Ross Bonaime

Sender wants to put us in the perspective of an addict, but instead, it always leaves the audience feeling like it’s missing something, not quite in step with what the film is trying to express. Goldman has a lot on his mind, but Sender sometimes feels like when you have too many ideas, and you try to say them all at once, but it comes out garbled and confusing.

What starts as a more violent Mr. and Mrs. Smith takes an unexpectedly brutal turn, becoming borderline unamusing. Taccone pushes himself to try and break from his usual comic mold, but with Over You Dead Body, he ends up pushing too far.

Pretty Lethal is at its best when it’s a straightforward film about bloody fights and survival. This isn’t the most complex concept, and when the movie tries to include unnecessary details, it stops the narrative dead in its tracks.

Einbinder, Reynolds, Gluck, and Theroux are appealing as a team, but Strouse doesn’t give them any weight on their own, which leaves this story feeling fairly one-dimensional. Seekers of Infinite Love will, unfortunately, leave you searching for more.

Scream used to poke fun at the silliness of horror movies and laugh at the genre's clichés, but now, it’s indistinguishable from the films it once gleefully lampooned, in what is easily the worst installment so far.

There are fractured elements that, with a little polish, could’ve been something much more, but this is just a generic, unremarkable horror film.

How to Make a Killing is a fun, albeit flawed thriller drama with a mildly dark sense of humor.

Even if The Musical isn’t always a hit, it’s worth it when the film does find its high notes.

Stanton has done truly incredible, groundbreaking things in animation, and he’s almost certainly got a great live-action film in him, but In the Blink of an Eye makes one wonder if Stanton should go a bit smaller and work his way up to such grandiose concepts like this.

Granted, the footage itself and the intense quest to save these eight still make Hanging by a Wire a documentary worth seeking out. It’s just one that doesn’t have as much depth as one would hope.

Even though zi isn’t quite the powerhouse of independent cinema that films like Columbus and After Yang were, it does feel like the work that Kogonada needed to do in order to right his sails and figure out where to go next.

The Gallerist is a disappointment, especially considering that Yan’s last movie as director was the vastly underrated DC film, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) from 2020, a hyper-stylized, playful, and unconventional take on the superhero genre. It would’ve been wonderful to see that version of Yan here, creating an unhinged look at the art world that was experimental, spirited, and daring in the way that film was.

A Private Life is worth exploring simply for the performance by Foster, which keeps this story moving the best she can, despite the screenplay’s constant starts and stops. If anything, the real mystery of A Private Life is why we don’t get to see Foster on our screens more these days.

Maslany can effectively react to shadows and reflections, and Perkins can navigate this cabin to maximize its horror potential, but without the screenplay to back them up, this just becomes a curious experiment without much focus.

As those familiar with Chomet's work would expect, A Magnificent Life is an exquisitely animated film to watch, even if the narrative is a bit rote. But it also makes one think that maybe the original concept for this as a documentary of Pagnol’s life could’ve been more effective and illuminating of what made him such a great artist.

As Ibsen’s play has shown, even a century after its writing, this is still a story with life in it, and DaCosta’s take modernizes it in deft ways. However, the questionable way DaCosta's film goes about it doesn’t do the story justice, making this a party that fizzles out long before the last guest has left.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere can’t shake what we know about the biopic, but it does at least create some moments and provide some decent performances that make the audience forget about those clichés, at least temporarily.

Like the title character himself, Jay Kelly is a film that has good intentions, but doesn’t have the follow-through to make good on those promises.

A House of Dynamite begins explosively, but unfortunately, it ends up fizzling out.

While it’s certainly great that Daniel Day-Lewis is back in his element, and Ronan Day-Lewis can craft impressive, imposing imagery, Anemone is just too much empty space, waiting to be filled with something.

The vibe of Him is trying to make the audience unnerved, but the story and imagery being presented are too goofy to take this attempt seriously.

Fuze has the bones of a great idea, and one that does seem like a great fit for Mackenzie, given his past work. But Hopkins’ script is too generic an action exercise, from its bland plot to its nothing characters, that it’s hard to find anything to truly care about.

