Michael Talbot-Haynes

Even after over four decades, Diva still impresses with Beineix’s masterful mix of highbrow and lowbrow. With the stunning new 4K restoration, Diva retains its well-deserved status as a late 20th-century movie masterpiece.

This is a film that gets savored through reflection as you put all the pieces together and realize the scope of its achievement.

All you have to do is forget about watching the movie and let the movie watch you. Just listen to the thunder in the distance, overhear part of someone else’s life, and feast your eyes on vistas unseen until now.

The Fabelmans will take your expectations of the Spielberg brand and tie them to a rocket. It is engaging and compelling. I am still pondering it days later. If you love movies, you owe it to yourself to catch this on that same big screen that Sammy loves so much.

EO is an incredible film, but do be aware it does skew bitter, especially at the finale.

The story twists and struggles keep engaging through, whether you know the outcome or not.

The proceedings have that perfect narrative balance of a simple fairytale, leading to baffling visions and fantastic ideas.

It is exciting in ways you cannot imagine and must be seen to be believed.

Black Ice is the kind of film where you are in a different world once finishing it.

Huesera: The Bone Woman will take your conception of the limits of the horror genre and break every bone in its body.

There is this marvelous hard-boiled narrative style Vigas employs, with long periods without dialogue and little exposition. The way the intrigue is built as the picture progresses almost takes us into thriller territory. This is the cinematic storm the filmmaker creates here when a child’s yearning meets the brutality of an outlaw land.

Mothersbaugh himself acknowledges that the band’s curse has always been being ahead of its time, but it is fitting that we have finally arrived at a time when that is obvious. If you have not seen this legendary band play live yet, do so while you still have the chance, if you can. Whether you have or have not, see Devo as soon as possible.

The Falling Sky doesn’t spoon-feed you any information; rather, it blows it up your nose. This production, without explanation, works brilliantly in immersing the audience in the electricity of the Reahu ritual. Not knowing what is going on or what is heading towards you instills a discombobulation that allows you to surrender to the void and go with it.

The twists and turns happen right on point to keep the lively meter cranked up to a wicked level. You don’t even get that feeling that you watched half a movie like with other two-part pictures, as all the crescendos you need are included here.

Every frame will blow your baby dome to smithereens, as I can guarantee you have seen nothing like this.

Prisoner’s Daughter is a drama that stings hard but also unleashes a lot of hope. It is a splendid reason to be excited about the great American indie again.

It is a magnificent documentary on art and how artists interact with the world.

Limbo is a cinematic monument for the shadows of the doomed.

Bye Bye Tiberias is a powerful portrait of how broken things come back together over and over.

Soderbergh does the whole movie in long takes using a wide-angle steady-cam setup. It is a situation fertile for great acting, as the long shots allow these performers to really inhabit their characters.

The Black Guelph is as gritty as gritty can get.

Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) is a grand rock and roll buffet with something for everybody.

Ardent fans of Brazilian music will be able to shift through this. Others, like me, will have difficulty finding the point in all the haze.

It makes the mistake of developing the characters less in order to increase the chance of symbolism more.

Backspot has the same punch as Run, Lola, Run. Just like that film, the thrills are time released into your system at critical points throughout your viewing.

The Three Musketeers – Part II: Milady is a sky-high bonfire for the planet to gather around and witness legend in motion.

While the delivery of the thrills falls into action territory due to the power contests, there is a palatable sense of dread kept up that will satisfy the horror crowd.

She Is Conann shatters the limits of cinematic imagination.

Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project will school you thoroughly on why this great poet is so damn important.

Every square inch of this picture is fascinating, whether for the fresh faces or those who have been fans of Cheech and Chong for years.

While this adaptation isn’t in the same league as Gordon’s or Richard Stanley’s Lovecraft work, it does have the hideous glow that horror fans will be drawn to.

Leemans puts in one of the best performances I have seen by an actress playing a male prostitute while actually pregnant. Likewise, Hentschel puts in one of the best performances I have seen by an actor playing a pregnant woman tripping on mushrooms while buck-a*s naked. The two completely inhabit each other’s characters, never sinking down to ridiculing them no matter how hard the onslaught of comedy gets.

If you have been fiending all year for a quality drama that shares a different world, then Frybread Face and Me is what you have been waiting for. Luther’s deft screenplay ably gets across a lot of complicated family business in just a few strokes.

