Ben Wheatley returns to genre cinema, after his questionable “Rebecca” remake, with “In the Earth.” What this latest film actually constitutes is the writer-director’s attempt to go back to his cinematic roots (“KIll List” and “A Field in England”), a time when he was a younger filmmaker, excited by the notion of creating art and enamored by his power to cast a horrific and unpredictable spell on audience. Sadly, it feels like the spark is missing here.

Childhood best friends form a suicide-pact in comedian Jerrod Carmichael’s feature-directing debut “On the Count of Three.” This is a dark buddy comedy, all over the place in its message, that struggles to find any sort of tonal coherence in its 80-minute runtime, but the sheer unevenness of the film is part of its schizoid charm.

Critics are shocked, aghast, by Spanish visual artist Pascual Sisto's “John and the Hole” (B) in which Charlie Shotwell an emotionless and psychopathic 13-year-old boy who decides to hold his parents and sister hostage in an unfinished concrete bunker, abandoned years earlier.

“CODA,” which stands for Child of Deaf Adults, features the kind of star-making-performance that can lift just about any mediocre script. Something tells me you’ll be hearing the name of Emilia Jones many times in the years to come.

Thai filmmaker Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya’s glossy “One for the Road” (C) was produced by Wong Kar-wai, but don’t let that fool you into thinking you’re in for top-tier cinema, no, the resulting film is a bland romantic melodrama that so desperately wants to be loved.

Nanfu Wang follow-up to her 'One Child Nation' is an HBO documentary titled ”In the Same Breath” (B), it deals with the Chinese Communist Party coverup of COVID-19 during the early stages of the outbreak. The first half of Wang's film, its stronger section, recaps the chaos that gripped Wuhan at the start of the outbreak in early 2020. The second half focuses more on the arrival of the virus in the U.S., and reaction from government, media, and the CDC to make us believe the virus was nothing more than a bad flu. Wang even inserts a clip of Anthony Fauci, early on during the pandemic’s infancy, stating that it was nothing more than a flu and that masks were not necessary. That hasn’t aged well and someone will have to eventually ask the NIAID director about it.

Rotoscope-like animation is used to mask the identity of a gay man who escaped Afghanistan in Jonas Poher Rasmussen‘s “Flee” (B-). Rasmussen gives his John Doe the name of Amin Nawabi, he’s an Afghan refugee, his animated face isn’t his real face, but the story he tells is very real, or so we’re told. It all amounts to a film that heavily borrows from Ari Folman’s landmark animation-doc hybrid “Waltz With Bashir.” The remnants of that film’s influences are all over “Flee,” which, despite a slowly developed start does manage to become more interesting and more formidably drawn out in its final section.

A virtual edition of the Sundance Film Festival is being launched tonight with the screening of Sian Heder’s “CODA.” An unprecedented and historic moment for the prestigious, near-four-decade-old independent film showcase. You’ll get all the coverage you need here as I’ll be posting reviews and capsules multiple times a day for the next seven days.

What is the point of Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time (yes, that’s the title), the second feature from director Lili Horvát? That’s the question I kept asking myself as I was swept through the rabbit hole that is at the center of this curiously empty film. Horvát served as a casting director on Kornel Mundruczó’s White God, so she knows a thing or two about the technical aspects of filmmaking and ‘Preparations’ is indeed a technical accomplishment, filled with swirling camera movements and expertly refined editing.

The National Board of Review (NBR) is often the first group to announce its picks for the best films and performances of the year, but these are not normal times and awards season 2021 is a unique beast. At this point, we’re headed towards one of the more unpredictable Oscar races for Best Picture. Every major critics group has chosen a different Best Film winner; New York went for “First Cow,” Los Angeles went for “Small Axe,” Boston went for “Nomadland,” and now, NBR has decided that Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” was the best film of the past year.

It is no surprise that Cannes director Thierry Fremaux is now saying that Cannes will most probably be aiming for a July unveiling of the prestigious film festival. It had long been suspected that the fest, which has been happening in May for decades, was going to move its 2021 edition to later in the summer, although Screen Daily is reporting that a possible August date has been totally scrapped. That same write-up purports to the possibility of a hybrid digital/in-person festival this year — something I never thought Cannes would do, alas, I guess they're facing the reality that a traditional festival is very unlikely to happen this summer.

The American Film Institute’s annual unveiling of their top 10 movies and TV shows of the year is as bland as you might expect.. The two juries — which are a mix of critics, academics, and film professionals — were given the task of selecting the best American cinema had to offer the past year. The choices are safe, pedestrian and incalculably mainstream.

I know the readers of this site well-enough. They have properly refined film tastes; sniff-testers who can tell between crass entertainment and well-made escapism. They know exactly what Godzilla Vs. Kong” is all about. It’s a mass-marketed product to appease to the doldrums. Simple as that.

“Saint Maud” is coming. Rose Glass’ film will surely join the ranks of modern-day horror classics such as “Hereditary,” “The Invisible Man,” “Get Out,” “The Witch,” and “It Follows.”

If Dennis Quaid is in your movie these days that’s probably because you don’t mind his strongly conservative-minded politics, and I don’t mind that, but the industry does, that’s why he’s all but been blacklisted the last decade or so. You see, although I am liberal, in the whole-hearted sense, of that term, I don’t agree that the likes of Quaid, Jon Voight, Vince Vaughn, Mel Gibson, Gary Sinise, Kurt Rusell, Andy Garcia, James Woods, and Jim Caviezel should be blackballed by the industry because of their political views — but that’s what’s, more or less, happened to all during the Trump-era. Call it McCarthyism 2.0