Bradley Gibson

The Easy Kind is a beautifully made film. Cook is a talented songwriter, musician, and singer. Chevigny makes a strong effort with quality production values, cinematography, and unassailable editing, artfully stitching together reality and fiction. This is where the film shines.

Normal is action-centric brain candy, with some pokes at timely social/political topics. It’s not that heavy, however, this film won’t change your life. It will allow you to relax into catharsis and put a smile on your face.

Managing expectations is key to enjoying what, at its core, is a heartfelt journey of finding real connection in a fake world. Relax and enjoy how Maureen gets her groove back.

Mother Mary is an art film at its core, and will not suit everyone’s palette, but for the audience it connects with, there’s a beautiful journey from sorrow to confession and possible absolution.

Despite the flaws in the script, Pattinson and Zendaya deliver their roles beautifully.

The Bride is a delightfully insane romp that falls short of landing its message in mayhem. But what glorious mayhem it is.

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.

Even if this doesn’t wind up being your favorite version of the film, it’s worth seeing Fennell’s updated take.

Crime 101 will get your pulse pounding on a wild ride.

The Friend’s House is Here provides an instructive window into the challenges of life in Tehran, as well as an opportunity for Westerners to share these moments and empathize with the people there.

American Doctor is a horrifying film to watch, but that’s the point.

Hanging by a Wire emphasizes the self-reliance of the people of Battagram, who are accustomed to solving problems on their own. Naqvi brings us along to witness their strength and determination on display.

Bonilla has directing chops, but she needs to refine them. She does show real potential and is a director to watch as her career proceeds.

Send Help is a brilliant, startlingly gory dark comedy. Sam Raimi still has that old magic.

With Garland crafting the script and DeCosta at the wheel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a winner on all fronts. It is wildly entertaining, never predictable, and explores the clash between superstition and tradition versus hard science.

The film is described as “docufiction,” meant to present an authentic sketch of working-class Australian life. While we are not always seeing the real events, we are getting the concentrated essence.

Europe’s New Faces is a worthy exercise to pull back the curtain on the experience, but it should perhaps be edited down to 90 minutes or so and include some framing context so we know who and what we are seeing and why the migrants chose to make this trip.

Marty Supreme is a rare film that will become a watershed moment in cinematic history, in the same way that Taxi Driver and Pulp Fiction did. It will be spoken of in reverent tones in years to come, and will be endlessly studied and then copied by lesser filmmakers.

Trier has created a masterwork, with layers of human drama and frailty (on a budget of less than $8M), soaring to the heights of unearned optimism only to crash into the inevitably of mortality.

The film is a monumental achievement, rolling in like distant thunder and lightning seen through the treeline.

Novelist Cormac McCarthy explored the idea that violence can be regenerative and redemptive. In Sisu: Road to Revenge, Helander has painted that concept on the movie screen 20 feet tall, near death, and dripping with gore. By becoming inhumane, Aatami seeks to recover his humanity. Never before will you have felt so cleansed by such brutality.

Highest 2 Lowest is brilliant filmmaking done as only Spike Lee can.

It is a short jump from laughing to screaming. There is no safe space. Cregger has a refined sensibility for identifying the core irritations in ordinary life and amplifying them into anxiety, escalating to terror.

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

Of course, Ballerina is not deeply cerebral cinema; rather, it’s goofy fun, but the filmmakers have elevated violence to a fine art, and it does play like a ballet in the elegant precision and breathtaking physicality of the performances. Enjoy it for what it is, and buckle up for an intense thrill ride.

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.

Wick is Pain is as informative as it is thrilling.

Not enough can be said about Cage’s performance. He truly has shaken off all pretense of self-consciousness and can just go “full send” on playing frustrated hysteria and sheer unabashed lunacy. He is simply unmatched and fearless in this type of role. He has elevated shrieking madness to pure art.

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

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.

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

The film moves deliberately as we visit, in turn, the struggles of each character and then zoom back out to see the results impacting the family as a whole. The performances are flawless, each actor holding back their character’s inner turmoil tightly, to be revealed gradually as slight tell on the surface.

