Matt Donato

Air is an underdog crowd-pleaser with a standout ensemble cast sharpened to a point. As both director and co-star, Ben Affleck finds a balance between comedy and explanation that remains accessible to all audiences.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is a gunsmoke hazy, bloody-knuckle ruthless, impossibly badass Wickian continuation.

The Platform is a multi-tiered assembly of tension, terror and terrible imaginings that, in cake form, would be worth centerpiece window placement in any professional pâtisserie.

It walks a tightrope with its topics, but Williams is delicate and confident with every step — his performers following close behind, dominating the screen.

Mileage will vary, dictated by your appreciation for methodical avalanches of sorrow driven by puritanical pressures. Everything is minimalistic, punctuated by the devastating context found in the research that helped shape Franz and Fiala’s screenplay. Some viewers will recognize dedication, others will have their patience tested.

What Lowe accomplished in only her second full-length feature in roughly eight years shows such promise as a daring filmmaker with an original voice that deserves a megaphone, and I can only hope it doesn't take eight more to see what comes next.

See this movie, live the fear, embrace the metal, and get sucked into a flaming, invigorating landscape of Hell that will cripple any horror-loving parent.

Nanny seeps into your pores, stings like salt in a throbbing wound and doesn’t require what some horror fans might—conversely—wish appeared.

M3GAN capably proves herself more than a horror villain meme, although the film does sometimes struggle to balance the horror and comedy.

This is a glamorous, commanding and important watch, primed to corrupt audience minds for a multitude of passionate reasons – first and foremost of which is that Takal stages one damn fine free-thinking thriller.

The Outwaters is found-footage fearlessness that needs to be seen to be believed, but will be met by only the most divisive of reactions.

Babes succeeds as a comedy with enough primetime laughs — that’s (typically) what happens when hilarious comedians join forces — but never fully jells into a balanced experience between prenatal jokes and dead-serious subplots.

Bugonia is a film that tries to balance barbed sci-fi themes and conspiracy looniness funneled through Lanthimos’ trademark quirks, but it slips off the pommel horse on the dismount.

My Best Friend’s Exorcism is gateway horror that puts storytelling above terror. It’s steady on its 1980s teenage-girl friendship drama, but other elements around the messaging stumble.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an accessible fantasy adventure that both roasts and respects D&D culture without losing newcomers along for the ride.

LifeHack is a captivating, exhilarating, and full-speed heist thriller that marks one hell of a feature debut.

The film’s themes may be fundamental in their commentaries on parental gender disparity or qualities about motherhood so many refuse to publicly acknowledge, but they still land like a haymaker. You’ve gotta hand it to Ramsay; she’s a fearless visionary when rocking on all cylinders—which, frustratingly, Die My Love only dishes out in smaller servings.

Doctor Strange is the psychedelic kung-fu spectacle that Marvel hoped director Scott Derrickson would deliver, but it’s got a strange problem – the doctor himself.

Cameron and Colin Cairnes succeed in developing a time-warp slice of Halloween spookiness, a vessel for David Dastmalchian to prove himself (for those who don't know) as a commanding lead performer.

If you’re into “Splatterhouse Cinema” that respects its elders and tenderizes human bodies without remorse, Joe Begos has a pile of discarded corpses waiting for you. It’s vile, slick with repugnance, and appropriately inhumane. A canon full of guts blasted straight into your face – the Fangoria way.

Eileen is a nifty little shapeshifter of a thriller made of tremendous parts, just lacking a bit of steam upon exit.

Leigh Whannell does a damn fine job manifesting unnerved tension and sustaining Cecilia’s downfall right in front of everyone’s eyes.

Brooklyn 45 is a tragic fireside reminder about how easily good men and women can be corrupted, whether by propaganda rhetoric or the ghosts of miseries past.

Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria will divide fans of the original and those excited for something fresh as a testament to long-form (2+ hour) filmmaking that holds together impressively well.

Prey is inarguably the best Predator since the original. The film gets so much right, paying homage to John McTiernan’s 1987 masterwork—through cigars and direct quotes that it’ll have fans hooting—and adding Indigenous representation with real cultural strength.

Prevenge is a breathtaking, savage debut from Alice Lowe, one that boasts horrific moral deprivation and a sense of humor drenched in maternal madness.

A Dark Song digs its claws in and never lets go, finding horror in rituals, personal reflection and burning black-magic sensations. It’s dreadfully inviting from start to finish, with an almighty climax at just the right time.

Ingrid Goes West is the kind of social media satire we need, even if a tone-shifting second act drives focus from mental health to less interesting criminal goofiness.