Anita Gates

The script, by Mr. Greer and Helene Kvale, rolls along with lifeless, profoundly unimaginative dialogue.

Jake Wade Wall's screenplay does deserve a word of praise. It has managed to incorporate the advent of cellphones, the *69 command and caller ID, which could have easily made the entire story impossible.

Mildly scary here and there. It does not play by all the horror movie rules (e.g., the black guy always dies first). And the cast is good-looking.

Venom certainly can't be called a good movie, but within its genre it's perfectly palatable.

The cast does a fine collective job, and Mr. Brill’s script flirts with clever charm here and there. But the whole film is a missed opportunity because the situations repeatedly defy credibility, and the humor never says anything remotely fresh about human nature or the world we live in.

Although the characters repeatedly express their worship of “original art” in gilded frames, the script consists of singularly unoriginal dialogue.

Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg, who wrote the screenplay, have crammed dozens of movie parodies into this deliberately juvenile spoof of romantic comedies. Mr. Seltzer, who directed, has made very few of them funny.

Rise to Power is notable for one achievement: It makes Sean Combs (better known, at the moment, as Diddy) unconvincing as a rich man who enjoys power and luxuries.

This is a one-dimensional, sometimes illogical film, but it's certainly good-looking.

It isn't often that you see a film about Israelis and Palestinians that can be called hopeful, but Ronit Avni's assured, thoughtful and clear-eyed documentary certainly qualifies.

Their meeting was arranged by the filmmaker, and their encounters reek of false bonhomie.

This film from Rebecca Richman Cohen is a mostly dutiful documentary that drifts dangerously close to earnestness.

Like so much of current polarized communication, “Assaulted,” wherever it is shown, is likely to be preaching to the choir.

Ms. Kapoor, in her early 20s, gives a performance that seems to reinvent female confidence.

A lovely small surprise of a film.

The first half of Behind the Blue Veil makes a case for the noble cause of preserving a way of life; the second half admits its near-futility.

Beatocello’s Umbrella could have been a terrible movie. In theory and largely in execution, it is little more than a promotional video for Kantha Bopha, a group of hospitals in Cambodia, and Dr. Richner, who has run them since the early 1990s. But what a guy!

At first, there is something a little too straightforward about the characters and their dialogue. But gradually, a group of strong, sure performances and the script’s twists... take hold, and we are fully involved.

The message is repeated ad infinitum; this documentary is painfully long for a project of this kind.

There is no gore here, and no on-screen violence, but this is in every way a horror movie. With a devastating ending.

A Requiem for Syrian Refugees is as powerfully direct as it is unfortunately heavy-handed, with lingering black-and-white close-ups of barbed wire and children’s wide eyes. But the film is eloquent, too, thanks to the voices of the refugees themselves.

Articulate and sympathetic experts, a calmly authoritative narrator (Alfre Woodard), powerfully conversational subtitles and breathtaking scenery enliven the film’s message.

This quiet romantic drama never soars but keeps its sense of humor and its balance while taking its subject matter for granted in the best possible way.

The film is exaggerated, ludicrous and simplistic. It shows a towering disdain for both men and women. But Angie and Marco have a certain good-natured charm, and there are some nice shots of Shanghai.

There is little new insight, although the film does create an instructive tension between admiring bravery and sacrifice and being appalled by war itself.