Critics Consensus

Close Encounters of the Third Kind Is Back in Theaters, and It's Still Awesome

Plus, Tulip Fever wasn't widely screened for critics.

by | August 31, 2017 | Comments

This weekend at theaters, we have the return of a Steven Spielberg classic (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Teri Garr) and the belated bloom of a period romance (Tulip Fever, starring Alicia Vikander and Dane DeHaan). What are the critics saying?



Tulip Fever (2017) 10%


Generally when a movie languishes in studio scheduling limbo for years, it doesn’t bode well for its chances at the box office — and when that movie ends up sneaking into theaters during a soft end-of-summer weekend, those odds drop even further. On the other hand, Tulip Fever has more than a few things in its favor, including a period plot steeped in forbidden love, a prestige cast that balances veteran stars like Dame Judi Dench and Christoph Waltz against up-and-comers like Alicia Vikander, Dane DeHaan, and Cara Delevingne, and a behind-the-scenes pedigree that includes a screenplay from Oscar winner Tom Stoppard and music by Danny Elfman. All of which is to say that this tale of a 17th-century painter (DeHaan) who develops a hankering for the married young woman he’s been hired to paint (Vikander) could have a lot more to offer than its long trip to the box office might suggest; unfortunately, we don’t yet have enough to go on to have an idea of which way critics are going to lean on Tulip Fever. While we wait for more reviews to roll in, how about a round of Guess the Tomatometer?


Also Opening This Week In Limited Release