Bill Goodykoontz

It is a beautiful excavation, fueled by tremendous performances from frequent Almodóvar collaborator Penélope Cruz and relative feature-film newcomer Milena Smit.

It will quench the thirst of die-hard fans who always want more. But does that thirst justify “The Matrix Resurrections?” Maybe. But it can’t make it a great movie. And despite Reeves’ willingness to jump back in, neither can anything else.

Anderson’s vision of this world, this era, these people, is so winning that you feel a part of it, yet with the removal of an observer. It works. That’s why Licorice Pizza is a blast.

The beauty of Kurt Warner’s story is that it’s so unlikely it’s nearly impervious to clichés. The strength of American Underdog, Andrew and Jon Erwin’s film about Warner’s life in football and with his wife, Brenda, is that they realize this and let the story speak for itself.

The film is 148 minutes long. Many of those minutes are good, some not so good. But one of them is great. Unreservedly so. Redemption and catharsis arrive in a single fleeting moment that wonderfully and succinctly ties up everything Watts is attempting. Truly one of my favorite scenes in a movie this year.

It’s an outstanding debut for someone who obviously knows her way around both sides of the camera.

Nightmare Alley winds up being like one of the games on the midway, its outward appearance more impressive than what lies beneath. But what an appearance it is.

This is a stunningly accurate portrayal of our current climate. And it’s not pretty.

West Side Story is timeless, because of the source material. Tragic romances never go out of style. Spielberg’s version successfully makes the classic contemporary.

Writer and director Nathalie Biancheri’s film explores the lives of those living as “The Other,” outside society’s norms. It requires commitment on the part of the actors and the audience. It’s a worthwhile investment.

There is not a frame of The Power of the Dog, based on the Thomas Savage novel, that isn’t essential to the movie. This includes the first and certainly the last.

Movies may be artifice, but in the best-made films you never really notice that they’re faking it. They feel real, lived-in, recognizable, whether in space or on a speeding bus that can’t slow down or inside a cramped apartment. C’mon C’mon feels real.

Is it a good movie? It’s … a movie. That’s not the slight it sounds like. It’s certainly no masterpiece, though not for lack of a great performance from Lady Gaga. It’s an investment, but watching this cast do these things is worth the price of admission.

Thanks to Larson’s songs, Miranda’s directing and generous, inspired acting — particularly from Garfield, who manages to be lovable and obnoxious, depending on what’s needed — tick … tick … Boom! is a moving tribute to a misunderstood process and the people who engage in it.

There is so much to enjoy about Encanto — the songs, the gorgeous animation, the cultural traditions. All of which make the script’s serious shortcomings all the more surprising and disappointing.

Passing is Rebecca Hall’s first feature film as a writer and director. You’d never know it. With her meticulous eye for detail, her beautiful framing of shots (in stunning black-and-white) and the wondrously moving performances she gets from her actors —to say nothing of her handling of the material (she wrote the script) — you’d think Hall had been at this for a while.

It’s a heartfelt salute from Branagh to his hometown, and what he loved there.

The acting is outstanding all the way around. But Stewart is brilliant. She looks, sounds and moves amazingly like the real Diana, but this is no impersonation. Instead it’s Stewart getting to the heart of the truth through her performance, her Diana a prisoner of the fame and adherence to tradition at all costs that trapped her.

Eternals isn’t a bad movie. It’s just not a particularly satisfying one, its scale proving untamable, even for Zhao.

There are some genuine scares, some gross-out moments and some heartfelt scenes between Julia and Lucas. The atmosphere is so thick you can touch it. This is a good movie and an interesting concept. But it’s not any fun at all.

McKenzie and Taylor-Joy are both affecting as two sides of not-quite-the-same coin. Their performances are the best thing about the film, which is good — but not as good as it might have been.

It’s clear that Samuel has seen his share of Quentin Tarantino movies, and some John Ford and Sergio Leone ones, as well. There are influences all over the place. But The Harder They Fall is also its own film, familiar in some ways but wholly original. And a whole lot of fun.

For some, it will be tempting to say The French Dispatch is easier to admire than enjoy. But if you go into it knowing what Anderson offers, you can do both.

