Cary Darling

All in all, in a time when so many movies evaporate from memory as soon as the credits roll, “Strange Darling” — love it or loathe it — is the kind of film that engenders conversation.

While the end result, now directed by Soi Cheang (“Mad Fate,” “Limbo”), may not be quite as deliriously over the top as that version might have been, it’s nevertheless a solid entry in the ledger of Hong Kong crime sagas and was a huge hit when released in China earlier this year.

Sure, “Don’t Worry Darling” — whose very title reeks of paternalism and condescension of the worst order — comes from a woman’s viewpoint, an element that differentiates it from other films or TV series to which it might be compared. But it’s still not enough to keep the movie from slipping into predictability.

Sure, it’s overly simplistic and not altogether historically accurate but if anyone is looking for a well-made, action-fueled popcorn movie, “The Woman King” sure beats a Wikipedia page every day of the week.

A Journal for Jordan...is such a sweetly, well-intentioned film — one meant to bring a Christmastime lump in the throat in a year that gave us so many lumps of coal — that it feels churlish and downright Scrooge-like to point out its flaws. But the subject matter deserves better than this overlong melodrama spiked with occasional moments of welcome humor and pathos.

Unfortunately, Encounter is the kind of small film that could get lost in the holiday cinematic shuffle. But Ahmed’s performance is one that’s worth unwrapping.

On its own terms, Escape From Mogadishu makes for an engrossing, nail-biting Korean history lesson.

The results may be sports-movie predictable in many ways, but the Mighty Mites’ impossible story is one deserving of resurrection from the dusty archives of Texas history.

Sound and image are consistently bad, and Piranha II is the first film in my experience to give screen credit (in opening and closing titles) to a man in charge of "special effects and prosthetics." It can't be an easy way to make a living.

A joyous, exuberant celebration of the New York band’s brainy yet kinetic post-punk groove that ranks as one of the best concert docs ever. [Review of re-release]

Cradle boasts a couple of bravura fight and chase scenes but they're stranded amid the predictable and the pedestrian.

Nothing overly dramatic happens during the course of The Taste of Others but the characters prove to be engaging and their quite real human emotions are enough to carry it.