By John Corrado

New releases for the week of February 14th and 16th, 2024.

Theatrical Releases:

The Taste of Things (Limited Release): Trần Anh Hùng was awarded the Best Director prize at Cannes for this French drama, and it’s easy to see why. This is a piece of high-class “food porn” mixed with a swooning, bittersweet culinary romance, charting the relationship between restaurant owner Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel) and his longtime cook Eugénie (Juliette Binoche). I’ve watched it twice now, and both times fell under the film’s spell, with its beautifully shot sequences of food being prepared and wonderful performances by Magimel and Binoche. (Full Review)

Bob Marley: One Love (Wide Release): Kingsley Ben-Adir stars as iconic reggae singer Bob Marley in this biopic from director Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard). The reviews are pretty mediocre for what seems to be your standard issue biopic, but it’s shaping up to be a decent sized hit with audiences, and I’ve enjoyed Ben-Adir in other roles (namely One Night in Miami) so I would watch it for him. (Opened February 14th)

Madame Web (Wide Release): Dakota Johnson stars in this Sony comic book movie, which serves as a loose, non-MCU spinoff of the Spider-Man franchise. Reviews are tepid for what looks like a cheesy and poorly written comic book cash grab, but I’m sure there is still an audience for this thing. Heck, I’ll probably check it out at some point out of curiosity to see if it has any campy entertainment value. (Opened February 14th)

More Releases: Land of Bad (Wide), The Peasants (Limited), 2024 Oscar-nominated Short Films (Limited)

Streaming Releases:

This Is Me… Now (Prime Video), Players (Netflix), Einstein and the Bomb (Netflix), Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin (Apple TV+), The Dynasty: New England Patriots (Apple TV+)