Bill Goodykoontz

Fire Island, Andrew Ahn’s romantic comedy that is basically “Pride and Prejudice” with gay men, is an utter delight.

Top Gun: Maverick is a movie-star movie with great action pieces best seen on the biggest screen available. It’s a modern take on old-fashioned fun.

The Bob’s Burgers Movie is good. At times it’s really good, with a lot of the charm and humor that makes the show so great.

Montana Story is a personal film, a small story told under the Big Sky. Those skies can make any story feel epic in scope — they frame tales as mythology in a way. But in Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s film (they wrote and direct), those same skies are so grand and far-reaching they can make you lose your perspective.

This is not a movie for the squeamish. It may not be a movie for the non-squeamish either. But it is a movie for those who like to see directors take big swings, seemingly unconcerned if they whiff every now and then.

Vartolomei’s performance is amazing. The way her face registers everything she endures, from grim determination to frustration to mental and physical agony, seems genuine, authentic.

The Innocents, writer and director Eskil Vogt’s horror film about children with supernatural powers, is definitely difficult to watch, a brutal bit of business. But the thrills aren’t cheap — they’re hard earned, if you can call them thrills at all.

As events unfold, Raimi’s hand becomes more and more apparent, and that’s a good thing.

Memory is a good-enough movie that could have been a lot better. Neeson is to thank for most of the good. Turns out he, like his characters, does have a particular set of skills. They involve acting.

If you want pinpoint accuracy, watch a documentary. If you want to see top-notch actors inhabit characters in genuine and ultimately moving ways, The Duke is a much better option.

There’s nothing particularly surprising in the plot, once you get past the meta-Cage business. Pretty soon it’s just an action movie. What is surprising is how enjoyable Cage and Pascal make the movie anyway.

The most interesting parts of Father Stu, an OK film in which Mark Wahlberg plays a rough-hewn man who finds redemption in an unexpected place, are not the ones you — and possibly the filmmakers — would expect.

The story, meanwhile, strains to be a masterpiece. And the strain shows.

There are some laughs (a well-placed police baton, for one). But Metal Lords feels unfinished, rough, like a solo the guitarist never mastered.

The twists are somewhat predictable; a twist within a twist is reasonably satisfying. But this is the kind of movie that relies less on surprises than chemistry. And Pine and Newton’s is fine, nothing more. In fact their conversation is far more magnetic than their romantic scenes.

It doesn’t always make sense. But it is fascinating — and fun — to watch.

There’s a freewheeling spirit to The Bubble that’s meant to reflect the times during which the film was made, but instead of creative forces finally unleashed it comes off as half-baked, more like a first draft than a finished film. Apatow knows comedy, and his intentions here are good. It’s just the movie that isn’t.

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

There’s nothing wrong with a thriller leaving some loose ends. But Deep Water trips over them too often.

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

Compartment No. 6 takes people and places you might wish to escape on first blush and makes you glad by the end that you’ve spent time with them.

It all works beautifully. And the animation is brilliant. It’s all in service to the story of a girl who must decide whether to resist change or embrace it. Will she hide from her true nature or will she grin and — sorry — bear it? Turning Red answers the question in a surprisingly satisfying way.

The Batman is impressively made. The acting is first rate, and the chemistry between Pattinson and Kravitz is magnetic. It’s meant to be an important statement. It’s just not a lot of, you know, fun. Or as someone famously put it in another Batman movie, Why so serious?

How do you make an age-old tale that’s been told many times before feel fresh and invigorating? Hire Peter Dinklage, for starters. He makes Joe Wright’s pandemic project “Cyrano” come alive with a performance heartening and heartbreaking. Wright’s penchant for elaborate, over-the-top set pieces helps, too.

It’s not clear that the movie has anything to say, new or otherwise. . . . Other than that it’s just blood and guts, and lots of it.

Occasionally you see a movie that just satisfies on all fronts — the performances, the direction, the whole package. Even less occasionally you see one that does all that and moves you, too. “The Worst Person in the World” is one of those.

Knoxville and the others go about their messy business with a glee that is impossibly contagious.

With Drive My Car, the journey is as satisfying as the destination. It’s great.