Adrianne & the Castle is a bold and unconventional, but dull and tedious documentary. Director Shannon Walsh centers on Alan St George's re-enactments of moments with his deceased wife whom he built and designed a castle for when they got married 30 years earlier. Alan uses the reenactments as a coping mechanism to deal with his grief and to cherish the love that he had for his wife. While that makes for a sweet and touching experience for him, it's not exactly the same for the audience because they barely get to know Alan and Adrianne. What was their marriage like beyond just the love they had for each other? Walsh squanders an opportunity to delve into the universal topics of grief, love, marriage or art as a form of healing with more depth, so she ultimately leaves the audience feeling cold and underwhelmed. At a running time of 1 hour and 26 minutes, Adrianne & the Castle opens at Village East by Angelika.

      Americans with No Address is an eye-opening, vital and illuminating human rights documentary about the homeless crisis in the U.S. Co-directors Stephen Wollwerth & Julia Verdin examine the issue head-on and explain how it's systemic and only getting worse by the day. The government doesn't do enough to help nor to get to the root of the issue, i.e. by helping the homeless get mental health treatment. Just giving them housing doesn't ameliorate the homeless people's problems with drug addiction or with their mental health. So, the government essentially wastes money trying to fix homelessness because it dehumanizes the homeless by ignoring their mental health. The homeless are no more human than you and I. Fortunately, Americans with No Address lets homeless people speak their mind through interviews. It turns out that there are some charities out there available for the homeless that do offer mental health services which aren't very expensive, but the government doesn't subsidize them. This documentary makes it loud and clear that they should be subsidized and more readily available. Kudos to the filmmakers for not sugar-coating the homelessness issue and for providing some hope by shedding light on practical solutions. Economics textbooks are wrong and misleading when they state that the higher a country's GDP is, the better; the GDP should rise with the poor to be a truly healthy economy. At a running time of 1 hour and 27 minutes, Americans with No Address opens at Cinema Village via Double Exposure Distribution and Robert Craig Films.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1




 

       Black Box Diaries is a powerful, gripping and emotionally engrossing documentary about Shiori Itō, a Japanese journalist, who seeks to bring her rapist, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, former director of Tokyo Broadcasting System, to justice.  Director Shiori Itō combines footage of her quest for justice and also a candid, unflinching account of her emotional journey throughout the difficult process. The film unfolds like legal thriller and, at times, like a psychological thriller as Shiori deals with people not believing her accusations and with the terrifying fact that Yamaguchi is connected to prime minister Shinzo Abe. There's a nail-biting scene where she and her friend suspect that her apartment might be bugged, so they scan it all over just to be sure. Watching Shiori go through setback after setback feels disheartening and enraging, especially with the initial lack of evidence. The film isn't easy to watch, but it does come with a disclaimer at the beginning that it might be triggering for people who were sexually abused and suggests triggered audience members to briefly close their eyes and take a deep breath which has helped her in the past.

      Shiori's compassion, empathy, resilience, perseverance, courage, patience and emotional maturity shine brightly throughout the film which makes her great role model. Audiences will be happy to see her getting closer and closer to justice. It's no wonder that the song "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor is such an inspiration to her. Hopefully, she'll also find inspiration from this wise poem by Pablo Neruda: "They can cut all of the flowers, but they can't stop the spring from coming."  At a running time of 1 hour and 39 minutes, Black Box Diaries opens at Film Forum via MTV Documentary Film.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1

      Dahomey is an exquisitely shot and refreshingly unconventional, but somewhat dry documentary about 26 looted artifacts transported from Paris to Benin, formerly known as the Kingdom of Dahomey. Director Mati Diop opts for a mostly fly-on-the-wall style reminiscent of the films of Frederick Wiseman with one major difference: an imaginative narration by the statue of King Ghezu, one of the artifacts being transported. This is a pretty straightforward documentary in terms of its content which doesn't offer a lot of insight, analysis or different perspectives. The narration makes it feel experimental and, admittedly, takes a while to get used to in lieu of talking-head interviews. Fortunately, the film ends before it starts to become tedious. At a brief running time of only 1 hour and 8 minutes, Dahomey opens at IFC Center via MUBI.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2




