Brian Lowry

"Part One" represents an admirable effort to do the material justice.

Four Hours at the Capitol might be unlikely to change many hearts or minds, but watching the evidence months removed from the heat of the moment and the chaos that unfolded live on TV makes it difficult to entertain arguments that the media has overblown or misrepresented those images.

It's an intense experience, one whose focus is undeniably stirring but which leaves certain aspects of Blair's life and resume somewhat underdeveloped.

If the previous movie conjured a bit of excitement by eradicating everything that had transpired after the original, that sense of novelty has quickly worn off.

A "Rashomon"-like tale that tells its story from different perspectives, this fact-based adaptation of Eric Jager's book is muddy, bloody and grim but too drawn out in filtering 14th-century feudal norms through a modern prism.

Fauci makes no pretense about where its sentiments lie, lauding a figure whose critics have seemingly twisted his image beyond recognition in their attempts to demonize him.

This animated sequel plucks enough of the right buttons to qualify as a reasonable addition to family movie time.

Diana: The Musical might make for a fine night out at the theater, but viewed on Netflix, what's billed as a "special presentation" becomes another shiny bauble that ultimately doesn't feel particularly special.

Two head-chomping symbiotes aren't better than one in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, a mind-numbingly tiresome sequel, filled with uninspired comedy and a CGI monster fight that seems to drag on forever.

To its credit, this two hour, 43-minute movie (thus making the title a bit of a lie) assiduously builds on everything that the recent Bond movies have established, in a way earlier incarnations generally didn't. That has deepened the character, allowing Bond to experience grief, loss and love without hitting the reset button, the recurrence of the villainous Blofeld notwithstanding.

The Guilty is a taut, remarkably spare thriller.

While the film says something that matters, for a show whose press notes proclaim it a "generation-defining Broadway phenomenon," a great deal appears to have been lost in translation.

The Many Saints of Newark turns out to be a credible and rewarding film. But with a bit more seasoning and time in the oven, like its HBO predecessor, it actually might have risen into a truly sensational TV show.

The stars outshine the movie in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, a dazzling showcase for Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield as Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker in a dutiful, somewhat disjointed chronicle of how the televangelists amassed great wealth before his disgraced fall.

An understated, uneventful slog of a movie that feels like a misguided merger of "Gran Torino" and "Bronco Billy."

Look, we get it, people are looking for new stuff to watch, mindless escapism included. Still, in terms of any sort of inspiration or originality, "Kate," the movie, is every bit as D.O.A. as Kate, the character.

Much like "Hamilton" on Disney+,Come From Away delivers a best-seat-in-the-house view, offering a moving, brilliantly shot and staged spectacle that brings that moment unerringly back to life.

It's possible to allow that Cinderella has its heart in the right place without concluding that the movie works. Credit where it's due for trying to squeeze the material into some new clothes, but hoping isn't enough to make the shoe fit.

Because profiling and modern criminology were greatly influenced by this period, there is an intellectually stimulating side to all this that No Man of God mines.

For all that the film does well, in trying to balance its cerebral, visceral and sequel aspects, Candyman appears to have bitten off a bit more than it can chew.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings conjures a slick addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one that owes less to the comics than most of its predecessors. The movie not only strikes a welcome blow for inclusion with its predominantly Asian cast, but deftly juggles epic world building with lighter comedy in a way that should appeal to audiences, depending on how many can be lured back to theaters at this moment.

In theory, it's all pretty familiar stuff, but veteran action director Martin Campbell ("Casino Royale") and writer Richard Wenk ("The Equalizer" movies) have sought to spice things up where they can.

Too many of the points the story earns for ambition get deducted for execution in this jumble of ideas.

What could feel cliched at various turns deftly avoids that, capturing Ruby’s plight in a way that recalls any number of coming-of-age stories while still feeling unexpectedly fresh and distinctive. There have been a number of first-rate movies about teenage girls in the last few years, but few that were better.

Earnest to a fault, Respect spells out a handsome tribute to Aretha Franklin, with Jennifer Hudson and her peerless singing pipes as its formidable anchor. Yet this biography never fully sparks to life, as the Queen of Soul fights in episodic fashion to establish and later protect her musical legacy from the domineering men in her life.

The resulting movie, however, hits the wrong notes, repeating mundane lyrics without uttering the words that keep coming to mind, which are "precious" and "pretentious."

Free Guy is a cleverly programmed wedding of star (Ryan Reynolds) and subject matter, in a movie that's silly, handsome-looking and a great deal of fun, in roughly inverse proportion to how much one sweats the details. Traveling inside videogames doesn't always end well cinematically, but this "Guy" braves that familiar scenario and comes out ahead.

A sweet if slight love story.