‘County Lines’: Film Review

Dennis Harvey Film CriticSadistic Nazis, PTSD-afflicted Allied soldiers, angry spirits and creepy dolls make for an already-formidable pile of scare factors in “Ghosts of War,” which then topples the stack by loading too many additional elements in the final stretch. This second feature from “The Butterfly Effect” co-director Eric Bress likewise has a trickily structured take on reality.

Maggie Lee Chief Asia Film CriticImagine a Japanese version of “Pygmalion” in which the sculptor continues to caress slabs of marble even after Galatea has come to life. That is the unusual premise of “Romance Doll,” a marital drama in which a sex doll maker’s rapt obssession with his new prototype, leads to rejection of his human muse.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticThe classic nutshell version of the Turbulent Sixties becoming the Me Decade 1970s is that idealism curdled into hedonism.

Wigan as part of a major crackdown on county lines drugs gangs.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticA cigar is never just a cigar where Sigmund Freud is concerned.

Lisa Kennedy Four Vietnam vets reunite for a mission, one that will lean on their wartime exploits but also expose more than a few old tensions.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticSnarled loops of time travel have proved a surprisingly versatile and rewarding fantasy-cinema trope in recent years, from the big-budget likes of “Edge of Tomorrow” to such enterprising indies as “Predestination,” not to mention comedies (“Palm Springs”), horror (“Happy Death Day”), romance (“Before I Fall”) and more.

For a debut feature, writer-director Charlène Favier’s powerful coming-of-age sports drama Slalom couldn't come at a more timely moment.

truth and beauty, too, it’s safe to say that “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” finds a bit of both of those things.Also Read: 'Palm Springs' Film Review: Andy Samberg Puts an Indie Rom-Com Spin on 'Groundhog Day'The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, went to the Berlin and True/False Film Festivals and had a series of virtual screenings on July 8 to celebrate National Dive Bar Day, with a virtual rollout scheduled for July 10.

Guy Lodge Film CriticIn “Archive,” an isolated scientist methodically pursues an artificial-intelligence ideal, developing a sequence of human-android beings and recycling their various parts until the ultimate prototype is achieved.

"They say that when you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. I wish it were that simple," says James, the main character, in his voiceover narration at the beginning of Volition.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticBeing released during an epidemic lends additional if unintended frisson to “The Beach House,” a cryptic yet reasonably involving thriller in which vacationers find themselves under threat. The nature of that threat remains ambiguous, but in its partially-airborne inescapability, it definitely hits a note of creepy relevance.

Also Read: Andy Samberg Loved 'Palm Springs' Script Because It Was 'A Little More F- Up' Than Traditional Rom-Coms (Video)We meet Samberg’s character, Nyles, when he wakes up on the morning of the wedding and halfheartedly ogles the leg of his girlfriend, Misty (Meredith Hagner).

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticTom Hanks shows what a commanding actor he can be from the first taut combat sequence of “Greyhound,” when the title warship, leading a convoy through the North Atlantic in the early months of World War II, spies a U-boat speeding toward it from a dozen miles away. As the German sub approaches, we hear a lot of rapid-fire military and navigational jargon shooting back and forth between the sailors (“Hydrophone effects slow rev, sounds like 60 RPM, sir!”).

Maggie Lee Chief Asia Film CriticEye-popping action steals the show in “Lupin III: The First,” the first computer-animated feature entry in the classic franchise about the French gentleman thief and master of disguise.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticThe late Richard Benner’s 1977 “Outrageous!” blazed trails as both a hit Canadian export and positive screen depiction of gay life, two relative rarities at the time. Even then, some gay viewers found the funny-sad friendship between a hairdresser/professional drag queen and a young schizophrenic woman a bit old-fashioned.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticA category five hurricane is the least of the perils confronting characters in “Force of Nature.” Set in Puerto Rico during such a tempest, this diverting thriller from director Michael Polish has Emile Hirsch as a cop protecting various apartment building residents (including Kate Bosworth and Mel Gibson) from a murderous gang of thieves.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticJoko Anwar scored Indonesia’s highest-grossing horror hit ever with “Satan’s Slaves,” a remake-slash-prequel to Sisworo Gautama Putra’s beloved if campy 1980 original.

The devastation unleashed on Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria in 2017 caused almost 3,000 fatalities, the loss of 80 percent of the territory's agriculture, prolonged power and water outages and a difficult economic recovery that remains ongoing. Then there was the appalling spectacle of Donald Trump tossing paper towels into a crowd of San Juan citizens in a bizarre interpretation of presidential compassion just a month after the disaster.

Breaking Fast (★★★★☆). Mo marks the handsome Lebanese star’s first romantic lead among a plethora of film and TV roles following his big-screen breakthrough opposite Richard Jenkins in the poignant 2008 drama The Visitor.