‘The Dads’ Review: Fathers of Trans Kids Support and Advise One Another in an Accessible and Moving Doc

‘The Dads’ Review: Fathers of Trans Kids Support and Advise One Another in an Accessible and Moving Doc

Writer-director Luchina Fisher’s documentary The Dads, a portrait of assorted American fathers trying to support their trans and non-binary children in these dark times, is both painfully timely and blessedly hopeful, a warning and a balm in one handy package. Built off the foundation laid by Fisher’s 2023 short of the same name about some…

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‘Basic’ Review: Ashley Park and Leighton Meester in a Fun, Fizzy Comedy About the Perils of Googling Your Boyfriend’s Ex

‘Basic’ Review: Ashley Park and Leighton Meester in a Fun, Fizzy Comedy About the Perils of Googling Your Boyfriend’s Ex

There are two types of people in the world: Those who’ll admit to looking up their partner’s exes on social media and those who are lying. Basic, Chelsea Devantez’s expansion of her own 2020 short, builds itself around this embarrassing but universal truth. Following a brokenhearted woman whose obsession with her ex’s ex comes to…

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‘The Saviors’ Review: Adam Scott and Danielle Deadwyler in a Timely Comic Thriller With Good Intentions and Clunky Execution

‘The Saviors’ Review: Adam Scott and Danielle Deadwyler in a Timely Comic Thriller With Good Intentions and Clunky Execution

If there is one thing Sean (Adam Scott) would like to make perfectly clear, it’s that he’s only ever had the best intentions. He’s no bigot. He doesn’t buy into far-right propaganda like his parents (Ron Perlman and Colleen Camp) do. And he’s been nothing but hospitable to his new Airbnb guests, Jahan (Nazanin Boniadi)…

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‘The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel’ Review: Netflix Doc Is Funny and Moving, but Could Use More Hillel Slovak

‘The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel’ Review: Netflix Doc Is Funny and Moving, but Could Use More Hillel Slovak

Contrary to the interpretation you may have read in some outlets, the Red Hot Chili Peppers haven’t really distanced themselves from or disavowed the upcoming Netflix documentary, The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel. What the band said, in a statement on Instagram, was that they participated in a documentary about…

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‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ Review: New Zealand Drama Dives Into a Vivid Portrait of Millennial Teen Confusion

‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ Review: New Zealand Drama Dives Into a Vivid Portrait of Millennial Teen Confusion

Big Girls Don’t Cry is notable for two impressive debuts: It’s writer-director Paloma Schneideman’s first feature, and its star, Ani Palmer, has never before acted onscreen. Together, they illuminate a messy, searching vibrancy in the story of Sid, a sex-curious small-town 14-year-old who wants more than anything to be cool. The movie — the first…

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‘Hokum’ Review: Adam Scott Gets Spooked in Haunted Irish Hotel Horror Neither Completely Ho-Hum Nor Wholly Satisfying

‘Hokum’ Review: Adam Scott Gets Spooked in Haunted Irish Hotel Horror Neither Completely Ho-Hum Nor Wholly Satisfying

There may be no more fertile ground for screen horror than the enchanted woodlands of the Emerald Isle, which makes it disconcerting when Hokum — a title not entirely inaccurate — opens with a desert scene that’s like an outtake from Sirat. At least until Austin Amelio staggers into the shot in 16th-century conquistador armor,…

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‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ Review: Samara Weaving and Sarah Michelle Gellar in a Sequel That Can’t Quite Conjure the Original’s Dark Magic

‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ Review: Samara Weaving and Sarah Michelle Gellar in a Sequel That Can’t Quite Conjure the Original’s Dark Magic

Pity the poor horror movie hero. Should they be fortunate enough to survive their unimaginably horrific ordeal with enough ingenuity and panache, odds are good the movie gods will only force them to endure it all over again, at higher intensity and to lower acclaim. And so it is that Grace (Samara Weaving), who ended…

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‘Kill Me’ Review: Charlie Day and Allison Williams in a Mental Health Murder Mystery That’s More Bruising Than Satisfying

‘Kill Me’ Review: Charlie Day and Allison Williams in a Mental Health Murder Mystery That’s More Bruising Than Satisfying

Speaking to the very cops he’d called to report that someone’s tried to kill him, Jimmy (Charlie Day) suddenly grows panicked. He wants to plead the fifth; he wants to call a lawyer; he’s terrified they’re accusing him of “attempted self-murder.” The police, understandably, are baffled. The normal term for that is “suicide,” and in…

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