Movie Reviews (Chronological)
Overstreet Archives: The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Ten years ago, I wrote about The Muppet Christmas Carol for another website, marking the film’s 20th anniversary. Here, at the film’s 30th anniversary, I’m bringing that review to Looking Closer.
The Wonder (2022)
On the week that I watched The Wonder , I had a challenging encounter with a stranger that brought the movie’s central tension vividly to mind. It seems that the best way I can highlight my admiration for the movie is to share my experience alongside my review.
My Father’s Dragon (2022)
The source material, a 1948 children’s book by Ruth Stiles Gannett, is whimsical and funny, and has clearly influenced storytellers for generations, but it’s a meandering and episodic tale that lacks a certain gravity. Can Cartoon Saloon storytellers revise it into something resonant?
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
Do we need another epic war movie in 2022? Yes, if it serves to strip away any sense that battlefields are about heroes or glory. All Quiet has always been about telling the truth, and this new German-made adaptation on Netflix is no exception.
Stuck in the middle with Tár
Director Todd Field’s return to the big screen is an unforgettable spectacle. And it is, almost inarguably, the greatest performance of Cate Blanchett’s remarkable career. Some will call it a masterpiece. I’m not so sure.
Nothing Compares (2022)
It has taken three decades — 30 years to the month! — for the truth to come into focus. In the early ’90s, Sinead O’Connor risked her career to speak truth to power. She was condemned by Christians, by pop culture, by almost everyone. And now we’ve seen her laments justified, her prophecies coming true. Here, thank God, is a movie that loves her and grieves for her.
The Duke (2022)
Roger Michell’s final film* is an endearing epilogue to an impressive career, but even the headliners Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren can’t make this one memorable.
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)
The great Leslie Manville proves that she can make even a cloying crowdpleaser like this worth watching. You might find this “power of positive thinking” fairy tale a blessed relief it is from the punishing darkness and violence of almost everything else this summer. (Or, if you’re like me, you might find it too sticky sweet for its own good.)
Shadow in the Cloud (2021)
This isn’t a one-woman show, but it’s close: Chloë Grace Moretz gives this cartoonish action film a far stronger central performance than it needs, and that turns an otherwise forgettable action thriller into surprisingly compelling experience.
Hit the Road (2022)
The son of the great Jafar Panahi has become a promising filmmaker himself. Panah Panahi’s first movie takes backroads that lead to laughs, surprises, and troubling revelations.