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Bob Mondello

Tomatometer-approved critic

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Mercy (2026) 24% EDIT “A smartly choreographed chase sequence finally widens the focus and turns the last act of Mercy mercifully brisk. But the overall effect is derivative and secondhand.” – NPR Jan 23, 2026 Full Review Young Mothers (2025) 95% EDIT “It's hard to imagine any viewer staying dry-eyed when one baby offers her mom the most beautiful smile at the precise moment it will hurt the most.” – NPR Jan 9, 2026 Full Review All That's Left of You (2025) 100% EDIT “The film was in pre-production during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and Israel's subsequent invasion of Gaza, which forced filmmakers to shoot in Cyprus, Greece and Jordan. It's a fresh dislocation that can't help coloring how this wrenching film is received.” – NPR Jan 9, 2026 Full Review Magellan (2025) 85% EDIT “A nine-hour version is in the works that will perhaps tie things together more clearly. For now, though, while the filmmaker almost always keeps the actual carnage offscreen, the less than salutary effects of colonial conquest are ever front and center.” – NPR Jan 9, 2026 Full Review Dead Man's Wire (2025) 91% EDIT “The film is designed as a timely reminder that when financiers sell the American dream, there's often fine print that keeps it just out of reach -- and a gripping, often hilarious, and briskly entertaining reminder it is.” – NPR Jan 9, 2026 Full Review The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) 95% EDIT “The actors on screen react in real-time with the recordings of that harrowing day, and the effect is at once painfully direct, and profound.” – NPR Dec 20, 2025 Full Review Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) 66% EDIT “With the second installment still sloshing around in my memory, my sense of wonder began to wander during this film's three and a quarter hours. The undeniably eye-popping action is non-stop, but it's also getting awfully repetitive.” – NPR Dec 20, 2025 Full Review Is This Thing On? (2025) 86% EDIT “Everything Cooper has done here has an improv-like feel -- warm and funny and recognizable, which allows "Is This Thing On?" to amble around and sneak up on you like a great punch line. ” – NPR Dec 20, 2025 Full Review Atropia (2025) 41% EDIT “The setup's fun, the payoff less, but it's amusing.” – NPR Dec 12, 2025 Full Review Ella McCay (2025) 22% EDIT “That is an indisputably impressive cast, which makes it all-the-more remarkable that not one of them manages to make the film's dialogue or motivations either plausible or comic. ” – NPR Dec 12, 2025 Full Review Merrily We Roll Along (2025) 95% EDIT “Yes, it feels stagey -- you were expecting realism from a musical? -- but the score is breathtaking, the lyrics scintillating, the emotions true, and as a Sondheim lyric has it, "that's the sound of a hit."” – NPR Dec 6, 2025 Full Review Fackham Hall (2025) 74% EDIT “With production values high and music lush, it'll be a sweet watch for anyone game to overlook a joke that misfires, knowing another one'll be along in a few seconds. ” – NPR Dec 6, 2025 Full Review The Secret Agent (2025) 98% EDIT “A rousing, suspenseful, occasionally hilarious, and ultimately unnerving 160-minute tale of battling political oppression. ” – NPR Dec 2, 2025 Full Review Hamnet (2025) 86% EDIT “If there's been a more staggering cinematic catharsis in recent years, I've not experienced it. ” – NPR Dec 2, 2025 Full Review Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) 92% EDIT “There are twists enough to tangle a spider in its own web, jokes and sight gags aplenty, and Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc is as sharply etched as ever, in what is, to my mind, the most rewarding episode in the series. ” – NPR Dec 2, 2025 Full Review Come See Me in the Good Light (2025) 100% EDIT “[Gibson's] assertively affirmative outlook doesn't really brook tears, and the filmmaker's warmth and humor, even in times of despair, gives the story a radiance that makes mundane moments feel precious, while allowing hopeful moments to raise goosebumps.” – NPR Nov 21, 2025 Full Review The Things You Kill (2025) 95% EDIT “The filmmaker's first name provides a not-insignificant clue as to what's going on, as his filmmaking deconstructs the story and his protagonist in initially confusing, and then riveting ways. ” – NPR Nov 21, 2025 Full Review Jay Kelly (2025) 75% EDIT “Baumbach has wandered into the territory of 8½ and Stardust Memories and he gets a bit lost in the woods, but Clooney's magnetism goes a decent way to making things palatable.” – NPR Nov 18, 2025 Full Review Now You See Me: Now You Don't (2025) 60% EDIT “Eisenberg's prickly snark is still fun, but with the tricks getting less convincing and the scripts more exhausting, it might be time for this franchise to go up in a puff of smoke. ” – NPR Nov 18, 2025 Full Review Peter Hujar's Day (2025) 92% EDIT “Writer and director Ira Sachs' character-portrait two-hander will likely sound stagy and static, but it turns out to be not just resonant, but surprisingly cinematic.” – NPR Nov 6, 2025 Full Review Ballad of a Small Player (2025) 48% EDIT “What he's not, though, is empathetic, and as the plot runs a course that starts to seem inevitable long before the finale, that makes his behavior harder and harder to watch.” – NPR Oct 18, 2025 Full Review It Was Just an Accident (2025) 97% EDIT “It's surprisingly generous in spirit, and in its assumptions about what retribution by people of good will looks like. ” – NPR Oct 18, 2025 Full Review Good Fortune (2025) 78% EDIT “The social commentary feels at once well-meaning and slightly out-of-touch. But with Reeves' guileless angel as his secret weapon, Ansari's made the film a fun hang. ” – NPR Oct 18, 2025 Full Review Blue Moon (2025) 90% EDIT “You'll realize at some point that while hanging with the smartest guy in the room is certainly exhilarating, it can also be exhausting after a while. Still, how often do you get the chance … maybe once in a Blue Moon?” – NPR Oct 18, 2025 Full Review Brokeback Mountain (2005) 88% EDIT “Sad story, terrific movie.” – Pop Culture Happy Hour (NPR Podcast) Oct 7, 2025 Full Review
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