Kristy Puchko

Though Jessica Chastain delivers a heartfelt performance as Tammy Faye, her faith in the filmmakers can’t save this drama from falling flat.

Ultimately, this storied provocateur deals out shocking imagery and disturbing scenes, but he refuses to lay down a thrilling climax much less anything satisfyingly entertaining.

The cast is wasted in such lame roles, and the horror story’s uncertain tone falls far short of intriguing. So, despite one supremely frightening moment, this movie is not scary. It just stinks.

Phil Tippett’s Mad God unleashes decades of pent-up creative darkness into a trippy and troubling ride with astonishing craftsmanship, but little substance.

The Last Thing Mary Saw is an intriguing and atmospheric but uneven horror offering, with a disappointingly lackluster romance at its center.

Ultimately, Materna feels like a hodgepodge of half-finished drafts from one-act plays, pompous short films, and dusty first screenplays.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions twists the puzzle premise of its hit predecessor into an unsolvable slog.

Though entertaining, the funky flourishes offered in plotting, visuals, and voiceover ultimately become a superficial rebellion, draped over a disappointingly stale form. Basically, it’s like sticking safety pins on a t-shirt pre-torn at The Gap.

Infinite is a chaotic film. Plucking from well-worn cliches, it’s familiar enough to scratch the itch of action entertainment. Yet its world-building is so wonky you might do better to switch off your brain and let the flashy stunts wash over you.

Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer have sparkling screen presence, but can’t thrive under Ben Falcone’s utter lack of vision. Thunder Force doesn’t work as a superhero movie or a buddy comedy, as it refuses to revel in the big moments of either.

There are moments in The Unholy that strive for shocking, even sacrilegious. But Spiliotopoulos lacks either the imagination or the guts to create something truly soul-rattling.

In the end, Violet feels less like a film than a pitch meeting. A frenzied flurry of ideas, devices, and character sketches chucked out to see what sticks. It’s flashy, but not fascinating, which leaves this drama of inner conflict and deep thoughts feeling horridly shallow.

Rebellious game developer Midway's rise and fall gets a surprisingly tame retelling in the doc Insert Coin.

Ultimately, it's bland, not bold, and achingly absent of enchantment.

The performances range from wooden Moussi to full-on Cage, so it's tonally all over the place. As a whole, it's an absolute mess, which makes it kind of perfect for 2020. Still, within this swamp of style, wildness, and TOO too much, there are some truly exhilarating treasures, chief among them Cage. In short, it's not good, but maybe being a lot just enough.

This journey from sun-soaked beaches to chilly English country, from heart-racing flirtation to soul-shattering stress, from new love to old regrets, feels dry and flaccid. Much like Mrs. de Winter, the long shadow of Hitchcock's Rebecca proves just too powerful to ignore.

Enola Holmes, starring Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill, is a toothless Fleabag with Sherlock coating.

The King of Staten Island lumbers from one thread to another, seemingly uncertain over what it's about.

It's for kids and it's cute. It's also an absolute eyesore, crassly overstuffed with retina-scorching color combinations and explosions of glitter. Frankly, it's disappointing that an animated movie with so much talent attached didn’t strive to be more than just "cute for kids." But hey, at least you can dance to it.

Bloodshot is unapologetically a popcorn movie of the switch-off-your-brain-and-kick-back variety. Diesel and company soldier through a wonky plot to deliver glowers, superhero poses, and loads of action. Director Wilson brings the heat with solid visual effects and a relentless pace. But keen-eyed viewers will notice the telltale signs of "fix it in post" fiddling.

There’s nothing fresh, exciting, or particularly unique about Nicolas Pesce’s take on The Grudge. His passion for character-focused drama fails to spark in a barrage of scenes that feel like tedious outtakes from Lifetime movies.

Charlize Theron's eerie turn as Megyn Kelly aside, Bombshell doesn't do justice to the subject matter it explores.

The Aeronauts is a film flawed from its first concept. By blending fact and fiction so freely, Thorne and Harper turned a story of scientific discovery into a muddling romantic adventure that crashes and burns.