Mae Abdulbaki

The cast does a lot of the heavy lifting in the film, which evades exploring the characters' trauma. The emotional drama is a vehicle fueling a messy story in a film primarily concerned with elevating the mystery that so easily unravels by the end.

Despite the film's underwhelming and bizarre story developments, French Exit will remain memorable for Pfeiffer's performance alone.

While the film’s leading cast gives fantastic performances, Four Good Days lacks focus and fails to expand upon its emotionally powerful moments.

The film attempts to deliver an emotional, compelling, and entertaining story, but it struggles with balance despite some lovely, uplifting moments.

The film is still very watchable, and it has a lot of heart that makes up for its overall lack of focus and certain emotional throughlines. But where cohesiveness and pacing are concerned, this sequel leaves a lot to be desired.

A couple more action set pieces would have also helped the pacing from growing too stagnant as, like its predecessor, Den of Thieves 2 is far too long at nearly two and a half hours. It’s bloated and, with nothing too exciting going on, the wait for the heist itself starts to drag. Despite some tension, there’s no real sense of urgency at any point. The film sets up yet another sequel, but Pantera lacks the passion and consistency needed to dredge up any genuine excitement for yet another film in a struggling franchise.

The film is overly long, dragging out its story unnecessarily, with Daniels haphazardly shifting focus away from Holiday constantly. The film is unbalanced, generally failing to center on the song driving the story while romanticizing an affair between Holiday and a FBN agent.

It isn’t sincere or as inspiring as it believes itself to be, but it also understands what its aims are, and that self-awareness is worth noting.

As it stands, however, Spin Me Round is all over the place and even its best moments can’t be saved due to a muddled storyline and lack of character development.

It’s certainly not Ethan Coen's strongest film, though it is saved by an especially fantastic performance by Geraldine Viswanathan and a fun story.

A Quiet Place Part II feels hollow where it could have brilliantly captured the nuances of the characters and their journey. The sequel provides some new information, but doesn’t do the work to deepen the story.

While Blitz may not be transformative, it isn’t all bad. McQueen is a capable director who deftly moves between different points in time, offering a glimpse into Rita and George’s life before and during the war.

While the drama can be a tense watch, there is something missing in its execution to make it a riveting, suspenseful watch.

Ash can be horrific and genuinely startling; there’s a specific scene near the end that underscores the apprehension that permeates the film. It’s chilling and memorable. And yet, had the sci-fi thriller given its characters more dimension, it would have been all the stronger.

La Dolce Villa is a feel-good film that forgoes proper tension-building for a more headache-free delivery. The result is a mixed bag that I enjoyed occasionally, though its inability to spark a greater emotional reaction is the film’s greatest weakness.

All told, Fresh has a lot of potential even though it doesn’t fully deliver. Cave makes a case for herself in a directorial debut that is ambitious, even when all the pieces don’t seamlessly fit together.

Filled with a lot of action, The Forever Purge is at times thrilling, but it remains at surface-level rather than delving further into its themes.

The overall momentum stalls and prevents A Lot of Nothing from sticking its landing, but it's a promising debut from McRae, who has a strong grasp with regards to maintaining much of the film's tension through dialogue alone.

A great cast and patience will prove only somewhat rewarding, even if the journey to get there is shaky and more than a bit confusing.

The film is ultimately underwhelming and lacking the urgency needed to drive the story and lend realistic consequences to their endeavor.

In Land, actress Robin Wright’s directorial debut, the sad, isolated feelings that come with bereavement saturate the story, but the film has surprisingly very little to say about grief.

The film does an outstanding job elevating its horror with a sprinkling of disconcertment, but it takes a wrong turn by offering a muddled message.

Silk Road has the makings of a gripping thriller, but it surprisingly lacks the tension required for it to work.

Ultimately, First Blush works as an engaging, compelling exploration of how a change in a relationship can also wake up unresolved personal issues. However, while the first half is incredibly strong, Neumark struggles with bringing it all together in the end by rushing to bring the characters into conflict with one another.

Tonally inconsistent, writer-director J Blakeson takes a big swing and misses with regards to the film’s message. Rosamund Pike gives a fiery, powerhouse performance, but there is something completely missing from I Care a Lot that makes it a hard pill to swallow.

The film doesn’t always rise to the occasion, and there is some lost potential and a general lack of urgency, but We Were Dangerous’ heart is in the right place, bolstered by a great cast and a strong overall message.

The film has its fair share of intoxicatingly gripping moments and watching Kaluuya as Hampton is visceral and empowering. Unfortunately, it never feels like the story gets out of its own way enough to flourish, nor does it explore the complexities needed to emphasize and humanize the characters in the way that it should.

At the very least, The Cow offers some food for thought and has a strong setup, even if it doesn't fully deliver a satisfying conclusion.