Bill Goodykoontz

It's very much an old-time moviegoing experience; the film could have been made in 1940, and that's a compliment.

Brigsby Bear is charming, sweet, creative, different and disturbing.

So much of "The Hunting Ground" describes the behavior of college students at their worst. Watching Pino and Clark find some measure of peace and healing while offering the same to others shows it at its best.

Stuff just happens, some of it funny, some of it uncomfortable, some of it good, some of it bad. Just like real life, which is what makes Turn Me On, Dammit! so weirdly enjoyable.

If you’re a fan willing to look past his misfires (or why he agreed to a “Bad News Bears” remake) or a film buff wondering about how a director operates on a set, “Dream Is Destiny” will be a delight.

A sequel, by definition, can’t be as innovative as the original. And there is no sure-fire crying scene here like — spoiler alert — the fate of Bing Bong in the first film. (I rewatched it again to make sure it still has the desired effect. It, ahem, does.)

It shouldn’t work, honestly. There’s too much going on in too many directions at the same time. But Villeneuve brings it all together somehow. We’re more than five hours in between the two films (this one is 2 hours and 46 minutes), and while the lack of a sequel wouldn’t be as infuriating as it was last time around, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I’m ready for more.

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

A tremendously entertaining take on film noir, with all the usual elements of the genre in play - crime, death, possibly murder and doomed romance.

Thor: Ragnarok is a blast, pure and simple.

Demon is a powerful film, one that makes us wonder what greater films Wrona might have made.

A delightful look at the public career and mostly private life of the ultimate professional amateur.

This is a film that finds horror not in the extreme, but in the mundane. That alone makes it a worthwhile entry in a genre that it both inhabits and rises above.

Blade Runner 2049 stands as its own film, in addition to a continuation of the sequel. It’s not the bolt out of the blue the first movie was, but how could it be? Instead, as the break between installments would suggest, it’s a furthering of not just the original story but the original world, and that’s quite an accomplishment.

Impressionistic, unconventional and often downright weird, it’s most of all an exploration of humanity — what that means and how it is achieved.

It's Cooper's movie, and, although he has been good in pretty much everything we've seen him in, there is a depth to this performance we haven't seen before. It's a tricky balance: As the legend grows, the man diminishes. Cooper and Eastwood do an exceptionally good job of maintaining that.

Sometimes, a movie just has a magic about it, something that makes you look past implausibility and plot holes and whatever other shortcomings it may have and leaves you feeling good just for having seen it.

There aren’t enough scares to keep you on edge in Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, but there’s enough else going on to keep you interested.

The film is a mad whirl of influencer phoniness, paranoia, imposter syndrome and parenting nightmares.

Everything is so bizarre and deadpan, the humor just sort of sneaks up on you, until you’re laughing without even meaning to. It’s a neat mix of subtlety and over-the-top bloodshed, with everything played with a straight face.

Most of all, though, it's a welcome, offbeat look at a couple of originals, something that's in woefully short supply.

Every image feels intentional, with nothing left to chance. (This results in some amazing images, many of them involving Stone’s face.) Along with the precision of the performances, this makes Bugonia one of the more enjoyably weird times at the movies in recent memory.

"Norman” takes a largely unlikable character and inserts him into the center of its story, a gambit that seems like a surefire recipe for disaster. It’s not, thanks to Richard Gere.

[A] searing, perversely thrilling drama.

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

With The Family Fang, [Bateman] shows confidence with drama and, perhaps more impressively, with weirdness, never letting things get odd just for the sake of it. He wisely doesn’t force the issue. This bunch is plenty weird on its own.

Belle is a beautiful period piece, but it's also something more: a study of racism, classism and sexism in 18th-century England.

Grande and Erivo bring that relationship to life, making “Wicked: For Good” more emotional than you’d expect. These are two really good actors whose investments in what could have been let’s-put-on-a-show theater-kid performances go much deeper.