Mary Kassel

Structurally, Fitting In isn't perfect. It overuses the montage and features dialogue that leans more into preachy territory than Lindy's natural expression of their feelings. However, it's impossible to accuse the film of being anything less than emotionally truthful.

The Quiet Ones isn't action-packed enough to be pure fun or interrogative enough to be thought-provoking.

Pieces of exposition and backstory are dropped sparingly throughout Animale. While this is a strength, the movie could've done with a little more exploration of Nejma's past and relationship with her mother.

Asleep in My Palm succeeds when it finds the human connection in its message, but gives too much time to moralizing conversations and not enough to character arcs.

It's commendable that the narrative never tries to explain the magic system of the world or bring up questions of potential paradoxes. However, it equally avoids questions about the nature of consequences. Without any real stakes or time crunch, the story builds and builds, but ends up going nowhere.

It's a mindless good time.

Fans of De Niro and the gangster movie will have fun with this addition to the genre, but they won't find anything new in its well-tread story.

William Tell is a rare movie that I would argue should have been longer. If there's any story that could justify a three-hour runtime, it's William Tell, and the pacing would have benefited from this length enormously.

While it can be profoundly moving to follow the story of people's small but important everyday lives, the film loses both the audience and its momentum by the final act when things should be heating up the most.

Dog Man is trying to tackle too many themes and morals at once, creating a mess instead of a cohesive and accessible lesson.

The documentary doesn't know who Jeff Buckley was. However, it might expose what we are desperate to get from him, long past the time he has anything left to give.

Delivering the blood, gore, and guts you would expect from the classics of the genre, Ziam has no intention of reinventing anything, unabashedly leaning into the tropes of these stories that audiences know well.

Xeno doesn't make any gross missteps, but it doesn't have the juice to stand the test of time.

Watching Echo Valley isn't long at a little over an hour and a half. However, even in that amount of time, I had hoped to witness more of the story and fewer hollow twists.

Tyler Perry's movies fall into many genres, but Divorce in the Black treads no new ground compared to his other dramas. Even in the film's most shocking moments, its narrative is part of a common formula.

Incoming has funny moments, and the young actors deliver their lines with the commitment of seasoned professionals every step of the way. However, as I was watching, I was endlessly reminded that watching Incoming's influences would have been more enjoyable.

I Know What You Did Last Summer isn't the worst long-awaited horror sequel ever put to screen, but it doesn't try to be anything but a shallow reflection of its predecessor.

The sparsely populated funny moments don't make up for the lack of craftsmanship in the story's journey.

The best we can hope for is that Summer of 69 will open the door for more contemporary conversations in coming-of-age movies that aren't afraid to have more fun.

Even with a literary atmosphere and a steamy romance, the fact that My Oxford Year blatantly feels comfortable exploding emotional minefields for narratively unclear reasons clouds its potential success as a basic but inoffensive rom-com.

The surface-level script and refusal to commit to any character's development make the story and characters shadows of what they could have been.

Though the actors have little to work with, they're a game ensemble, potentially making them the only redeeming quality of Hell of a Summer​​​​​​.

Red Sonja falls short of expectations from beginning to end; it only succeeds in following in the footsteps of the 1985 flop.