Steve is an adequate film about teachers, students, and the struggles that they both go through, but it’s also hard not to think that a bit more insight into the lives of the students earlier on — particularly from the perspective of Shy — could’ve made this into something even more special.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey tries to be too big and too bold, when it’s the smaller moments in which this film becomes a beautiful journey.

Edward Berger's latest is all style and no substance, despite giving Colin Farrell a weird role to sink his teeth into.

An intriguing formal experiment from Steven Soderbergh, focused on two solid performances by Sir Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel.

Quite frankly, it never hurts for a film to preach the dangers of Nazis and how they can be anywhere and everywhere, but it is a bit of a shame Nuremberg isn’t finding a more compelling, enticing way to tell this inherently fascinating true story.

As a ridiculous tale of a celebrity trying to make himself matter, Sacrifice is quite a bit of fun, but any attempt to make a larger point falls flat, just like so many films before it.

For a story that should be brimming with intrigue, danger, and the horrors of inventing your own reality, The Wizard of the Kremlin is instead a bloated, tiring recitation of facts that doesn't know how to elevate its dark subject matter.

As a platform for Sweeney to show her broad talents as an actress, Christy is undoubtedly successful, as she finds the heart and sadness within Christy Martin. But Michôd's film doesn't make that life story quite as riveting as it should be, which is what Martin deserves.

As it stands, The Roses has its charms, but it could’ve used a few more thorns.

Berg’s documentary is at its strongest when it focuses on the musical legacy that Buckley was so concerned about that he would leave behind, and less so when it tries to delve deeper into who Buckley was as a person.

As entertaining as Until Dawn is, it’s fairly light in most regards, other than the kills. While the characters in the game had more time to have intricate connections to one another, these five are fairly one-note.

The Luckiest Man in America is a strong story when it sticks to the facts, and Hauser is undeniably an excellent choice for this role, but the film really presses its luck by taking such huge liberties with the facts.

Snow White deserved an update of sorts, and this is an admirable new take that certainly is one of the better live-action remakes from Disney. It might not be the fairest Snow White of all, but it's an admirable effort nonetheless.

It is an ambitious flurry of ideas, and while it doesn’t entirely work, there’s an extremely promising filmmaker within Chainey.

Unfortunately, Bubble & Squeak far more often embraces the ridiculous more than the realistic, and ultimately struggles to combine these two into a whole that works.

There are a lot of fascinating ideas Green is throwing into Opus, and it's obvious that this is a fully realized concept that he's worked on for years; not only in the script, but in the extra work he's done in fleshing out this world. Still, we don't see enough of that work come across in the finished product, and the ideas here come off as muddled, failing to connect with the audience beyond a superficial level.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is yet another decent adaptation, but even Condon's visual panache and scale can’t quite elevate this story to greatness.

Jimpa is a heartfelt tribute that unfortunately doesn't resonate as much as it should.

Beyond the ‘90s references, Y2K is an underwhelming, but mostly entertaining movie that never quite goes as far as it should with its concept, comedy, or the relationships between its characters.

It’s an experiment that only works here and there, yet when it works, there’s beauty in those rare moments.

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band is a straightforward yet enjoyable trip with one of the best live bands ever to exist. Yet considering the story that this tour has told so far, it's a bit of a shame that Zimny's documentary doesn't explore the entirety of what this road diary had to offer.

The budget might have ballooned to ten times what Terrifier had, and the kills have gotten far more gruesome, yet Terrifier 3 is still the same mixed bag that this franchise has always been.

For Andrews, Bring Them Down is a capable, intriguing debut, but it needs more depth than this revenge tale has to offer.

Ty Roberts’ inspirational sports drama You Gotta Believe relies on age-old playbooks to a fault. It’s a true story and a surefire tear-jerker, but Lane Garrison’s screenplay is reductively hokey at the worst times.

Smith has always been best when he wears his heart on his sleeve as he does with The 4:30 Movie, a film whose earnestness tries to iron out some of the usual problems with Smith’s films, but with mixed results.

The Friend's heart is in the right place, but it can't get out of its own way.

Winner is a bold idea that almost immediately proves itself to be a misconceived mess.

Watchmen: Chapter 1 is a compelling curiosity, but never matches the power of its source material, and, if anything, should make people turn to the graphic novel instead of checking out yet another adaptation.

Trap is another promising thriller from M. Night Shyamalan, but his filmmaking choices simply can't do this conceit justice.

