>
Siddhant Adlakha
Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications:
Variety,
Empire Magazine,
New York Times,
Paste Magazine,
IGN Movies,
Village Voice,
Observer,
New York Magazine/Vulture,
indieWire,
Collider,
The Daily Beast,
Birth.Movies.Death.,
Truthdig,
Firstpost,
Slashfilm,
Mashable,
Fangoria,
Polygon,
Inverse,
Film Companion,
The Juggernaut,
Verve Magazine,
JoySauce.com
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Heretic (2024) |
Few films have been as simultaneously silly and pulse-pounding as Heretic, a tale of two young Mormon missionaries lured into an elaborate test of faith. The film is Saw for Reddit atheism, anchored by a delightfully devious performance from [Hugh] Grant - Inverse
Read More
| Posted Nov 04, 2024
|
|
|
|
Juror #2 (2024) |
Despite its growing pains, Juror #2 gradually grows more gripping and self-assured, taking the form of solid, mid-budget adult entertainment with a lot on its mind and heart — the kind of movie Hollywood seldom green-lights in 2024. - Mashable
Read More
| Posted Nov 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
Here (2024) |
Its self-imposed limitations yield no creative solutions, and with one hand tied behind its back, Here can merely gesture towards the ugliness and complexity of the culture it portrays. - IGN Movies
Read More
| Posted Oct 27, 2024
|
|
|
|
Dahomey (2024) |
A cinematic act of defiance, not just against the abuse of collective memory, but against the modern museum and even modern notions of art. - Truthdig
Read More
| Posted Oct 27, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Front Room (2024) |
Kathryn Hunter elevates everything she’s in, which goes double for a film as limp and directionless as The Front Room, the directorial debut of Max and Sam Eggers. - Empire Magazine
Read More
| Posted Oct 27, 2024
|
|
|
|
Venom: The Last Dance (2024) |
Hardy, Marcel and co. seem to genuinely love these characters. It's unfortunate that the remaining majority of the runtime is a headache and a half, but as Marvel movies at large begin to wane in quality and cultural relevance, we'll take what we can get. - JoySauce.com
Read More
| Posted Oct 27, 2024
|
|
|
|
Bird (2024) |
It can't seem to maintain its sense of mystery for very long. In the process, even its most life-affirming moments tend to lose their impact, even though Rogowski's otherworldliness is a marvel to behold. - Mashable
Read More
| Posted Oct 27, 2024
|
|
|
|
Grand Tour (2024) |
[Grand Tour] is as much a grand tour of oceans and lush landscapes as it is one of colonial history, and the artistic forces that have shaped the collective outlook on former colonies in the western mind. - JoySauce.com
Read More
| Posted Oct 27, 2024
|
|
|
|
Anora (2024) |
Sean Baker has long blurred the line between fairytale and American neorealism... [Anora takes his] signature blend of genres and modalities to dizzying new heights. - Truthdig
Read More
| Posted Oct 17, 2024
|
|
|
|
Blitz (2024) |
Bombs scream and pierce through the night in Steve McQueen's loud but otherwise vacant Blitz, a World War II drama that tries, but fails, to fold an honest depiction of racial strife into a boy’s trek across a war-torn London. - IGN Movies
Read More
| Posted Oct 15, 2024
|
|
|
|
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024) |
A fiercely feminist tale filled with powerful observations, told through the eyes of a woman struggling with her commitment to community, as she’s backed into corners by social norms. - Mashable
Read More
| Posted Oct 10, 2024
|
|
|
|
Rumours (2024) |
Theater of the absurd meets the cinema of high fantasy... builds into an increasingly bizarre, razor-sharp satire of the fearful, status-quo-oriented elites running seven of the world’s biggest economies. - Truthdig
Read More
| Posted Oct 09, 2024
|
|
|
|
Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024) |
It has the look of YouTube fan film — not to mention the excess fidelity. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Oct 09, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Radleys (2024) |
“The Radleys” is presented with an unobtrusive visual plainness, which never evolves, and often manifests as a lack of energy. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Oct 09, 2024
|
|
|
|
Nickel Boys (2024) |
Nickel Boys is one of those rare Hollywood productions that feels aesthetically transformative. A moving film about a violent reform school in 1960s Florida, it adapts Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel with meticulous detail.
