Zachary Wigon

Gaudet and Pullapilly have a background in documentaries, and there's a convincing naturalism to their storytelling.

Stories built around a mystery can have a difficult time creating a satisfying answer, and this picture is no exception.

The Motel Life too often revisits the same emotions and sentiments, leaving us with a portrait that feels frustratingly simple.

Formulaic despite its trespasses, Love Is All You Need leaves the lingering sensation that more fun could have been had if the film cut loose and lived a little.

Often threatening sentimentality yet never quite sinking into it, Josh Barrett and Marc Menchaca's This Is Where We Live benefits from the good taste of the filmmakers, whose appetite for understatement ensures that the picture maintains dramatic effectiveness and only rarely lurches into histrionics.

The endearing nature of the characters, especially Gleeson's Murray, provides some pleasure.

Not fully understanding its own merits, Easy Money is accidentally fascinating in some moments, but purposefully formulaic in many more.

Thoroughly nonjudgmental in its observations, Pierre Salvadori's In the Courtyard ranks as one of the funnier films about victims of depression and mental illness.

I'm So Excited! is characterized by a distinct brand of unsuccessful yet ambitious storytelling, the kind often found in minor works by major masters.

The film isn't without mirth and charm... But as Surnow steers into serious waters, the direction of the storytelling becomes increasingly misguided.

Treating one's audience like ignorant children in need of lecturing is hardly a way to win fans, or display one's own artistry.

Epic certainly manages to tell a compelling tale. Yet in a post-Up era where animated films can pulse with profound truths, the question remains: Is mere entertainment enough?

While she doesn't quite achieve the screwball zaniness she strives for, Chism deserves commendation for crafting a farcical work that feels like it concerns real characters.

Hoffman, naturally, makes his character interesting in the way that genius actors always do. Yet the film's storytelling struggles to match his level of skill.

The narrative ends up working in a smaller scope than one might expect given the premise of a beast plaguing a community, but the journey getting to the finish is exhilarating all the same.

When functioning like a magic trick, this breathlessly entertaining picture delights in its showmanship, but the more entertaining the trickery, the tougher the explanation, and when the truth is revealed the answer can't help but fail to satisfy.

Using its narrative as a launching pad for abstract visuals, the picture reminds viewers that even the most striking images demand context to create anything like drama.

The narrative is so formulaic as to feel immediately contrived, with seemingly every plot device taken from another film.

All the performers are supremely entertaining while dealing or defying horrible deaths... but Yen unfortunately lacks the kind of charisma that can elevate a genre film to a higher level of satisfaction.

The film's success rests upon the interest engendered by these characters, but Hank and Asha fail to meaningfully engage us.

The film's delivery system sets itself up for failure.

The degree to which Highway candies up Veera's slumming toward freedom feels so fundamentally out of touch with the realities of poverty that it skirts into offensiveness.

While the film isn't without charming moments -- the Derby sequence is entertaining -- the lack of narrative sophistication grates.

The crookedness of the narrative is compounded by the film's failure to display its characters' great pleasures (surfing and drugs) in visually expressive ways.

Sergio Castellitto's Twice Born irresponsibly appropriates the horrific siege of Sarajevo to serve as aesthetic backdrop for a story that exhibits no real interest in the conflict.

The frustration here comes from the filmmakers' inability to present characters with dimension, so that we might come to identify with them and their fears.

For a film with shootouts, heists, and high-speed chases, Julian Gilbey's Plastic is a strangely lifeless affair.

Unfortunately, Argento never acknowledges he's in on the joke, nor is the film quite ridiculous enough for us to coast enjoyably on derision. When it comes to B-movies, sometimes anything less than way too much isn't nearly enough.