Cinema News: Movies Update: ‘Beast’ and More

August 19, 2022

By Mekado Murphy

Movies Editor

Hey, movie fans!

It's a mixed bag this week. As we get closer to the end of summer, we get further from summer blockbusters. But if you're looking for something new with C.G.I. pyrotechnics, there's "Beast," the menacing lion movie starring Idris Elba. Although the critic Manohla Dargis is strongly warning viewers away, calling it "thin, unimaginative hack work."

Perhaps instead go for the Critic's Pick documentary "The Territory," about an Indigenous group in the Amazon rainforest fighting to protect its land from cattle ranchers. The critic Claire Shaffer writes that it is "is more than meets the eye," and praises its "luscious cinematography."

Fans of the horror movie "Orphan" may be curious about the prequel "Orphan: First Kill." Ben Kenigsberg laments that it "lacks the original's scares and suavity."

If you like chills, you may do well to instead stay home and check out this handful of horror recommendations from our expert in that genre, Erik Piepenburg.

Enjoy the movies!

Lauren Mulligan/Universal Pictures

'Beast' Review: An Angry Lion, but More Bore Than Roar

In this action dud, Idris Elba plays a grieving father who takes his kids on a family trip to South Africa, where they meet one very big C.G.I. animal.

By Manohla Dargis

Alex Pritz/Amazon Land Documentary/National Geographic Documentary Films

Critic's Pick

'The Territory' Review: Saving the Amazon, One Camera at a Time

This documentary is a thrilling look at an Indigenous group's fight to keep illegal settlers from destroying their land in the Amazon rainforest.

By Claire Shaffer

Roadside Attractions/Vertical Entertainment

The Reinvention of Aubrey Plaza

The actress, well known for her deadpan comic role on "Parks and Recreation," brings nuance to her dramatic role in the thriller "Emily the Criminal."

By Andrew Crump

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CRITICS' PICKS

Family Affair Films, US Holocaust Memorial Museum. /Super Ltd

Critic's Pick

'Three Minutes: A Lengthening' Review: A Ghost Story

Using footage from a three-minute amateur movie shot in 1938, this rousing documentary about a Jewish town in Poland is a haunting meditation on the memory of the Holocaust.

By Beatrice Loayza

ANATOMY OF A SCENE

Eric Chakeen/A24

Watch a Tense Pool Scene From 'Bodies Bodies Bodies'

The director Halina Reijn narrates a sequence from her thriller featuring Amandla Stenberg and Maria Bakalova.

By Mekado Murphy

MOVIE REVIEWS

IFC Films

'Spin Me Round' Review: Eat Pray Lust

Alison Brie plays the manager of a restaurant chain whose trip to Italy for a training program does not go as expected.

By Amy Nicholson

Steve Ackerman/Paramount Pictures

'Orphan: First Kill' Review: Still Slashing After All These Years

Isabelle Fuhrman, who in "Orphan" had to be convincing as a child of age 9, reprises her role 13 years later in this prequel set two years earlier.

By Ben Kenigsberg

Vertical Entertainment

'Delia's Gone' Review: A False Conviction in a Hardscrabble Town

A man aims to find his sister's real killer.

By Glenn Kenny

Samuel Goldwyn

'The Legend of Molly Johnson' Review: Reclaiming the Australian Frontier

A stoic frontier woman harbors an Aboriginal fugitive in this earnest and didactic western.

By Teo Bugbee

Billy Moon/Screen Media

'The Immaculate Room' Review: A Blank Slate

In this drama, a couple tries to live in a stark room with no distractions for 50 days.

By Lena Wilson

Array

'Learn to Swim' Review: A Tooth Ache and All This Jazz

The feature directing debut of Thyrone Tommy is a fractured romance between a young saxophonist and a chanteuse.

By Lisa Kennedy

Film Forum

'Le Temps Perdu' Review: Proust Club

This cozy documentary sits in with a group of older readers in Buenos Aires who gather at a cafe to savor Proust's "In Search of Lost Time."

By Nicolas Rapold

Crunchyroll

Review: 'Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero' Is Deluxe Fan Service

In the latest "Dragon Ball" outing, directed by Tetsuro Kodama and written by the series creator, Akira Toriyama, the menacing villain is a pair of state-of-the-art androids.

By Calum Marsh

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NEWS & FEATURES

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

A Film Captures Jewish Life in a Polish Town Before the Nazis Arrived

A documentary based on a home movie shot by an American in 1938 provides a look at the vibrancy of a Jewish community in Europe just before the Holocaust.

By Nina Siegal

Janus Films

rewind

'Daisies': Two Wild and Crazy Gals

The Czechoslovak New Wave film "Daisies" features an insolent pair of young girls determined to be as "spoiled" as the world.

By J. Hoberman

Leon Bennett/Getty Images

John Boyega Won't Let Go of 'Star Wars' or 'Coming to America'

The star of "Breaking" talks about Fela Kuti, Hans Zimmer, Cha Cha Chicken and other sources of inspiration.

By Chris Kornelis

Sue Kwon

The True Legacy of Michael K. Williams

The actor set out to save his Brooklyn neighborhood. Here's how he's doing it, even in death.

By Saki Knafo

Bettmann/Getty Images

An Oscars Apology for Sacheen Littlefeather, 50 Years After Brando Protest

The Apache activist and actress was booed onstage in 1973 after she refused the best actor award on Marlon Brando's behalf and criticized Hollywood for its depictions of Native Americans.

By Amanda Holpuch

STREAMING