So, just know that A Complete Unknown comes off as really boring throughout. None of this will stop Chalamet from shining out with the ultimate movie Dylan. It is a tousled hair masterwork of a performance, completely adapting the essence of Dylan to a folk music Batman.

Mother of Flies is family-made entertainment at its finest, though it is best suited for families that have Xs carved into their shaved heads.

With Candy Land, Swab has delivered a historic flashpoint in the darker side of the film universe. It is a supernova of seediness. The flick is the true bastion of this under-utilized subgenre.

Take Me To The River: New Orleans is edited together in a way more organic to music than traditional documentaries, which works wonders.

Swept Away is truly an amazing movie that is still as potent at 50 years old as it was back in the day.

With Adult Swim Yule Log, Kelly delivers a new dimension in seasonal insanity, and won’t the kids just love it? Just slide your arm into the crazy stocking until you hear a click.

Medusa is an electrifying work of art that elevates its already elevated pop influences, a transcendental tableau of the true-life horror of female oppression.

What You Wish For is everything you could wish for in a well-lit plunge into the abyss. The script’s condemnation of the class system is much more potent than the overrated, sneering misfire The Menu.

The acting is flat-out wonderful.

Kalki 2898 AD is the kind of widescreen majesty that makes the butter of your popcorn shine in the dark. There isn’t anything else like it in the movies right now, so jump right in.

Throughout Sick, Williamson decisively proves that breaking all the rules sometimes breaks the movie.

Caught Stealing is a plodding meander that flagrantly overestimates its appeal.

The juiciness of the storyline overflows into a series of rushing strawberry rapids that will carry you away.

I’m not suggesting Cherry should have a laugh track, because it is not funny at all, despite several attempts at humor.

Bonjour Tristesse is a rich experience in more ways than one, while it also burns beneath with a rising secret fire. Give it some patience, and it will give you an unforgettable experience.

Chokri’s work has a pulse that beats so hard it could split veins. Yet, it remains in a reality that is vulnerable to suddenly wacky quakes.

Sebastian grabs ahold of your attention and pulls it down to the floor.

Unwelcome will work its way into your heart, one tiny stab wound at a time.

The uninitiated may wonder what the fuss is about, but for the true Fassbinder Heads out there, Peter von Kant is a revelation. Ozon has made one of the best homages to a master filmmaker ever made.

To picture the depth of visuals in The Beautiful Summer, imagine a hundred beautiful moments in time standing out in sharp contrast like a string of Christmas lights.

It is well worth sticking your face into Hell Hole, as there is a prize inside the box of wood chips.

While I appreciate getting a cult classic a new coat of 4K to be mean for the stream in fine fashion, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is not your grandpa’s Caligula.

The Actor shows how much fun there is in the indie sphere for regional values mayhem to be had.

Behind the pseudo-intellectual curtain of Philippe’s pseudo-documentary, you will not find a wizard. You will find nothing at all.

Skincare is the perfect vehicle for Banks’s style, the cinematic equivalent of a Barbie-mobile with 60s Cadillac fins. The audience gets to ride shotgun as she speeds through the flashy, splashy visuals to get to the long tunnels of persecution.

Two Women showcases the rampaging wit of expert writing with the jaw-dropping technique of expert directing.

If you want to see the shark device used with the precision of a scalpel, watch Beast of War. It is knock-out entertainment with many rows of teeth that won’t let go.

Werewolves is the best werewolf movie since The Howling.

With all the talk of how wonderful Christmas pantomimes are in the script, the whole movie seems to shrink away from any tradition that may have made this pitiful excuse of a Santa sneeze enjoyable.

Strictly for hardcore horror fans, though I can see this also becoming a huge “dare you to watch it” event for the uninitiated. We haven’t had a movie this dangerous in the theaters in a long time, and its presence is both important and historical in the history of extreme cinema. This movie will bite your face off.

Of course, we have the magical Mr. McGregor, turning in a nuanced performance that gets into some very raw territory. I knew he had a range, but the depth McGregor travels here is impressive in its specificity.

Watching Flamin’ Hot mirrors the joy of scarfing down a bag of the crunchy red stuff yourself. It makes your eyebrows raise, is instantly addictive, and goes by very fast.

