King Richard is an inspiring story of a family beating long odds to succeed. When you find out just how long those odds were, it's hard not to cheer for them.

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.

Passing is Rebecca Hall’s first feature film as a writer and director. You’d never know it. With her meticulous eye for detail, her beautiful framing of shots (in stunning black-and-white) and the wondrously moving performances she gets from her actors —to say nothing of her handling of the material (she wrote the script) — you’d think Hall had been at this for a while.

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

The acting is outstanding all the way around. But Stewart is brilliant. She looks, sounds and moves amazingly like the real Diana, but this is no impersonation. Instead it’s Stewart getting to the heart of the truth through her performance, her Diana a prisoner of the fame and adherence to tradition at all costs that trapped her.

Eternals isn’t a bad movie. It’s just not a particularly satisfying one, its scale proving untamable, even for Zhao.

There are some genuine scares, some gross-out moments and some heartfelt scenes between Julia and Lucas. The atmosphere is so thick you can touch it. This is a good movie and an interesting concept. But it’s not any fun at all.

McKenzie and Taylor-Joy are both affecting as two sides of not-quite-the-same coin. Their performances are the best thing about the film, which is good — but not as good as it might have been.

It’s clear that Samuel has seen his share of Quentin Tarantino movies, and some John Ford and Sergio Leone ones, as well. There are influences all over the place. But The Harder They Fall is also its own film, familiar in some ways but wholly original. And a whole lot of fun.

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.

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 acting is uniformly great, as strong an ensemble performance as you’ll see. Franz’s direction is assured.

Comer makes Margeurite believably vulnerable and strong, haunting at times. But it’s not clear that the film is improved by the competing narratives. Marguerite’s version probably would have sufficed.

The movie... keeps things surface-level when it comes to Bieber’s life and doesn’t give fans any new insight into the pop star that they haven’t been able to glean from his social media posts.

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.

While it might not be the most original story, it is well done and Nelson's portrayal of farmer-turned-reluctant-gunslinger is worth the price of a ticket.

At 2 hours and 43 minutes, it’s a long goodbye for Craig. Too long, really; parts of the last act drag a bit. But as Bond says earlier, “Letting go is hard.” In “No Time to Die,” it’s also satisfying.

The Many Saints of Newark isn’t The Sopranos. But both literally and figuratively, it’s a start.

Yes, it’s a musical — strictly authenticity isn’t a requirement. Emotional authenticity, on the other hand, is. And that’s what Dear Evan Hansen could use more of.

There is a craggy kind of elegance to Cry Macho. You know what you’re getting for the most part. This does not include a lot of surprises. It does include comfort in the familiar. Eastwood has earned that, too.

Ultimately it’s a sympathetic portrayal. Yes, people called her a clown, but The Eyes of Tammy Faye shows her as someone more complicated and much more interesting.

Writers and directors Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly can’t seem to decided whether to make an offbeat comedy about two under-appreciated women turning to crime or a mismatched buddy cop comedy. So they made both. It’s not a seamless fit.

As with First Reformed, Schrader crashes right through the boundaries separating the literal from the surreal. It is a strange journey, increasingly so, but an immensely satisfying one.

The latest Marvel movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is a rollicking, adventurous … wait, this is a Marvel movie? It is indeed, and all the better for not being necessarily immediately recognizable as such.

The intentions were probably noble, but the execution not so much.

We don’t need to continually revisit every horror movie ever made. How many versions of “Friday the 13th” are we up to? Too many. But the best thing about this is that Candyman is not just another sequel. More like a revelation.

The Protégé has so many cool elements, so many reasons that it should be better than it is. Chief among them are Maggie Q, Keaton and Jackson. But they can only do so much, and ultimately the film feels flat. Like so many of the hapless anonymous bad guys, it just can’t hit the mark.

The destination is a letdown, but the journey there is harrowing and rewarding. Hall’s powerful and affecting performance is the biggest reason why.