A dark, thrilling drama unfolds with these two spinning their own world on top of the grim reality of Gotham and Arkham.

This is a film that shouldn’t work. It should collapse under its own weight, but somehow, in the end, it all comes together after a fashion, and that’s the magic of Coppola.

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

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.

Watchmen: Chapter 1 is a delight for fans, and great follow up for those who enjoyed the comics and want to see more. Future chapters promise to be just as amazing.

Overall, June Zero is a worthy film that follows delayed justice coming to a Nazi war criminal, bringing to the surface events of the post-war that aren’t well known.

To be authentic to the book, Nichols tells a story grounded in reality to paint an indelible, searing image of a moment fixed in time.

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.

Miller has hinted that this may be the last adventure set in the wasteland, and if that’s true, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a powerful swan song to Furiosa, Max, and all the denizens of that blasted, delightful place.

The Almond and the Seahorse is filled with sadness and pain, but there are moments of sunlight and happiness, which is ultimately the most anyone can ask for in this life.

This film is not going to be for everyone, but for those who love horror served with a mean little edge of snarky humor, it’s quite a ride.

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

Remembering Gene Wilder is a beautiful, affectionate, albeit brief, biography of an actor who was adored by all.

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

It is exciting… enough and is carried by the fun cast and design work.

Red Right Hand fully delivers in the action realm.

Neither the meals depicted nor the viewing experience should be rushed. Time is needed for the ingredients of the film to achieve a simmered state of perfection. Your patience will be rewarded.

Wonka is fluffy, loud, colorful, and goofy. King is not looking to expand on the literary legacy of Roald Dahl; it’s not that serious.

Soucy’s documentary joyfully fulfills the mission of educating and entertaining, infused with the tremendous delight and loyalty of all those who worked with this seemingly magical production group.

The quiet pace of The Road Dance, along with the ebbs and flows of the events around the characters, give it an authenticity and space to feel the impact. You may be captivated just as the filmmaker and I were.

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.

The animation is beautifully done, with striking color and simplicity.

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.

For those who don’t care as much about the moral of the story, there are many ways to enjoy this film. It’s a good time, and one can easily just vibe on the music and color palette, the goofy humor, and an amusing nostalgic catalog of Mattel toys and accessories without investing too much brain power into the social justice commentary.

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

Chasing Chasing Amy is Sav Rodgers’ heartfelt, transparent, and articulate look at what it is to grow up gay and transgender in a world of heteronormative hostility. This is, hands-down, one of the best film experiences you will ever have.

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

Normally film is considered a director’s medium, but this one belongs to cinematographer Paolo Carnera. The footage of Felice rediscovering Naples is nothing short of stunning. Martone wisely understands that he has three resources in Nostalgia that other filmmakers do not: Carnera’s eye, Favino’s acting ability to quietly emote with no wasted motion, and a city that is heartbreakingly beautiful to behold.

The filmmaker plays with our assumptions around justice and race. While A Lot of Nothing uses elements ripped from the headlines, in this context, what you expect to come from it will say more about you than it does the script. The revelation of the final act changes everything that has gone before. Hang onto the edge of your seat for a wickedly entertaining ride.

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

The filmmaker educates and entertains with a profoundly human story about the life of a young woman. Viewers will become invested in what happens to Di and learn about the Hmong tradition along the way.

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.

Lowen does a masterful job of presenting the anti-choice movement without spin.

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.

For an ultra-low-budget Indie horror comedy, The Day After Halloween provides a good share of laughs and jolts.

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.

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.

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

The Belcher family’s adventures are heartwarmingly engaging as they pull together while annoying the crap out of each other. The music is catchy, and the characters are beautifully drawn, both figuratively and literally. The Bob’s Burgers Movie is the best family-musical-murder-mystery for the Adventure Time generation you’ll see this summer.

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

[Simon Rex] goes all-in and sells it with incredible skill and passion. Suzanna Son as Strawberry is also a revelation. She has star quality and a screen presence that is extremely rare. We will be seeing her again.

