There is so much to enjoy about Encanto — the songs, the gorgeous animation, the cultural traditions. All of which make the script’s serious shortcomings all the more surprising and disappointing.

"Norman” takes a largely unlikable character and inserts him into the center of its story, a gambit that seems like a surefire recipe for disaster. It’s not, thanks to Richard Gere.

It would be unbearable if it weren’t so completely self-aware.

It's refreshing to see an animated movie that doesn't look as though the idea for the Happy Meal came first.

Border brings to horror-fantasy the same Swedish sensibility that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” brought to crime thrillers. Welcome to the land of eternal night.

Frank is a true original, a film that heads in one direction only to veer off in another, yet never loses sight of where it's going.

It’s the kind of movie that, if you give yourself to it, you’ll love.

Capernaum is a tough slog, no doubt, even by tough-slog standards. But that’s a big part of what makes it so rewarding.

Olsen makes us understand, as best we can, Martha's plight. She has a tenuous grip on reality, and, thanks to Olsen's performance and Durkin's sure hand, by the film's end, so do we.

It is indeed a beautiful film, but with each horizon tinged with sadness.

Not a lot happens, other than eating between small bits of drama and large doses of humor. If you saw the first film, you know how good that can be.

Hausmann-Stokes won’t let the film get sappy; Martin-Green and Harris ensure it. Instead, it’s an unflinching look at a health crisis, a film that arrives at what it’s trying to say through unconventional means, and is all the more effective for it.

The film is fascinating in its exploration of the give-and-take between art and commerce.

Laurel and Hardy embarked on their tour to stay relevant in the public's heart. Through this delightful representation, a new generation of viewers can experience their timeless comedy.

Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street is absurd, ridiculous, over the top, overindulgent, overlong, overstuffed, over-everythinged. And that is precisely the point.

Osmond may tell the story to wring maximum emotion out of the audience, but so what? Isn’t that why people make these movies? It is. And more importantly, it’s why people watch them.

The movie is more a collection of cool people telling great stories than it is a structured documentary (despite Camalier’s attempts in that direction). But in this case, that’s enough.

Shaffer's inexperience pays off. He's completely natural as a mixed-up kid (and great on the mat).

For some, it will be tempting to say The French Dispatch is easier to admire than enjoy. But if you go into it knowing what Anderson offers, you can do both.

There are laughs aplenty, some disgusting, some rather sweet, some both at the same time.

The performances are outstanding.

Some surprises are more effective than others. But what holds the film together are a couple of really strong performances by Charlize Theron and Mackenzie Davis. They have a terrific, and unique, chemistry that helps smooth over a few rough patches.

Clever and current without being cynical, smart without being condescending, funny without being exclusionary to grown-ups or to kids.

Gere is terrific. It’s a tough job standing out at a distance, especially when we have to make an effort to find you, but Gere always commands our interest and attention.

You don’t lose yourself in the film the way you might like, but there is never a second in which Oldman is not riveting.

If you can ignore the implausibility -- nay, the opacity -- of the plot, the film is wonderfully cinematic, with great photography, exciting editing, fresh camera angles and some impressive CGI.

A well-acted, nicely directed, quiet little movie.

Koreeda makes thrilling the rich inner lives of four young women trying to navigate rocky emotional terrain in the wake of their father’s death.

Spy is hilarious and heartfelt, a terrific movie.

Night Moves is an unexpected pleasure, offering more than what we expect and taking its time to deliver.

Reeves was born to this kind of role — quiet, moody, looks nice in black. He’s just as good as he was in the first film, because he’s exactly the same. In many ways, so is the film. That’s fine this time around, because John Wick: Chapter 2 is just as crazily entertaining.

It’s a heartfelt salute from Branagh to his hometown, and what he loved there.

Baruchel is outstanding, giving Hiccup just the right amount of confidence buried several layers beneath the shame he feels in not continuing the family business. Butler's a head-banger from way back, so he's convincing. And Ferrera gets the grrl-power vibe just right.

Between the galloping pace of the action and the percussive soundtrack and sound editing, you remain tense the entire time. Garland just won’t let you relax.