- Mashable
Read More
| Posted Oct 09, 2024
|
|
|
|
Happyend (2024) |
It's hard not to come away loving each and every character, and—as the world spins out of control—wishing they could stay together. - JoySauce.com
Read More
| Posted Oct 09, 2024
|
|
|
|
Chainsaws Were Singing (2024) |
The humor of its repetition eventually becomes repetitive itself. - Mashable
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Lee (2023) |
A by-the-numbers biopic that manages to flatten Miller’s life and work in equal measure. - Truthdig
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Devara Part 1 (2024) |
A scattered and often excruciating mess of macho tropes that fails to recognize its own latent themes, and seldom comes to life even on its own terms. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Saturday Night (2024) |
Director Jason Reitman finds his footing as a cover artist by holding back on nostalgia for as long as possible. - IGN Movies
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
All Shall Be Well (2024) |
A gentle, harrowing film. - JoySauce.com
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Apartment 7A (2024) |
A mostly-solid film that captures the anxieties of the current moment. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Eden (2024) |
Numbingly dull, and ugly as sin. - Mashable
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Piece By Piece (2024) |
An eye-popping union of subject and form. - IGN Movies
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
The End (2024) |
In a bizarre but effective meld of genres and styles, the razzle-dazzle of golden-age Hollywood meets the grim dystopia of Children of Men. - Polygon
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Nightbitch (2024) |
It becomes more thought and spoken than intrinsically felt, but everything on the tip of the movie’s tongue is already covered by Adams’ performance. - Inverse
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Veteran 2: I, the Executioner (2024) |
Scales back on its predecessor’s laughs in order to focus more closely on — as well as to examine — the violence of its police protagonists. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Meet the Barbarians (2024) |
A movie that, though it never quite achieves the dramatic highs for which it aspires, proves eye-wateringly funny. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Harbin (2024) |
A visually striking period drama... En route to [its] engaging climax, Woo also introduces a mystery element that keeps the wheels of the story turning, even when it may not have enough steam. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Hold Your Breath (2024) |
The film often does too much, reaching for too many different sources for its attempted thrills and chills, which results in a mostly scattered experience. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Perfumed with Mint (2024) |
A visually engrossing but narratively languid work of surrealism that captures generational discontent. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Oct 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
Riff Raff (2024) |
In spite of clocking in at just 103 minutes, Dito Montiel‘s family crime comedy “Riff Raff” is exceptionally long. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Bring Them Down (2024) |
A brutally violent directorial debut... veers between pitch-black humor and pervading melancholy. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Wild Robot (2024) |
The Wild Robot finds humanity in unexpected places, via its story of adoption and veering off the path others have laid for us. - IGN Movies
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Hard Truths (2024) |
An acerbic and empathetic portrait of what hitting your limit looks like. - Mashable
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Life of Chuck (2024) |
“Would answers make a good thing better?” [The film] ends up proving its point in all the wrong ways, swerving in and out of a boorish literalism that robs the film of its most euphoric power. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Cut (2024) |
The film tries several things at once, including a flashback structure than doesn’t fully connect, but its impact ultimately comes down to Orlando Bloom‘s visceral, transformative performance as an unnamed Irish brawler. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
April (2024) |
A bone-rattling drama about what it means to be a woman in the country of Georgia - Mashable
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Pavements (2024) |
In an age of musical biopic plenty, this semi-ironic, postmodern take — which runs through Perry's part drama, part documentary, and part mockumentary — may be just what the doctor ordered. - Mashable
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Youth (Homecoming) (2024) |
A look at what happens once the rattle of sewing machines finally ceases, followed by a stark and surprising look at what unfolds once they start back up again. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Anywhere Anytime (2024) |
In modernizing ["Bicycle Thieves"] Iranian-born director Milad Tangshir imbues his version with both contemporary cultural nuances and a unique perspective as an immigrant to Italy, resulting in a remake that stands apart. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Queer (2024) |
[Builds] to a wonderfully abstract final act, which not only lingers in the mind and heart after the credits have rolled, but ensures that everything that comes before it retroactively does the same. - IGN Movies
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Pooja, Sir (2024) |
A unique blend of social realism and Hollywood thriller aesthetics. - JoySauce.com
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Why War (2024) |
If helplessness in the face of war is the movie’s default point of view, then it seldom struggles against those constraints, resulting in a work that says little with its words and images. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Boomerang (2024) |
Paints metropolitan Tehran with youthful verve, capturing — through loosely connected stories, a few non-sequiturs and even a scene of magical realism — the city’s vibes during a moment of generational transition. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
2073 (2024) |
Our present is the backstory to something much more horrifying, and if Kapadia hits us over the head with this idea, it's only because of the urgency with which it needs to be recognized. - JoySauce.com
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Slingshot (2024) |
A psychological thriller with few thrills and a weak grasp of psychology. - Mashable
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Superboys of Malegaon (2024) |
A moving crowd-pleaser that constantly reaffirms its importance. Although it tries to cover too much ground, it continually circles back to the idea that people must see themselves reflected in art, not just out of want, but in order to live with dignity. - Variety
Read More
| Posted Sep 16, 2024
|
|
|
|
Babygirl (2024) |
The world seems to spin out of control, and the camera spins with it, luring the audience into a risqué romp that soon turns into an erotic thrill ride, during which characters slowly, carefully and daringly flirt with personal boundaries - JoySauce.com
Read More
| Posted Sep 15, 2024
|
|
|
|
Look Into My Eyes (2024) |
The film reaches far beyond mere curiosity, yielding a deeply resonant work about the ways in which people cope with everything from grief to climate nihilism. - Mashable
Read More
| Posted Sep 07, 2024
|