Bill Goodykoontz

The Lesson is a quiet little film with surprisingly sharp teeth.

Mommy is a film as harrowing as it is exhilarating, a story sometimes hard to watch but impossible to turn away from.

An Honest Liar is a fascinating look at what the truth means, and how it means different things to different people. It's also a reminder that no one has a monopoly on it. Not even the Amazing Randi.

22 Jump Street is, ultimately, a celebration of the silly and the sweet, a combination that's welcome again and again.

Once you’ve seen the work Stallone and Jordan do in Creed, the idea of a “Rocky 8” doesn’t sound so bad.

It is a fascinating film, and if it skimps somewhat on the moral complications of this kind of art, it holds nothing back in terms of volume: Image after image grabs our eye and often grips our throat.

James makes some confident decisions in the film’s last act, showing a welcome trust in the audience, particularly for a debut feature. She also gets fascinating performances out of her actors — each does a lot with a little. The performances aren’t as muted as they are quietly, intensely focused.

Jane is a compelling movie, one that shows us not just more of the world, but also our place in it.

It’s dark, nihilistic, funny and ultimately sweet and hopeful, and thus so inadvertently perfect for people stuck at home practicing pandemic avoidance that you kind of have to love it a little.

The Immigrant is not exactly the feel-good hit of the summer, but it is a compelling tale of what, in the end, can only be called survival.

This is, in fact, one of the more violent movies in recent memory. But Stone doesn't let anyone off easy. Violence has an effect here, has meaning, has relevance to the story. And that's a good thing; otherwise, it would be hard to stomach.

There is a delightful innocence to Spider-Man: Homecoming, director Jon Watts’ take on the web-slinger that mixes some (but no too much, at least for a while) high-tech wizardry with some old-fashioned family fun.

The Eternal Daughter doesn’t scare you in the traditional sense as much as it moves you, and that’s every bit as powerful an achievement.

The Hornet's Nest serves as a somewhat effective bonding exercise for father and son. But the best of what it has to offer moves beyond that, and puts us alongside the people fighting a daily battle and, sometimes, heartbreakingly, losing the fight.

Schoenbrun’s direction is masterful, both in terms of what they get out of the actors (Smith and Lundy-Paine give committed performances) and in their visual language. The look of the film is both haunting and inviting — not unlike that of a nightmare, or a horror film. “I Saw the TV Glow” has elements of both, and more.

A gorgeously shot, well-acted Western that resonates more the more you let it settle.

Armageddon Time is above all what it sets out to be: a story about growing up, and all the joy and pain that entails.

The beauty in Maines’ script, and in the performances, is how perfectly modulated everything is. Maines clearly gets some digs in at the Catholic Church, and Catholic education particularly. It’s really funny.

It's refreshing to see an animated movie that doesn't look as though the idea for the Happy Meal came first.

Laurence Anyways is like a big, ornate, overstuffed pillow of a movie. It’s attractive and comfortable, even if there’s just too much of it.

Still Mine is a rewarding, performance-based film, ultimately a small pleasure to spend time with.

Fantastic acting by the likes of Garret Dillahunt, Chris Cooper and Joel Torre lift characters above the cliched, offering a one-sided history lesson that is still well worth learning.

The Lost City of Z is a throwback, an epic film about a grand adventure.

The easiest way to describe My Golden Days is as a coming-of-age romance, but Arnaud Desplechin’s film, with its memories and carefully nursed grudges and moments of heartbreak and betrayal, feels weightier than that.

Among other things, “The Outfit” is a celebration of those who sit quietly, who soak in what everyone else is saying, who you overlook.

That's not a pretty story, of course. But it's a compelling one and, thanks to Wells and a cast that includes Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper, an entertaining one.

As with all of the films he writes, Sheridan takes us to places that are foreign to many of us, yet immerses us so deeply into the sense of place that everything feels familiar, recognizable. It’s a trip worth taking, making “Wind River” another stop on the unique cinematic travelogue Sheridan is building.

For most of the film, Weitz, riding a fantastic performance by Demián Bichir as the landscaper in question, succeeds in showing the day-to-day struggles that exist beneath the political rhetoric and upper-case headlines.