Joe Neumaier

The fact that it stars the extremely funny Melissa McCarthy is both its saving grace and incredibly frustrating.

The film features plenty of elements that seem familiar from previous cinematic dystopian visions — class warfare, decrepit living, a feeling of terminal velocity — yet you can’t help but admire director Bong Joon-ho’s high-wire act.

Filled with horrific but colorful anecdotes, director Joe Berlinger’s incisive look at the mobster life of Boston career criminal and FBI informant “Whitey” Bulger is essential viewing for fans of lurid, true underworld tales.

Melancholy, often muddled documentary.

This mellow chronicle of Nat Hentoff is like a tour through New York’s past.

If you're not an 11-year-old boy, or a grown-up in the mood to feel like one, the endless "wow!-that-car-is-now-a-deep-voiced-robot" scenes lack thrill. In fact, the action scenes, as in the previous films, are downright headache-inducing.

The actors make the raucousness feel as easy as the cinematic couples therapy.

Polanski views things so mischievously that the naughtiness is neutered long before sniveling Thomas is tied to a pole. He’s a captive not only to Vanda, but also to all the dull, reductive mind games.

The laughs are what keep the film together, even when the conceit feels been-there-done-that.

Hellion is a glimpse into rural American childhood that’s both tense and melancholy.

This insightful doc from director Andrew Rossi addresses topics that get more polarizing each year: the high cost of college, the factors that dictate who’s educated in this country and the culture that surrounds those decisions.

Laughter may be the best medicine, but in Obvious Child, it’s also a helluva cure for dealing with a serious topic.

This sometimes-taut little thriller is sullied by its unnecessary masquerade as a documentary presented by HBO’s gonzo news show “Vice.”

This sweet, offhanded but lovingly observed remembrance is a real kick. It takes us back to the way things used to be, especially for 13-year-old guys, and specifically in the arcade rooms of 1985, filled with upright video games with glowing screens and big-haired girls in neon.

Friends of Shep discuss his often unorthodox business sense, especially in the music biz, as well as his general decency. The guy’s tale is full of funny anecdotes and celeb privilege, but short on pretension.

The layered, tuned-in adaptation by Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter avoids calculated sentiment.

While Lucky Them may not be a classic, the actors at least find a cool groove.

Director Jon S. Baird lets Welsh’s language fill up the room, even when it’s a wee bit hard to fathom.

Angelina Jolie is so wickedly enchanting in the magical, magnificent Maleficent, you may not notice how transporting this female-driven blockbuster really is.

Jodorowsky turns his own youth into an odd, hypnotic mishmash.

Words and Pictures doesn’t get the dunce-cap award, but it does lose points for feeling phony and contrived — especially during the moments when it appears overly proud of what it is.

The movie sometimes has the feel of an Olympic sprinter running in place. There’s so much energy expended to get to one spot. Constant searches beget more searches. It all gets exhausting.

The strength of Gray’s movie lies in showing the connection between people in a place without rules.

Those who only know Chiwetel Ejiofor from his quietly powerful work in the Best Picture-winning “12 Years a Slave” should see him here — to experience his range.

Despite a few fiery breaths, there’s mostly hot air from a lot of serious actors slumming it.

The Double belongs to a very specific club. If you’re on its wavelength, it’s a dive into quirky, murky fun. But even if you are, this oddball offering is vague and slippery, a calmer brother to “Brazil” or Orson Welles’ Kafka tale “The Trial.”

Gritty, funny, rich adaptation of a Pete Dexter novel.

Scenes of Favreau at the grill bantering with Leguizamo and Cannavale could almost sustain an entire movie.