It's a terrific movie.

For a movie with such big emotions, it also feels grounded and realistic. Somehow, Cooper has made a Hollywood fairy tale seem utterly believable and magical at the same time.

The story Snowden tells is, of course, absorbing, disturbing and, yes, scary. Poitras' film, playing out as more and more is revealed, reported and published, comes off like a real-life spy thriller.

Hamilton defies a cynical reading. It is a great show, and an important one. Right now the latter might be more a more crucial description that the former. Don’t miss it.

The Father has occasional splashes of humor, but, by design, it’s tough to watch at times. Hopkins’ performance makes it impossible not to.

Foxtrot is far too interior to be called flashy, but there’s something striking in director Samuel Maoz’s visual confidence, the way he translates his characters’ states of mind into images.

Scarier than anything you'll find in a horror movie this time of year.

Leave No Trace is a beautiful film, heartbreaking in the self-awareness — both existing and burgeoning — of its characters.

A host of British acting royalty, meanwhile, roams around the film: Derek Jacobi as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Claire Bloom as Queen Mary, Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill and so on.

It is a beautiful excavation, fueled by tremendous performances from frequent Almodóvar collaborator Penélope Cruz and relative feature-film newcomer Milena Smit.

Foster was born to this kind of role, rugged but soulful, and he’s outstanding. The surprise is Pine, giving by far his best performance.

It’s delightful to see filmmakers and actors take such big swings. It’s even more delightful when they connect, and in Poor Things, they do.

It is a terrifically entertaining film, alive from the start, following its Marvel mission (for good and bad) while rising above it.

Brooklyn often feels like a throwback in the best way, while Ronan has an old-time star turn, and she makes the most of it.

Yun's performance is genuinely beautiful, a haunting expression of life, of its disappointments and its possibilities, rendered in a way that befits the title.

Jenkins brings an urgency to If Beale Street Could Talk, along with the melancholy of problems still yet to be solved.

Birdman is a treat. But it's also more than that. It's a full-fledged wonder.

Director Marielle Heller delivers a solid movie with fantastic acting, creativity and engagement.

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.

In Return to Seoul, 25-year-old Parisian Frédérique Benoît (Park Ji-Min), aka Freddie, copes with learning about her Korean heritage during a spontaneous trip to South Korea. And the journey to finding herself and accepting her background is anything but linear.

Whether it’s the next in a long line or a summation of a fun series, Mission: Impossible — Fallout is a movie that all but defines escapism at its finest.

It’s a brilliant performance, Boseman coaxing so many emotions and feelings out of a deceptively complex character. His expressive eyes tell a lot of the story for him.

Jane is a compelling movie, one that shows us not just more of the world, but also our place in it.

The girls bring a passion to the band that they can muster nowhere else in their lives. Not everyone gets what they're doing — well, no one, really — but that's the point. This is a knowing film, and a liberating one.

Marielle Heller’s debut directorial effort is incisive and universal, despite its very specific and detailed setting.

If it sounds like so much backroom politicking, it is. But it's exceptionally interesting, entertaining backroom politicking.

It's a sort of slow-boil Russian noir, if that genre exists, and if it doesn't, it does now. It's also a statement on class discrepancy in post-Soviet Russia. Arrogance, betrayal, crime and violence are all part of the story, directed and co-written by Andrei Zvyagintsev.

It feels like a filmmaker’s exercise rather than an involving motion picture. Although you may never be bored with All Is Lost, you are rarely fully engaged.