All pleasures in Last Christmas are as slight. Like the Christmas shop and its baubles, it’s shiny and attractive and intermittently distracting, but it’s all just so much glitter on cheap plastic. It’s angling hard for holiday cheer, but there’s nothing more joyless than forced whimsy.

When it’s good, Doctor Sleep is mighty good.

While the movie doesn’t break new ground, it’s a story pretty well told. If you’re a fan of war epics of movies about flying, you’ll find something that holds your interest.

Though it's certainly well-acted, the quiet film is a retread of familiar recent dramas about doomed heroines like in "Still Alice." But this version prompted me to look up one-way flights to Portugal instead of weeping about a character's looming destiny.

Even if the big thematic statements are less than subtle, the story is solid and thought-provoking, and the performances are just stylized enough to match the intensity of Norton’s deep-dive performance.

It’s more serviceable than inspired, but “Dark Fate” gets by on nostalgia. It’s just nice to see Schwarzenegger and Hamilton together again.

Erivo captures both Tubman’s defiance and her headstrong courage. But the film overall feels too conventional. It simply cannot fully capture the inspiring story of Tubman’s incredible life. Then again, what could?

Yes, the tone is a tricky balance that sometimes almost gets away from Waititi — there are some laugh-out-loud moments alongside some scenes of harrowing sadness. But for the most part, Waititi and the cast, which is uniformly excellent, manage to make it work.

As a substitution for the tour that never was, this concert film within a documentary does a brilliant job of bringing "Western Stars" to life.

Nothing is off the table when your status is threatened, no matter what your station in life. Parasite explores this in stunning fashion.

Captivating and grim, The Lighthouse is a tempestuous descent into a briny abyss urging its audience to pack a life preserver.

The characters in the film don't shed tears, but you'll be fighting them at certain points. Pain and Glory stays with you, and grows richer with reflection.

With “Maleficent’s” feminist message suffering a relapse, the sequel looks more like generic film fantasy than a fresh take on an old story. The cuddly creatures and razzle-dazzle action are enough to make two hours disappear, but it’s only Jolie’s bat-winged charisma that will rattle on in your memory.

There are some funny bits and a welcome shot of new blood, but there’s not a lot of overwhelming evidence for this movie’s need to exist.

Director Michael Goi is big on jump shocks that get increasingly tiresome.

First Love might not ultimately mean much, but its wily mix of colorful elements – romance, organized crime, slapstick and ultra-violence – makes for a bracingly weird cinematic experience.

If you’re a fan of action movies, or you’ve ever pondered the questions of nature vs. nuture or even what you’ll tell your younger self if you had a chance, you’ll enjoy Gemini Man.

Tyrnauer’s film is fairly straightforward in structure — we hit the highlights up front, such as Cohn’s work advising Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a gig that would have killed most people's career — but it’s Cohn’s almost pathological need to be seen, and to be seen as tough and willing to fight, that makes the film so compelling.

Maybe there’s a place in the film world for El Coyote as a cult artifact, something that years from now enthusiasts will defend as a kind of dada experiment. In the moment, though, as you suffer through it, it’s just an ill-conceived mess.

The Joker’s superpower is his resentment, his narcissism, and Phoenix cultivates these methodically in his performance, slowly transmuting the character’s awkward fragility into a kind of raging charisma — aided and abetted, of course, by all the tricks of art direction, sound design and editing that a journeyman filmmaker has at his disposal.

Britt-Marie Was Here succinctly crams in plenty of overwrought tropes but maintains a sentimental heart with its prickly heroine. Is it revolutionary? Not by any means. But is every journey of self-discovery supposed to be?

Despite its flaws, Judy can leave you feeling like an emotional wreck by the end.

Through all the skillfully juggled subplots, the overarching conflict has always been the family’s quest to keep hold of Downton Abbey — and thus preserve their role as the heart of the community, envied and adored by all — while also keeping up with the march of modernity.

Clearly, Zeroville is not a film for everyone. But if you love movies and you’re willing to experiment, it’s an enjoyable trip.

