Bill Goodykoontz

The handling of the faith aspect is actually one of the stronger parts of the film. Some movies like this lay it on thick, basically existing as a religious recruitment video. Here, and here alone, Ellis lays off and lets the audience think things through. The message is more effective this way.

The “Toy Story” saga felt fully complete without it, which makes this a movie that doesn’t really need to exist, but whose existence doesn’t diminish the whole, either.

The Dead Don’t Die isn’t bad, exactly. It’s just that with all this talent and all this beautiful weirdness at hand, it could have been so much better.

You come to a Godzilla movie for the epic fights, and on that front, Dougherty delivers.

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.

Shadow is a terrific film — gorgeous, violent, Byzantine, inventive, just a joy to watch. Once it gets going.

It’s long on violence and short on storytelling. It aims high, working in the realm of myths, but it does so in hit-or-miss fashion.

It’s a good movie, so smartly directed by Ralph Fiennes, who also appears as Nureyev’s dance instructor, that at times it feels like an IQ test. But the story is intriguing and, ultimately, gripping enough to overcome all that.

Director Shawn Seet’s film is surprisingly sweet and moving.

Peele’s visual audacity is at times breathtaking, and always serves a greater purpose. There is a beautiful overhead shot of the family walking along the beach, carrying their supplies, casting long shadows. There’s no way to know in the moment you’re admiring this that it carries meaning that informs the rest of the film. That’s just terrific filmmaking.

It may be haphazard and loosely focused. But thanks to Skarsgård it’s never really boring.

It’s a weird little genre, the sick-teen romance. “Five Feet Apart” winds up as just a pedestrian entry in it, because it tries way too hard on the melodrama front. Being a teenager is difficult enough. Being a sick teenager is presumably that much harder. Being a teenager in “Five Feet Apart” means suffering from something else, in addition: overkill. And that’s deadly.

Credit returning director Christopher Landon and screenwriter Scott Lobdell (Landon co-writes this time) with trying something different with the story. Blame them for not doing something better.

Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find … another Liam-Neeson-gets-revenge action thriller. But one with quite a few laughs thrown in amidst the unlikely ugly heroics.

Capernaum is a tough slog, no doubt, even by tough-slog standards. But that’s a big part of what makes it so rewarding.

Jenkins brings an urgency to If Beale Street Could Talk, along with the melancholy of problems still yet to be solved.

How you feel about the film will depend on how you feel about politics, probably. But don’t let partisanship get in the way of appreciating another inventive film from McKay, and some truly brilliant performances. Surely on that, we can all agree.

The film gifts us with a fresh perspective, not just of the space race, but of ourselves.

David Lowery’s film is about as quiet and patient as what is ostensibly a caper movie can be. Yet its engine never idles, in large part because Redford, at 82, remains a movie star, someone to whom we are drawn, even as he is politely robbing a bank with a note, a gun and a smile.

McEwan, as is his wont, aims for something bigger here, the bigger questions — the biggest, even, of life and death. Thanks to Thompson’s outstanding performance, he mostly achieves what he sets out for.

It’s the kind of movie that, if you give yourself to it, you’ll love.

If Greene had simply told the story in more straightforward documentary fashion, Bisbee ’17 would be an interesting film. By telling the story within the story, he’s done something more: He’s made an urgent, powerful one.

Gleeson is terrific as Faraday struggles — with his feelings for Caroline, with her feelings for him, with the notion that some of what’s going on at Hundreds Hall may not have a rational explanation. The evolution of his character is subtle, but hauntingly effective.

A compelling film, and an excruciatingly entertaining one.

Byrne is a delight.

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood is a fascinating and undeniably irresistible look into that world. You just feel, despite Bowers' sunny disposition, a little dirty about enjoying it.

What's most enjoyable about Crazy Rich Asians is that, while it never forfeits its sense of responsibility, it also never forfeits its sense of fun. Chu wants you to slobber over the settings, to imagine what a life like this might be like — and to ensure that being Asian is a part of that.

Dark Money exposes the dangers of unbridled, anonymous political spending so expertly that it will make you fume with anger, practically quake with distress. Which is exactly why you need to see it.