While Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a good movie and a worthy entry, it would have been stronger if Johnson didn’t telegraph those new directions before leading us to them.

The American is a very . . . patient movie, the inverse of an action thriller to an almost comic degree. With Clooney it's an interesting project. Without him, it would simply be boring.

Writer-director Noah Buschel (he was behind the Corey Stoll boxing drama “Glass Chin”) has crafted an odd little film that is sometimes compelling, sometimes maddening.

Certainly the film, which Cronenberg also wrote, is a comment on celebrity culture, on environmental disaster, on relationships, all filtered through a Cronenberg lens. If you’re seen “The Brood” or “Videodrome” or “The Fly,” you know how bizarre and horrifying that lens can be.

Downey is as funny as ever, if not more so. He ensures that Iron Man 3 is a solid installment in the franchise, and helps to make it seem, at least for a time, that it might be something more.

The Super Mario Bros. is family-friendly movie theater catnip over the Easter weekend, and it’s sure to be an enjoyable watch for the average viewer. I’ll leave the “Mario” superfans to determine if every frame, line of dialogue and reference to the video games lives up to the hype around the film.

Stewart proves to be an able filmmaker in Rosewater. But he also shows hints of being something more.

It's not that the artificiality doesn't work sometimes. It does, as some of the scenes are gorgeous to look at. But too often it serves as more of a distraction than an effective tool for telling the story.

Jones is patient — the film could have ended in two or three places before it does with no great loss — but the effort required by the audience pays off. We see the familiar in a new, if harsh light. We can hardly ask for more.

Kristian Levring offers a brutally beautiful take on the Western in The Salvation, a film reminiscent of a song that sounds familiar but offers its own pleasures.

Director Enrique Begné, who helmed this year's winsome "Busco Novio Para mi Mujer," directs with an emphasis on action over comedy. Sometimes that feels misplaced; the stretches without laughs grow increasingly longer as the plot moves forward. But he keeps things enjoyably fast-paced, so it's hard to complain too much.

Cuckoo is one of the best-looking horror films I’ve seen this year...But even with the highly stylized atmosphere, “Cuckoo” doesn’t quite land the plane. It’s not really clear what the villainous plan is or how the villains are executing it.

Point and Shoot is a fascinating, frequently frustrating documentary.

Above and Beyond is a straightforward, rah-rah documentary.

It’s safe to say that Tickled is nothing like what its filmmakers set out to make. That's an artistic blessing.

There are plenty of reasons not to like The Intouchables, but Omar Sy's terrific performance blows right past them.

What Finn’s film lacks in originality it makes up for in technical prowess, and he has the courage of his convictions. The colors, even the ones that should be bright, are muted. Everything is just a touch off, until it’s a lot off. Smile isn’t a great horror film, but there’s plenty here to make you … well, you know.

It's a weird movie. In a good way.

Unfortunately, the plot as a whole is rushed, with character-development shortcuts and one whopping out-of-the-blue development that seems to exist not as a surprise but because the filmmakers had painted themselves into a narrative corner and needed a way out. But there are some scares, and Cooper and especially Guido give authentic-feeling performances — again, with a few shortcuts along the way.

A perfectly capable movie that has chases and romance and double-crosses and double-double-crosses and action and is, ultimately, absolutely inessential.

Moore captivates as a woman who is either emotionally stunted and unaware or viciously in control of the whole chess board. Director Todd Haynes never cracks to let you know just which one she is. It’s possibly purposeful, but a lack of conclusion left me unsatisfied at the end of an otherwise deliciously disquieting movie.

Visually you can certainly call the film a breakthrough.

Yes, if you have watched more than four or five movies, you probably recognize the setup. It’s the execution that makes Hustle more than just a run-of-the-mill sports film. Not always a lot more, but more.

When she’s playing Cruella, Stone is definitely in charge. It’s a bravura performance, filled with a crackling energy that never spills over into parody. That’s what saves it. Stone makes Cruella a believable character — if not relatable, then at least recognizable.

Hello, My Name Is Doris is at times self-consciously quirky and precious and implausible — and Sally Field is so good in it that those complaints seem pointless.

Once you get past the premise — and granted, that takes some doing — Happy Death Day turns out to be goofy good fun.

Queen & Slim is strongest when it lets the images and the acting do the lion’s share of the talking.

When it reaches its boiling point, Les Misérables absolutely roils.