Yogi brings us close to Masao’s personal tragedy while at the same time pulling back to see life and death at a cosmic level. The movie delves into the cycle of life and death enough so that that audience members can understand and accept the beauty of the process.

This film, this artist, this music, this story: all rare gems…see this film.

Camilleri captures the beauty of Malta in Luzzu. He shows us the island, the sea, the colorful traditional boats with faces painted on the front, and the glamour of sunset over the ocean. He also shows us life there can be destructively difficult for people trying to make it on the low end, as they struggle to maintain their traditions and pride while the world changes around them.

Lanksy is a workman-like film with decent production values, but Rockaway is not Scorcese or Coppola. There are no great faults to find with it, except one: fans of the genre have literally seen every element of it before.

LaBruce dresses up kink in priestly robes and biker leather and raw skin and sets it out on a runway walk in open daylight.

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.

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.

Anyone seeking motivation, or just looking for inspiration, will marvel at the life story of Valerie Taylor, her sharks, and her love of the sea. She is a treasure, as is Sally Aitken for bringing her story to the screen.

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.

Despite struggling with a thematic focus, the film presents a woman who is well worth getting to know.

Willy’s Wonderland is a violent, glorious riot of inside-joke horror tropes and Cage’s own best tribute to a genre he helped to create.

A Glitch in the Matrix is timely and full of mystery and wonder, but lingering on descriptions of surreal subjective experience misses the point. This would be a much more interesting movie if it had more focus on the science of simulation theory.

Lacôte’s second directorial feature, Night of the Kings, is an epically ambitious undertaking, roaring along on several parallel tracks, with a dizzying number of sub-stories to track. The world inside MACA prison is a complex, layered cultural and political system.

The appeal of M.C. Escher: Journey into Infinity is near-universal. It’s hard to imagine not falling under its mesmerizing spell with the same wonder that one would gaze on an Escher print and feel their mind slowly becoming part of the pattern depicted.

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.

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

The 7 rating is for his movie. Vance himself, in his preachy, condescending book, gets it wrong.

Friedkin gives us a master class on the creative process of film and a set of expertly told war stories that thrill and inform. It just doesn’t get better than this.

The Argument winds up being either the most horrifying funny scriptwriting workshop ever, or a really f***ed up version of Groundhog Day. Either way, an exact-science blend of tight scripting and a strong ensemble cast make this film a new comedy gem.

The film explores dark territory but treats the subjects with emotional intelligence and sensitivity.

Usually, films of plays are dull things. Limited access to camera angles, bad sound, lighting that doesn’t work for the movie camera. Theater and film are (appropriately) distinct media. Enter Spike Lee. He’s a master craftsman and his skills are as relevant as ever. Lee made use of all those potential disadvantages to inform his cinematic vision and encapsulate the stage performance into a striking moving picture.

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

After We Leave is a shining example of indie filmmaking at its finest.

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.

This is a long-overdue must-see that sets the record straight for a woman whose whole life was glossed over in favor of a more camera-ready tabloid romance.

The level of craft in Poe’s feature debut exceeds that of directors with more experience and portends a long career with more wonderful art to come. In Selah and the Spades, she has created a new classic tale of power, love, hate, loyalty, and betrayal featuring a stunningly talented cast.

Speed of Life reminds us that the art of our idols, the fire, and the passion, survive the artist and that their immortality is you keeping that fire burning.

Perrier is an undeniable talent and as a first outing, Jezebel is a powerful statement.

This is war as a First Person Shooter, and it’s incredibly effective at putting the viewer in the moment.

Haynes carefully navigates the risky terrain of presenting real people (who are still among us) and facts in a scripted feature film, artfully blurring the lines between documentary and drama.

Call this “Film meh” instead of Film Noir. The only way it could be more pretentious is if it was in black and white. These characters are so unlikeable, you may find yourself hoping Margaret and Henry both get the shit kicked out of them for their arrogance and stupidity.

The mafia murder images are stomach turning, viewers take note. Letizia talks about her life at great length and some of it is redundant, but she is always charming and inspirational, living as a strong, independent woman in a crushing patriarchy.

