All pleasures in Last Christmas are as slight. Like the Christmas shop and its baubles, it’s shiny and attractive and intermittently distracting, but it’s all just so much glitter on cheap plastic. It’s angling hard for holiday cheer, but there’s nothing more joyless than forced whimsy.

When it’s good, Doctor Sleep is mighty good.

While the movie doesn’t break new ground, it’s a story pretty well told. If you’re a fan of war epics of movies about flying, you’ll find something that holds your interest.

Though it's certainly well-acted, the quiet film is a retread of familiar recent dramas about doomed heroines like in "Still Alice." But this version prompted me to look up one-way flights to Portugal instead of weeping about a character's looming destiny.

Even if the big thematic statements are less than subtle, the story is solid and thought-provoking, and the performances are just stylized enough to match the intensity of Norton’s deep-dive performance.

It’s more serviceable than inspired, but “Dark Fate” gets by on nostalgia. It’s just nice to see Schwarzenegger and Hamilton together again.

Erivo captures both Tubman’s defiance and her headstrong courage. But the film overall feels too conventional. It simply cannot fully capture the inspiring story of Tubman’s incredible life. Then again, what could?

Yes, the tone is a tricky balance that sometimes almost gets away from Waititi — there are some laugh-out-loud moments alongside some scenes of harrowing sadness. But for the most part, Waititi and the cast, which is uniformly excellent, manage to make it work.

As a substitution for the tour that never was, this concert film within a documentary does a brilliant job of bringing "Western Stars" to life.

Nothing is off the table when your status is threatened, no matter what your station in life. Parasite explores this in stunning fashion.

Captivating and grim, The Lighthouse is a tempestuous descent into a briny abyss urging its audience to pack a life preserver.

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.

With “Maleficent’s” feminist message suffering a relapse, the sequel looks more like generic film fantasy than a fresh take on an old story. The cuddly creatures and razzle-dazzle action are enough to make two hours disappear, but it’s only Jolie’s bat-winged charisma that will rattle on in your memory.

There are some funny bits and a welcome shot of new blood, but there’s not a lot of overwhelming evidence for this movie’s need to exist.

Director Michael Goi is big on jump shocks that get increasingly tiresome.

First Love might not ultimately mean much, but its wily mix of colorful elements – romance, organized crime, slapstick and ultra-violence – makes for a bracingly weird cinematic experience.

If you’re a fan of action movies, or you’ve ever pondered the questions of nature vs. nuture or even what you’ll tell your younger self if you had a chance, you’ll enjoy Gemini Man.

Tyrnauer’s film is fairly straightforward in structure — we hit the highlights up front, such as Cohn’s work advising Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a gig that would have killed most people's career — but it’s Cohn’s almost pathological need to be seen, and to be seen as tough and willing to fight, that makes the film so compelling.

Maybe there’s a place in the film world for El Coyote as a cult artifact, something that years from now enthusiasts will defend as a kind of dada experiment. In the moment, though, as you suffer through it, it’s just an ill-conceived mess.

The Joker’s superpower is his resentment, his narcissism, and Phoenix cultivates these methodically in his performance, slowly transmuting the character’s awkward fragility into a kind of raging charisma — aided and abetted, of course, by all the tricks of art direction, sound design and editing that a journeyman filmmaker has at his disposal.

Britt-Marie Was Here succinctly crams in plenty of overwrought tropes but maintains a sentimental heart with its prickly heroine. Is it revolutionary? Not by any means. But is every journey of self-discovery supposed to be?

Despite its flaws, Judy can leave you feeling like an emotional wreck by the end.

Through all the skillfully juggled subplots, the overarching conflict has always been the family’s quest to keep hold of Downton Abbey — and thus preserve their role as the heart of the community, envied and adored by all — while also keeping up with the march of modernity.

Clearly, Zeroville is not a film for everyone. But if you love movies and you’re willing to experiment, it’s an enjoyable trip.

Ad Astra is one giant leap for telling intimate stories on a grand scale.

In an era where horror films are attempting to get smarter (a nod to you, “A Quiet Place,”) this just makes everyone dumber.

In the end, if someone doesn't have the time to absorb Tartt's book, they'd be better serviced reading a Wikipedia synopsis than seeing this film.

There was something about the first film, about seeing not just the horror but also the joy of growing up through the kids’ eyes. That’s lost by necessity here, but It Chapter Two certainly misses it. And so do I.