The Verge

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) Joshua Rivera A visual testament to how wonderful it is to meet people, and how the person you think of as you is actually an amalgamation of many different minds. EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2020
Rebecca (2020) Joshua Rivera Even with the artistic freedom of the 2020s, the new film still manages to feel like the lesser work, because it's only interested in the most superficial reading of the story. EDIT
Posted Oct 26, 2020
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) Joshua Rivera The main problem: despite its likable heroes and clear villains, The Trial of the Chicago 7 cannot bring itself to indict the system that turns the wheels of its story. EDIT
Posted Oct 22, 2020
Enola Holmes (2020) Joshua Rivera No one's going to forget Sherlock Holmes.... Hanging out with Enola doesn't seem all that bad; if nothing else, it's a nice change. EDIT
Posted Sep 25, 2020
The Devil All the Time (2020) Joshua Rivera The Devil All the Time takes on a novel's texture but lacks its depth. EDIT
Posted Sep 18, 2020
Mulan (2020) Joshua Rivera The movie itself feels like an anticlimax: Mulan is merely a serviceable film that's rather easy to forget. It does not live up to the expectations placed on it, nor does it make a compelling argument against its earliest critics. EDIT
Posted Sep 10, 2020
The Social Dilemma (2020) Adi Robertson The drama undercuts The Social Dilemma's ostensible message - or maybe just reveals its weaknesses. EDIT
Posted Sep 4, 2020
She Dies Tomorrow (2020) Joshua Rivera Dances from existential dread to compressed breakup story to withering comedy from scene to scene. EDIT
Posted Aug 7, 2020
Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm (1993) Joshua Rivera It's a movie worth celebrating - not because it is better than its live-action siblings, but because it's maybe the most complete take on Batman and Bruce Wayne on film. EDIT
Posted Jul 27, 2020
Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (2020) Joshua Rivera I discovered a bit of nostalgia I didn't even know I was harboring. EDIT
Posted Jul 22, 2020
Palm Springs (2020) Joshua Rivera Palm Springs is definitely funny, but it's a darker, hazier affair. EDIT
Posted Jul 14, 2020
Hush (2016) Kaitlyn Tiffany I... spent the full two hours in seat-clutching terror. EDIT
Posted Jun 13, 2020
The Lovebirds (2020) Joshua Rivera Nanjiani and Rae don't have chemistry that lights the screen up, but they are extremely good at arguing with one another, both about petty relationship quibbles and things more trivial, like what, exactly, qualifies as an orgy. EDIT
Posted May 27, 2020
Crip Camp (2020) Joshua Rivera A reminder that something that seems impossible can be done; it just takes an immense, downright unfair amount of work to will it into existence. EDIT
Posted Mar 30, 2020
Bloodshot (2020) Joshua Rivera As an action movie, Bloodshot is the worst kind of uninspiring: not bad enough to circle back around toward fun, not good enough at action to be even momentarily impressed by a fight scene. EDIT
Posted Mar 27, 2020
The Invisible Man (2020) Joshua Rivera A smart update from the Invisible Man of Wells' novel. EDIT
Posted Mar 6, 2020
Onward (2020) Joshua Rivera It's fine. A perfectly watchable film that could have been great if it, like its protagonist, remembered that the secret to magic is really believing in the wild thing you're about to do. EDIT
Posted Feb 21, 2020
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Joshua Rivera It's a rare thing to hear a conversation in a movie that makes you sit up a little straighter; it's even rarer that you hear a silence that does the same. EDIT
Posted Feb 18, 2020
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) Dami Lee Sonic's success hinges on the character being likable, and the redesigned Sonic is easy to love. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2020
La llorona (2019) Adi Robertson An excellent indie movie that puts a supernatural twist on a story of very human horror. EDIT
Posted Feb 7, 2020
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) Joshua Rivera Anything can happen, and Birds of Prey relishes in the havoc that implies. EDIT
Posted Feb 6, 2020
Shirley (2020) Adi Robertson The best part of Shirley is Elisabeth Moss as a sharp-tongued and gloriously frumpy agent of chaos. EDIT
Posted Feb 5, 2020
Feels Good Man (2020) Adi Robertson Feels Good Man presents a heavily covered story in a thoughtful and vivid way. EDIT
Posted Feb 5, 2020
Tesla (2020) Adi Robertson It's more noteworthy as an ambitious movie made with intriguingly tight constraints - even if the results, like Tesla's big ideas, don't always work. EDIT
Posted Jan 29, 2020
Weathering With You (2019) Joshua Rivera Weathering With You does a poor job of balancing its supernatural weather story with its central romance. EDIT
Posted Jan 29, 2020
Zola (2020) Adi Robertson Directed by Janicza Bravo, it's a stylish dramatization of the dramatization, polishing a social media narrative into something neater and a little more conventionally dramatic, but also bringing it to life with an excellent cast and vivid look. EDIT
