Randy Cordova

The characters in the film don't shed tears, but you'll be fighting them at certain points. Pain and Glory stays with you, and grows richer with reflection.

It feels like a filmmaker’s exercise rather than an involving motion picture. Although you may never be bored with All Is Lost, you are rarely fully engaged.

The most remarkable thing about Ira Sachs’ richly textured new film Little Men is how it manages to be about so much, and yet so little.

Once the movie is over and you realize how the filmmaker has turned the tables, you can't help but be amused — and amazed.

You'll admire it and maybe even be astonished by its twisty nature, but that very twistiness can also feel more like a filmmaker showing off rather than something that emotionally engages a viewer.

The club scenes, initially exciting, are ultimately wearying, and the movie meanders about much of the time.

The movie’s best moments are the small ones.

The movie just hits the nail on the head: that sense that we're just going through life, trying to navigate it the best way we can in each moment. There are a lot of things to love about Truman — including the dog — but that could be one of its best and biggest attributes.

Weinstein normally directs documentaries, and Menashe has a fly-on-the-wall feel at times, particularly in the warmly believable interplay between father and son.

The film is nakedly candid, but Stritch is also a ham who is almost always aware of the camera.

Director Craig Zobel (he made the creepily effective “Compliance”) lets the story unfold in wonderfully hushed fashion.

Gleason is disturbing, brave and compelling, which is exactly what it needs to be.

One is left wanting to know more about Mr. Rogers, but the film reduces him to little more than a kind of superhero family therapist.

The movie is fascinating when it looks at the mechanics of Big Bird, which are physically challenging.

The dialogue snaps with precision and cringe-worthy humor; at times, you feel like you're having one of those awkward moments in which you watch a couple bicker. The movie is delicately perched between low-key believability and telenovela melodramatics, yet never falls too far to one side.

The film feels overlong and a bit repetitious, but it’s obviously a complex subject that deserves a thought-out treatment.

Thanks to the nicely layered characters and a near-perfect mix of action and merriment, the movie feels wonderfully vivid and alive.

It's sometimes compelling, sometimes frustrating, and usually chaotic.

A Kid Like Jake, isn't terrible, but it sure could be better.

It's clear-eyed and remarkably honest, and Macdonald shows a flair for illustrating how Houston's life fits in the bigger picture

Call it a battle-of-the-sexes comedy set in a devout Orthodox community in Jerusalem. But, in its own quiet and friendly way, the film goes deeper than that, looking at how conservative religious views can clash with more moderate ways.

As a love letter to a talented and endearing soul, it's hard to fault Love, Gilda. Like its subject, it feels remarkably honest and genuine.

Everybody Loves Somebody doesn’t reinvent the rom-com, but it manages to take the formula, shake it up a bit, and come up with something that feels fresh and inventive.

For all its vivid period atmosphere and striking scenes, there is a meandering quality that keeps the film from being truly involving. It's not the lack of sentiment, but perhaps the absence of any sort of momentum.

Trapero handles the movie's pacing with a masterful ease.

The movie ultimately winds up falling between two stools, failing as both a biography and an action film. Martial arts fans will naturally be drawn to the story, but the film does nothing to open up the world to outsiders.

Director Eran Riklis starts the film off with a playful, whimsical tone that grows increasingly darker as things progress. It reflects the life of the movie's protagonist, which finds him facing challenges that would make most people bitter.

It’s an action movie without an exciting moment. It’s a special effects flick with chintzy visuals. And it’s a Gerard Butler vehicle without enough Gerard to go around.

Searching is a thriller with a gimmick. The entire story takes place on screens — we see the action play out on devices like laptops and phones. But the movie never feels gimmicky, which is perhaps the neatest feat achieved by first-time director Aneesh Chaganty.

As mysteries go, writer-director Aaron Katz hasn't really created an effective one. Gemini is entertaining, but Jill isn't much of a detective, and the big puzzle at the center of the film just sort of falls together. You never completely check out of the plot, but don't feel fully invested, either.

The no-holds-barred comedy generally works, largely thanks to a game cast that plunges into the raunchy material with gleeful abandon.

This is a wonderful movie.

It actually is quite funny. It is also warm and empathetic, though a viewer's reaction to the film might vary depending how they view the subject of assisted suicide.

It is clean, crisp and passionless. You almost wish for some Bravo sleaze to add a little edge to the proceedings.

An affectionate documentary.

A movie that never quite comes to life, despite its title.

