Emma Kiely

What keeps the movie going when the script starts to run out of ink are the brilliant performances all around.

Father Mother Sister Brother does have little pockets of Jarmusch's genius scattered throughout, but not enough to make up for how unfulfilling the entire experience is.

Hulu's Whitney Wolfe biopic never tries to break free from the predictable confines of the genre.

Instead of burrowing into their differing ideas about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and how they differ based on class and background, Anna and Jamie’s romance is based entirely on them exchanging progressively earnest platitudes, quotes taken from centuries-old poetry that the script dumbs down and shoehorns into every moment between the couple.

Dreams is probably the same old story for Michel Franco fans, but as a first-time viewer, I was in awe of how a film could go so wrong so quickly.

Laxe is aiming to shock the audience, and in that, he succeeds, but the final product suffers as a result.

All held together by a transcendent performance from Imogen Poots, The Chronology of Water isn’t the strongest directorial debut, but it does hold glimpses of what Stewart is capable of.

The Sound of Falling may be one of the most grim films on the female experience you’ll ever see, but it never rises above this darkness to deliver anything illuminating about being a woman.

Fréwaka may not achieve everything it sets out to, but it’s still a moving horror story packed with thought and intention — and a much-needed reminder of the lyrical beauty of the Irish language.

Borderline is a prime example of how a really great cast can elevate rather frail material.

Bloat really doesn’t seem like a movie that knows what it wants to be.

Mad About the Boy is the disappointing end to a franchise that should have never gone beyond its first sequel.

To its credit, there are some decent gore scenes, and the practical makeup is done well, but not enough to distract from some pretty laughable special effects. Compared to the original and even the 2010 version that won the Oscar for Best Makeup, Whannell’s version isn’t breaking any new ground.

Come for Lohan, stay for Harding, and watch until the end for Kristin Chenoweth — all while ignoring some of the most robotic dialogue your ears ever heard.

It’s the movie’s efforts to make this as digestible as possible for the audience through its light-hearted tone and simplistic dialogue that render it a movie you watch on Netflix with your parents and probably never think about again.

Stranger Eyes is a cold, disjointed, and stale mystery thriller with a thin plot and no atmosphere.

It's trying to be a slasher movie so we ultimately have to judge it by those standards. And as a slasher, with its thin plot and flat killer, Haunt Season doesn't cut it.

What ultimately weighs it down is the lack of a core narrative to ground the chaos and madness around it. Still, come for the views, the insanity, and Cage giving away a priceless watch for a flat white.

If you want to give the 2024 film as fair a shot as possible, go in without seeing the original. However, if you only want to devote your time to seeing one version of this story, it should be the original Speak No Evil. It's truly one of the darkest, meanest, and most devastating horror films out there

Mothers' Instinct is an entertaining, well-acted drama that falters under the weight of its shocking ending.

A fun concept does not automatically mean a quality film, as the overly intense direction, hollow scares, and imbalance of tone make it a thrown-together mess.

It all falls apart as there are no personal touches, character specificities, or horror sensibilities that fill in the many gaps of this hollow script.

For now, stick with the original.

Tarot is a pretty forgettable horror movie. Dull characters, a basic plot, and very little to say with its themes render it a fairly unmemorable experience.

You’ll Never Find Me gets lost in its own madness. Its ending is less ambiguous and more thoughtless.

The style, tone, heart, and comedy of Aardman deserve better than Dawn of the Nugget’s formulaic story which doesn’t hold a candle to the original.

Instead of a flowing narrative, it’s a series of scenes, the worst and best parts of their 13-year relationship, and doesn’t come together well enough to feel like a complete story. This combined with the lack of Coppola’s vibrant, feminine, and electric aesthetic makes Priscilla a major disappointment from a true cinematic visionary who's capable of better.

Carmoon establishes a plot that could have been great, but becomes too caught up in the visuals of it all, and the script pays the price.

While Comer makes a committed effort to carry the film, it falls flat in its excessive filler, undeveloped characters, and symphony of bonkers accents.

If The Killer teaches us anything, it’s that any director, no matter how legendary they are, can fall victim to a bad script. While Fincher’s iconic style permeates the two-hour runtime, the hollow plot and uninspired writing are impossible to ignore.

The twist is detailed but not too convoluted, and in my view, it's not easy to see coming. If anything, A Haunting in Venice is a reminder that even when we are inundated with mystery stories, no one does it like Agatha Christie, and it's hard to believe that someone ever will again.

It’s clear that Boston Strangler so desperately wanted to copy the recipe for Zodiac and bought all the same ingredients.

Every actor probably knows that this script is pretty useless, but that doesn't stop any of them from putting their best foot forward. Including Lohan, they all look like they’re having a blast and that really comes through to the audience.

To see Clooney and Roberts team up again when they have demonstrated in the past (the Oceans movies and Money Monster) that they go together like rum and coke is a lot of fun, but it also makes it undeniably noticeable that they deserve better. I don't mean an Oscar-worthy dramatic biopic. But a rom-com with some nuance and wit.