Finding You
NEW YORK (CNS) -- In adapting Jenny B. Jones' 2011 young adult novel "There I'll Find You" into a big-screen romantic comedy, writer-director Brian Baugh has shortened its title to "Finding You" (Roadside).
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Those Who Wish Me Dead
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Two vulnerable characters form a bond amid perilous circumstances in the thriller "Those Who Wish Me Dead" (Warner Bros.). While the film's path heads toward redemption for one and recovery for the other, detours and details along the journey make it strictly a trip for grown-ups.
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Monster
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Though it's adapted from a book that's over a decade old, "Monster" (Netflix), director Anthony Mandler's screen version of Walter Dean Myers' 1999 novel for young adults, feels remarkably timely. This tale of a Harlem youth caught up in the criminal justice system gains credibility, moreover, by avoiding pat answers.
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Wrath of Man
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Though it comes wrapped up in a slick package, the actioner "Wrath of Man" (MGM) is, in essence, a morally crude tale of do-it-yourself justice. Since it invites viewers to sympathize with its protagonist's relentless quest for revenge, moreover, the film is fundamentally at odds with scriptural values.
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Here Today
NEW YORK (CNS) -- In adapting his script partner Alan Zweibel's short story "The Prize" into the seriocomedy "Here Today" (Sony), director and co-writer Billy Crystal sets out to blend breezy humor with poignant drama. Unfortunately, the film -- in which he also stars as aging TV comedy writer Charlie Burnz -- falls flat in both respects.
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Separation
NEW YORK (CNS) -- While certainly deserving of a place in the annals of schlock horror, "Separation" (Open Road) fails to secure entree into the pantheon of the genre. Working from a screenplay by Nick Amadeus and Josh Braun, director William Brent Bell grafts a cringe-inducing domestic drama -- in which almost all the interiors are very dark, and everyone behaves badly -- onto a ghost story involving haunted puppets.
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The Mitchells vs. the Machines
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Innovative producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the team behind 2018's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," unleash nothing less than a robot apocalypse in the animated comedy "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" (Netflix).
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Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Created and marketed, largely if not exclusively, for the fanbase of the Japanese comic book and television franchise from which it's derived, the animated fantasy "Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train"(Sony) offers others neither timetable nor roadmap. So viewers not already familiar with the material can hop on board, but they risk bewilderment.
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Mortal Kombat
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The problems with "Mortal Kombat" (Warner Bros.) go well beyond off-kilter spelling. In fact, director Simon McQuoid's feature debut -- a reboot adaptation of a series of video games previously brought to the big screen via a couple of movies dating from the mid-1990s -- is, by turns, brutal, ponderous and silly.
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Voyagers
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The tedious sci-fi parable "Voyagers" (Lionsgate) seems designed to prove that in space, no one can hear you yawn. While acceptable for grown-ups, writer-director Neil Burger's flat thriller, an exploration of the positive and negative aspects of human nature, has little to say on that topic that hasn't been better expressed before.
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