Again, 155 minutes is a lot of time for throat clearing, but by the time the film is done Villeneuve is hitting his stride. He has created a complex, intriguing world.

The acting is uniformly great, as strong an ensemble performance as you’ll see. Franz’s direction is assured.

Comer makes Margeurite believably vulnerable and strong, haunting at times. But it’s not clear that the film is improved by the competing narratives. Marguerite’s version probably would have sufficed.

Unfortunately, the plot as a whole is rushed, with character-development shortcuts and one whopping out-of-the-blue development that seems to exist not as a surprise but because the filmmakers had painted themselves into a narrative corner and needed a way out. But there are some scares, and Cooper and especially Guido give authentic-feeling performances — again, with a few shortcuts along the way.

At 2 hours and 43 minutes, it’s a long goodbye for Craig. Too long, really; parts of the last act drag a bit. But as Bond says earlier, “Letting go is hard.” In “No Time to Die,” it’s also satisfying.

The Many Saints of Newark isn’t The Sopranos. But both literally and figuratively, it’s a start.

Yes, it’s a musical — strictly authenticity isn’t a requirement. Emotional authenticity, on the other hand, is. And that’s what Dear Evan Hansen could use more of.

There is a craggy kind of elegance to Cry Macho. You know what you’re getting for the most part. This does not include a lot of surprises. It does include comfort in the familiar. Eastwood has earned that, too.

Ultimately it’s a sympathetic portrayal. Yes, people called her a clown, but The Eyes of Tammy Faye shows her as someone more complicated and much more interesting.

Writers and directors Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly can’t seem to decided whether to make an offbeat comedy about two under-appreciated women turning to crime or a mismatched buddy cop comedy. So they made both. It’s not a seamless fit.

As with First Reformed, Schrader crashes right through the boundaries separating the literal from the surreal. It is a strange journey, increasingly so, but an immensely satisfying one.

The latest Marvel movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is a rollicking, adventurous … wait, this is a Marvel movie? It is indeed, and all the better for not being necessarily immediately recognizable as such.

The intentions were probably noble, but the execution not so much.

We don’t need to continually revisit every horror movie ever made. How many versions of “Friday the 13th” are we up to? Too many. But the best thing about this is that Candyman is not just another sequel. More like a revelation.

The Protégé has so many cool elements, so many reasons that it should be better than it is. Chief among them are Maggie Q, Keaton and Jackson. But they can only do so much, and ultimately the film feels flat. Like so many of the hapless anonymous bad guys, it just can’t hit the mark.

The destination is a letdown, but the journey there is harrowing and rewarding. Hall’s powerful and affecting performance is the biggest reason why.

If you’re going to keep your audience guessing, you need to provide them with answers they care about. Beckett doesn’t.

Sometimes a feel-good story hits the spot. CODA is one of those times.

If Free Guy really was a video game, it’s not one you’d play over and over. But as a one-time lark, it’s entertaining enough to invest in.

Like the Guardians of the Galaxy films, The Suicide Squad has a heart. Unlike those films, we actually see a heart pierced by a shard of glass from inside a character’s body. That said, Gunn cares about the characters, and it shows.

The trouble with a movie like Jungle Cruise is the comparison it invites. And in this case, the ride is better.

Joe Bell is a well-meaning film with a gripping story it can’t quite figure out how to tell.

Directors Leo Scott and Ting Poo are armed with seemingly endless self-shot footage for Val, a moving, fascinating portrait of the actor. But disarming is a better word for how Kilmer, reputedly a “difficult” actor, comes off.

Aside from cast changes and some plot tweaks, there’s not much new to see here. James is an engaging presence, but as this season with the Lakers proved, he alone just isn’t enough.

Roadrunner, however, lays out a convincing case that Bourdain was in pain for much of his life, desperate for answers. But even he may not have known the questions.

It’s experimental in the best way; Estrada takes chances, and not every segment works. But pieced together they tell a full and rich tale of a city and the people who live there, and the diversity of their stories.

The film has lots of effects and action and loads of Chris Pratt. What it needs more of is heart.

Eventually, the film morphs from a horror movie to a border shootout. It’s not a seamless transition.

There’s not much more to the plot than Natasha’s mission. But Shortland does not skimp on the action — the first 40 minutes or so of the 2 hour and 13 minute film are almost nonstop harrowing chases.

