjoyment out of it. There is no pleasure to be had in speaking against a group of artists whose work you have always enjoyed — and even been shaped by — in the past. Some take […]
Halloween (R)

Let’s just get this out of the way: the new Halloween commits a cardinal horror movie sin in that it all feels too safe. In other words, it’s not scary. This latest sequel erases the rest of the canon in favor of being a direct follow up to John Carpenter’s 1978 original. Almost by fiat, this is surely the […]
First Man (PG-13)

The biopic, as a film genre, is a notoriously difficult thing to get right. The problem with much of history, and indeed a great deal of personal history, is that it’s not particularly cinematic because it’s often so internalized. It’s the problem a lot of faith-based films have. How can you quantify a spiritual experience […]
Venom (PG-13)

When I was a very young boy, I thought Venom was pretty cool. I liked Spider-Man, and I liked dinosaurs, and I imagine this is why the idea of a carnivorous Spider-Man held some appeal for me. It is more difficult to pinpoint the source of the morbid curiosity that drove me to the theater this weekend, where I forked over twelve dollars to see Sony Pictures’ Venom under the pretense of “taking one for the FilmFisher team.”
The Old Man and the Gun (PG-13)

Though he has directed only five feature films in a career of less than a decade, David Lowery’s vision of the cosmos is already more clearly defined than most directors achieve in a lifetime. 2013’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, 2016’s Pete’s Dragon, and 2017’s A Ghost Story are all united by a soulful, lyrical quality […]
Eighth Grade (R)

The irony that I usually write about horror films or coming-of-age stories for this site has not been lost upon me. In that respect, it feels like Eighth Grade is the perfect intersection of the two genres, as it surprisingly captures the very accurate, cringeworthy horror that going through eighth grade is actually like for most normal […]
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (PG-13)

Here at FilmFisher, movies are considered excellent if they offer “some meditation on truth or beauty or holiness which stands to remain for weeks and months after leaving the theater.” Mission: Impossible – Fallout, like most action films, offers little in the way of contemplation, which is why I have granted it only three and […]
Ant-Man and the Wasp (PG-13)

When the first Ant-Man was released three summers ago, it was a refreshing breeze that aired out an increasingly stuffy and stultifying superhero atmosphere. After the previous four MCU entries all ended with a large population barely escaping decimation from some magic stone or tech-turned-terror — and especially after the heady philosophy, jumbled plotting, and […]
Sicario: Day of the Soldado (R)

There were warning signs even before the title changed. After the moderate success of Sicario in 2015, screenwriter Taylor Sheridan promised an unnecessary follow-up that in true sequel fashion would be bigger, darker, and meaner than the original. Her character’s arc complete, Emily Blunt was out, and so were director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins. Josh […]
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (PG-13)

Mr. Fred Rogers, the star of Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, not only challenges the concept of love, but what it is to express it. Mr. Rogers believed that everyone had God-given intrinsic value that made them lovable and capable of loving one another, whereas most people feel or are told that in order to be loved they […]
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (PG-13)

Do not go to see this film. Let me qualify: do not spend money seeing Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom unless your desire is to make two hours and ten minutes of your life feel more like four or five. It is a perfect proving ground for testing the relative perception of the passing of time. […]