Ross McIndoe

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Strange Darling is a cunningly devised thriller that wields our assumptions against us like a sharp implement, delighting in making us squirm.

Hunt Her, Kill Her simply isn’t tight enough to maintain the tension that it seeks to create.

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 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.

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

The film is an impressively complicated and compassionate drama about shame and desire.

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.

Like any good fighter film, Cassandro builds to the sort of incredible final bout that makes your hairs stand up and the rest of your body want to.

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

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.

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.

Nick Rowland’s film doesn’t seem to have faith in the story the novel tells.

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 is most interesting when observing the subtler power dynamics at play within frats.

The nimble way that Rachel Sennott hops between the two versions of her character easily makes up for the odd narrative misstep that I Used to Be Funny makes along the way.

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

40 Acres continually finds clever ways to either subvert familiar story beats or to make them land with extra impact.

Kill continually finds clever ways to defy our expectations through the particular placement of dramatic beats, surprising shifts in tone, and even just the way it keeps flipping the geography of the action.

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.

The film’s writing is the sort that begs you to find it cute and quirky, which makes it quite grating if you don’t.