Leaning into his hotness with surprising dexterity, Zac Efron plays the notoriously charming serial killer Ted Bundy like someone who has always understood how to weaponize a pretty face. So the problem with the biopic “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” isn’t Efron (or that cumbersome title), but his director, Joe Berlinger. Working ostensibly from the viewpoint of Bundy’s longtime girlfriend, Liz Kendall (an excellent Lily Collins), Berlinger never fully commits. Instead, he appear...Entertainment6 Aug 2024
“The Gospel of Eureka” is only 75 minutes long, yet feels much longer. That is partly because this cheery documentary — about the uneasy alignment of LGBT life and avid Christianity in the town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas — refuses to grapple with its glaring contradictions. Mostly, though, it is because of the inordinate amount of screen time surrendered to a tiresome Passion play extravaganza. Watching people watch a stage is just lazy filmmaking, no matter how many donkeys, doves and bleat...Entertainment5 Aug 2024
If you like your torture movies tight, twisty and decently executed, then “Pledge” is for you. There is nothing particularly innovative about its systematic abuse of three nerdy college freshmen seeking membership in any fraternity that will have them. But the director, Daniel Robbins, is willing to move beyond the tease of his setup to deliver a ringing indictment of popularity as the cheese in a deadly mousetrap.Entertainment2 Aug 2024
When horror movies head for the woods, their titles may vary — “I Spit on Your Grave,” “Wolf Creek” — but their central dynamic is too often the same: At some point, an attractively trembling woman will be forced to run like the dickens from a yokel who butchers his own meat.Entertainment1 Aug 2024
In my view, at least, the best short-form animation — like the most memorable short stories — is daring in perspective and malleable in interpretation. And while the 15 short films on view in “The 20th Annual Animation Show of Shows” are mostly charming and invariably well-executed, only a handful push outside their carefully drawn lines.Entertainment25 Jun 2024
“What did they do with that girl?,” an unseen male asks as the peaceful opening shots of the documentary “Roll Red Roll” reveal a quiet, darkening street lined with tidy family homes. The skin-crawling audio continues, others now joining a conversation pocked with callousness and nervous giggles: “She is so raped right now.”Entertainment5 Jul 2019
With some movies, it’s best not to allow worries over historical accuracy to derail our enjoyment. And there’s plenty to enjoy in “All Is True,” Kenneth Branagh’s fondly poignant look at William Shakespeare’s final years.
(Critic’s Pick): “Maze” is, on its surface, an escape movie, but its true appeal lies elsewhere. Closely based on the 1983 mass breakout from the notorious Maze prison in Northern Ireland, Stephen Burke’s careful drama hits the familiar genre bases with almost soothing efficiency.
Miles might be a little devil, but it’s not the prince of darkness who’s messing with his head. Enter a lanky psychologist with a very particular set of skills (Colm Feore), none of which prepare him for those of his pint-size patient.
No less than the third film to be based on the 2015 Hatton Garden heist, in which four retired ex-cons masterminded what one prosecutor called “the largest burglary in English legal history,” “King of Thieves” is unabashed old-school entertainment.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
