Movie Reviews

The late actor stars opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the new comedy about a divorced TV archivist who falls in love with a divorced masseuse. David Edelstein praises Louis-Dreyfus' farcical timing, as well Gandolfini's ability to change his rhythm and demeanor.

After college, director Destin Daniel Cretton took a job at a short-term care facility for at-risk teenagers. His time there became the basis for Short Term 12, a film that took two awards at this year's South by Southwest Festival. (Recommended)

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's latest collaboration follows five friends who reunite for an epic tour of 12 suburban English pubs. Critic David Edelstein calls the sci-fi comedy "the year's most uproarious movie."

The writer-director of District 9 returns with Elysium, a dystopian sci-fi/action story with Matt Damon as the hardscrabble hero. Jodie Foster plays the severely chic Big Bad in a saga where the rich live a literally out-of-this-world life above a dying Planet Earth.

From the writers of 500 Days of Summer, The Spectacular Now examines the not-so-spectacular markers of teenhood: the awkwardness and anxiety that everyone must endure. Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller are the two lovers at the forefront of this story based on a novel by Tim Tharp.

Blue Jasmine finds the filmmaker stuck in old ruts; though his technique is as sound as ever, his worldview seems to have congealed decades ago. Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins and Alec Baldwin star in a story inspired by Bernie Madoff and Blanche DuBois.

Arguably the greatest thrill comedy of the silent era, Harold Lloyd's classic Safety Last gets a pristine new release courtesy of the Criterion Collection.

Two new documentaries are making headlines. Gabriela Cowperthwaite's Blackfish centers on the whale that killed a trainer before an Orlando SeaWorld audience in 2010. The Act of Killing by human rights researcher Josh Oppenheimer, looks at the mass executions of communists in Indonesia in the 1960s.

Mads Mikkelsen (TV's Hannibal) anchors The Hunt, a powerful Danish social drama about a teacher whose life is derailed when a 5-year-old's emotional upset sets a citywide witch hunt in motion. (Recommended)

David Edelstein reviews Fruitvale Station, a dramatization of the last day of a man shot by San Francisco transit police in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009.