Of course, you could just watch this for the performances and it would still be one of the best movies of the year. But why sell yourself short? Watch it for everything that it is, a kind of miraculously unearthed treasure trove of music and politics and culture and soul. So much soul.

It’s when Soderbergh tries to say too much that he loses the thread a bit. That’s a shame, because he and the cast are so good at saying a lot with a little.

The film goes all in on its deranged version of the founding of the nation. It wears you down over time, but especially early on it's too satisfied just to be shocking and irreverent.

Is it a ridiculous movie? Of course, that’s the point. Yet it’s still kind of fun, and it all but insists that you enjoy watching it.

Things go a little haywire at the end of the film when the story falls apart a bit — endings are tough, on Twitter and in theaters. But till then, it’s a non-stop thrill.

Moreno felt as if she didn’t have much worth as she struggled, she says. One of the most satisfying things about the film is that through decades of struggle she clearly has found that worth. It’s in her confidence, the confidence of someone who has come out the other end of a long struggle with the knowledge than nothing is going to get her down. You can’t get the best of her. It’s inspiring.

If this is a story told more broadly than what we’ve seen from Pixar the past few films, so be it. It may not be a masterpiece, but its message is one that can’t be expressed enough. Luca expresses it in a gorgeous, fun way.

It doesn’t have to be a great movie. It’s a great experience, like a beautiful summer day.

It’s too bad The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It isn’t a vampire story, because the filmmakers are bleeding this franchise dry.

When she’s playing Cruella, Stone is definitely in charge. It’s a bravura performance, filled with a crackling energy that never spills over into parody. That’s what saves it. Stone makes Cruella a believable character — if not relatable, then at least recognizable.

It’s squirmy good fun — agonizing in places, in exactly the ways you want it to be.

The authenticity that Collette brings to a woman desperate for some kind of change and the willingness to seek it is inspiring. She’s the real winner here.

I could see The Woman in the Window becoming a kind of channel-surfing cult classic. But not as long as Rear Window is out there somewhere, too.

Along the way there is some really gory violence and some really cliched cop-drama dialogue, with acting to match. But as long as Rock is on the screen, which is almost constantly, it at least keeps your interest.

Really, every actor is likable and, all by themselves, good here. It’s that each situation is more ridiculous than the last and none of it fits together, even when everything gets tossed into the narrative blender toward the end.

Whether Army of the Dead is any good isn’t really an issue. It’s more whether it sets out to do what Snyder intends for it to do. If he intended it to be an over-the-top exercise in zombie mayhem sprinkled with the occasional human emotion, he succeeded. The nice part is that this time he has actually managed to make it fun along the way.

Monster is a good movie that could have been a better one. Mandler needs to trust both his film and his audience more. Give him points for trying, but he’s just trying too hard.

Without Remorse is neither a classic nor a failure; it falls somewhere in-between. But like Kelly on a seemingly doomed mission, there’s Jordan, giving it all he’s got to save the day.

In fairness, you can say that Mortal Kombat is pretty much exactly what you expect it to be. It’s clearly meant as the first film in a renewed franchise. But for me, it’s game over.

It’s a matter of pacing and choices, what Penna chooses to focus on and what he ignores. He’s got all the elements of a good movie right in front of him. He just never puts all the pieces together.

It’s a sumptuous movie, with gorgeous cinematography (also by Dweck and Kershaw). It won’t necessarily make you want to rush out and pay a fortune for truffles to shave over your eggs. But it will make you appreciate people whose love for something has so fully informed their lives.

There are many things to enjoy — a cat named Small Frank is up there pretty high for me, as is Pfeiffer’s performance. But it snows you under with a small army of quirky characters and situations.

A decidedly dumb entry in the titan saga that’s still kind of fun.

It’s all insanely violent and gleefully silly. Stab wounds and bullet holes just don’t slow some people down the way you think they might. Through it all the best part of the film remains the dichotomy of a bland wimp (a character Odenkirk plays so well) who can flip the switch to becoming a remorseless killer — and seeing Odenkirk as the one flipping the switch.

It’s a movie as much about white privilege as it is anything else, an examination of the incredible advantages the wealthy have — advantages that don’t prevent them from cheating anyway.