Ad Astra is one giant leap for telling intimate stories on a grand scale.

In an era where horror films are attempting to get smarter (a nod to you, “A Quiet Place,”) this just makes everyone dumber.

In the end, if someone doesn't have the time to absorb Tartt's book, they'd be better serviced reading a Wikipedia synopsis than seeing this film.

There was something about the first film, about seeing not just the horror but also the joy of growing up through the kids’ eyes. That’s lost by necessity here, but It Chapter Two certainly misses it. And so do I.

While not everything works in Todos Caen — "Everybody Falls" in English — the film is breezy and engaging, with sharp and snappy dialogue. Most importantly, you want to see the two main characters wind up together.

Brittany is funny and authentic, but she can also be prickly and stubborn, even hard to like. You know, the way real people are.

The plot is ingeniously engineered, but the narrative is like a low-res image. It gets the idea across, but without the kind of details that make it memorable.

This isn’t a great horror movie so much as a fun thrill ride. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett know just how to put Weaving’s talents to good use.

Gerard Butler boasts an engaging screen presence that can make even junky movies fun. Maybe it’s the blustery swagger or his jokey attitude that essentially screams, “I’m not taking any of this too seriously.” Either way, it works, especially in Angel Has Fallen.

The film is a sweet, funny and heartfelt look at friendship and strength.

Overall the movie is a delightful escape with several laugh-out-loud moments. It's definitely worth "girls night out" or "mom-and-daughter" trip to the movies.

There’s a lot to be admired here, and After the Wedding certainly gives you a lot to think about. It just doesn’t quite make you feel all the feels.

Treading the same raunchy path as "Neighbors" and "Superbad," the contrast of child actors uttering obscenities and utilizing sex toys as weapons is a comical mix of one outrageous mess after another.

You don't have to love Bruce Springsteen with the all-consuming passion of Sarfraz Manzoor, the U.K. journalist whose memoir was adapted for the screenplay of Blinded By the Light, to find the film both deeply moving and utterly charming.

Even if you've never watched a whole episode of "Dora the Explorer," you'd have to be a grinch not to be slightly charmed by the whole thing.

It’s Hodge’s portrayal of Banks that elevates the film.

Them That Follow is a tough slog, no doubt. But it’s also a worthwhile one, even if you might appreciate it more than you’ll enjoy it.

The film deftly weaves news and interview clips from Wallace's half-century on TV with the times he himself answered questions as tough as those he asked, fleshing out one of the country's last formidable journalists.

The Kitchen requires Scorsese levels of charisma to work, and only McCarthy comes close out of sheer professionalism.

It's definitely a family-friendly film, but some of the slower moments might bore kids. More importantly: There isn't anything astoundingly different about this film. It's about a dog, and it's absolutely cute and sweet. It's also predictably heartwarming and it offers nothing new.

Tel Aviv on Fire, like the soap opera that shares its name, doesn't attempt to grapple with the complexities of the conflict. "Is there nothing between bombs and surrender?" it asks, pleading for moderation. Moderation gets you a pleasant-enough comedy. But not much more.

There’s a fine line between homage and rip-off, between a clever mashup and a messy pileup of tired tropes. But, much like a rainbow, where that line appears is in the eye of the beholder.

The power dynamics between two peoples locked in “asymmetrical conflict” — not to mention two sets of gender codes — set the stage for Alayan’s thriller. In storytelling terms, they are the rules by which the tightly wound plot unspools. But the film’s great strength, in addition to the usual quality-control things, is its care to humanize, not demonize, the characters who are playing by those rules.

Tarantino has always worn his love of cinema on his sleeve, fetishistic and in the form of homage. But here, that love is reverent.

It's clear that Wang pours her soul into this movie to make the audience see what she sees.

It’s a surprising film in many ways. Both for its thoughtfulness and the way the plot unfurls into thriller territory as Casey falls deeper under Sensei's spell.

There is never any doubt where this is going, and the film takes far too long to get there.

