Brian Lowry

There’s a difference between “long” and “epic,” although in movie terms the two frequently get confused. Martin Scorsese delivers the former but not the latter with Killers of the Flower Moon.

While the movie remains a dazzling experience in terms of what the animation achieves, it indulges in what feels like sensory overload, seeking emotional heft in ways that slow down the action. The movie also falls victim, somewhat, to the blessings and curses associated with the multiverse, which offers infinite possibilities but also the occasional sense that there are so many permutations none of them matter all that much.

Best in its small moments, the movie should find receptive gal pals congregating for the mother of all viewing parties.

The Green Knight's sheer originality makes the film worth considering for anyone with a taste for such material.

As much as the movie appears to yearn to jump-start the franchise, it seems to have forgotten to bother with a coherent script, leaving one to wonder how a film with this much action somehow manages to be so boring.

The Pursuit of Happyness is more inspirational than creatively inspired -- imbued with the kind of uplifting, afterschool-special qualities that can trigger a major toothache.

The net effect isn't necessarily bad assuming that expectations are modest, and there's something to be said for a more understated, small-scale approach to horror that doesn't confuse body count with scares. Yet considering where the story starts, the place where Antlers winds up doesn't leave much to hang one's hat on.

The film turns out to be a fun but thin construct, fostering a sense of itchiness to see how and if it's going to pay off.

Designed to showcase Jennifer Lopez playing a character that could hardly be called a reach, Marry Me trades in the "meet cute" rom-com formula for "meet dumb." Lopez still gets ample opportunities to sing a hummable soundtrack, but even within the genre's parameters, the silly premise deals the movie a blow from which it never entirely recovers.

Director/co-writer Robert Eggers ("The Lighthouse") has sought to make the definitive Viking movie, and while the film issues a guttural cry for theatrical viewing, it is built around such a basic revenge plot as to blunt those simple charms.

As a first film, this movie would have surely been hailed for its promise. Held up against a debut that garnered a well-deserved Oscar nomination and honors for best original screenplay, it's easy to come way thinking that "Us" doesn't merit all that fuss.

The latest installment is insanely weird, gruesomely violent, and features incredibly hammy roles for Ralph Fiennes and “Sinners’” Jack O’Connell.

Despite its beauty, several of those narrative touches don’t fully work, leaving behind a movie that’s aesthetically lovely but narratively uneven.

The dramatic height difference between the leads accomplishes a great deal of work in “Priscilla,” visually conveying the power disparity between superstar Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu, who he began wooing when she was just 14. Unfortunately, writer-director Sofia Coppola’s version of this oft-told story moves at a snail’s pace, offering fine performances but little to set one’s soul – or anything else – on fire.

Intermittently amusing and surely interesting, "Lebowitz" falls victim to the classic faux pas of overstaying its welcome.

The film simply lurches loudly from one mundane action scene to the next.

A more-is-less epic that showcases the dazzling stunt work for which the franchise is known while piling on the action to near-exhausting extremes.

While it’s worth watching, what clearly aspires to be the definitive telling of the story ultimately isn’t.

Unlike its protagonist, there’s a refreshing lack of guile or pretense here about what this modest but breezy movie is and wants to be.

Writer-director Sam Levinson spends a good deal of time in Malcolm & Marie complaining about critics, which feels like a boxer leading with his chin. Pairing Zendaya and John David Washington, the movie -- quickly and stealthily shot during the pandemic -- wins points for ingenuity, then loses them with its shrill tone and the uneven hairpin turns of its writing.

Amy Adams nimbly steps back into the role of an animated princess trying to adapt to the live-action world, in an epilogue to “Enchanted” that has moments of magic without completely delivering on the premise.

The off-the-wall comedy of Robert Smigel and Judd Apatow leaves a mark on the script, but it would require a talent of Peter Sellers' magnitude to conquer this material, and he's not around.

Genial but slim, picture is certainly a light-hearted alternative to weighty year-end awards bait, but the conceit isn't realized fully enough.

It's possible to admire the performance and still come away feeling director Pablo Larrain's fictionalized movie doesn't significantly add to a story many of us already know in exhaustive detail.

Thanks to Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anne Hathaway it's mildly watchable, but mostly an artifact that might look better after a few years in the Covid time capsule.

Shirley was clearly intended for the film-festival circuit, offering a narrowly pitched story where it's easy to admire the performances without feeling like the journey adds up to much. While Moss captures the complexity of Shirley's personality, the movie sheds scant light on the underlying why of it all.

Far more interested in stunts than story, Extraction is a simple-minded action vehicle for Chris Hemsworth that should benefit from providing a theatrical-style adrenaline rush when the spigot for such fare has closed. Basically, Netflix is serving up an old-fashioned B movie, at a moment when the A-list blockbusters have been postponed.

The Rhythm Section can't quite get its act together. Featuring a solid performance by Blake Lively, it's not bad exactly, but plays like a malnourished Jason Bourne wannabe, crossed with the grittier side of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."