Michael Atkinson

Review: In ‘Grand Theft Hamlet,’ Playing’s the Thing

This oh-so-21st-century “movie” lives in an uncanny valley of gaming, role-playing, stage acting, and wanton killing.

by Michael Atkinson

January 17, 2025

Review: ‘Bye Bye Love’ is Pure Snot-Nosed Indie Heaven

Isao Fujisawa’s outlaw road movie riled the age of Nixon with a trans hero.

by Michael Atkinson

January 14, 2025

The Best Movies of an Un-Best Year – and WTF With Just Ten?

The last list of the underrepresented films of 2024, which you likely didn’t hear much about — but need to see, stat.

by Michael Atkinson

December 27, 2024

Review: ‘Nosferatu’ Arrives Christmas Day as the Perfect Goth Geek Gift

Robert Eggers’s remake of the 103-year-old classic might not be as timeless, but its vision of old-world bloodletting proves timely.

by Michael Atkinson

December 23, 2024

Review: For Audiences, ‘The Brutalist’ Lives Up to Its Title

Brady Corbet’s three-plus-hour rise-and-fall-and-then-sideways extravaganza erects an edifice that doesn’t quite stand up.

by Michael Atkinson

December 18, 2024

Review: ‘The Girl with the Needle’ is a Chilling Iron Maiden of a Film

Magnus von Horn and Line Langebek’s World War I–era tale mixes serial killings with foreshadowings of today’s war over reproductive rights.

by Michael Atkinson

December 6, 2024

The Long Black Friday: Cinematic Gifts You Can Hold In Your Hands

Treat those on your nice — or naughty — list to hard copies of enduring classics, beguiling chills, riot-grrrl ferocity, and earnestly inept porn.

by Michael Atkinson

November 28, 2024

Review: ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ Bears Rebellious Fruit

Mohammad Rasoulof aims his film’s ire squarely at Iran’s theocracy.

by Michael Atkinson

November 26, 2024

Review: ‘All We Imagine as Light’ Casts Fleeting Shadows

The award-winning film focuses on the wary, the reticent, and the repressed.

by Michael Atkinson

November 15, 2024

Review: ‘The Graduates’ Carry On, Mourning Classmates Lost to a School Shooting

Hannah Peterson’s first feature relies so heavily on Mina Sundwall’s aching performance, it could’ve been a silent film.

by Michael Atkinson

November 1, 2024