It’s one part history lesson and one part ode to the rapidly fading quality of refinement. But mostly, it’s a chance to indulge in juicy celebrity stories, catnip for those who love that kind of thing.

More than simply a look at the conversion therapy, the film examines the bonds between parents and children.

Above and Beyond is a straightforward, rah-rah documentary.

The Meddler is one of those movies that surprises you by being something it’s not.

Although the visuals are spectacular — a barren Colorado River looks like a landscape from a science-fiction epic — there's not much else here to grab on.

It's fascinating and unpredictable, so much so that the fate of Irene almost becomes a secondary concern. And thanks to the very clever and very compassionate way that Farhadi has crafted this film, that's not a flaw.

People Places Things is filled with that kind of heart-piercing comedy that makes a viewer cringe and laugh at the same time.

If you like a little bit more in a movie — say, characters that are mildly interesting or a plot that's a wee bit logical — stay far away.

For all its ludicrous plot twists and a mystery that falls too conveniently into place, A Simple Favor is just fun. It's light and frothy.

Writer-director Noah Buschel (he was behind the Corey Stoll boxing drama “Glass Chin”) has crafted an odd little film that is sometimes compelling, sometimes maddening.

The movie is not uninteresting, but a viewer isn't breathlessly waiting to see how things will wrap up, either. By the third act, you even start to get impatient with the characters. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Despite its flaws, Judy can leave you feeling like an emotional wreck by the end.

Cate Blanchett gives a ferocious performance as the steely Mapes, and she mines some genuine emotion out of the material.

Winocour has crafted such a tightly coiled film that once violence finally erupts, it's more of a letdown than an emotional release. But the movie still works, both for its bracing ability to keep a viewer on edge and the sheer force of Schoenaerts' performance.

Despite all its noble qualities, the movie boasts a stiffness that keeps it from ever feeling fully alive.

If anything, the movie's third act is the only thing that feels a bit a disappointing. The plot is carefully constructed, the performances are rich (both girls are excellent), the characters are believable and a sense of dread grows throughout. Heck, the movie is even great to look at, with its period sheen and slightly muted colors.

Even if you've never watched a whole episode of "Dora the Explorer," you'd have to be a grinch not to be slightly charmed by the whole thing.

It looks great, Abbott is twitchy and terrific and you really want to like it. But it's never particularly involving, and it becomes even less so as it progresses. Ultimately, it's just a gorgeous, gruesomely wrapped package with little inside.

The movie makes some observations about the worth of human life — the title refers to the monetary value put on the life of the injured waiter — and the economic class system, but they're not terribly interesting or surprising.

Nick Ryan’s documentary looks at the disaster by using interviews, actual footage and re-enactments. The latter move undercuts some of the movie’s authenticity. Granted, there probably wasn’t another way to film it, but it muddies the film’s sense of truth.

Roth's tale is fairly twisty, as the behavior of the women grows increasingly violent and more outrageous. The two are not simply nut jobs; Roth presents them as a form of avenging angels who target philandering husbands. That's an interesting premise, but the movie lacks the depth or layers to make that truly compelling.

The movie is a pretty humdrum affair when it focuses on humans, even when actors are playing characters based on real people.

On the Map is more like a sleepy lecture during the last week of high school: You may hear some worthwhile information, but it's not going to stick.

Documented is obviously a bit of advocacy filmmaking, which is fine, but most of the time it's not compelling enough to reach beyond the converted.

Ultimately, At Any Price isn’t terrible, but you can tell that’s hardly the endorsement the filmmakers were seeking.

The effect is initially giddy but it ultimately wears the viewer down.

There is a staginess to the action that creates a certain distance between the film and viewers (an opening sequence almost feels like like you're watching a play). That's another Tarantino-style touch. However, you never feel too disconnected, thanks to the good work from the cast.

Despite the film's predictable nature, it's hard not to become engaged. The performances are excellent and Härö directs with a clean hand, pushing toward a suspenseful, stirring climax that hinges on the team's success as well as Endel's freedom.

This “Mamma Mia” takes a lot of the original’s qualities and then amplifies them to the nth degree. It’s bigger and crazier, and the emotions actually seem to run a bit deeper at times.

Ultimately, Anthropoid is quite gripping, even if it feels like two movies in one.

Writer-director Amat Escalante was named best director at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for this project, and although it obviously is made with some skill, it also is unrelentingly dire.

One reason the movie works so well: Writer-director Malcolm D. Lee returns from the original, so the characters feel true to the first film. Secondly, most of the cast is back, and they have the kind of comfortable chemistry you can’t fake. It’s easy to believe these people have a history together.

