https://n2v.mv-voice.com If it is local and useful, it is on mv-voice.com. en-us Copyright 2024 mv-voice.com https://mv-voice.com/art/top_logo.png https://n2v.mv-voice.com "Onward" embraces the paradox of recapturing what's been lost even as it insists on moving ahead.]]> Kitty Green's drama "The Assistant" features a put-upon female protagonist working in the outer office of a movie mogul we never see or hear but whose out-sized presence overshadows everything. ]]> Right on time for Valentine's Day comes a comedy of marital manners, one that perversely -- on a weekend made for date night -- questions the limits of love, marriage and family. The name of the game is "Downhill." ]]> "Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn" may be about as shallow as a puddle, but that's still enough to make a splash. ]]> There's been a lot of buzz over this year's "Best Animated Short," which includes the nominated "Hair Love," a sweet and sunny film written, directed and produced by former NFL-player-turned-filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry. ]]> The re-teaming of Martin Lawrence and Will Smith hasn't lost its luster in the 17 years since they last played lovingly bickering bros Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) in "Bad Boys II."]]> World War I was coined the "Great War," the war to end all wars. But is the war movie "1917," which won "Best Drama" and "Best Director" at the Golden Globe Awards, a great film? The film to end all films? Almost certainly not. ]]> Aside from her own comic and dramatic sensibilities and a stellar cast, writer-director Greta Gerwig's "Little Women" adopts a bold narrative approach to retelling Louisa May Alcott's classic tale of four sisters coming of age.]]> "The Rise of Skywalker" nearly gets by on its visual dazzle and big action set pieces, but even at its best, this franchise-capper struggles to raise a pulse.]]> In the newly released "Jumanji: The Next Level," Spencer gets pulled back into Jumanji. And this time around, the characters' ages morph between their teen years and their 70s. ]]> "Waves" looks at the internal struggles of an upper-middle-class family from Florida. ]]> Positioned as the big new release of Thanksgiving week, "Knives Out" includes a politically contentious dinner argument among family members, but the cheeky mystery has something else that these people have kept in the family: murder.]]> Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven leave Arendelle to travel to an ancient, autumn-bound forest of an enchanted land in "Frozen II."]]> Based on Stephen King's 2013 novel, "Doctor Sleep" is a story of reckoning with the long-ago trauma depicted in his 1977 novel "The Shining." ]]> Parasite" is a dark comedy with twists and turns that follows the Kims, a family living hand to mouth in a South Korean slum who catches a break when their son lands a job tutoring a rich girl. ]]> "The Current War: Director's Cut" turns the complicated story of American electricity into a digestible drama, its commentary reminds us of the slipperiness of history in assigning credit for monumental innovation.]]> "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" feels spineless with its tortured semi-tragic antihero turned into a slightly misanthropic soccer mom who likes wearing black.]]> Director Todd Phillips takes Batman's most famous villain for a joy(less)ride in the psychodrama "Joker."]]> "Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool" looks at Miles Davis'enduring influence as a trumpeter, composer and bandleader. ]]> The new documentary "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice" affords Ronstadt the opportunity to tell much of her own story, including how she found her "voice" as an individual, an artist and a social-justice advocate.]]> Based on a true story, "Official Secrets" looks at what happens when a whistleblower leaks state secrets in the lead up to the Iraq War.]]> The horror comedy "Ready or Not" revels in the deaths of America's wealthiest 1 percent. <br /> ]]> "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" is hardly perfect, Kate Blanchett's humanization of Bernadette keeps the film relatable and us rooting for her to get back on track and figure it all out, for her to solve the mystery of sustained happiness]]> "Luce" tackles race in America when a married couple is forced to reckon with the idealized image of their son, adopted from war-torn Eritrea. ]]> When three Irish mob lieutenants from Hell's Kitchen get sent up the river, their respective wives have little choice but to take over their rackets.]]> A family discovers its grandmother has only a short while left to live and decides to keep her in the dark in "The Farewell."]]> A mild-mannered Uber driver named Stu picks up a passenger who turns out to be a cop on the trail of a killer in the new action-comedy "Stuber."]]> Alex Holmes' documentary "Maiden" provides a fresh account of the first-ever all-female yacht crew to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989.]]> With tongue knowingly in cheek, "Spider-Man: Far From Home" plops us firmly into teen-movie territory, even more so than Tom Holland's first solo Spidey movie, "Spider-Man: Homecoming."]]> The Beatles-themed romantic comedy "Yesterday" proceeds from a cutesy what-if premise: Following a 12-second global blackout, no one remembers the Beatles, except Jack Malik, a singer-songwriter languishing in obscurity.]]