‘Time’ Film Review: Elegant Doc Focuses on Families Affected by Incarceration

Thriller author Gillian Flynn didn't invent the "cool girl," but she did codify her.

Whether you call it classic or generic, the coming-of-age story of Sparkle, the fittingly named 17-year-old at the center of She Paradise, follows a familiar trajectory. She's a teen with drive, talent and an independent streak, defying parental disapproval and breaking away from childhood.

A holiday plan for two lifelong friends to drown their sorrows in pie turns into something much more sociable in Friendsgiving, the writing-directing debut of comic actress Nicole Paone. Jam-packed with familiar names, it is most interested in those besties (played by Malin Akerman and Kat Dennings), whose exasperated complaints about failed relationships don't deliver the laughs they seem intended to.

Set against the majestic backdrop of Ireland's wild west coast, Pixie is a trigger-happy comedy road movie that relies more on boorish energy than wit or charm. It marks the self-produced solo directing debut of veteran British producer Barnaby Thompson, whose long lost of credits includes the Wayne's World movies, working here from a screenplay by his son Preston.

A middle-class couple who can’t have children turns to an adoption agency for a baby, only to find their happiness threatened years later when their son’s biological mother shows up and demands him back. Though the story is based on a novel by mystery writer Mizuki Tsujimura, True Mothers (Asa ga Kuru) is a true Naomi Kawase film: a lush visual reworking of parental angst and despair, offset by frequent interludes of communing with that great healer, Mother Nature.

The macabre humor of Roald Dahl survived even a sweetened ending that irked the famed British children’s author in Nicolas Roeg's delectable 1990 film of The Witches, thanks in large part to the glorious villainy of Anjelica Huston.

Documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi says that the purpose of her latest film was to "take the temperature of how people feel about America today." Judging by the alarming footage on display in American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself —premiering Friday on Showtime — the country is suffering from a high-grade fever.

In The Boy Behind the Door, a gripping twist on the home-invasion thriller, first-time feature directors David Charbonier and Justin Powell plunge two tween boys into escalating peril, relentlessly intensifying a cascading series of lethal threats over the film’s excruciating runtime.

You can feel the urgency fueling Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler's historical drama about a little-known, shameful episode in our country's past. Despite taking place in the 1920s, Radium Girls feels particularly relevant in these times when the current administration has devoted itself with a passion to rolling back protections for workers.

Mental health institutions are not filled with emotionally disturbed individuals, but rather brave iconoclasts unwilling to conform to societal rules. That, at least, is an idea that's been posited in popular culture for what seems like forever, most prominently advanced in the book, stage and screen versions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some films take on more relevance than anyone could have planned. (Contagion is just the start.) The Road Up, a worthwhile new documentary about a Chicago jobs-training program, has the bad luck to be the opposite kind.

Todd McCarthy Two of the most engaging and beguiling talkers—and, oh yes, two of the better writers—of the last century share the spotlight in Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation.

Also Read: Henry Winkler Joins Jessica Barden in Drama 'Pink Skies Ahead'When Winona feels a lump in her armpit, she goes to see her physician, Dr. Cotton (Henry Winkler) — or, rather, her pediatrician, whom she insists on seeing over his objections, given that she’s now 20.

Also Read: Henry Winkler Joins Jessica Barden in Drama 'Pink Skies Ahead'When Winona feels a lump in her armpit, she goes to see her physician, Dr. Cotton (Henry Winkler) — or, rather, her pediatrician, whom she insists on seeing over his objections, given that she’s now 20.

A movie that keeps revealing itself to be a little bit odder, a little bit better than you thought it was two minutes ago, Evan Morgan's The Kid Detective is either a lucky accident or a balancing act more graceful than a first-time writer/director should expect to pull off. The tale of a 32 year-old failure (Adam Brody) who was once his town's most celebrated child, it spends much of its time looking, with some humor but little mockery, at how it feels to fail to live up to one's potential.

The Apatovian formula is simple: Pluck an up-and-coming comic from the small leagues, support them while they write their own darkly funny but authentically heartfelt semi-autobiographical comedy then produce and/or direct the final format. This method has led to many successes throughout Judd Apatow's oeuvre, including Amy Schumer's Trainwreck, Kumail Nanjiani's The Big Sick, Pete Davidson's The King of Staten Island and Lena Dunham's Girls.

The most openly expressive character in the on-the-lam drama I'm Your Woman is a baby. That makes sense; he's the only one who hasn't a clue what a mess of danger is closing in around him.

Let me make something clear from the get-go. I love inspirational movies as much as anyone.

Also Read: Rachel Brosnahan Crime Drama 'I'm Your Woman' to Open Virtual AFI FestWe soon learn what Jean already knew — that Eddie was a thief — but what Jean doesn’t know about Eddie is enough to fill the rest of the movie, as Jean stays on the move, looking out for herself and the baby with the help of Cal (Arinzé Kene).

Concert-video specialist Rick Korn puts his cards on the table when he begins his first documentary feature with quotes like "Harry Chapin was one of the greatest storytellers of all time": No savvy viewer will expect the film that follows to contain much beyond praise.