Filmmaker Ari Aster’s follow-up to ‘Hereditary’ turns a break-up story into a funny, frightening ‘Wicker Man’ 2.0

Ari Aster is a bold new voice in psychological horror, the kind that messes ruthlessly with your head. He proved that last year with Hereditary, featuring Toni Colette in one of cinema’s most memorable meltdowns. And now, with the hypnotic and haunting Midsommar, he ventures into fresh territory without losing his grasp of what nightmares are made of.

Aster wittily calls his follow-up…

The ‘Atomic Blonde’ star leads a group of immortal warriors into battle in this surprisingly character-driven take on superhero epics

Former atomic blonde Charlize Theron goes nuclear brunette to play Andromache the Scythian (call her Andy for short), a centuries-old warrior who’s getting weary of fighting the good fight into the violent present. As per screenwriter Greg Rucka’s graphic novel, Andy leads a tight group of dedicated immortal mercenaries that include Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), a member since 1817, and Joe…

The filmmaker’s big-gamble brainteaser finally arrives in U.S. theaters (and only theaters) — and it’s a dizzying, delirious ride

You could argue that Tenet, the brain-teasing new blockbuster-to-be from agent provocateur Christopher Nolan, doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going. Actually it’s doing both — and the director-screenwriter is challenging us to try and keep up. It’s as if an African-American James Bond, in the person of the sharply bespoke-suited spymaster played by John David Washington, found himself among the…

Before he became a cynical parody of himself, director Michael Bay made an efficient 1995 feature debut with Bad Boys, a buddy-cop flick that came in hot on the star power of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as Miami detectives who never learned how to play by the rules. By the time the 2003 sequel Bad Boys 2 rolled around, Bay had become the Bay we know and loathe (remember Pearl Harbor?) and buried the duo’s chemistry in his patented…