Toy Story 4 delivers a cinematic grand slam, a nine-years-later sequel that's wholly equal to the high expectations raised by the terrific trio that it follows. Touching, raucously funny, adventurous and yes, even profound, Pixar's signature property once again touches them all.

Granted, nothing can fully replicate the unique qualities of a live theatrical experience. But if anyone doubts that Hamilton can still deliver a Broadway wallop to the comfort of one's couch, well, just you wait.

The Bee Gees were adored, hated and as seen through Marshall's lens, somewhat forgotten. Yet after watching this documentary, even if you didn't have an especially deep love for the band in their heyday, you might find yourself humming those tunes all over again.

Belushi turns out to be a lot more than just another look at a star who succumbed to drug abuse, but rather a celebration of John Belushi's talent -- and an era -- as recalled by those who knew him best. R.J. Cutler's documentary has its melancholy moments, but from the opening glimpse of Belushi's "Saturday Night Live" audition video, it surely won't give you the blues.

Wherever one sees it, Turning Red delivers an exquisitely animated story that's moving as well as funny -- welcome evidence that creatively speaking, at least, Pixar hasn't lost its golden touch.

Even with the interlocking nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Endgame feels like a triumph of narrative engineering -- weaving in enough callbacks to earlier movies to delight even the nerdiest patrons.

It's a gauzy indulgence in nostalgia that sweetly captures a very specific time and place, which should broadly speak to Linklater's contemporaries who somehow survived childhood before our society adopted most of the pesky rules designed to ensure that they do.

Howard serves as a fitting celebration of that life and career. It's a chance for those who knew him to pause and fondly look back, in a way that merely adds to an appreciation of the parade that he helped start.

It's a nuanced, thought-provoking documentary.

Bruce Springsteen's Letter to You is a valentine to his fans, an ode to friendship and a celebration of the E Street Band. The latest documentary from the prolific artist also marks the continued migration of what he describes as his "45-year conversation" with his audience into the visual media of film and streaming -- this time via Apple TV+.

In bringing In & Of Itself to the screen, director Frank Oz (yes, the former Muppet master and filmmaker, who directed the theatrical version as well) has heightened the impact of DelGaudio's material by rapidly inter-cutting exchanges with audience members across a number of shows.

Unlike most biographical documentaries, “Stephen Curry: Underrated” benefits from having two very distinct windows in mind, both buttressing its underlying point: Curry as a barely recruited, under-sized high school prospect, before merging as a college star at Davidson; and his most recent title with the Golden State Warriors. Either would be good enough, but put together, “Underrated” shoots and scores.

This is about as opposite of 1956's big-budget Around the World in 80 Days as you can get.

The writing and twists elevated this to a spot among the master of suspense's best. [15 Aug 2019]

Deftly expanding the source material into a movie, the film is anchored by a sensational performance by Andrew Garfield as Larson.

The key is that Mendes (whose eclectic resume includes "American Beauty" and two Bond films, "Skyfall" and "Spectre") doesn't sacrifice the movie's heart in the service of its logistical considerations.

The film is alternately funny and heartwarming, but more than anything, eye opening, covering a chapter at best underreported in history books, if not outright overlooked.

Thompson really lets the music play in order to appreciate the artists, augmenting that by interviewing people who attended the festival, reacquainting them with a time of cultural awakening during their youth.

Like everything else she's done, Rita Moreno is an exceptional storyteller, turning Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It -- an "American Masters" documentary hitting theaters first -- into a dazzling look at the much-adorned star's career, and the doors left shut, despite her success, by being a Latina in Hollywood during the days of the studio system.

One of the year's best documentaries, Boys State presents a fascinating look at teenagers brought together for an exercise in government, which somehow manages to unerringly encapsulate partisan divisions in the US right now. An opening medley of past participants -- including Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Cory Booker, Rush Limbaugh and Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito -- only stokes curiosity about where these youngsters will be 30 or 40 years from now.

STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie is a remarkable accomplishment, making brilliant use of film clips to seamlessly illustrate and augment reenactments and the actor’s narration of his story, having spent more than 30 years living with Parkinson’s disease. Nostalgic without becoming overly sentimental, it’s an ode to Fox’s life, career and the struggle he continues to endure.

Branagh has directed all kinds of movies over the past 30 years, from his frequent adaptations of Shakespeare to "Cinderella" and the aforementioned "Thor." It's perhaps appropriate, though, that his most personal film would also turn out to be his crowning achievement.

The Forever Prisoner asks the right questions regarding not just Zubaydah but the broader prosecution of the war against terrorism. As the film makes clear, it's the answers that have proven elusive.