 

      Estela (Anna Diaz) arrives at The Grill, a Times Square restaurant, hoping to get a job there in La Cocina. Little does she know that there's a lot of tension going on behind the scenes, i.e. $800 that goes missing, Pedro (Raúl Briones Carmona), a cook, has an affair with a waitress, Julia (Rooney Mara), who plans to have an abortion, and one of the chefs got into a fight recently and has anger problems. Oh, and there are illegal immigrants working at the restaurant. The screenplay by writer/director Alonso Ruizpalacios, based on the play by Arnold Wesker, is a bland, undercooked and meandering melodrama that fails to breathe life into its characters. He fails to design a window into any of their hearts, minds or souls. None of the subplots are compelling or heartfelt enough to entertain the audience or to engage them emotionally. Moreover, Ruizpalacios squanders the many opportunities to make the audience hungry by showing food preparation like in the far superior, warmer and more captivating Big Night. Unfortunately, the  black-and-white cinematography, although stylish, doesn't manage to compensate for the lack of substance. Even Rooney Mara seems wasted in an underwritten, forgettable role. At a running time of 2 hours and 19 minutes, La Cocina opens at Village East by Angelika via Picturehouse.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3




 

      Chip (Stavros Halkias) forms a new cult with his former cult leader, William (Wes Haney), after getting left out of the cult's mass suicide in Let's Start a Cult. They recruit members including Diane (Katy Fullan), Tyler (Eric Rahill), and Jim (Daniel Simonsen). The screenplay by writer/director Ben Kitnick and his co-writers, Stavros Halkias and Wes Haney, is refreshingly zany and amusing, but not very funny, bold, witty or clever. All of the characters, especially Chip, are annoying and hard to like. The film's systemic issue, though, is that the beats don't land hard enough when it's trying to be outrageously funny or to poke fun at cults. There's some graphic violence, but even the attempts at dark comedy fall flat and feel forced. Stavros Halkias gives a decent comedic performance. He's reminiscent of Jack Black and just as over-the-top. It's too bad that he has a lazy screenplay that doesn't allow his comedic skills to shine brightly. At a running time of 1 hour and 29 minutes, Let's Start a Cult opens at Village East by Angelika via Dark Sky Films.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3

      In Magpie, Annette (Daisy Ridley) lives in a countryside home with her husband, Ben (Shazad Latif), and their young daughter, Matilda (Hiba Ahmed), who's been cast to play in a movie along with an Italian actress, Alicia (Matilda Lutz). She soon begins to suspect that Ben is cheating on her with Alicia. The screenplay by Tom Bateman suffers from a systemic issue: it just seems to be going through the motions with underdeveloped characters and a plot that lacks suspense and surprises until the last ten minutes. By then, though, it's too little, too late. Bateman mostly focuses on Annette's perspective, but she seems like someone who's unhinged, unreliable, needy and sometimes even passive aggressive. She lacks the emotional maturity to sit down with her husband and talk about her suspicions and feelings. A third act twist nearly derails the film with contrivance and over-explaining while leaving too little room for interpretation. Daisy Ridley's decent performance doesn't compensate for the shallow screenplay. At running time of 1 hour and 30 minutes, Magpie, directed by Sam Yates, is a vapid, contrived and undercooked thriller low on suspense. It opens at Village East by Angelika via SHOUT! STUDIOS.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3

