Mary Kassel

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.

M3GAN 2.0 doesn't lose this completely, but the more polished and grown-up world doesn't fit as easily into the silly sense of humor that made M3GAN so popular.

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.

Audiences want to be moved and given a reason to revisit the emotions sparked by the story, and Lilo & Stitch delivers.

It's a mindless good time.

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.

It's a thrilling ride, and the fun the production is having with itself is contagious. There are moments of humor and necessary breaks in the tension that let us laugh and allow us to get braver alongside the characters.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

As an actor, Bartholomew has a lot riding on her performance, and for the most part, she nails it. Her physicality stands out above all else, as she expertly telegraphs internal changes and anguish to the audience through her body language.

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.

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

Grassland might not be revolutionary, but if it's a signal of where the next generation of filmmakers is heading, we're in safe hands.

Though competently shot, the storytelling and performances leave much to be desired.

We're dumped into the action, and the action doesn't even have the courtesy to be good.

Though the film's final act begins to drag, and many of the same themes are touched upon multiple times, You, Me & Her must be praised for the clarity of its vision.

It's fun, and there's nothing inherently wrong with it, but I found myself distracted, turning away from the screen several times because I knew I wasn't missing much. Something Beautiful will come and go, and for most, it won't make much of an impact.

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.