Carla Meyer

At its titanium core, M3GAN is a mostly on-the-mark commentary on our tech dependence.

Something From Tiffany’s rides the line between Hallmark cheese and the Hollywood gloss of big-screen rom-coms once headlined by its producer, Reese Witherspoon. It emerges as a top entry in the former category and a middling example of the latter, with lots of nice moments along the way.

A clever mishmash of Hitchcockian and 1980s and ’90s high school movie sensibilities, the Netflix dark comedy Do Revenge falters when it tries to grow a heart.

The movie eventually settles into a more relaxed, warmer tone, as veteran TV writer Chad Hodge’s self-aware script acknowledges all the tropes — gay and holiday — while continuing to employ them effectively.

McCarthy is one of our finest physical comedians. Every moment of physical comedy she performs here is cringey.

As good as both actors are, watching characters sitting around talking gets old. But the film perks up considerably midway through, becoming a taut beat-the-clock thriller as it covers the days just before Bundy’s 1989 execution, the tension lying in whether Ted will fulfill his 11th-hour promise to confess.

Margaret Cho goes over the top in the new Netflix comedy Good on Paper, mugging and delivering lines too emphatically. But as the movie progresses, you see the San Francisco native’s approach not as overacting, but heroism. She appears to be trying to single-handedly breathe life into this nearly laugh-free movie.

Penguin is the film’s most fleshed-out character. We know the bird’s origin story, but nobody else’s.

Bachelder’s fly-on-the-wall approach reveals great details, and she picked compelling subjects.

Despite most everything else in the movie being predictable, Bray’s mystery is hard to guess.

Melissa is the only fully developed character in an overlong, badly paced film filled with cliched dialogue and accented by pleasant yet forgettable music.

But most every moment Ford is in on screen is a welcome one. Buck seems more real when in Ford’s presence.

Ms. Purple is the kind of low-budget film, with inexpensive-looking slo-mo effects and an overwhelming score (the filmmakers anticipate any and all requests that the violins be cued) one usually sees only in local film festivals.

Although this story line’s turns are easy to anticipate, the seriousness with which Fellowes approaches it is refreshing in an otherwise lightweight film.

Were “Vita” better developed and edited, one might find joy in its rejection of the patriarchy. But the female-friendly dialogue relies too heavily on exposition. Nobody asks if anyone wants a cup of tea.

Early scenes are unnecessarily horrific, and the final scenes falter from a disconcerting shift in tone. But this still leaves a significant stretch of beautiful acting, thoroughly engaging action and vital history lessons about the brutality on which some supposedly civil societies were built.

Buckley’s naturalism, combined with her abundant charisma and wonderfully warm-toned, slightly gritty singing voice, make her irresistible here.

The relentlessly downbeat drama American Woman is a star vehicle that lets Sienna Miller (“American Sniper,” HBO’s “The Girl”) really show what she can do. But she does too much.

There is simply too much going on, in these separate storylines, for too long. There is a literal “meanwhile, back at the farm” quality to the movie, because it becomes so involved with subplots that you only remember Max and Rooster at the farm when the action shifts back to it.

Judging by her funny, warm, drawn-from-life feature directing debut Wine Country, Amy Poehler is a gracious friend. She and screenwriters Emily Spivey and Liz Cackowski ensure that the many former “Saturday Night Live” performers and writers assembled for this Napa Valley-set Netflix comedy get moments to shine.

Diego also lacks any nuance as a character. He is grim and humorless, like most everything else about this film.

Hail Satan? is too lacking in conflict (apart from the eternal one) to be a true study of a movement. But it’s a highly entertaining survey.

Musician Charlie Sexton brings charisma and a haunted quality to Townes Van Zandt, the legendary Texas musician who was a Foley pal, drinking buddy and fellow teller of tall tales.

After dipping its toe into thriller cliche, Simple Favor dives in, with crosses, double crosses and “twists” one can anticipate a mile away. Yet, there’s always just enough of a wink apparent that the film remains highly involving throughout.

The Little Stranger will satisfy a very specific audience: “Downton Abbey” watchers who thought that show would be perfect if only the manor were down at the heels and haunted.

Teen Titans never reaches that sweet spot where adult and kid humor align in a single gag.

First Purge further lessens the drama by offering a hero and villains too mercenary to care about.

Unlike the sometimes cornpone depictions of backwoods life in “Winter’s Bone,” the folksier moments here seem organic.