Brian Truitt

John Wick: Chapter 4 delivers on the ballet of bullets and fiesta of firearms you expect while also successfully showcasing the dynamic, reluctantly unretired title hitman as a real underdog.

If the Marvel superhero movies on the whole are your favorite band’s individual albums, Avengers: Endgame is the triple-disc greatest-hits package with the really awesome cover and a slew of familiar, comforting gems inside.

Its colorful residents make Zootopia a wondrous place to visit for two hours until you have to go back to real life, where Shakira isn’t a gazelle and law enforcement is a lot less furry.

It’s always nice to see someone’s passion project come to fruition. Especially so when it’s this darn good.

What makes the vivid film such an astounding effort – and one of the year's best movies – is that it’s edited seamlessly as one continuous real-time take, following a couple of Brits through rat-infested trenches, sniper-filled towns and even empty battlefields where the Grim Reaper’s been busy yet danger still looms.

Seemingly fueled by Mountain Dew and Hostess pies, the delightfully berzerk Logan Lucky is a love letter to backwoods ingenuity and, at a time with a deep divide between red and blue states, a universal dose of hillbilly hilarity.

Visually sumptuous and surprisingly sensual, "Nosferatu" isn’t as wonderfully original (or bonkers) as Eggers' top-notch flicks “The Witch” and “The Northman,” but great turns from Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård sell its disturbing, otherworldly beauty-and-the-beast tale.

While You, Me & Tuscany doesn’t add anything significantly new or innovative to the rom-com recipe – and certainly doesn’t blow up the thing like The Drama – it’s a breezy respite for those who dig the familiar in their escapist pleasure.

With "Nope," Peele showcases a new sense of blockbuster flair while maintaining his signature gift for twisted modern relevance.

While the animation is still top-notch and a slew of new waterlogged personalities buoy the story, it doesn’t have nearly the same sense of heart, wonder and awe as Nemo.

The movie also has a lot in common with Gracey’s most famous effort, “The Greatest Showman,” featuring well-crafted, effervescent musical numbers doing what they can to make up for oversentimentality and an unfocused narrative.

With punk-rock flair and no four-letter word left behind, the exuberantly rebellious I, Tonya takes a club to the biopic genre.

Between the goofy humor, Adam Sandler’s hallmark gibberish and an unfortunate return of "The Macarena," Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation houses an unexpectedly affecting story of modern love with a creaky vampire dad.

Maestro offers a counterpoint of sorts to last year’s “Tár.” Whereas Cate Blanchett’s look at a fictional conductor is a more insightful look at the complicated aspects of artistry, Cooper’s work succeeds in bringing an American legend to life while also examining his humanity.

Funny and dramatic when it needs to be as well as exceptionally rousing throughout, the movie perfectly captures the story of human resilience and interstellar bromance that Andy Weir’s 2021 brilliant novel did so well.

Spike Lee has been trying to get people to do the right thing for years, but with Chi-Raq, he solidifies a peaceful movie message in lyrical as well as powerful fashion.

Love Lies Bleeding is a blood-soaked throwback to '80s erotic thrillers and action cinema but also Glass’ deconstruction of cinematic hypermasculinity through a female lens.

Writer/director Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled showcases good manners and bad deeds, though it lacks the necessary edge to make it a satisfying revenge thriller.

Impressive in its ambition, mother! doesn’t quite reach the heights of Aronofsky’s Black Swan in terms of bizarre masterpieces, yet endless conversations about what the heck you just saw will surely be born and raised.

Easily the best Wolverine outing, Logan is The Dark Knight of the mutant-filled X-franchise, a gripping film that transcends the comic-book genre by saying something important — and for Logan, that means coming to grips with needing loved ones in his life.

Director James Franco's enjoyable ode to the creative process - any creative process, really. It's also one of Franco's strongest roles as an actor, capturing every little quirk and quality of a definite eccentric.

Monster offers a cathartic study in overcoming loss and traversing the fine line between childhood and adulthood under tragic circumstances.

The filmmaker crafts an entertaining, immersive and ultimately optimistic spectacle that never forgets, especially at its ending, that humanity should always trump the system.

Oftentimes, the original book is better than its movie version. And while King’s tweetstorm is an infamous Homeric odyssey in the world of 280 characters, Zola is a solid spin, vividly capturing a stripper saga that would have been harrowing to live through, but is fun to sit back and witness.

If E.T. was human, wore swim goggles and read Superman comics by flashlight, he’d be the 8-year-old boy at the center of the heartfelt, lo-fi sci-fi spectacular Midnight Special.

It’s a ghost story but also an underdog’s story, a fighter’s story, a mother’s story and, thanks to an Oscar-ready Stewart at the absolute top of her game, one of the very best movies you’ll see this year.

The Revenant is the most intense thing you’ll enjoy over the holidays this side of family dinners.

Smith brings passion and stubbornness to Richard, a controversial figure in some corners and a devoted dad in others. The movie itself is a rousing if familiar sports drama that takes care of the surface-level narrative but doesn’t delve deeply enough into the meatier stuff, at times seeming to have the wrong focal point.