Bradley Gibson

Return to Hardwick is a living, breathing moment from our past, reminding us what has been done, and what can be done.

The Departure is an entertaining film on the strength of the performances. If you enjoy “TMZ” style drama, you’ll need to watch until the end… despite the boys not behaving like men.

Antarctica is a rare gem that stands as one of this year’s best.

Coming Clean is an indictment of capitalism run rampant, and, once again, profit taking precedence over human life. Hats off to the frontline warriors taking on this cause.

Las Maravillas de Mali’s sound is reminiscent of another Cuban revelation, The Buena Vista Social Club, and the same fire burns here. At the heart of the film is the music, the gently driving beat that spins out joy and sadness, familial warmth and solitude, love and life.

WITCH: We Intend to Cause Havoc is a wonderful history lesson, as well as a lovely introduction to a band and their music that, perhaps, most people would never have heard otherwise.

Infinitum: Subject Unknown works as a scary, anxious thrill ride.

The suspense in Tailgate is cringe-inducing. Crijns keeps his foot on the gas for the entire runtime, artfully ensuring that neither the victims nor the audience ever gets a moment to breathe. Even with a premise we’ve seen before, this film delivers right up to the credits and beyond.

As family movies aimed at the tween demographic go, Dolphin Island is entertaining enough. The beautiful vistas could be a balm to anyone who’s thinking about the islands but can’t get there.

For a family film with after-school-special vibes, it lands exactly where it should. Dakota and Alex take center stage with a story and characters that are engaging for kids and make for distracting cinematic “comfort food” for adults.

In Santos – Skin to Skin, Golden weaves Santos’ colorful life story around Afro-Caribbean music to engaging effect.

Keeping Company is a delirious carnival ride at the intersection between rapacious greed and murderous insanity, and definitely worth your uncomfortable laughter.

The pace is tight, and the film’s last scene is a fantastic conclusion to the story: a little bit Telenovela, a little bit grindhouse, and 100% quality.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the graphic imagery, this feature is a brilliant look at obsession and the possible grisly endpoint of reductio ad absurdum.

While Actual People is not going to be for everyone, it does preserve a moment in time from Gen Z culture that informs and enlightens.

For Western audiences, Back to the Wharf is an engaging glimpse of daily life at the intersection of Chinese family culture and government corruption.

Montreal Girls is as much a visual and sonic poem as it is narrative storytelling.

The performances of the three leads and all of the cast are all solid and authentic. The film looks and sounds great.

Walid is a satisfying tale of good and evil that rolls out some moral instruction on principles, but the icing on the cake is the long-form hand-to-hand Silat fighting that rounds out the film.

In The Elephant 6 Recording Company, Stockfleth has assembled the definitive document about a scene that is exceedingly difficult to define. The achievement of getting his arms around the concept and presenting it as such a coherent and entertaining experience is impressive and important.

López and his band of dedicated filmmakers have created a movie with offbeat comedy and complex human drama. It is a thoughtful look at what it means to be really alone.

This doc rocks as much as the old rock rocks. Do yourself a favor and make some time for it.

The three main actors bring this narrative to life with power and authenticity.

School of Magical Animals 2 is light fantasy viewing for kids to enjoy and adults to grumble about, and it hits those marks with style and polished panache. Set your expectations accordingly.

You get the feeling that if your party was dragging when Nadim arrived, she’d be your DJ and get the energy up. This film is that same kind of electric jump-start vision of the life of an extraordinary individual. It’s clear that Nadim is just getting started.

Budabin has created a compelling, entertaining, and informative work in Great White Summer that is a master class on what a documentary can be.

The film is an intersection between Fatal Attraction and Back to the Future, and if that sounds intriguing, you’re in for a treat.

One of the basic tenets of film-making is to show, not tell. You Burn Me wanders outside that guideline by making a show of telling, which is as interestingly meta as Piñeiro’s approach of juxtaposing the interaction of Sappho and Britomartis onto a modern-day tableau.

If you’ll forgive the silly first and second acts and dig into the main dish of Asian Persuasion, your patience will be rewarded.

Wick is Pain is as informative as it is thrilling.

Chambermaid is an engaging, languid look at the romance between two women who are both stuck in prescribed roles, and how the force of will and a sharp mind can make the most of the moment.

Site is an ambitious film, exploring vision, reincarnation, absolution, and entangled souls as powerful themes in the undercurrent of the story.

The performances are understated and quiet, presented in dark cinematography, where most of the action happens in shadow. There are too many characters to keep track of, which dilutes the story, and it’s not always clear what is happening, but in the finale, it all comes down to one key idea about not breaking the rules.