Ultimately, think of the movie as a puzzle box in which all the pieces fit together wonderfully well. Once you step back and take a look at how it’s all put together, you have to marvel at how cleverly constructed the whole thing is.

There is a predictability to the story, but that's OK. The acting is superb, Holbrook in particular, making That Evening Sun an understated pleasure.

It's stunning (and amazingly well done) and hard to believe.

Individually Christmas and Robinson are outstanding. Together they are even better, making Morris from America an unexpected treat.

This is a crazy movie, in the best possible way. Body horror films have to be willing to get nuts to really work ― “The Substance” knew this, for instance. And Franco and Brie, along with Shanks, fully commit to this.

The brutally sparse documentary Rich Hill removes poverty from the realm of the abstract and makes it personal.

Fun, happily, is one of the many ingredients in copious supply here.

Through dogged research and interviews with the (now-grown) children Maier cared for, along with their parents (including Phil Donahue), a profile emerges, and it's fascinating.

A perverse delight, the rare film that makes you feel good about feeling bad (or at least watching others do so).

It's clear-eyed and remarkably honest, and Macdonald shows a flair for illustrating how Houston's life fits in the bigger picture

This is a smart movie, a treat for fans of the comics and the franchise. And it's a lot of fun.

This isn’t a war movie; it’s an after-the-war movie. But the battle lines are still drawn, and every ragged breath the film takes braces for an explosion.

It’s an expertly directed, slow-burning psychological horror film filled with outstanding performances.

The Bob’s Burgers Movie is good. At times it’s really good, with a lot of the charm and humor that makes the show so great.

In terms of jokes per minute that land, it’s at least the equal of its predecessor.

The film is a slice of life, and although nothing earthshaking happens, at only 75 minutes long, it never quite tries your patience either.

What's nice is how smart the film is. Schumer gives a nod to plenty of other romantic comedies, not to make fun of them but to honor them. Being funny is hard work and she has put in the hours of toil.

The strength of Peace Officer is that it doesn’t attempt to pit the viewer against the police. Its target, rather, is the system.

Cavaye is relentless in his quest to entertain, to thrill.

Bigelow brilliantly builds tension, to the extent that the third version we see is every bit as nerve-wracking as the first if not more so. This is nail-biting stuff, agonizing to sit through.

Abu-Assad does a masterful job of showing, in these seemingly hopeless circumstances, the fragility of life.

McQuarrie delivers a tense, eye-popping amusement-park ride that’s almost as exciting as it is forgettable.

The great strength of The Sower is that it doesn’t try to do too much. It zooms in on its microcosm with a tender urgency that offers a glimpse of complex humanity without reducing the story to some sort of pithy takeaway.

Frozen is a delightful animated musical, a return to form for Disney animation with an intriguing story and terrific songs.

This is a film that deals with suicide, missed chances, depression, infidelity and more. Yet the movie itself isn't depressing, thanks to Hader, Wiig and director and co-writer Craig Johnson.

Terribly Happy must surely be the greatest Danish Western ever made.

It's a fine line between being gratingly self-conscious and really smart; more times than not, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl comes out on the winning side of that equation.

There’s a jarring shift in tone and story in the last act, but the performances — particularly towering ones by a way-over-the-top Ralph Fiennes and an under-the-radar Tilda Swinton — perfectly balancing each other, carry the day.

For much of the movie Morris simply lets the loquacious McKinney talk, and she never, ever stops. And she never disappoints.

The film wraps up too neatly to be believed, not leaving questions unanswered so much as failing to ask them.

Call it a battle-of-the-sexes comedy set in a devout Orthodox community in Jerusalem. But, in its own quiet and friendly way, the film goes deeper than that, looking at how conservative religious views can clash with more moderate ways.

There's no question it looks fantastic...As for the story, well, much like the original Frankenstein's monster, it is a haphazard assemblage of well-aged source materials jolted back to life with new technology, but it isn't quite as sophisticated as one might hope.

When the material falters, Sumpter and Sawyers suck you back in with their pitch-perfect performances.

Witherspoon is an outstanding actress whose material doesn't always fit her talents. "Wild" meanders a bit, in its trips from present to past and back, but Witherspoon remains the constant, doing what sounds simple enough but proves so difficult: soldiering on.