Posted Jan 28, 2020
Spree (2020) Adi Robertson If you're the kind of person who can laugh at slapstick murder vignettes, a lot of Spree works very well. EDIT
Posted Jan 26, 2020
Dolittle (2020) Joshua Rivera Sometimes you just want more for someone, even if they are rich, famous, and probably doing fine. Today, that person is Robert Downey Jr., star of Dolittle. EDIT
Posted Jan 21, 2020
Bad Boys for Life (2020) Joshua Rivera It's here to serve action and comedy in roughly proportionate amounts, with big set pieces that are just thrilling enough to hook you and jokes that are just funny enough for you to hope no one dies. EDIT
Posted Jan 17, 2020
1917 (2019) Joshua Rivera 1917 is a solemn war movie with popular appeal, the kind of thing that makes award nominations guaranteed. But it's also hollow, lacking the emotional heart that makes the genre more than empty spectacle. EDIT
Posted Jan 9, 2020
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Adi Robertson Minute to minute, it's an enjoyable movie, and at its brightest points, it captures Star Wars at its best. But Abrams just hasn't pared down the bombast enough to keep his story grounded... EDIT
Posted Dec 18, 2019
Uncut Gems (2019) Kevin Nguyen [An] excellent new film. EDIT
Posted Dec 13, 2019
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) Jesse Hassenger In the end, the performers' high energy feels weirdly thankless; they shift their voices and their posture and their personalities, and they're all still just subsumed into blockbuster noise. EDIT
Posted Dec 13, 2019
Marriage Story (2019) Joshua Rivera It cannot be understated how good Driver and Johansson are as the Barbers. EDIT
Posted Dec 6, 2019
Knives Out (2019) Joshua Rivera Even though Knives Out ultimately brings its mystery to a satisfying conclusion with a culprit named and cuffed, there's another one that gets away clean: white guilt. EDIT
Posted Nov 27, 2019
The Current War: Director's Cut (2019) Caroline Siede It's a solid period piece that strives to be something more, and occasionally achieves it. EDIT
Posted Oct 24, 2019
Countdown (2019) Charles Bramesco Those in search of more incisive techno-horror that cuts to the core of everything frightening about phone ownership and usage will have to continue waiting. EDIT
Posted Oct 24, 2019
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) Caroline Siede Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a much needed swing-for-the-fences dose of originality. It doesn't always hit it out of the park, but it's wickedly fun to watch it try. EDIT
Posted Oct 17, 2019
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) Jesse Hassenger It's more like an 1980s-style cheapie retread, disguised as a more respectable legacy sequel. EDIT
Posted Oct 17, 2019
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019) Liz Shannon Miller [Aaron Paul's] work in El Camino is staggering. EDIT
Posted Oct 14, 2019
Jexi (2019) Jesse Hassenger The smartphone epidemic is certainly fair game for satire, but while Jexi pokes fun at Phil, it ultimately isn't satirizing anything in particular because Phil is not much of anything in particular. EDIT
Posted Oct 11, 2019
The Addams Family (2019) Caroline Siede The Addams Family isn't a scream, it's a painfully generic kids' film. EDIT
Posted Oct 10, 2019
In Search of Darkness: A Journey Into Iconic 80s Horror (2019) Noah Berlatsky It's certainly an enjoyable documentary, and it's highly recommended to any horror fan. But the best horror movies are a little more ruthless than this. EDIT
Posted Oct 8, 2019
Gemini Man (2019) Charles Bramesco For a film fine-tuned in pursuit of audiovisual perfection, this thing is full of narrative glitches, story elements that half work and half don't. EDIT
Posted Oct 8, 2019
Joker (2019) Tasha Robinson It's hypnotic just how horrifying Arthur's existence is, just as Phoenix's performance is hypnotic as he spirals from fragile hope into increasingly outsized and confident acts of destruction. EDIT
Posted Oct 7, 2019
Lucy in the Sky (2019) Jesse Hassenger It's hard not to like Lucy in the Sky, not because it's especially likable or even skillful, but because Portman is so committed that she sometimes seems capable of making the movie worthwhile by sheer force of will. EDIT
Posted Oct 3, 2019
In the Shadow of the Moon (2019) Tasha Robinson It's a tightly wound thriller with a surprising speculative element. EDIT
Posted Sep 30, 2019
Election (1999) Noel Murray Broderick gives a wonderfully nebbishy performance, and the filmmakers do a fine job of using visual cues to define the smallness of his world. EDIT
Posted Sep 30, 2019
The Irishman (2019) Jesse Hassenger The retro clunkiness of these characters, well past their physical primes, is key to what makes The Irishman often surprisingly hilarious. EDIT
Posted Sep 27, 2019
Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019) Keith Phipps It's a pretty thin premise for a movie, but that's not necessarily a problem. EDIT
Posted Sep 20, 2019