Calvin Wilson

With Manchester by the Sea writer-director Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”) confirms his status as a major American filmmaker.

One of the best films of the year.

Sophisticated comedies have gone out of fashion, largely because Hollywood finds it easier and more profitable to simply gross out moviegoers. But Please Give has real class -- and for that it deserves our gratitude.

Baby Driver zooms onto the screen with an exhilarating combination of smarts and style.

These days, every other film seems to be an audition to make a Marvel movie — but not Loveless. This is cinema of the first order.

What Inside Llewyn Davis is all about: the passion, and the pain, of being an artist.

A cinematic miracle, a film that carves out a vivid space that has nothing to do with wizards or extraterrestrials, but quite a lot to say about the fantastical creatures that roam through the humanity in us all.

Believe the hype: Black Panther transcends its comic-book origins, achieving a mythic grandeur that’s nothing short of exhilarating.

A far more interesting film than its title implies. And a film you’ve never seen before.

With visual and psychological precision, Abrahamson brilliantly evokes the experience of living outside of everyday reality. And he does so without resorting to either creepiness or sentimentality.

Into the Abyss makes a strong case for the inhumanity of capital punishment, regardless of the crime or the criminal.

The film offers insights into Iranian society while also subtly making a case that human foibles are universal.

The year’s most exhilarating film.

The result, Pina, is the most spirited and spectacular film about dance since Robert Altman's "The Company."

One of the best films of the year.

The film is a raw, unsparing look at the downside of humanity.

Acting opposite Day-Lewis must give even the most confident actor pause, but Krieps proves to be up to the challenge. And Manville, perhaps best known for her work with director Mike Leigh, is spellbinding. This film will haunt you.

Brilliantly blending archival material, including clips of Baldwin on television and in public appearances, with narration by Samuel L. Jackson, Peck makes intriguing connections between the 20th century civil rights movement and the contemporary activism of Black Lives Matter.

A timely docudrama about the role of the press in holding politicians accountable. But in the hands of director Steven Spielberg, the film plays more like a thriller than a history lesson.

The story is so masterfully told that one can't help but be enthralled.

Director Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival”) delivers a moody, visually stunning celebration of existential angst. Not that he skimps on the kind of mayhem that’s de rigueur these days, but you have to wait for it — and wait for it. But when it does arrive, it’s awesome.

The success of the three, separately screened films -- the first set in 1974, the second in 1980 and the concluding segment in 1983 -- depends not on their specifics, but on their ability to sustain an atmosphere that's appropriate to the dark but haunting story.

Perhaps the greatest triumph of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is that it justifies the enormous hype. Working from a screenplay that he co-wrote with Michael Arndt and Lawrence Kasdan, director J.J. Abrams (“Star Trek”) brings fresh energy to the franchise while adhering to the storytelling values that made it matter in the first place.

The Big Short is the film that “The Wolf of Wall Street” wanted to be.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is a vast improvement on “Ant-Man” (2015) — and one of the most entertaining releases from Marvel Studios.

Unlike too many films these days, Zero Dark Thirty dares to embrace complexity. And that makes it not just state-of-the-art entertainment, but a great film.

The Kids Are All Right probably could have used a few more scenes to come to an even more satisfying conclusion. But it's a terrific film anyway.

Essential viewing for art-film buffs and crime-flick fans, but also for anyone who's looking for a great story, terrific acting and masterful filmmaking.