      The Man You Don't Know is a documentary about Donald Trump that lacks surprises, critical analysis, revelatory insights and balanced perspectives. Director Christopher Martini interviews Trump's family, friends and colleagues, all of whom have nothing but praise for him. The film goes a little bit further than Vindicating Trump by delving a little bit into Trump's childhood when he was a troublemaker and into his relationship with his mother and father, but it merely skims the surface. Lara Trump says the same thing she said in Vindicating Trump: that Donald Trump is a showman. He's brave, kind, financially generous, loves America, and hard to fit into a box, so-to-speak. Great, but is he introspective? How has he learned from his mistakes? How has he innately grown as a human being and as a "grown-up" throughout the years? What makes him truly a "man", as the title refers to him? What is a "man" for that matter? The only way that Martini could've allowed the audience to get to know Trump would be by interviewing him directly and asking him deep, thoughtful questions that require critical thinking instead of interviewing the people who are related to him or work with him. Yes, it's important to humanize Trump instead of dehumanizing him, but why not go straight to the horse's mouth? You still won't truly know Trump by the time the end credit roll. Fortunately, Martini doesn't make the same mistake that D'Souza does by comparing him to Abraham Lincoln. At a running time of 1 hour and 29 minutes, The Man You Don't Know is entertaining and slickly edited, but it preaches to the choir. It opens in select theaters nationwide via Global Ascension Studios.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2




 

      In Memoir of a Snail, Gracie (voice of Sarah Snook) recalls the memories of her childhood to her beloved pet snail, Sylvia. She talks about how she formed an emotional bond with her supportive twin brother, Gilbert (voice of Kodi Smit-McPhee), how they ended up separated and how she met her elderly friends, Pinky (voice of Jacki Weaver). The screenplay by writer/director Adam Elliot is a refreshingly witty, poignant and empowering story about self-discovery, conquering adversity and embracing life. Gracie has suffered through a lot including bullying and an abusive relationship while dealing with loneliness and low self esteem. She's eccentric, candid and maintains a dry, occasionally darkly comedic sense of humor. Memoir of a Snail gets darker and darker as it progresses, but it also gets increasingly profound. It's a roller coaster ride of emotions that's full of surprises and aphorisms that you'll be able to apply to your own life. Beyond that, it's also beautifully animated in claymation and includes some provocative symbolism. At a running time of only 1 hour and 34 minutes, Memoir of a Snail opens at IFC Center via IFC Films. It would be a great double feature with Pixar's Up.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1

      My Name is Alfred Hitchcock is an extensive discussion of Alfred Hitchcock's filmography with Alistair McGowan narrating while impersonating the voice of Hitchcock. Director Mark Cousins just goes through film after film from Hitchcock's large body of work and separates the documentary into different themes. What ensues isn't very revealing about Hitchcock but it's nonetheless fascinating and filled with clips from his iconic films and less known films, too. So, if you're a fan of Hitchcock or a film buff in general, you'll at least be mildly engaged by this somewhat dry, exhausting and overlong documentary. It's not an essential film for anyone who wants to learn about Hitchcock as a filmmaker. You might find yourself asking "When is the exam??" by the time the end credits roll. That's the sign of a weak documentary. At a lengthy running time of 2 hours, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock opens at Quad Cinema via Cohen Media Group.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3




 

      Nik tries to honor his late wife's wishes to live with his four kids, Freya, Falk, Ulv and Ronja on an isolated farm deep in the wilderness of Norway in A New Kind of Wilderness. That promise becomes easier said than done because of issues with finance and adapting to a new lifestyle without her after she died of cancer. Director Silje Evensmo Jacobsen opts for a mostly fly-on-the-wall approach which would've been fine in another kind of documentary, but, in this case, it leaves too much underexplored. Its major strength is that it's well-shot with breathtaking scenery that captures the majestic quality of nature. Beyond that, though, A New Kind of Wilderness marks the second documentary opening this week after Adrianne & the Castle, that tries to tackle the topic of love and grief while ultimately coming up short and leaving the audience hungry for more insight. At a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, it opens at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3




 

      DeRay (Jeroboam Bozeman), a young street dancer with a troubled past, gets another chance at life when he falls through the sky and lands back in NYC in Once Again (For the Very First Time). He also gets another chance with his lover, Naima (Mecca ‘Meccamorphosis’ Verdell), a poet. Writer/director Boaz Yakin blends sci-fi, romance, drama and musical in a way that feels bold and experimental, but often clunky, repetitive and pretentious without palpable chemistry between the leads. The dance sequences are well-choreographed, but, beyond that, there's nothing else that's engaging even on a superficial level. At a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, Once Again (For the Very First Time) opens at Cinema Village via Indican Pictures.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3