In Too Late to Die Young, Chilean writer-director Dominga Sotomayor excavates details from her own memory to unlock a hidden bonus level of starkly original cinematic beauty. This spare coming-of-age story is a slow-burning stunner, despite hardly having a plot at all.

Nanjiani is kind of like Bill Murray. There's just something about him that makes you anticipate something funny coming, if not now, soon, so why not start laughing? I don't know whether it would work in just any film, but here he's such an oasis of intelligence in a desert of comedic stupidity that I'd like to see if it would.

Despite minor hiccups, it really comes down to an entertaining time with no worries — er, "Hakuna Matata."

“Far From Home” ends up being one of the more entertaining and satisfying installments in Marvel’s never-ending story cycle, thanks to a tautly constructed narrative that packs in plenty of fan service without getting overly complicated.

While Midsommar is too overwrought to be a masterpiece, it’s also too entertaining in its abject lunacy and assured in its craftsmanship to be considered a sophomore slump. Aster is a filmmaker still defining his voice, and despite the growing pains, Midsommar is an intriguing step in its evolution.

The Quiet One could have used a lot more complexity.

Patel does a masterful job of portraying the inner turmoil that comes with a musician having found the fame he thought he always wanted while knowing he's living a lie. And he's great in the musical numbers, which do their best to sound like someone capturing the spirit of those Beatles songs from memory.

An ever-changing obstacle course does sustain its own kind of tension, but it’s not like there’s a real puzzle to solve, nor any arc to the plot. The movie is just a succession of scary stuff happening, haunted-ride-style.

The Proposal makes for a fascinating and not-a-little-morbid piece of artistic trolling.

The handling of the faith aspect is actually one of the stronger parts of the film. Some movies like this lay it on thick, basically existing as a religious recruitment video. Here, and here alone, Ellis lays off and lets the audience think things through. The message is more effective this way.

The “Toy Story” saga felt fully complete without it, which makes this a movie that doesn’t really need to exist, but whose existence doesn’t diminish the whole, either.

“Last Black Man” pulses with undeniable energy and the promise of other, even better films to come. As director Joe Talbot’s first movie, it’s impossible to imagine it will be his last.

The buddy comedy Papi Chulo could go wrong in all sorts of ways, so it’s kind of a minor miracle how much it actually gets right. Funny, empathetic and tender, it pretty much sneaks up and catches you off-guard with its sly charms.

It’s ironic that a film about bucking formula is itself so formulaic. There’s nothing wrong with such inoffensive pleasantness, but if Late Night wants to advocate setting fire to the system in pursuit of more meaningful art, it should have led the charge.

The Dead Don’t Die isn’t bad, exactly. It’s just that with all this talent and all this beautiful weirdness at hand, it could have been so much better.

In the end, this may be a case of a pop-culture icon being dragged down by the weight of trying remain relevant past its prime. It’s not woke, but you can’t call it racist. Maybe racist-ish. Misogynistic-ish. Entertaining-ish.

If you insist on seeing Men in Black: International, do yourself a favor and zap yourself with an official MIB neuralyzer, erasing all memories of previous films in the franchise.

Maybe Pavarotti would be even more compelling if Howard had delved deeper into the contradictions and controversies. But the director does achieve the first goal on entertainment: Always leave them wanting more.

The animation is clean and colorful, and punchlines hit their mark with adults and children under director Chris Renaud's guidance for a second time. But they also heavily hit audiences with action from three loosely tied story lines, making many "meanwhile" breaks between stories. It is a movie for kids, after all.

Loopers: The Caddie's Long Walk treads far too lightly upon a decades-long racial divide between caddies and golfers, falling silent on the subject as a hushed gallery during a backswing.

You come to a Godzilla movie for the epic fights, and on that front, Dougherty delivers.

Ma is one loony little horror film, and Octavia Spencer has a grand old time being the craziest thing in it.

Give in to the fantasy and it's a fun and fascinating ride that offsets moments of real pathos (from heartbreaking portraits of childhood rejection to him literally hitting bottom in his swimming pool) with scenes that definitely capture the exhilaration of becoming Elton John

The pacing and writing are as smart as the film's title. Early moments are worth a chuckle, but the laugh-out-loud, top-shelf jokes happen when night falls.

