Mike Scott

Even if something feels crazy -- whether it's falling in with a self-taught time-traveler, or buying into a charming but faintly flawed movie premise -- if you listen to your gut, wonderful things can happen.

What's more -- and here's where Abrams' brilliance is on full display -- you don't need to know a Class M planet from a hole in the ground to enjoy it all.

Yes, it is first and foremost a thorough chronicling of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but its real value is in its function as an expose on the energy industry, which, with aid and abetting from the federal government, repeatedly places profit above all else, including environmental concerns and human safety.

Yes, it's a nature documentary, so it includes predatory behavior, but it's mercifully brief and generally tastefully photographed. Plus, it doesn't involve any of the film's main monkeys, so little hearts won't be broken.

It's not a film for everyone. Those who see it, however, will have trouble forgetting it.

So, while “Orion and the Dark” is on one hand a fun and briskly paced fantasy-adventure, it also functions nicely as a smart, thoughtful and often trippy exploration of existential dread.

Certainly one of the more engaging and alluring films released so far in 2017.

An entirely fitting Christmas Day release -- filled as it is with magic and talk of miracles -- and easily one of the best films of 2011.

A movie that charms its way to being a kind of well-crafted teen touchstone that very well could become to today's generation what "Ferris Bueller" was to teens of the '80s.

The result is an artist profile that doesn't feel like the standard, stuffy artist profile. Instead, Beauty is Embarrassing is an entertaining whimsy that, like White, never takes itself too seriously, doesn't overstay its welcome and never, ever underestimates the value of a chuckle.

One only wishes that Ewing and Grady had chosen to dig deeper as they explored it.

A big-budget crowd-pleaser that avoids the pitfall of taking itself too seriously, it is well-cast, well-crafted and just plain fun, an old-school spectacle that makes a compelling case for sitting in the dark with a hundred or more strangers and just enjoying the show.

What Kwapis does do, however, is nicely handle the film's whale of an emotional payoff.

The result is the kind of movie that can be counted on to put a smile on the face of even the casual Beatles fan. In other words: a good laugh.

It's easy to be interested in the characters' lives -- as tragic as they are -- but it's not nearly as easy to become emotionally invested in them.

Leisurely paced and plot-challenged, it's too unique and kindhearted to be outright disliked, but it's not the kind of film you can get too close to, either.

This is a self-contained story that stands nicely on its own. How novel.

Celeste and Jesse Forever isn't a movie many people will outright hate, but if this is the most original romantic comedy that Hollywood can muster, forever can't come soon enough.

The House I Live In is not a comfortable film to consider in any respect, but without discomfort it's hard to feel anger - and without anger, it's hard to imagine that anything will ever be done about it.

For appreciators of fine acting, it's a film well worth seeing, as well as one worth toasting - if only with ginger ale.

Despite its adoption of that trendy (and more than a little tired) shooting style, there's an old-fashioned charm to Earth to Echo.

His a wonderful, touching story, one that made me want to scoop up every kid I know who has a scrap of creative talent, and have them watch the film. Because Elmo's story is sweet -- but Clash's is nothing short of inspiring.

While Graham Moore's screenplay isn't without its flaws, it brilliantly weaves into the story a case that being different shouldn't necessarily be a negative thing. In fact, The Imitation Game argues in no uncertain terms that those differences can be something to celebrate, not to "cure."

An effort to spin high art out of a guilty-pleasure cult classic, this new Suspiria is -- like the original -- off-the-charts bonkers. But it’s also off-the-charts unpleasant, a cold, hard-to-embrace slog made up of mostly of stomach-turning moments of body horror interrupted by long stretches of stylish but mind-numbing pretension.

This newer installment is every bit its predecessor's match as far as action goes. Where it exceeds it, however, is in the between-the-fights moments.

Granted, Luca might not go down as one of the more profound entries in the Pixar catalog. Don’t expect it to make you well up the same way Up or Toy Story 2 did. Still, at a time in which international travel is mostly for the bold, it’s an undeniably pleasant summertime trip.

A satisfying and briskly paced blend of creative carnage, strong visual effects and well-conceived action sequences.

Where the original was a goofy, campy bit of stylized storytelling, Lowery's becomes a nicely realized, feel-good love song to fantasy and magic, buoyed by solid, updated visual effects, a strong cast (including two wonderful child actors) and a throwback sense of wide-eyed wonder.