Liz Shannon Miller

The bluntness of its messaging proves to be a bit of a detraction, but the fact remains that Where the Crawdads Sing is a heartfelt, and gorgeous picture, the kind which major studios used to make all the time, and now feel like a bit of an endangered species.

The ideas tend to be pretty interesting, even when Novak can’t resist the temptation to indulge in certain tropes.

Caught Stealing is a very different vibe, the furthest thing from an Oscar play but still a surprisingly enjoyable time, a movie where even the end credits have real life and spontaneity to them. And in many ways, it’s still recognizably an Aronofsky movie — which is perhaps its most remarkable achievement.

The cinematography's warm lamp-lit hue also stands out, and Lambert proves to have a solid grasp of tone, building a quiet yet casual intimacy between Noah and Rebecca that leads to some of the film's best scenes.

Opinions can range about whether Aster effectively captured this moment in time, or if this movie would have been more relevant if it had come out a few years earlier, when these memories were even fresher in our heads. But what feels both more important and undeniable is the intentionality with which he takes on this era, in all its ugliness.

Johnson never fully disappears into the role, but were he to do so, it might almost diminish his performance — one which never distracts from the narrative, but keeps present the awareness that Johnson is really going through it here. If he made it look easy, it somehow wouldn’t be quite as impressive.

Calling First Steps the best Fantastic Four movie yet is accurate and also easy, thanks to the low-budget hilarity of 1994's Roger Corman-produced effort, the two lackluster (and blatantly sexist) 2000s movies, and Josh Trank's 2015 disaster. Yet just on its own merits, it's a solid comic book adventure that's not embarrassed by being a comic book adventure — in fact it finds real power in its love for its roots.

A space adventure that is alternately funny and upsetting, featuring a literal menagerie of the strange and unconventional.

All of Ridley Scott's glorious pageantry is undercut by a script tragically burdened by cliches and characters who make stupid choices.

While not bursting with ambition or any interest in deviating from proven formula, A New Era does exactly what you hope it would do, and give series fans a little more time with beloved characters, even daring to alter the status quo in one or two major ways.

Venice, if nothing else, is a pleasant reminder that stories can be spooky without aiming for hard scares. Sometimes, the vibes of Halloween can feel like an all-or-nothing proposition, but for us scaredycats, sometimes it’s nice to just enjoy autumnal vibes with just a hint of terror in the air, like the first whiff of wood smoke while walking through your hometown on a brisk October day.

As any good therapist will tell you, you can't embrace the future without coming to terms with your past. Resurrections is very, very conscious of this.

The original cast brings plenty of spark, with Ryder ably carrying the film’s emotional arc and Keaton glorying in getting to be this goofy.

Calibrating a horror-comedy requires intense precision, since the director has to keep the tension alive while also bringing in just the right level of over-the-top gore and mayhem to inspire laughs, not screams. I’d estimate that a good 95% of The Monkey is totally dialed in, especially when it comes to finding a level of gore that plays as hilariously disturbing.

Everything is always loud, from the music to the visual design to the emotions. It's an approach ensuring that Cameron's message will be heard by even the most distracted viewer.

As Stefan might say, this movie’s got everything (you’d expect from a Sundance movie): A period coming-of-age story inspired by the filmmaker’s own life, broader political themes, known stars like Linney and Harrelson playing eccentric characters, and a weepy conclusion.

The film is relatively sparing in how it depicts said atrocity, but the horror of it still comes through, while never distracting from the delicate bond that emerges between Jacqueline and Callie (Alia Shawkat), another ex-pat working as a tour guide through the ruins.

It’s the sort of odd curio made possible by the streaming age, and even if you’re not a huge fan of Lopez’s work, it’s fascinating to see just how much and how little she’s ready to say about herself; an experience more presentationally honest than truly honest about her life and her choices.

The resulting film is lacking in subtlety at times, but the world-building offered up some fascinating details, especially in a time when we’re seeing real-life human professions be reconsidered as potential tasks for artificial intelligence.

Because that’s ultimately what Reitman succeeds at with Saturday Night — capturing the allure that’s kept audiences tuning in for what will be 50 seasons, come September 28th, 2024. The sense that something magical is going on in a little studio called 8H. No one knows what will happen. But they want to find out.

Directors Adam Nee and Aaron Nee manage to find just the right balance between action, comedy, and romance to make all three work harmoniously together, while playing with a team of all-stars who make the material sing.

Multiverse of Madness isn’t wildly unconventional in its story choices, but the fun it has exploring the possibilities of this narrative makes it a treat.

See How They Run feels like it was designed in a lab to please fans of this genre, with Mark Chappell’s script keenly identifying the most beloved tropes of classic murder mysteries while playing with them just enough for freshness.

Wolfs is classy, smart, fun, and engaging storytelling, a solid film that plays great in a full theater and could have offered audiences a nice grown-up night at the movies.

It makes for a deeply unconventional sort of fairy tale, but this is George Miller we’re talking about. What else did we expect?

It’s just one symptom of the disease afflicting Being the Ricardos, which tries too hard to pack too much in, and ends up incapable of saying much at all as a result, which is baffling, because it’s such a talky movie. There’s a great film to be made about these two iconic television talents and their respective egos. Unfortunately, Sorkin’s own ego casts too large a shadow here for us to be able to see it.

The Immortal Man is very much not a jumping-on point for newcomers to the Shelby gang. But it does capture what made the original series so watchable: The grand scope of history as seen from the ground, the daily grind of crime in sharp contrast to world events, and the everyday men and women just trying to survive it all.

It’s a committed portrait of an artist, with White’s devotion to capturing Bruce’s soul almost overcoming the lack of physical resemblance… And you do eventually get used to that. For he’s not trying to be the definitive Bruce Springsteen, either — just a ghost of a man who was lost, and found what he was looking for in his music.