When it’s good, Doctor Sleep is mighty good.

The movie boasts a tricky structure, but director Jonathan Teplitzky ("Burning Man") does an expert job of sewing together the World War II moments with sequences set in the '80s.

The film could merely coast on the charms of its three stars, but it's smarter and brighter than you'd expect.

The charms of the leading ladies are hard to resist, as are their rare moments of clarity and self-awareness. Saunders is a tumbledown hoot while Lumley can generate a laugh with simply a deadpan stare, yet both seem a tad more human this time around. Just a tad.

Director Michael Dowse (from the underrated Topher Grace comedy "Take Me Home Tonight") fuels the story with atmosphere, with lots of nighttime activity and bustle. He keeps things grounded in reality, though little touches (Chantry imagines her drawings coming to life) add an extra — and, perhaps, excessive — sweetness.

Monster Party is a twisted, grisly little shocker that isn’t afraid to grab you by the guts — or to show you a man’s guts cascading to the floor. It’s that kind of movie. It’s also pretty effective and rather fun, if you have the stomach for this sort of thing.

The Finest Hours is set in the early '50s. But did it really need to feel like it was made during the Eisenhower era?

Because the film is unable to settle on a tone, it's hard to get invested in much of anything.

It's bold, nasty and gleefully disturbing, and will stay with you once the lights go up. For horror fans, those are all good things.

It’s not that this slight, good-natured comedy is going to set the world on fire. But the movie boasts an understated sweetness, largely fueled by Camil’s movie-star charms.

The film is often moving, and some of the performances have a depth and naturalness. But it moves at a pace that can be maddeningly slow and is often long-winded, two traits that stop the momentum dead at times.

The film evolves into one of those "watch the hostage fall in love with her captor" tales, always an icky plot development that's not any more appetizing here. There are some more twists to be had, but it's never more than marginally interesting.

Schull's quietly commanding performance is a stunning piece of acting, in which the character seems to reveal new layers every time she's on screen.

Director Susanna White keeps things low-key and absorbing, as the action moves from Marrakesh to London to Paris to Switzerland.

It's a smart, well-crafted tale that is thoroughly contemporary, yet somewhat old-school in that it doesn't go for cheap shocks. Instead, the emphasis is on mood, atmosphere and some sharply etched characterizations.

The gags are stale, the characters uninvolving and bits meant to titillate don’t.

Freeland does a fine job, waiting for her characters to converge in a way that doesn't feel overly forced, though there is a bit of that "Crash" tidiness in how things fall together. Still, the film is moving and human.

A scary fun-house ride that expertly blends jittery tension and laugh-out-loud humor.

There's comfort food and there are comfort movies. In Lasse Hallstrom's The Hundred-Foot Journey, you get a full helping of both. And guess what? It's all very comforting.

There are quite a few genuine laughs along the way. Director Ken Marino has a firm hand with big, silly slapstick, but he also knows how to make the most of dialogue.

First-time writer-director Peter Sattler keeps things glum and unsentimental, then tosses it all up in the air with a syrupy ending that derails everything. On another movie, the high-corn finale might have worked; here, it just feels patently false.

Life Itself is one of the worst kind of bad movies, because it achieves nothing that it sets out to do.

Krasinski is likable and Martindale can make the lamest dialogue sound believable. But even they can't make us invest in characters that are nothing more than a collection of stock quirks and tics stuck in wildly contrived situations.

White House Down aims to be a low-brow slab of mindless summer fun. Most of the time, it comes pretty close to hitting the bull’s eye.

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau never made a movie called Grumpy Old Men Go Camping. If they had, it surely would look a lot like A Walk in the Woods.

Breathe is a valentine, but it's a valentine that is quite moving.

Gregg really reaches far, scattering in bits of magical realism and an art-house ending that is simultaneously wondrous and a trifle heavy-handed. The finale may be a bit much for some, but movie buffs will likely give Gregg the benefit of the doubt.

A LEGO Brickumentary feels like one of those cheerful corporate videos that gets screened at team meetings, designed to rouse employees into a rah-rah fervor. The down side: Most videos of that ilk don’t last for 90 minutes.

Bird Box is scary, but it also feels very human.

Granted, all the fine elements don't add up to make the deepest or most compelling film. Instead, it's a series of self-contained scenes that don't always hang together as a whole. But like a good hotel, there are enough comforts to make the stay worthwhile.