Reuben Baron

I laughed at more jokes than I expected to in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Deeply hopeful, spectacularly produced, and equally adept at laughter and tears, Project Hail Mary is the best new movie to hit theaters so far this year.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is both a battle cry and a bleak joke about how unregulated technological progress could destroy civilization and break our souls ... if it hasn't already.

In its artful, brilliantly acted exploration of the moment one learns that the world isn't "fair" and how we keep going in the face of evil, Josephine sets a high bar for all movies to come in 2026.

What remains in question is how much this story constructed through hints, however well they can be understood, actually evokes feeling. To me, Carousel felt like it was missing something that could have made its quiet slice-of-life scenes a real emotional experience.

Whatever happened in bringing this story to the big screen, 100 Nights of Hero starts off enjoyable enough in the moment, but by the time it ends, it's easy to feel underwhelmed.

The final result of "Wicked: For Good" falls between the best and worst case scenarios: some big worthwhile changes and additions show a smart adaptational instinct, but it's still less entertaining than "Part 1," marred by inconsistent plotting, lackluster humor, and fewer exceptional musical numbers. It's good enough, but I could be happier.

Maybe there's something I'm not getting here, but as far as I'm concerned, Die My Love comes alive in individual scenes yet feels stultifying as a whole.

As its clichéd and underwritten story progresses, however, it goes from mildly interesting to underwhelming to actively bad in the end. By the standards of a major release in competition for Halloween season screens with some of the best horror movies of 2025, it's a failure.

It's intelligent without being profound, amusing without being hilarious, empathetic without being gut-wrenching. "Cute" is the word I'd use to describe it overall. By nature it's nothing special, but it's not bad either.

While DDL's acting genius gives the film some spark, those sparks are sapped by lethargic pacing and serious pretentiousness.

Beyond just being clever and unexpected, there's something quietly powerful to this story of truth-seekers in a post-truth world.

The meta-narrative of where The Smashing Machine fits into Johnson's career is more interesting than the film itself, which I found a bit of a bore. Johnson's performance is good enough, and Emily Blunt is truly transformative as Kerr's unstable wife Dawn Staples, but neither get that much to do beyond repeat the same sort of fights (physical or verbal) over the course of two hours in a film that fails to justify why we should be so interested.

Taken on its own terms, Frankenstein is a compelling, at times moving, and utterly gorgeous epic. As a fan of both Del Toro and Shelley, I can't help but nitpick the details.

This is a surprisingly sad movie — just one that also happens to be funny.

Doing double duty as both a romcom and a twisted body horror movie is a tonal challenge that "Together" pulls off successfully, in large part thanks to how fun it is.

As an introduction to the rebooted DC Universe, "Superman" is zippy blockbuster fun. But amidst all its cartoon absurdity, it might just inspire people to make a difference in this universe.

M3GAN 2.0 is too tiring to sustain enough laughter for even an ironic recommendation.

Much of Materialists is almost aggressively unromantic, and while it's not without laughs, those are also darker and more uncomfortable than you'd expect.

Though its long string of wacky plot points might sound convoluted on paper, one shouldn't worry too much about it. The craziest details are mostly there for laughs, and the thematic and emotional through-lines that actually matter remain clear throughout.

Bring Her Back genuinely disturbed me. You can decide whether that's reason to see it as soon as possible or reason to stay far away.

The lack of character development blunts any potential for the deeper emotional impact found in the best war movies. The lack of political contextualization further limits how much the film is really capable of saying.

On Swift Horses finally achieves the emotional resonance it's been aiming for just a few minutes before the credits.

Not a great movie, but "horror-comedy where unicorns kill rich people" is the sort of high concept that guarantees some level of entertainment, and excellent casting helps compensate for its weaknesses on the screenplay level.

Wolf Man delivers some impressive moments of slow-burn body horror but falls short compared to the narrative and thematic cohesion of its predecessor.

There was no chance of "The War of the Rohirrim" recapturing the magic of the Peter Jackson "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. But Hèra's defiance in the face of the despair her enemies want her to feel has something of the trilogy's inspirational quality.

The only thing holding Heretic back from instant classic status is its final act, where some of the big secret reveals end up a bit disappointing after so much great build-up.

The power of Fiennes' and Binoche's performances, as well as the strength of the classic tale itself, allow "The Return" to build into something both entertaining and meaningful in its final act.