      Twittering Soul is an equally elliptical, unconventional, meandering, bizarre and visually stunning experimental 3-D film. The screenplay by writer/director Deimantas Narkevicius doesn't have much of a coherent plot; just small stories set during the 1800s, i.e. a musician embarking on a journey, women discussing the afterlife, and a landlord using an optical device. Meanwhile, there are folktales told about witches, stones that grow unless they're touched by a human, and more. Twittering Soul isn't an easy film to sit through and requires a lot of patience because very little happens that's compelling. Nonetheless, the cinematography adds visual poetry, atmosphere and more than a few breathtaking, picturesques shots of nature. At a running time of 1 hour and 10 minutes, Twittering Soul opens at Anthology Film Archives via Dekanalog.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3




 

       Tom Hardy returns as Eddie Brock/Venom in Venom: The Last Dance. This time around, he has something called a codex which Knull (Andy Serkis), God of the Symbiotes desperately wants. Meanwhile Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple), a scientist, and General Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a soldier, hunt Venom and Knull down. Writer/director Kelly Marcel has made an asinine, exhausting and tedious mess with choppy editing and not nearly enough laughs or thrills. There are even some musical scenes, i.e. one with a butchered version of ABBA's "Dancing Queen", that are cringe-inducing. A lot of money has clearly been spent on the visual effects which look impressive, but with diminishing returns. The film holds back on the gore which means that it plays it safe without even trying to push the envelope or take any risks. The pace moves briskly, but the lengthy running time makes it a chore to sit through and stretches the plot too thinly. The Venom franchise has officially run out of steam. At a running time of 1 hour and 50 minutes, Venom: The Last Dance opens nationwide via Columbia Pictures.

Number of times I checked my watch: 5

      White with Fear is a timely and provocative documentary about how conservative politicians use racial fear-mongering to increase the racial divide and to scare white voters for their own political benefit. Director Andrew Goldberg includes interviews with Hillary Clinton, Rick Gates and Tim Miller, among others, who discuss the complex issue. You'll also learn about the history racial fear-mongering political strategies---unsurprisingly, Nixon used them, too. White with Fear is a conventional, straightforward documentary in terms of its use of one talking head after another, so it's not a transcendent documentary. It's a bit dry, repetitive and not particularly balanced either. However, it does manage to be persuasive, insightful and alarming. At a running time of 1 hour and 26 minutes, White with Fear opens at Cinema Village.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1




 

      Laura (Melissa Barrera) gets dumped by her boyfriend, Jacob (Edmund Donovan), after she recovers from cancer treatment in Your Monster. She's an aspiring actress who he cast in the lead role of a broadway show that he's directing. One night, she finds a monster (Tommy Dewey) living in her house and, soon enough, falls in love with him despite the odds. The screenplay by writer/director Caroline Lindy treads the same water as Lisa Frankenstein, but with less zaniness, campiness or dark comedy. It has a concept that sounds like it could be a wildly entertaining romantic horror/comedy, though, so the lackluster execution seems like a squandered opportunity. There's little to no wit, tongue-in-cheek humor or boldness except for the over-the-top third act that leaves more to be desired and too many questions unanswered. At a running time of 1 hour and 42 minutes, Your Monster is a mildly engaging, but harmless, unimaginative and witless dark comedy. For a smarter, braver, funnier and wilder dark comedy, see The Substance which would be the superior film in a double feature with this one. Your Monster opens nationwide via Vertical.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3




 

       Zurawski V Texas, co-directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, is a mildly provocative and timely documentary about the legal battles of women seeking abortion after Roe v Wade was overturned. Amanda Zurawski, Samantha Casiano and Dr. Austin Dennard are among the women that the filmmakers follow, each of whom could've been profiled in a separate documentary. Does this doc reveal anything new or surprising? No, but it's still essential for those who are pro-choice. If you're anti-abortion, there's not much balance, so it suffers from the same systemic issue that last week's pro-choice doc, No One Asked You, also suffers from, and it mostly preaches to the choir without rising above mediocrity. At a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, Zurawski V Texas opens at Village East by Angelika.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2