Four Hours at the Capitol might be unlikely to change many hearts or minds, but watching the evidence months removed from the heat of the moment and the chaos that unfolded live on TV makes it difficult to entertain arguments that the media has overblown or misrepresented those images.

The movie lives up to both halves of its title: The Holdovers gets a hold on you, while looming over most stories built around the simple idea that families are often defined by what you make of them, not what you inherit.

What could feel cliched at various turns deftly avoids that, capturing Ruby’s plight in a way that recalls any number of coming-of-age stories while still feeling unexpectedly fresh and distinctive. There have been a number of first-rate movies about teenage girls in the last few years, but few that were better.

Lucy and Desi puts a big heart around Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, not only as the beloved stars of "I Love Lucy" and one of Hollywood's great power couples, but as TV pioneers. Drawing upon personal recordings and home videos, director Amy Poehler has served up a warm valentine that leans into celebrating their lives and away from the tabloid fodder.

No matter how many times you've watched those classic "I Love Lucy" episodes (or not at all), it's likely you'll come away from Being the Ricardos with a greater appreciation for the central couple's talents as well as their personal failings and foibles. In that, Sorkin has delivered a colorful portrait that goes beyond the nostalgia-tinted hues of black and white.

Credit Pixar veteran Pete Docter ("Up" and "Inside Out") and co-director Kemp Powers (the writer of the play and upcoming movie "One Night in Miami") with an addition to Pixar's library worthy of its classics.

Big and vibrant, In the Heights provides summer movie-going with a joyous jolt of adrenalin, wedding the sensibilities of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical with "Crazy Rich Asians" director Jon M. Chu's mouth-watering imagery.

Part valentine to the theater, part unconventional love story, Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known celebrates the show and its original cast, while also providing a broader look at the issues of teen rebellion and alienation that turned the musical into a sensation.

James Cameron has done it again with Avatar: The Way of Water, a state-of-the-art exercise that rekindles that sense of wonder and demands to be seen by anyone with lingering interest in watching movies in theaters.

Sidney, a documentary from director Reginald Hudlin produced by Oprah Winfrey, does the actor justice, providing context, depth and considerable warmth in chronicling his remarkable life and trailblazing career.

One Night in Miami delivers a concentrated taste of that, but like its newly crowned champ, somehow manages to gracefully float through its history, while still packing a potent dramatic punch.

Playing an aging star estranged from her daughter might not seem like a major stretch, but Deneuve and Japanese writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda (whose "Shoplifters" took top honors at the Cannes Film Festival) spin that premise into a cinematic breath of fresh air.

Prone to long, leisurely exchanges, and frequently darkly funny, Scorsese's narrative has an almost Zelig-like quality in terms of the notorious figures that passed through Frank's orbit. Pacino, meanwhile, is the explosive counterpoint to De Niro's clenched character, the real raging bull here.

Say Hey, Willie Mays! is the kind of treat to help tide over baseball fans through the post-season, giving Mays his due while he’s still around to take a bow. It’s a gift for baseball fans who saw him play before he hung up that golden glove nearly 50 years ago, and maybe even more so, for those who didn’t.

The Power of the Dog is such a delicately constructed movie as to almost defy the ability to review it without saying too much. Keeping the audience off balance, writer-director Jane Campion creates a slow, ominous build around the fine performances toward a satisfying conclusion that nicely pays off on the slow-canter ride.

Whatever one’s age, there’s much to like in a movie that offers the requisite laughs and sweetness, while managing to feel quite profound.

Mank has the makings of an Oscar contender, and not just because of Hollywood's traditional love for movies about itself. With Gary Oldman as the alcoholic, self-destructive writer of "Citizen Kane," director David Fincher has made a near-great movie about what's in the argument as the greatest of all time.

"Are You There God?” addresses youthful preoccupations in a refreshingly relatable manner that feels almost heaven-sent.

A small, melancholy movie that explores cultural differences and dealing with death in an utterly charming, understated manner.

Val Kilmer joins the ranks of celebrities that fastidiously documented their lives via video, then shared that in documentary form. But Val feels more deeply personal and fascinating than most, catching its star in the wake of a terrible illness and exploring the "difficult" label he bore as an actor, one whose career choices didn't always serve him well.

Top Gun: Maverick soars higher than it has any right to, constructing a mostly terrific sequel 36 years later (including a Covid release delay), using a good movie, not a great one, as its jumping-off point. That might not be enough to take your breath away, but as brawny summer entertainment goes, it comes shockingly close.