If you’re looking for a brisk, compelling story, maybe not. It’s as if there is a third version of this film, something in between the two in terms of tone and fan service, that would be the best way to tell this story. That’s unlikely to happen, of course. How many “Justice League” movies do we really need, anyway?

The promising beginning shows that it could have been something more than dumb. Alas, it’s not.

The Father has occasional splashes of humor, but, by design, it’s tough to watch at times. Hopkins’ performance makes it impossible not to.

Ultimately Coming 2 America isn’t a sequel that ruins the original. But it doesn’t improve upon it, either.

There's a lot of promise here, all over the film, and not just with Takahashi and Paige. Fans of "Fresh Off the Boat" know that Huang can be funny (though he didn't like it). It's nice to see him stretch out into more dramatic territory, even if he's not quite on as sure footing there. Certainly "Boogie" makes you want to see what's next.

SpongeBob, in whatever form it takes, does one thing and does it really well: absurdist humor with a sweet center. I’m hesitant to ever say that this-and-such thing is “what we need right now,” so I won’t say that about the film. But I will say that SpongeBob is what we need all the time. The more the merrier.

It’s great that Moxie addresses so many issues, but this is a story that might have been told more effectively in a series. Ultimately though, it has powerful moments and it’s hard to complain too much about anything that introduces zines, Bikini Kill and the riot grrrl movement to another generation at a time it really needs it.

In Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, director R.J. Cutler’s film about the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, he allows the audience to come in its own time to what seems obvious by the end: For all of her talent, which is considerable, and her brilliance as a recording artist, Eilish is a teenager trying to figure out her place in the world.

Meanwhile, the Russos are ensuring that you never forget you’re watching a movie, and a stylized one at that. Note the names of the banks Holland’s character robs, for instance, or other little details. Granted, the person telling the story — Holland’s character — is an unreliable narrator for much of the film. But there’s a fine line between spicing things up and showing off.

It’s mostly a biography of Holiday — nothing wrong with that, certainly when you’ve got a performance as stunning as Andra Day’s in the title role.

Minari is as moving as it is entertaining, and it is a lot of both.

Sam Levinson’s film is meant to be a harsh, unyielding examination of a relationship, and thanks to stunning performances by Zendaya and John David Washington, it sometimes is.

The story is infuriating — not in the way King presents it, not at all, but in its details. The manipulation of justice is heartbreaking. Though sadness isn't what you'll most likely feel while watching. Anger is. The betrayal in Judas and the Black Messiah extends far beyond the title character, making it an even greater tragedy.

It’s got an interesting structure — it’s not just about catching a killer but also about revealing Deke’s story. But it ultimately suffers for that, the dueling narratives not blending together so much as competing. Of course, you could do worse than watch actors like Washington, Malek and Leto work. But at the end of The Little Things, you feel like you could do better, too.

The film is a fascinating struggle between Balram’s promise and capability and the generations of ingrained, unfeeling privilege that stacks the deck against him.

There is a gentleness, both to Allyn’s performance and to the film overall, that draws the audience in. The movie’s path is as predictable as Jackson’s, but it’s beautifully shot and the idea is a good one — reversing the typical border-crosser-on-the-run idea. That doesn’t forgive all of its shortcomings, but it comes close.

Simon Stone’s film, about a famous archaeological discovery, has an excellent cast, led by Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes and Lily James, all in top form. It takes place just as England is entering World War II, so there’s that, too. And since this evidently isn’t enough, some romance gets tacked on, as well.

The Marksman is not awful. It’s not particularly good, either, but it’s not the disaster it should have been. Part of that has to do with the way Lorenz stages the action — well-choreographed and tense. Part of it has to do with Perez, who combines being adorable with a kind of hard-won wisdom beyond his years that makes for a completely winning character.

Dunne's performance is quietly assured; Sandra's strength may waver, but it never falters. You root for her. You root for the movie, something that Lloyd purposely makes difficult to do at times. That’s going to throw some people, no doubt. But she resists easy resolution, making “Herself” a satisfying experience.

We are daily reminded of the importance of a free media, of free speech. The Dissident is a reminder of how far some governments will go to suppress it.

It’s fantastic.