Two-Lane Blacktop: "The Bikeriders," reviewed.

Tom Hardy and Austin Butler as a couple of Vandals. (Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features)

“Comer’s Chicagoland accent is dead-solid perfect. Hardy, as is his wont, has affected a vocal timbre native to no place on this planet; Butler is still playing Elvis.”

My Washington City Paper review of Jeff Nichols’ great-looking-if-somewhat-underfed latest, The Bikeriders, is here.

That 90s Show: "Venom," reviewed.

The Amazing Spider-Man does not appear in the new film Venom.

For NPR, I reviewed Venom, which I can't actually prove is a shelved Jim Carrey vehicle from 1997 in which Carrey has now been digitally (and tentacle-y) replaced by Tom Hardy.

But you can't prove that it's not.

Wartime in a Bottle: Dunkirk, reviewed.

400,000 stranded British soldiers await rescue on the frigid beach at Dunkirk. (Warner Bros.)

I've never understood the objection that Christopher Nolan's movies are sterile. Dunkirk, his new dramatization of the 1940 rescue of British soldiers from the beaches of Northern France carried out largely by civilians, knocked me flat. Here's my review.

What Fresh Hell! Mad Max: Fury Road, reviewed.

Tom Hardy & Charlize Theron play the dual protagonists of the fourth, and best, Max Max.

Melting clocks would not look out of place in the surreal and vibrant post-apocalyptic world George Miller has created in Mad Max: Fury Road, the long-delayed fourth installment in the series that launched his eclectic career 36 years ago. (Four Max Maxes now, but also two Babes and two Happy Feet.) Among its other substantial achievements, the film elevates Charlize Theron into the Sigourney Weaver-Linda Hamilton-Carrie Anne Moss Action Heroine Hall of Fame. Last year was an unusually strong one for blockbusters, but Fury Road is still the baddest to burn rubber and spit fire in many nuclear winters. My NPR review is here.