> High-tension action-adventure has always been a key ingredient in the "Toy Story" films, but "Toy Story 4" may well be the most consistently anxiety-inducing of them all.]]> With Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones retired, the latest attempt to resuscitate the "Men in Black" franchise just seems wearying and tiresome.]]> An editor and an author find themselves in over their heads as they cope with a middle-age crisis, in the amusing new comedy "Non-Fiction." ]]> Director Guy Ritchie ("Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "Sherlock Holmes") tackles his first musical in Walt Disney Pictures' remake of the animated classic "Aladdin," and it shows. ]]> Shakespeare nerds -- and here I include myself -- will drink deeply from "All is True," a new work of historical fiction about the great playwright's "retirement" years.]]> The funniest bit in "Long Shot" comes in its first five minutes. Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen), a Jewish journalist working undercover as a neo-Nazi pledge, attempts to ingratiate himself with the group. Surrounded by Nazi-saluting wack jobs, Flarsky finds himself obliged, repeatedly, to offer his own noncommittal heil in return. The gestural gag sets the tone for a silly, superficial romantic comedy. ]]> "Teen Spirit" serves mostly as a vehicle for star Elle Fanning, who provides her own vocals in her role as a pop star rising from obscurity. ]]> Seven-time Oscar nominee Mike Leigh ("Topsy-Turvy") makes no concession to the passive viewer with his new historical film "Peterloo."]]> "Shazam!" brings the first superhero ever to appear in live action to the big screen 78 years later, and the break was worth the wait. The film is a family-friendly, comical comic-book adventure! ]]> "Dumbo" is a strange beast, indeed. I don't mean the character of an elephant born with ears so big he can flap them and take flight. And I don't mean the 1941 Disney animated feature starring that elephant. No, I mean Disney's new live-action, CGI-heavy reimagining of "Dumbo," which turns out to be part bland kids-and-animals adventure and part Coen Brothers-esque period satire.]]> What will surely be the single-most commonly cited moment of "Us" is when a dumbfounded American dad asks psychopathic home invaders, "What are you people?" and they answer: "We're Americans." It's a punchline and a promise of scary, but satirical, social commentary in Jordan Peele's follow-up to his smash success "Get Out."]]> The new so-called thriller "The Wedding Guest" plods along with a minimum of character development and chemistry between its leads. ]]> The 21st film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same. "Captain Marvel" introduces Marvel Studios' first headlining female hero, but her origin story doesn't diverge far from Marvel's successful "house style" of sci-fi MacGuffins. Watching this obscure hero give rise to another franchise-building, smash-hit movie will leave viewers marveling at Marvel once again.]]> DreamWorks' "How To Train Your Dragon" animation trilogy has always been something special, an out-of-left-field surprise that prioritized artfully telling a good story rather than bowing to the presumptions of what makes a hit animated family picture (talking animals, pop song and dance...). The third and final installment stays true to form, satisfactorily wrapping up the story of characters in whom audiences have become invested.]]> When was the last time you heard an enthusiastic "Hi-yah!" in a movie not starring Miss Piggy? The martial-arts exclamation is just one indication of how unpretentious the new cyberpunk action film "Alita: Battle Angel" is. ]]> Few films have ever kept it simpler -- in terms of plot and character -- than "Arctic," a calling card from Brazilian YouTube sensation and first-time feature filmmaker Joe Penna. Granted, the 19-day shoot in Iceland probably wasn't very simple, but this showcase for Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen features almost no dialogue in its single-minded focus on a trek toward survival.]]> If you have a kid who loved "The Lego Movie," it's certain they'll like "The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part." And not just because kids like most any movie you put in front of them. Care has gone into making this sequel a worthy direct follow-up to the 2014 film that kicked off Lego as a film franchise.]]> "Stan & Ollie" focuses on the classic comedy duo's tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland in the early 1950s during a time when their fame is in decline. Jeff Pope's script wisely begins by introducing beanpole Laurel (Coogan) and portly Hardy (Reilly) in their prime, on the set of 1937's "Way Out West." ]]> As Hollywood awaits the annual presentation of the Academy Awards, two lushly photographed black-and-white foreign-language films have steadily found themselves in competition: Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" and Pawel Pawlikowski's "Cold War," which picked up three Oscar nominations this week for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography and a surprise nod for Best Director. And now, as "Cold War" rolls out in theaters across the country, those wondering how the Polish would do "La La Land" have their chance to see for themselves.]]>