As much as Swinton Byrne and Burke add lived-in qualities to their characters, there's really not much to like about the leads or their toxic relationship that unravels at a mind-numbing pace.

It all has the air of a community theater troupe performing in a Disney parade, overeager in the exaggerated artifice. That's well enough for an amusement park, but on film it's embarrassing.

While the film’s last 30 seconds are refreshing, they hardly redeem the previous 90 minutes of utter predictability.

Under the perfectly paced direction of Ry Russo-Young (“Before I Fall”), Shahidi and Melton develop an easy chemistry on the way toward a satisfying denouement that’s neither tear-jerking tragedy nor fairy-tale wish fulfillment.

How do you make a legend as imposing as Shakespeare flesh? All Is True suggests you can't, if not even Branagh, Dench, McKellen, et al. can bring him down to earth. Maybe it's for the best that the real man is unknowable, that man is simply the work itself.

Happily, this is a movie about not just idealism but practical idealism, and the struggle that maintaining it requires. It looks drop-dead gorgeous and, despite a few storytelling short cuts, it's unexpectedly moving.

It doesn’t just maintain the momentum built in the previous chapters but further ramps up the emotional stakes and physical complexity. It’s like gorging on candy for two hours, only you get to walk away from the theater without a stomachache.

Even though Trial by Fire is less than a masterpiece, it still came as a gut punch that forced me to examine my own complicated feelings on the issue. In short, it taught me something, and that was a surprise.

Director Dome Karukoski guides the actors well with a perfectly British script containing dry, witty humor. However, the movie leaves one longing for a little more.

Shadow is a terrific film — gorgeous, violent, Byzantine, inventive, just a joy to watch. Once it gets going.

The movie relies on the chemistry between Reynolds and Smith plus nostalgia, but it works well. This might be the best video game-based movie yet. So when it comes to tickets, movie-goers gotta catch 'em all.

Long Shot is a love story for underdogs, whether they're gifted but out-there wackos or glamorous glass-ceiling breakers. It's unsurprising that this raunchy dark horse could charm anyone to hit the polls.

It’s long on violence and short on storytelling. It aims high, working in the realm of myths, but it does so in hit-or-miss fashion.

Basically, a lot of things happen; not interesting or believable things, but, hey, there's movement and action.

It’s a good movie, so smartly directed by Ralph Fiennes, who also appears as Nureyev’s dance instructor, that at times it feels like an IQ test. But the story is intriguing and, ultimately, gripping enough to overcome all that.

Schull's quietly commanding performance is a stunning piece of acting, in which the character seems to reveal new layers every time she's on screen.

A cunning civics lesson about religious pluralism that will have civic-minded citizens throwing up the devil horns even if they’re not quite ready to proclaim mocking allegiance to Satan.

For fans, counting up how many superheroes can emerge from the clown car of one three-hour movie is half the fun. For casual moviegoers — say, those who might skip minor installments such as “Ant-Man and the Wasp” — it accounts for half the exhaustion, a bit of world-building fatigue to go along with the sensory overload of a fantasy realm that seems stuck in perpetual apocalypse.

It doesn’t take long to suspect you are witnessing an epic fail of Alexander proportions — a visionary filmmaker pouring years of craft and ambition, not to mention millions of dollars and the talents of dozens of gung-ho actors, down the drain of a misconceived “statement.”

This won't be the best movie audiences will ever see, but at least it's fun to watch with pretty visuals and upbeat songs.

Overall, kids will enjoy the story's humorous moments punctuated by a couple barf jokes — always popular with the under-12 crowd. Meanwhile, their Gen-X and Millennial parents may find the story of the struggles of parenting familiar. They might also have flashbacks to their own childhoods through a soundtrack featuring artists like REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake.

There is no sense of dread or impending doom; instead it's just one jolt after another. It's like having someone jump out at you every five minutes, and about as much fun.

Little won't offer a lot of surprises as it hums along to the inevitable conclusion, but it is funny.