Letterboxd — Your life in film

Review by Jude Dry

If he hadn’t become one of the great modern dance choreographers of the last fifty years, Bill T. Jones could have been a poet. As his often transcendent work makes abundantly clear, the best dance is poetry in motion, its highest aspiration as an art form to use the body to express what language cannot. Still, as evidenced by a rather remarkable speech used to open “Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters,” a moving new documentary about one of his most enduring works, Jones could dance with his words, too.

Review by Eric Kohn

“Memoria” begins with the first jump scare in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s career, but the sudden impact isn’t as relevant as the way it resonates in the silence that follows. Anyone familiar with the slow-burn lyricism at the center of the Thai director’s work knows how he adheres to a dreamlike logic that takes its time to settle in. The Colombia-set “Memoria,” his first movie made outside his native country, does that as well as anything in “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” or “Cemetery of Splendor.” But this time around, there’s a profound existential anxiety creeping in.

Review by Kate Erbland

The year 2020 should have kicked off a banner one for young actress Jessica Barden: At the SXSW Film Festival, she was set to surface in Nicole Riegel’s affecting blue collar drama “Holler” and the very different, though similarly well-made “Pink Skies Ahead.” Both movies feature Barden in leading roles that show off her big-time rage. The physical festival was canceled due to the pandemic, and both films were eventually pushed to 2021. Now, audiences can finally appreciate that Barden is doing excellent work and exhibiting a rare depth for her age.

Review by Kate Erbland

The conceit that drives this burgeoning franchise — aliens, but they hear really well — makes for effective enough horror and tension, but Krasinski’s very real, very deep affection for the family he has placed in the middle of all this is what seems destined to keep truly growing. As his chops as an action and horror director have only increased, care of those natty set pieces and plenty of real ingenuity, Krasinski hasn’t lost sight of the human drama that makes it all work. Krasinski never meant to be a horror guy, but he’s always known what scares people.

Review by David Ehrlich

With “F9,” Justin Lin returns to the driver’s seat to steer “F&F” back onto solid ground. Only this time, he isn’t trying to jump-start a stalled race car so much as regain command of a runaway freight train the size of the Chrysler Building. Once again, Lin gets the job done not by slamming on the brakes, but rather by speeding things up to such a ridiculous extreme that the velocity starts to hold everything in place.