Film Reviews

On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Mary Pat Treuthart, and Nathan Weinbender discuss two movies that incorporate violence, or references to it, at their very core. The first is the aptly titled “The Smashing Machine,” in which Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson plays the real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr. The other is “Anemone,” a film starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a man tortured by memories of war.

Dwayne Johnson is getting the best reviews of his career playing UFC fighter Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s "The Smashing Machine." Nathan Weinbender says the performance is solid, but the movie is sketchy and unsatisfying.

Despite its faults, the feature film “Anemone” boasts an exercise in acting by one of the great screen artists of our time, says Dan Webster.

One of the most acclaimed movies from last year’s Cannes Film Festival, "Souleymane’s Story" is about a West African immigrant facing a citizenship interview. Nathan Weinbender says it’s a moving and propulsive drama. It’s now available on digital rental platforms.

On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Mary Pat Treuthart, and Nathan Weinbender discuss filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest effort, the Leonardo Di Caprio vehicle “One Battle After Another,” and then they tackle Anderson’s entire career, with each making a case for what they think is his best film.

Oliver Hermanus’ “The History of Sound” is a faithful adaptation of Ben Shattuck’s short story, says Dan Webster.

On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Nathan Weinbender, and Mary Pat Treuthart discuss the recent trend of documentaries celebrating the lives and careers of musicians, and offer up their thoughts on a few of the films that you might want to check out.

It’s always an event when writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson releases a movie. Nathan Weinbender says Anderson’s 10th feature, "One Battle After Another," is one of his masterpieces and a bracing portrait of American discontent.

On this week’s show, Dan Webster, Mary Pat Treuthart and Nathan Weinbender discuss a pair of films—one a satirical comedy, “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” the other a depiction of dystopian horror, “The Long Walk”—that demand their respective audiences to just sit back, ignore your sense of reality, and enjoy... if you can.

”The Long Walk” is based on an early Stephen King novel, which isn’t in its favor, says Dan Webster.