Ross McIndoe

The film is sensitively attuned to how people’s feelings are shaped by cultural norms.

Geeta Gandbhir’s trenchant documentary takes incendiary material and aims it at a larger target.

Dick Fontaine and Pat Harley’s documentary makes the political personal at every turn.

True to its name, the film puts the concept of forgiveness on display and asks us to spend some time in front of it and consider it from all angles.

The film is one that fully recognizes the power of a lingering gaze, a suppressed smile, the slightest movement of the littlest finger, and one which uses them all to maximum effect.

The film pokes fun at the conventions of detective stories but never becomes so self-aware that you stop taking it seriously.

From the first blow to the last, Polite Society is a charm offensive that simply doesn’t let up.

A unique joie de vivre courses through A Trip to Gibberitia’s every meticulously composed frame.

There are little moments of blackhearted comedy among the bloodshed, but through it all, The Last Stop in Yuma County makes sure that those gunshots resonate.

Sam Green’s documentary has a knack for finding moments where we can feel the broad sweep of a supercentenarian lifespan, condensed down into a single, everyday occurrence.

The film leaves on a razor’s edge between hope and despair, encouraged on the one hand by the passion with which justice is being demanded and, on the other, depressed by the widespread indifference with which these demands are met.

The satire here isn’t quite as on point as that of its predecessors, but it helps that Boyega, Parris, and Foxx share the sort of chemistry that even the most secretive government lab couldn’t cook up.

The film is a witchy mall comedy that mostly keeps you under its spell.

With so many engaging voices on offer, Suzannah Herbert wisely chooses to let the locals tell the story rather than providing any explicit narration of her own.

Ed Harris and Jessica Lange electrifyingly bring so many of their characters’ emotions to the surface, even as they convey that James and Mary are burying so much more beneath it.

The First Slam Dunk is able to throw a relentless series of new gambits, twists, and reversals at the screen that will keep even seasoned sports film fans on the edge of their seat.

The film is consistently delightful, offering up an unrelenting supply of shimmering, sun-dappled visuals and a sweet, strange story about a young girl making peace with her past.

A Samurai in Time isn’t just having fun with fake swords and chonmage wigs, as it also provides a lot of gentle reflections about history, modernity, and our place in it all.

By stripping the story back to its most elemental form, Benjamin Millepied makes it feel mythic, poetic, and captivatingly romantic.

There’s never any danger of Self Reliance’s reach exceeding its grasp, but it gets a firm handle on the things it does want to achieve: tell good jokes, craft likeable characters, and strike a lighthearted tone that’s always just a little bit odder than you may be expecting.

This darkly comic and consistently revealing tale suggests that, without four walls around us to prop them up, most of our morals would crumble into dust.

With The Outrun’s neat but poignant metaphor work in mind, mental illness and addiction are understood as natural responses to the conditions of a ravaged life.

Every segment passes the basic scary-movie smell test of showing you something that you haven’t seen before, and that includes a truly depraved death involving a large quantity of gumballs.

In many ways, the film feels like a micro-budget rendition of Tenet, as our heroes discover that they’ve been caught in a “vice-grip” between past and future that functions much like that film’s famous “temporal pincer.”

The film pulls off something truly bold: taking what are perhaps the most emotionally and symbolically loaded items in existence and subverting their meaning completely to end on a note of peace, joy, and hope for the future.

Blue Sun Palace’s tale is filled with quiet spaces, and the way the texture of this quiet changes over the course of the film is a testament to its power.

Lost Soulz is a road-trip movie driven by good vibrations and the joy of making music.

The Grab makes a clear choice to conclude not just with doomsaying, but with a call to action and a look at the things that can still be done to avert a global crisis.