Kristen Lopez

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is not only better than its predecessor, it's one of the first great movies of 2026.

Hoppers is one of the best Pixar movies in recent years, though the script does feel slight in character motivations.

The blend of the salacious with the historical will get audiences to watch HBO’s Hudson doc, though it might not have enough meat to it to get TCM snobs to find anything new. But what’s there is a sensitive story of a man whose best self was known to only a few.

It’s silly and makes little sense, but it’s such a fun time at the movies.

The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic brings up the continued need for disabled directors and screenwriters. There’s certainly enough charm to spare from the film’s leads, but the storytelling too often relies on disabled people in peril and other tropes that simply regurgitate what we’ve seen.

There are countless space movies to choose from and there are moments where Project Hail Mary tries to have the dark human emotion, and ask the big questions, that movies like Arrival and Interstellar have done. There are also moments where it just wants to be a fun space film. The two tones don't gel smoothly, but Gosling is gold.

Wicked: For Good's problems are the results of being two distinct features. Screenwriters Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox understand the hard part is over in terms of crafting the world and characters and now audiences have to live in it.

Visually, Frankenstein is a feast of impeccable costumes and production design. And the first hour of the movie is thrilling, with Isaac in fine form. The second half is muted, but still has a power to it, coupled with a unique performance from Elordi.

Encanto feels like one of the Mouse House’s more emotionally complex animated features, even if its story ultimately tries too hard to wrap up that nuance in a very tidy bow.

Garbus takes the standard documentary route of examining Cousteau’s life from birth to death, and while individual elements of his life are compelling in the first half, the documentary seems to come alive more towards its second half. Maybe that’s because Cousteau was just doing so much toward the latter half of his career, but the pacing seems to feel livelier the closer things get to the end.

Erin Lee Carr’s Britney Vs. Spears feels like a movie not searching for scandal but a genuine desire to help, to say something to Spears, to remind us why we love her and how we failed her.

Cannon’s take on Cinderella looks to be this year’s “Greatest Showman,” where the flaws in the narrative are nothing in comparison to the vibrancy and energy on display with each and every musical number, worth dancing for, maybe even in a pair of glass slippers.

Searching for Mr. Rugoff often feels like inside baseball for film buffs, but if you’re of that group you’ll be charmed by it. The loss of theaters feels particularly acute at the moment and that too should also make this loving documentary feel even more poignant.

There’s far more of Snakehead that works than doesn’t, and Leong shows a serious flair for crime dramas. Together with Chang and Wu, the talents of the film are for an electric trio, including stars worth watching and a director very much on the rise.

As great as Rogowski is to watch, though, Passages is all about Adèle Exarchopoulos, who turns in a better performance than she did in “Blue is the Warmest Color.”

Faist, O’Connor and Zendaya have the ability to rise to the…challenge….but the script hampers them at every turn.

Hoult’s charm and sweetness is tempered by Cage’s showy, maniacal performance as Dracula and it’s frustrating that there aren’t more scenes where the two just play off each other.

Gran Turismo works best because it eschews its video game origins quickly before settling into a standard race car film. It’s unknown how fans of the game will respond to the movie — no one watching the movie in this critic’s theater pointed out any specific game Easter eggs — but on the whole fans of racecar films should be in for a good time.

Pain Hustlers entertains thanks to its strong leads but it’s hard not to find it a derivative look at a tough topic that relies on tropes from far superior movies.

Freud’s Last Session will certainly find its fans, and the actors are all superlative. But the whole affair feels a bit too dense to enthrall and the script never dives deep enough into these characters’ psyche to tell us something new or particularly unique.

There is a tendency to overly explain things as opposed to letting Ginsburg’s words flow, but if you’ve enjoyed the previous looks at the notorious RBG, this is a new one offers a different angle to her remarkable story.

Watching and processing Sansón and Me is a melancholy experience. As Reyes tells Andrade early in the process, this documentary won’t exonerate him or get him released from prison, but for Andrade, the opportunity to tell his story and have a living example of his memories saved is enough.

This Bob Ross doc isn’t just messy, it one that paints a mixed portrait that’s hard to decipher.

The film presents a contemplative elegy for a hotel whose history is (still) being eroded, but by focusing on the literal walls (and how they, of course, can’t actually talk) only further removes the voices of the very people who live (and dream) inside of them

You, Me & Tuscany is a deliciously charming throwback and a new step forward for the romantic comedy genre. It's also a showcase for Bailey, who'd do well to do several more of these movies as her affection and personality work so well with something frothy like this.

What keeps Cobweb moving is the duo that is Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr and, if anything, it’s frustrating that the movie doesn’t utilize them more.

It's a lovable mess, but it works.

Materna has some good ideas, but the surrounding landscape feels generic.