Her responses and her journey, set alongside her own art, give a unique perspective on that meditation as well as to the crucial importance of art to document our time, to share experiences, and to enhance the quality of life.

Director May El-Toukhy paints an engaging, uncompromising film in bold strokes, never looking away or shrinking from Anne’s boldness to act on her desires, or her willingness to remorselessly do whatever she must to restore the status quo of her life.

For fans of Breaking Bad, it’s a satisfying return to and continuation of the story.

It’s tempting to talk about Making Waves as being educational, but it is not dryly academic, though it does introduce the subject in some detail. This is a fun film to watch, with the interviews and graphics illustrating how the sound comes together, the doc is an exciting behind-the-scenes look at the effort and skill required to create movie sound artfully.

Benjamin Naishtat directs with a steady hand and a strong vision. Pedro Sotero’s cinematography reveals the place and time in a respectful style that captures the period without satirizing it. This is a film that satisfies on every level and bears repeated viewings.

Cash’s film is reflective and accomplished, showing the world through the eyes of a young woman challenged by a painful childhood and by the culture of her times, finding her own way through the chaos around her to a functional adult life.

The dark comedy is subtle, but hilarious. Serious topics bubble up from masterful situational humor.

Overall the pace is a little slow and the film is too quiet, but it’s definitely a notch above typical low-budget fare and entertaining to watch.

The Irish humor and setting make for a lovely time with the film as we get a droll glimpse of daily life in Ireland, and things that are lost and found again.

Yardie is a ripping classic gangster tale done right, but that’s only part of the appeal. It goes beyond the narrative into full cultural immersion with music as the window into a time and place.

The film runs long. Director Rick Alverson could have wrapped up this disturbing meditation in less time and still been as effective at painting his precisely beautiful dark image.

Featuring a mix of fiction and real life, Touch Me Not explores intimacy in an experimental feature film that manages to make sex seem unlikely and tiresome.

There is humor, drama, and sexual indiscretion, with entertaining and sometimes insightful moments, but the themes are so narratively ill-defined that it never gels.

The characters are compelling, but I would like to have known more about how Peter came to this place in his life.

Scheinert adroitly conveys both the pathos and the humor of the situation. As dumb as the main characters are, the film itself is very clever.

Films promoting self-improvement are suspect as they are prone to being preachy. To succeed, the filmmaker must create an experience so overwhelmingly entertaining the viewer forgets he/she is being improved upon. This film misses that mark, despite some engaging moments in the attempt.

Bruce Thierry Cheung adapted this story from a novel by Dean Bakopoulos, brilliantly changing the setting from Michigan to the California desert. The film is light on dialog and heavy on brutally beautiful cinematography painting the mood.

What We Started achieves the directors stated goal of being an impressively comprehensive history of EDM. So much so that the film drags: unless one is a truly deep aficionado, 90 densely packed minutes of info about EDM is too much. It would work better with more music and less detail.

As with all dramatized stories of real lives, artistic license hammers messy reality into a watchable film. Dramas are not documentaries. The essential emotions of Freddie’s life and the history of the band are here. There’s nothing unexpected in the structure of the movie. It’s a visit with some old mates you’ve not seen in a long time.

Superb acting by all the leads and supporting players populate the desolate landscape with human dramas large and small in a place where people scrape a living out of harsh conditions.

This is a fantastic film. Imagine any John Hughes film as a drug-fueled drama.

Hardy and Nachman’s film is the uncommon near-perfect documentary: the filmic elements fade, done so well the viewer focuses on the dogs and their journey. All of this leads up to the tremendous joy of freedom and partnership for those whose lives are transformed by their new guide dogs.

Lough has attempted impartiality by showing both sides without overtly stating a position. Either side could interpret the film as presenting evidence supporting their ideology. This both works and does not.

It still has everything a viewer could want from a movie experience.

As great as the script and cinematography are (they are both unassailable), the real magic of Unforgiven is in the performances.

The film can be enjoyed on many levels, including getting just interplanetary on your favorite substance and waiting for the plethora of quotable lines.

The story is set in real world Mexico, not a cleaned-up movie world simulacrum.