Seinfeld has made a directorial debut that ends up feeling like a bowl of sugary cereal: not a terrible thing to eat, but not as fulfilling or substantial as you might’ve hoped it would be.

With The Greatest Hits, Benson gives us the film equivalent of an album with a cool cover that masks the inadequate record within.

Blood and Honey 2 still isn’t exactly “good,” and it might be a bit premature to start working on a sprawling Poohniverse, but considering the dregs this series began at, this is a flawed improvement that’s still a bear of little brain.

Godzilla x Kong is a vacuous de-evolution into monster-on-monster action but also arguably the best possible version of that transition. There’s no doubt that this is fairly moronic, but it still manages to be an improvement over what we’ve seen from the last two installments in this cinematic universe.

Frozen Empire attempts to evoke the past with constant callbacks, while trying to make the audience care about a more modern story with characters for a new generation, and ends up failing on both counts.

Spaceman is a rocky journey, but in times like these and thanks to Sandler’s performance, it’s often worth the trip.

Drive-Away Dolls, the solo directorial debut of Ethan Coen, is an occasionally charming road trip comedy that never quite reaches the wit and brilliance of other Coen projects.

Silver's vision doesn't always work, sometimes feeling like a mishmash of ideas and tones that don't always go well together. But when the film focuses on this central relationship, Between the Temples finds a lovely sweet spot that makes it all sing.

It's a deliberately-paced drama with some decent performances and a gorgeously dark aesthetic, but lacks the time or effort to give these stories what they need.

The Greatest Night in Pop is a worthy story in its own right, but a bit more of the director's touch could've done justice to this gigantic achievement of pop music history.

The American Society of Magical Negroes is a film that needs bite for its high concept to work, and unfortunately, Libii’s film doesn’t have teeth.

The film isn’t without its flaws and weird choices, but the fact that it works at all is a testament to the Zellner brothers and this incredible cast being willing to give their all for such a deranged idea.

With Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, we get the best and worst of the DCEU, but also a reminder that there’s still hope for these characters, with a bit more focus, and a reminder of what works and what doesn’t with this world.

Disney has been at the forefront of animation in film for much of its 100 years and their legacy is unparalleled. That’s a lot to put on the shoulders of any animated film, but Wish, with its mundane celebration of this history, is a disappointing commemoration of these accomplishments.

Please Don't Destroy's debut film isn't necessarily a treasure, but there are a few gems to make the future look solid for this trio.

Intriguing moments of animation experimentation and a new batch of characters just aren’t going to be enough to keep this series worthwhile. Right now, Trolls is going in one direction, and it needs to shake it up a bit more to make things in sync again.

Finestkind has all the right pieces to make an interesting drama, but Helgeland can’t get them together in a way that isn’t over-the-top and downright silly.

Yates makes Pain Hustlers part-rowdy dramedy, part-half-assed takedown, and entirely an underwhelming film that attempts to make apparent and bland points.

DuVernay took a big swing with Origin, and that’s certainly to be commended, but the film sadly doesn’t work more often than it does. The impact of the end makes the journey worthwhile, but it’s a rocky road to that conclusion.

By the end of Hate to Love: Nickelback, it’ll be hard to hate these four guys, and in some ways, that’s sort of the point—putting a human face on a band that is often seen as little more than a meme.

Dicks: The Musical is a decidedly big swing and a genuinely weird take on the musical that has its moments, but also feels a bit stretched too thin given its concept.

After the dregs of the first five Transformers films, Bumblebee felt like the shot in the arm that this series needed to make it what it should’ve been all this time. Coming off that, Rise of the Beasts feels like both a step forward and a step back.

Cameos and fan service are fine to have, but the story has to be there to back them up, and it’s not quite there with The Flash.

If Day has shown anything with Fool’s Paradise and the long road to get it made, it’s that he has passion and a vision, and a dedication to making a project that works for him. Fool’s Paradise might not work as well as it should, but fingers crossed that Day keeps at it.

There is potential within the Shazam! films that have never quite been met. Especially with this latest installment, this often feels like DC’s attempt at having a Spider-Man-esque character in their roster, and if you squint, you can almost see that possibility.