Animale is the new state-of-the-art for high-end horror. It will have genre fans and art house aficionados weeping black tears of joy worldwide.

Close To You is ultra-real, ultra-important, ultra-fascinating, and ultra-recommended.

This is a unique holiday horror experience that can be enjoyed year after year.

It’s A Wonderful Knife is one of those pictures that is so surprisingly good you wish you had seen it in a theater. Plus, this is one spiffy-looking picture.

Touch Me is worthy of the same regard as the great hard drug classics like Trainspotting and Requiem For A Dream. In fact, Touch Me is the new heroin beacon shining high on the arthouse hill.

By reducing the impact of addiction to wearing sunglasses indoors and singing badly for Scandinavians, all cautionary benefits of Houston’s tragedy are lost in the stage lights.

The Trouble With Jessica is like a tray of fresh out of the oven pot brownies: demented, dark and delicious. Get yourself a mouthful of this movie.

Sit back and get ready to melt into your chair.

Even though this is just a blood-stained shadow of Argento’s previous masterworks, the fact that he has produced something worthwhile again is a cause for celebration.

This film is a pleasure indeed. The concoction of Agatha Christie elegance with Sandler’s teetering on the edge of taste humor is high-impact relaxation, like a warm bath for your frontal lobes.

This is exactly the kind of movie that improves on subsequent viewings, allowing you to enjoy it more once you accept the narrative on its own terms.

This is high-octane fun that you would do well to check out in theaters.

Red Sonja is classic high adventure that earns the gold in its pocket by spilling blood the way that only a woman can.

Watch The Deliverance for Close if you haven’t already done so. However, a performance of this caliber in a movie like this is like seeing a BMW 5-series being used to do donuts in a field of manure.

It is fascinating how Elordi takes something so deadly and still manages to maintain a shimmering vulnerability.

Kraven The Hunter doesn’t entertain. The only thing it does right is release the hostages after two hours.

Rebel Moon-Part 2: The Scargiver is the cinematic sci-fi equivalent of that delicious chicken sandwich people punch each other in the face to get. Unscrunch your face and allow yourself to have an intergalactic blast like you did before you grew up to be so picky.

There is plenty of good meat on the bone here for the hungriest horror hounds. If you have some time to burn, the new Firestarter is definitely worth it.

Instead of establishing and repeating the same flavor, we are presented with a sci-fi-tasting menu of increasing complexity.

Kai paints her subject lovingly, hitting the classics like the world’s greatest visual jukebox. Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres is a fun-filled look at a member of the old school who wasn’t a class clown.

While it seems on the surface to be a paint-by-numbers thriller, the numbers add up to something higher than usual.

Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues is that rare insider music documentary that skips the skin and gets down to the bone.

Summoning Sylvia summons plenty of laughs and will hold your interest in its bony grip.

Gringa is an unusual hybrid of dysfunctional family drama and an escapist sports movie.

Esposito’s debut is an exciting arrival from a newly minted auteur. Fresh Kills is a fresh take on a familiar subject, with enough splendid brutality to go around the whole table twice.

What enriches this film’s frothy concoction is its strong intellectual underpinnings. The questions raised about how social media has increased public persona versus private interactions carry a lot of weight.

Rub comes out of nowhere and reinforces your belief in the magic of independent filmmaking.

Peter Case: A Million Miles Away is an eye-opening portrait of an unsung songwriting powerhouse.

The story remains rooted in the outlaw couple on the run subgenre of crime film, but it then metamorphoses into an entirely different type of category. It has humor, but it is not a comedy, as the delivery and intent is coming from somewhere else.

Stripping the glory from gangsterism like chrome from a tailpipe is the pulse-pounding documentary Man On The Run, written and directed by Cassius Michael Kim.

It will be interesting to see when the mainstream catches up to the street action of underground slashers. It seems there is an unquenched need for bleeding out there. If you see The Patrolman, you best pull over cause it will cave your head in.

The cameras keep it lively, surfing on the laser waves of music. How they kept from falling off the roof is a mystery.

The leads not only hold everything together, but they also hoist it all up in the air and twirl it around their heads. Gordon shows the richness of his comedic side; his bewilderment is infectious. Way anchors the audience’s perspective in his portrayal of what I took as a cowboy from Sweden. Gladstone is the standout. She holds a power as a western hero that creates a palpable humming sensation up your arms.