Ryan Oliver

The film succeeds as a fun, late-night moviegoing experience, though those looking for something more substantial or memorable, may want to just wait for the next ‘Conjuring’ film and hope it overcomes the hex of the series’ increasingly conventional routine.

Whatever the case may be, MIB International is a failure on just about every level, and instead of 3D glasses, movie theaters should be handing out the neuralizers at the end instead to help us all forgot the cringe-worthy memory of what we just watched.

Detective Pikachu is a fun, occasionally-funny, and almost always-beautiful to look at kids adventure film that doesn’t insult the intelligence of its audience and offers them great, positive lessons that are earned.

Unfortunately, the peripheral factors worth championing are not enough to save the film from being a routine slasher, with an unremarkable mystery at the center, that puts its prescient anti-bullying message first and genre second, making Thriller feel a bit like a chore.

For as impressive and smart as the film is throughout, the weightlessness to the drama keeps it just out of arm’s reach of films that masterfully examine loss like “The Changeling,” but the craft at least firmly plants it in the upper-tier of contemporary horror remakes.

It’s technically impressive and faulty in equal measure, expunging most of the substance in favor of occasionally effective, but mostly cheap, scares.

What keeps the film mostly on track is its proudly confrontational nature, quick-witted dialogue, and performances to match. But it’s a dark, sobering film too—the corruption, dishonesty and immoral law enforcement practices employed to screw over expendable brown and black people is depressingly distressing and it’s here where “The Day Shall Come” has trouble sealing the deal on its uncomfortable remit of awkward laughs and somber realities.

“Everybody’s Everything” is a loving tribute for fans as well as those unfamiliar. And for the latter, the doc truly creates a sense of humanity, awe, and undeniable raw talent that it makes it easy to why his music connected with so many people in such a quick amount time.

By keeping the humor rooted in the performances and only letting sentimentality creep in when necessary, Nelson and Schwartz have crafted a film that feels refreshing, unique, and emotional.

It is a little peculiar as to who the audience for “Good Boys” is exactly. It’s too vulgar for kids who are the age of the film’s characters, and while an adult audience will likely find much to admire and potentially even teach their kids, some of the film’s more sophomoric elements could get a little grating.

As it stands now, The Highwaymen arguably does just enough legwork to justify its existence, but good luck enduring it.

While slight, yet accurate in his thesis, Stearns does what any good filmmaker should do to make that message stick: he makes us laugh.

The hedonism on display is very much of a piece with “Trash Humpers” and “Spring Breakers,” but in a surprising change of pace for Korine, the film is more at ease with itself, and more emotional than either of those two provocative efforts.

As a sleekly-directed, crowd-pleasing horror film, it’s efficient, terrifyingly thrilling and a lot of fun. It’s the kind of movie that will be discussed and debated for decades to come, and perhaps thirty years from now, as things continue to descend into utter chaos, Us will be looked back in retrospect as prophetic. As it stands now, it’s fascinating, a little maddening, and entertaining.

The greatest pitfall of Mary Poppins Returns isn’t the familiarity; it’s the cohesion, specifically the lack thereof. The narrative tissue is merely an excuse to set up each extravagant musical number, but the best musicals don’t forget to make the non-musical moments count.

There are nuggets of potential underneath, but they’re ultimately buried in a loud, monotonous experience that plays out like a bad haunted corn maze and you just want to cut through the cornstalks for a faster way out.

Admirable and charming, yet uninspired and un-engaging, Anna and the Apocalypse doesn’t use its genre mash-up to subvert the respective clichés but more so brings the baggage of coming-of-age movie and zombie movie tropes with it.

Shirkers is a film that should be experienced more than explained. That sounds like a cop out, but it’s an inspiring documentary about the process of filmmaking, the love of outsider art, but also a cautionary tale about trust and shadiness in the filmmaking world.

By bringing in a strong screenwriter, hungry filmmakers with a vision, and a cast and crew who care deeply for the work... you get the recipe for a delightful and deranged modern-day exploitation film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but somehow, asks you to take it more seriously than you might have otherwise.