'Boys Vs. Girls': Film Review

A deeply disappointing follow-up to her promising 2015 short Kiss Kiss Fingerbang, Gillian Wallace Horvat's I Blame Society is a first feature that points out many of its faults as it goes, as if to transmute them into satirical jabs at an uncertain object.

A trip into the museum world that's far more fun than his last — a grueling, four-hour look at the troubled renovation of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum — Oeke Hoogendijk's My Rembrandt speaks with some of the very few people to whom that phrase applies. Not just directors of institutions, but, for instance, an ordinary Joe (okay, one of Europe's leading landowners) who happens to have a Rembrandt hanging over his fireplace.

You have to feel a little bit sorry for Gary Dourdan. The veteran actor, best known for his role on the hit CBS procedural CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, has been given a plum starring role in the new action thriller Redemption Day.

Don't be fooled by the marketing materials. Yes, Charlie Sheen, George Clooney and Laura Dern do appear in the long unseen Grizzly II: Revenge.

The affinity for urban street culture that informed Ramin Bahrani's early New York indies, Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, is all over the writer-director's mordant adaptation for Netflix of Aravind Adiga's 2008 Booker Prize winner, The White Tiger. An immersive plunge into the chasm separating the servant class from the rich in contemporary India, the drama observes corruption at the highest and lowest levels with its tale of innocence lost and tables turned.

Watch Video: 'The White Tiger' Trailer: An Indian Servant Won't Wait for a 'Slumdog Millionaire' RescueHe realizes that his only ticket out is to get a job as a driver for Ashok (Rajkummar Rao), the U.S.-educated son of the town’s landlord.

An advocacy drama that doesn't forget it needs to tell an interesting story in order to win viewers over, Alexandre Franchi's Happy Face sometimes risks going too far in its tale of a support group for disfigured people: Though Franchi and cowriter Joelle Bourjolly have thought their metaphors through, they might have picked, say, either Cervantes or Dungeons & Dragons as a window into the trials of those who feel like monsters.

World War II cartoons Warner Bros. produced for the Air Force about the mythical “gremlins” that were thought to be the source of aircraft malfunction, we follow Captain Maude Garrett (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she hops onto a B-17 bomber at the last minute, carrying with her a leather case containing what she says is classified cargo.

A movie can have the best intentions in the world and still not quite hit the mark. Such is the case with Ron Vignone's heartland-set drama about a woman attempting to pick up the pieces of her life after serious missteps relating to her previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder.

Most parents think it's a big deal to take their kids to Disney World or Universal Studios for some family bonding. Sorry, but Robert Rodriguez has you all beat.

Some evil geniuses have tailor-made crews of Minions to do their bidding; others have to hire their help the old-fashioned way. Imagining the working-class frustrations of a heroes-and-villains world, Adam Wood's Henchmen centers on a kid who, until he can realize his dreams of evil grandeur, has to pay his dues by mopping up other bad guys' messes.

Also Read: 'Sylvie's Love' Review: Tessa Thompson Pursues Love and Career in Swoon-Worthy Period RomanceCassie’s avoidance routine is interrupted by the arrival of an old classmate, Ryan (Bo Burnham), who professes a longtime crush on her and asks her out. Inadvertently, his presence also brings up painful memories for Cassie, which are slowly revealed to be a traumatic event that led to the end of her dreams of becoming a doctor.

Anyone who's ever resorted to sex in an attempt to heal a fractured relationship will find something to relate to in married filmmakers Sarah Portelli and Ivan Malekin's anthology-style drama set in a variety of international locales.

If 2020 was not exactly a banner year for art-house cinema, with festivals either cancelled or relegated to online status and theatrical releases postponed or demoted to streaming sites, this was not necessarily the case for French filmmaker Sébastien Lifshitz, who managed to put out two of his best works by December: the feature documentaries Little Girl and Adolescents, both of which saw distribution and critical acclaim at home.

A lyrical portrait of a former political giant in his twilight years, Vitaly Mansky's Gorbachev. Heaven is an unusually intimate docu-memoir that feels like an epitaph.

In theory, The Stand In might sound promising. It stars Drew Barrymore, was written by Four Lions and Peep Showscribe Sam Bain and directed by Jamie Babbit (cult queer classic But I'm a Cheerleader, plus some excellent TV episodes for Silicon Valley and Russian Doll).

There should be a limit to the number of plot twists a film can spring on an audience. Sure, it's okay for fiendishly clever puzzlers like Sleuth and Deathtrap to keep us guessing from one moment to the next.

If this were a normal festive season when it was possible to have a post-prandial snuggle on the couch with older relatives, or just fans of the best in old-school movie-star glamour, then this documentary about Audrey Hepburn — out Dec. 15 on DVD and Blu-Ray ahead of a Jan.

Far from the movie viewers may expect when they hear the words "German serial killer," Effigy: Poison and the City takes a dignified, old-fashioned approach to homicidal insanity that befits its early-19th century setting.

A vivid look at what it means for populations to rise up against governments intent on curbing their liberties, Ai Weiwei's Cockroach takes us to the streets of Hong Kong in 2019, as young people violently resist measures chipping away at their independence from mainland China. The third doc Ai has released this year (following Coronation and the Sundance entry Vivos), it's among his most effective films to date —tightly focused and morally urgent.