Film Review: ‘Breaking Fast’ is an engaging gay rom-com

An early scene in Father Soldier Son shows the tearful reunion between a U.S. soldier on leave from serving in Afghanistan and his two young sons.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticMike Gribble, co-founder of Spike & Mike’s Festival of Animation, was just 42 years old when he passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1994 — an awful case of a larger-than-life film-world figure dying before his work was done.

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.

Also Read: 'The Outpost' Film Review: War Is Hell in Immersive Combat MovieEinhorn and Davis are sympathetic to Eisch, but the object isn’t to get us to root for him the way many moviegoers rooted for Kyle; the filmmakers just want us to understand where he comes from, where his family is going and what that says about the state of American manhood, particularly in the heartland.What is says is sobering and at times disturbing, which gives the film a quiet power even if it’s at times

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.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticNot since the summer of 2003, when François Ozon unveiled Sapphic sizzler “Swimming Pool” at the Cannes Film Festival, has the French director seduced audiences quite as brazenly as he does in “Summer of 85,” which was also set to premiere at Cannes, before the global coronavirus outbreak forced the cancellation of the 2020 edition.

A Kentucky drug dealer (Emilia Clarke) sees an FBI agent (Jack Huston) as her romantic gateway out of a dead-end life in Phillip Noyce's Above Suspicion, an adaptation of Joe Sharkey's account of true events in 1988-89. Completed in 2017, the film could have been released at the height of Clarke's Game of Thrones popularity.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticReteaming provocative Polish director Jan Komasa with screenwriter Mateusz Pacewicz, “The Hater” hits Netflix mere months after the duo’s acclaimed impostor-priest drama “Corpus Christi” was nominated for the Oscars’ newly rechristened international feature award.

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.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticWhen you look at the face of Danny Trejo, you see the creases and hollows and pockmarks, the eye pouches like saddlebags, the badges of a life so well-worn that, at first, that’s just about all you see. Yet the more you look, the more you notice a paradox.

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.

Jessica Kiang In 2013, Daniel Rye, a Danish photographer in his mid-twenties, went to Syria to document the plight of civilian refugees and was kidnapped by ISIS. Ransomed and held captive for 13 months, Rye was psychologically and physically tortured, starved and beaten by his captors, first on his own and then alongside several other international hostages, among them U.S.

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).