Bill Goodykoontz

The Is the End is a different take on the R-rated comedy, a raunchy laugh riot that actually gives you a little to think about.

These are characters for whom true belief in a cause has probably become impossible; they know how much that costs. Marsh does a compelling job of illustrating that for the rest of us.

It’s not derivative. It’s just familiar. But it also boasts two unique elements.

The love the two have for each other, particularly she for him, is obvious and moving. So, too, is not just the desire to create, but the need to.

Happily, this is a movie about not just idealism but practical idealism, and the struggle that maintaining it requires. It looks drop-dead gorgeous and, despite a few storytelling short cuts, it's unexpectedly moving.

Aubrey Plaza is brilliant in Ingrid goes West, Matt Spicer’s smart, satirical and sometimes scathing takedown of the vapidity social media sometimes injects into life.

It’s well-staged, well-acted, all the right people die in the end. It comes down to, well, Romeo and Juliet, really, and Douglas Booth and Hailee Steinfeld prove capable in the title roles.

Wakanda Forever misses Boseman greatly — the entire film is about missing him — but it moves the story forward in a way that seems logical and fitting.

The whole thing runs through Stewart, and she’s great — just one of those movie stars you can’t take your eyes off.

If the purpose of Girls State is to give high-school students a taste of how government works in real life, “Girls State” makes a case that it does its job only too well.

Pattinson is what helps us keep pace. He completely inhabits Connie with his jittery, twitchy efforts — he can’t stand still, so neither can we.

A Ghost Story may be the ultimate litmus test of where you fall on the line between artistic merit and laughable pretension.

Although not everyone in the cast is as comfortable with the dialogue as Acker, for whom it seems natural, there is a clear love for the material here in every performance, in every shot. It’s not stuffy or remote. It’s fun.

Checking in at nearly three hours and so full of passions and appetites, it’s impossible for it not to exhaust you.

At times the film threatens to become relentlessly bleak, but never fully so, thanks in large part to Plummer’s performance. And cinematographer Magnus Nordenhof Jønck finds beauty in the most desolate places; even flashing police lights set against nightfall are inviting.

The film is fascinating in its exploration of the give-and-take between art and commerce.

It’s a really good film, but it’s certainly not an easy one to watch.

We’ve seen crusty old geezers with hearts of gold plenty of times in films. Here we see how this one got that way, and thanks to Lassgard and Holm, it’s a journey we care about taking.

A fun and thrilling film which at times plays like a car race somebody stuck a movie into the middle of.

A sharp turn on the romantic comedy, a movie about flawed people doing flawed things, often in funny fashion.

This is a crazy movie, in the best possible way. Body horror films have to be willing to get nuts to really work ― “The Substance” knew this, for instance. And Franco and Brie, along with Shanks, fully commit to this.

A fanboy's dream come true, a smart take on a smart comic that actually looks the part, with performances that make it worth watching for the rest of us, too.

It’s quite good, thanks to the sturdiness of the story, the jaw-dropping visuals and, most importantly, the one thing the first film didn’t offer: Emma Watson.

There is a predictability to the story, but that's OK. The acting is superb, Holbrook in particular, making That Evening Sun an understated pleasure.

There is an honesty in this performance, a genuineness that really elevates the film. It’s not always easy to watch, and it’s certainly not a lot of fun. But it is impressive, and that’s what carries it.

Tremendously entertaining.

The movie is more a collection of cool people telling great stories than it is a structured documentary (despite Camalier’s attempts in that direction). But in this case, that’s enough.

Philomena could have been a sappy movie, but it’s not. Instead, with such assured performances, it’s proof that sometimes a laugh makes swallowing a big dose of outrage a little easier.