Englert has talent, and there's ambition and chunks here that work in bits and pieces, but unfortunately, Bad Behaviour is too scattered and too unfocused to add up to much at all.

There are great ideas within Cat Person, and when this story sticks to the meat of the original story, it’s a fascinating look at dating from a female perspective. Unfortunately, the nose dive in its intent in the final act, when Cat Person gets away from the short story, makes Cat Person two-thirds a solid film, and one-third an absurd blunder.

If anyone could’ve updated this story for 2023, it’s Barris—as he's shown with black-ish. But instead, You People is a missed opportunity, a half-assed reinterpretation that is only sporadically funny, and without the heart or the substance that this story would need for it to truly work.

Chumbawamba was clearly a band that wanted to do great things and fell short of that goal, and similarly, I Get Knocked Down is a curious concept to explore, but gets bogged down in its apparent attempts to be weird for the sake of being weird.

The Pod Generation ends with a thud, leaving the audience to question what the purpose of this endeavor even was.

With The Son, Zeller is trying to bring the same sincerity he brought to The Father into his second film, and instead, The Son unfortunately feels false throughout.

The Seven Faces of Jane is a curious experiment, but ultimately, a failed one.

Especially compared to the 2015 adaptation, A Man Called Otto is a clunky update that often feels like it's full of cartoonish characters, with poor music choices, and cloying sentimentality. But when Forster and Magee pull away from these eccentricities, the story of Otto and Marisol is often a thing of beauty, and wonderful friendship that is lovely to watch grow.

Even though the brutality is seemingly never-ending, we never dull to the constant barrage of pain—both physically and emotionally. Yet when Fuqua and Collage aren’t focusing on the cruelty of this world, the film stops dead, lumbering through the motions, complete with derivative choices, characters, and dialogue.

The Mardini sisters in real life went through hell, and their journey is incredibly powerful, considering what they went through. But The Swimmers only occasionally gives this story the power that it needs, instead, falling into easy tropes and an unfocused narrative.

Disenchanted posits that happily ever after isn’t always the ending of the story, but Disenchanted also proves that sometimes, maybe it should be.

Rosaline's shows its strengths when it focuses on the parallel story of Rosaline and Dario, but when the narrative crosses paths directly with Shakespeare’s story, Rosaline starts to fall apart, becoming a muddled mess of modern references, unusual characterizations, and ideas that don’t mix as well as they should.

García’s latest film is a predictable, completely fine, but uneventful dramedy that never quite finds a way to dig itself out of mediocrity.

Susie Searches has its heart in the right place, and this could’ve been the beginning of an interesting mystery series of sorts, full of intriguing characters, twists and turns that are hard to see coming—even for Susie. But the mishandling of tone and unusual shifts in logic and character motivations makes this film more of a mystery in itself.

The Swearing Jar is a decent idea, but the screenplay and editing draws attention to itself in a way that takes away from the film’s biggest moments—a shame considering these moments could’ve been extremely effective if handled in a slightly different way.

Empire of Light ultimately becomes a confusing mixture of ideas that never congeal into one solid narrative. Yet Mendes’ film does have the tiniest slivers of magic poking through the seams, proving his thesis about the beauty of film, even when he’s too distracted to focus on that idea himself.

Beast has its flaws and is mostly by-the-numbers, but if the idea of Idris Elba fighting a lion is something that is of interest to you, then Beast is going to deliver.

Yet even though it never quite reaches its full potential, Day Shift is enjoyable for the aspects it does want to focus on, even though it’s hard not to wish it would investigate the larger world further.

Possibly the biggest surprise to Luck is just how generic and uninspired it feels, despite how many ideas are crammed into this story. There’s no wonder, no excitement, no jokes that land.

There’s promise, but Vengeance at times feels like a West Texas version of Under the Silver Lake, but without the focus and care. Unfortunately, Ben’s editor was right, Vengeance is more a theory than a story.

Beyond these two endearing actors being able to gleefully chew the scenery, The Gray Man is mostly a collection of tired spy tropes, directed in a muddled and baffling way, that seemingly exists to set up what seems like will be a fairly unimaginative franchise.

In its own way, Persuasion is trying to persuade its audience that Austen was brilliant in her modernity, when Austen already handled that quite well without Cracknell, Bass, and Winslow’s help.