It is a fascinating document of making a comeback record — sorry, Tanya — while balancing the hard work and the gentle coaxing and cheerleading required when working with a complex talent like Tucker.

The trip through their history is a trip through the 1980s and ’90s, and Diamond and Horowitz offer the unique perspective of people in the middle of it then who are on the outside looking back, knowledgeable observers who know more now than they knew then. And isn’t that the idea?

Catherine Called Birdy is a reminder to let our spirits be free, never settle and keep loved ones close.

I love movies like this — sweet little surprises that stick with you.

Knoxville and the others go about their messy business with a glee that is impossibly contagious.

The visuals are stunning, perhaps the most fully realized of any film.

It’s clever. It’s also occasionally a chore to watch, true to the boredom you’d expect to feel listening to computer programmers hash out chess logistics.

Schnack presents all this without commentary, stitching together appearances and speeches and strategy sessions. As is often the case, he doesn’t need to make the point about the quality of politics at work in Caucus. The candidates do it for him.

As in a Le Carré novel, we're given long doses of the private lives of the protagonists, and we learn their secrets, their insecurities and the toll taken by the necessity of constant lying.

Again, 155 minutes is a lot of time for throat clearing, but by the time the film is done Villeneuve is hitting his stride. He has created a complex, intriguing world.

The whole range of human emotion — love, lust, anger, jealousy, despair, grief — is felt through Plympton's animation. It's just a shame that his boundless creativity doesn't extend to the narrative.

Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba’s film is a lot of things, almost all of them good. It’s a vibrant, colorful, animated movie. It’s a serious documentary about political oppression and violence. It’s a loving exploration of Brazilian bossa nova. The soundtrack is incredible.

Howard, whose first job as a director was the 1977 Roger Corman-produced “Grand Theft Auto,” has captured what is surely the greatest racing footage ever shot.

It's true that the language in the film can be harsh -- but it's also very obvious that kids are hearing this kind of language in schools every day, much of it directed at them.

Sweet, gentle and defiantly retro (the 2-D hand-drawn animation is superb), the movie is irresistibly charming.

Armageddon Time is above all what it sets out to be: a story about growing up, and all the joy and pain that entails.

Thelma treads the line between the psychological and supernatural, gracefully at first, and then with increasing abandon.

When every aspect of a movie comes together, it's a beautiful sight.

Highlighted by great voice acting, especially from the four actors playing the main teenagers who are relatively unknown actors — and by Ayo Edebiri, who is taking over the summer with her starring role in "The Bear" — the movie will catapult the ninja turtle lore into yet another generation. Cowabunga!

Lelio, who also directed the excellent “Gloria” and last year’s Oscar winner for best foreign film, “A Fantastic Woman,” never shortchanges the desire or the faith, a neat balancing act between the competing elements at the heart of Disobedience, and the success of which makes it so compelling and worthwhile.

What matters is creating, and “Eat That Question” turns out to be a stirring look at the creative process examined, however reluctantly, by someone who created a lot, and exceptionally well.

As a love letter to a talented and endearing soul, it's hard to fault Love, Gilda. Like its subject, it feels remarkably honest and genuine.

When executed with love and peopled with actors who breathe life into their characters, Hidden Figures is precisely the delight it aims to be.

Affleck is the center of the film. His Doug is, in some respects, rather like Affleck - the director of the elaborate heists, as well as a performer in them.

A delightful look at the public career and mostly private life of the ultimate professional amateur.

Although at times maybe not enough happens, it’s still a satisfying homage to a golden age of American film and an original achievement in its own right.

Wieckiewicz is outstanding, his open face expressing a full range of emotions, often within the same scene, sometimes within the same conversation.

Although Jonah Hill has been sweetly, profanely funny in such films as "Superbad" and "Get Him to the Greek," in Cyrus he's a revelation.

East of Wall looks great on paper, but when Beecroft decided to toe the line between fact and fiction, it ended up falling short of either. Neither a true documentary nor a drama, "East of Wall" lacks clear direction and the dialogue reflects that.

There is something compelling about someone who simply shows up for the job, day after day, carving out the remarkable from the unremarkable.