Dana Schwartz

Isn’t It Romantic pulls off a sweet sleight-of-hand trick as a rom-com-within-a-rom-com, mocking all of the classic rom-com tropes while still letting us indulge in them. The movie is having its gourmet cupcake and eating it too.

There is a beautiful, surprising, and entirely engrossing film within this movie; it’s just almost impossible to find among the establishing shots of ponds and endless subplots of real-life characters introduced for seemingly no other reason than to help make this movie perfect for sophomore year high school classes.

What kind of Grinch would I be to berate a new cheesy holiday movie about two siblings going on a Christmas-related adventure in which, I repeat, Kurt Russell plays a hot Santa? Make some cocoa for the family, and spike yours if you have to, but remember what the holiday is about: watching mediocre, predictable movies with the people you love.

Unlike so many recent horror movies, The Clovehitch Killer is patient with its thrills, almost excruciatingly so.

Ambitious, beautifully animated, and clever to a fault, Ralph Breaks the Internet breaks free of the pitfalls of most sequels by never forgoing heart for the sake of bigger franchise pyrotechnics.

All About Nina works best as a showcase for Winstead, even if she’s performing material we’ve already heard before.

When it leans into its camp, (I.e. when the French-Canadian “Frenchie” is on screen), The Nun comes closest to its ideal form of go-to midnight-movie, the fun younger cousin of the Conjuring movies with less build-up but more of the money shots you’ll come to a theater to see.

Even if you’ve seen it all before, Sierra Burgess will still satisfy your end-of-summer sweet tooth.

The meta jokes flow like Mountain Dew — this is a rollicking, goofy superhero send-up that never overstays its welcome.

Far from a perfect film — the morals are clunky, the pacing awkward at points — Damsel still manages to achieve the rare distinction of being both ambitious and just so much goddam fun.

One imagines the real John Callahan, who died in 2010, would have appreciated a film that wasn’t afraid to call him an a—hole

The true strength of the film lies in Zoey Deutch’s magnetic performance. It’s impossible to watch this film and not come to the conclusion that the actress (Vampire Academy) is a soon-to-be major star, as soon as she hits on a major project that makes use of her effortless humor and charisma.

It is not a thriller nor even, really, a mystery. Instead, much like a play, it forces you to pay attention to the nuances of each of the actors’ (very well-done) performances, to sit with the characters quietly as if in a sitting room too formal to do much else.

The Seagull is lush and dreamlike, leaving the drawing room for lake, field, and forest. Though we lose some of Chekhov’s claustrophobic talkiness, the dense poetry of his language, Mayer fully captures Chekhov’s sharp humor.