Especially rewarding about Oduye's performance is how she's able to portray that frustration while retaining hope and optimism.

Thanks to a particularly even-handed job by director Michael Rapaport, the story emerges as compelling, even for non-fans in the audience.

It’s a Fellini-esque carnival of humanity on display, a more debauched phantasmagoria reminiscent of “La Dolce Vita.” But “La Dolce Vita” created the paparazzi; The Great Beauty takes place in a world where the paparazzi have existed for decades.

This is one of those little movies that stays with you, the announcement of an original voice worth watching. It’s a quirky, magical delight.

Monkey Kingdom is a delightful gambol, visually stunning and educational without feeling like it, with a propulsive drama about escaping one's lowly social class at its core that inspires reflection on some uncomfortable truths about ourselves.

The film is cute and funny, but it’s also action-packed and much more thrilling than you might expect from a Disney movie, with the same heartwarming lessons you would expect. It's a gem in Disney's new catalog.

If it is not as urgent as the first film, this is still an excellent companion piece. Together, the movies paint a complete picture of the physicality and mentality of war, and it is riveting.

Yes, “Popstar” is dumb, dirty fun. So what’s not to like?

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.

Surprisingly entertaining, probably because it uses Wall Street shenanigans and schadenfreude as the backdrop to a crime drama.

OK, maybe they cut a couple seconds out of that scene where Deadpool gets ripped in half, but the movie's sardonically gruesome sensibility remains intact.

Mark Ruffalo, in just the right amount of stubble, grease and leather, plays Paul, about as cool an instant dad as a SoCal kid named Laser could hope for.

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.

It’s creepy as all get out and features a great performance from Nina Kiri, on-screen alone for most of the film, as a podcast host who has moved back to her childhood home to take care of her dying mother (Michèle Duquet). Things get weird.

In an algorithm-driven world in which every decision is made based on numbers, prediction markets or a desperate attempt to be all things to all people (especially the people not buying your product), hooray for this weird little movie that refuses to play that game. If it can’t always figure out quite what it wants to be, it’s all the better for it.

It delivers its considerable moments of terror in the same way the original film did. But it does deliver.

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.

It’s all quite intricate and entertaining and terrific to look at. The “Fantastic” of the title might be stretching things a bit, but it doesn’t miss the mark by much. Better still, it makes you look forward to, and not dread, the next installment — and that’s real magic.

What's breathtaking here is the scope of greed, corruption, arrogance and above all cynicism on display, not just regarding the system of government but the people it ostensibly serves.

It's just a good yarn, well told. So don't be deterred by the title (it sounds like a lame horror movie) or the description.

A thick film of sleaze coats every frame of Nightcrawler, a movie that takes a hard look at media culture and provides Jake Gyllenhaal a terrific opportunity to creep us all out.

We get a sharp look at getting older, growing up and assuming responsibility. The fedora is optional (and not recommended).

The scares here are in the execution, aided by the acting. Bello is, like always, terrific, adding layers to what seems at first like the stereotypical mentally-ill movie character. She's fighting for something. Palmer, too, adds grit to her would-be iconoclast.

It's a somewhat formulaic romp, but it's an utterly winning one.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice relies on your familiarity with and memory of those performances. It’s a fun journey down memory lane. It won’t take you anywhere new, particularly, but let’s face it, that’s not why most people will take the trip.

There are shortcomings in this film, and most of them are Wenders’ responsibility. But there is also inspiration here, if you’re willing to look for it.

The film ricochets between Tammy being an oblivious cartoon goblin and a textured, sympathetic human being who just wants to be loved. Perhaps if the film had catered a little less to McCarthy's comedic gifts — the curse-word fugue states, the slapstick humor, the non sequiturs — the end result would have felt more balanced and rewarding.

As cinema, Crime After Crime is nothing special. It would be perfect for a PBS "Frontline" entry. But it reminds us, once again, that little can be quite so riveting as a well-told story from a compelling talking head.