Liz Braun

A new biopic of women’s wrestling pioneer Mildred Burke is nobody’s idea of a great movie, but it’s an entertaining cheese-fest with a lot of stagey charm.

A gentle and affecting drama from directors David Siegel and Scott McGehee about grief, loss, and the unconditional love available from a dog.

Moments of brilliance notwithstanding, the comedy and the dark look at human nature in Misericordia never quite meld. For any student of human nature, that unreliable narrator and the gang of unlikeable characters may eventually wear thin.

As long as you don’t mistake Opus for a thriller, it’s a fun ride at the movies.

This fictional recreation is wonderfully claustrophobic, but the storytelling does not include enough character development to leave a viewer fully invested.

Hard Truths is a film centered on a difficult, damaged human being. Watching the movie is not unlike the experience of being in the company of just such a person — uncomfortable, sobering, deeply moving.

Their physical relationship seems highly unlikely in every element. It is weirdly mechanical and not remotely erotic, and worst of all, you never forget that you’re watching a movie.

Porcelain War is sometimes heavy-handed in spelling out its own higher meaning, but it is a rare look at the reality of war and the ordinary people compelled to defend their freedom and their way of life.

The Girl with The Needle is a harrowing drama based on real-life crimes that took place in Copenhagen around 1920. Directed by Magnus von Horn, the film is beautiful to look at but difficult to watch — this is dark, gripping, Bergman-esque fare.

The Piano Lesson is a hugely energetic, albeit often bittersweet, film.

A great script and a great cast are key to Juror #2, a gripping moral study dressed up as a courtroom drama.

The film’s various elements do not quite meld, and despite a few strong performances, none of the characters feel fully three-dimensional.

Watching the movie Here is a bit like eating a Big Mac — it’s all fine and inoffensive in the moment, but you don’t want to look too closely or think about it too much afterward.

Anora is frenetic and entertaining and sometimes very funny, but it will break your heart.

Written and directed by Barry Avrich, Born Hungry is part travelogue, part Master Chef foodie outing, and part rags-to-riches Canadian success story. The parts don’t always meld together, but Simpson’s life is fascinating enough to hold a viewer’s attention throughout. He is a compelling individual.

It’s fascinating to watch Join or Die and see how Putnam’s work has affected other areas of research, such as community connections and economic mobility.

This is an auspicious directing debut for Kendrick. Woman of the Hour has a big impact and may prompt viewers to search out more information about the Rodney Alcala case. It will certainly inspire some viewers to thread their car keys through their knuckles on the walk back to the car afterward.

It’s not accurate to say the film stars Saoirse Ronan. Saoirse Ronan is the movie, the luminous north star of every scene.

The Wait is a modern morality fable that initially unfolds like a revenge Western but then transforms into a supernatural horror story.

Seeking Mavis Beacon starts off as one thing and then becomes another, overall a chaotic but intriguing journey about art, identity and history in cyberspace … where everything lasts forever.

Writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s comedy is an inspired send-up of the contemporary emphasis on youth and beauty.

This critic says The Critic is an imperfect film saved by a terrific cast. In particular, Sir Ian McKellen steals the show as a preening newspaper god in 1930s London.

You Gotta Believe is billed as family entertainment. Whose family, exactly, they never specify.

Strange Darling is a thriller structured as a complex series of surprises. Writing anything much about the story runs the risk of spoiling some of those surprises, so this will be a short review. Go and see it.

One hopes Sugarcane will be shown in schools all over North America.

Fast, funny and entirely forgettable, The Instigators is an entertaining if shopworn heist story.

What holds it all together is a superbly understated performance from Wang, who is fully three-dimensional as Chris — a decent kid trying to figure it all out. Absent here are all the usual cinema cliches and exaggerations about teen life, thank the goddess.

If you know Stalter from HBO's Hacks then you know the general territory. In this case, the whole movie is Stalter and while her bizarre charm is formidable, it’s not quite enough to carry everything — a stronger script might have helped.