Film Reviews

American Underdog fumbles its faith-based filmmaking

Denzel Washington’s melodramatic A Journal for Jordan is out of step with reality

The Matrix Resurrections is the whoa-level blockbuster 2021 deserves

No country for old kings: Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth is bold, bloody and resolute

Sing 2 is perfectly entertaining kiddie karaoke

Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos has got some ’splaining to do

Paul Thomas Anderson’s beautiful, hilarious, complicated Licorice Pizza is the best film of 2021

Writing with Fire shows women journalists in India working in the face of patriarchy, caste prejudice

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s tremendous Netflix drama The Lost Daughter isn’t interested in judgment, only truth

The King’s Man offers Ralph Fiennes his own kick-butt Liam Neeson moment, but also a big ol’ migraine

Spider-Man: No Way Home is dastardly corporate synergy-in-motion, but also ridiculously fun

Porn-star drama Red Rocket finds filthy strength in Simon Rex and NSYNC

Flee offers poignant animated tour through Afghani refugee experience

Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley is a masterpiece of dark desires

In eccentric horror film Agnes, the devil is in the details

Netflix’s Don’t Look Up is too busy shouting to be funny, but thank goodness for Jonah Hill

Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is vivid, sweeping, beautiful filmmaking that shows the power of Hollywood

The Souvenir: Part II is a most unlikely sequel – and absolutely perfect

‘Species dysphoria’ drama Wolf is a wild, rabid mess

Netflix’s The Hand of God is solipsistic in a way only the Golden Globes could love

Blessed be Paul Verhoeven, patron saint of bedevilling, outrageous nun romance Benedetta

Netflix’s The Unforgivable puts Sandra Bullock through the emotional wringer

Fascinating and unnerving drama The Humans proves that no one can nail you like your family

Mamma Mia! Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci is half deliciously cheesy riot, half high-priced snooze

Explicit and absurd, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is the wildest, angriest film of the year

TVO documentary Magic Shadows, Elwy Yost: A Life in Movies is essential viewing for Canadian film fans

Excellent Joaquin Phoenix elevates C’mon C’mon, a family drama that only CBC Radio could truly love

Julia Child documentary an appetizing but unfulfilling tour of a chef who changed food history

Epic Japanese drama Drive My Car is the best cinematic ride of the year

Will Smith reminds us what movie stars are capable of in Venus and Serena Williams drama King Richard

Halle Berry and Netflix’s mixed martial arts drama Bruised pulls too many punches

Canada-Mexico drama Drunken Birds is one of the most beautiful films of the year

Jane Campion’s exquisite The Power of the Dog is searing, surprising and dastardly drama

Netflix’s Tick, Tick ... Boom! is a gift to Broadway obsessives, and Andrew Garfield fans

Disney’s latest Lin-Manuel Miranda partnership Encanto is more overwrought than enchanting

Someone call the Ghostbusters, because Jason Reitman’s awful sequel Afterlife is dead on arrival