DC finds itself at a bit of a crossroads. Yet that timing makes it all the more impressive to see how “The Flash” has managed to click on all cylinders, pay respect to the company’s past while achieving the kind of balance that could and perhaps should point the way to its future.

Edgy, unsettlingly paranoid and genuinely clever, it’s a logical continuation of the conversation writer-director Sam Esmail started with “Mr. Robot.”

Spanning decades, the film version of the Broadway stage production improves in key respects on the Oscar-nominated original movie, with a spiritual message that should resonate through the holidays.

Reality might have benefited from widening the play’s tight, almost-claustrophobic focus a little bit more for this medium, but what’s there remains stark and compelling, with Sweeney’s discomfort speaking volumes even though the character says very little.

Chadwick Boseman's tragic death will draw understandable attention to Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which represents his final role. Yet that focus shouldn't overshadow the riveting performances that elevate this small-scale Netflix movie, adapted from the August Wilson play with its somewhat claustrophobic stage origins very much intact.

Minari is a deeply personal film, and quality that's evident in writer-director Lee Isaac Chung's reminiscence about his childhood. Focusing on a Korean immigrant family, the universal themes come through loud, clear and ultimately with considerable power, even if the movie's languid pace works against it.

The amount of new information in "The Princess" will likely depend on one's personal Royals-related media consumption, but the packaging of this stark and intimate documentary -- marking the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana's death -- serves as a sobering reminder of how the press hounded her from the moment of her engagement until her tragic death.

Strange, surreal and unexpectedly sentimental, Everything Everywhere All at Once is genuinely and wildly original -- the kung fu/science fiction/metaphysical action comedy that you didn't know you needed, but just might love.

Richard Attenborough's cast is stellar (including Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Sean Connery, Dirk Bogarde, Ryan O'Neal and Robert Redford) and his pre-CGI achievement staggering. [28 Mar 2007]

The new West Side Story doesn't entirely answer the most obvious question, which is why essentially remake a 60-year-old classic. Director Steven Spielberg nevertheless justifies the effort as a dazzling showcase for this generation's talent, in a film whose ties to lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who died last month, adds to its emotional resonance.

It's a fascinating exercise and superior to its predecessor, but clocking in at four hours, the operatic highs are somewhat offset by the lack of any pressure to say "cut."

The film thus operates on multiple levels, playing like an old-fashioned caper as well as a window into history. And like its inspiration, if there are hiccups here and there, when the smoke clears it's hard to consider this delicious "Operation" anything but a rousing success.

Briskly balancing a dizzying assortment of parts, Marvel's latest (by way of Sony) looks destined to do what only a spider can -- namely, lure vast numbers of fans into its web.

"Tina" is that rare documentary that leaves you craving an encore, as if two hours weren't quite enough to do Tina Turner's life and career justice. Weaving in a new interview with the 81-year-old icon, the footage then and now underlines the impression of Turner as a force of nature, rocking and rolling with and without Ike.

Add Mr. Harrigan’s Phone to the relatively short list of really good Stephen King adaptations, garnishing a coming-of-age story with understated hints of the supernatural and thoughtful rumination about cellphones that finds true horror in their ubiquity. Amid a month of Halloween-tinged offerings, it might be one of the few to share with the kids – at least, before the next time you punish them by taking their phone away.

Perhaps foremost, “Faye” allows its subject to be, or at least appear, as big, complicated and multifaceted as her life and career, in both the highs and lows, would suggest.

Simply in terms of presenting a draft of history through his earlier work and scalding commentary via his more recent endeavors, Souza's aim has been true.

Elegant, occasionally adorable and at times quite emotional, series creator Julian Fellowes still knows how to pluck the right strings – upstairs and downstairs – to play a symphony with his sprawling cast.

Directed by Brett Harvey, Inmate #1 has a few minor flaws, including an overly sappy musical score. Still, its subject is so inherently likable that a feature-length dose of Trejo's boundless energy feels like the kind of adrenaline shot we can use right about now.

A central takeaway is not only about the man but the warm nostalgia that he represents -- the memories, as Miranda and others recall, of grandmothers hushing them during the minutes he came on each day, running through the Zodiac with horoscopes filled with a persistent sense of hope.

Lewis -- who is battling pancreatic cancer -- was not much more than a kid when he marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr., and has seemingly lived three lives since then. That's why despite the documentary's uneven aspects, his legacy is ample motivation for any student of history to see Good Trouble as a good investment.

Alternately uplifting and devastating, a warm reminiscence about the Harry Potter franchise and a glimpse into child stardom, it’s finally a tribute to its namesake, who concludes that he’d “better tell my story, or it won’t be told.”

Featuring women involved in an underground network, the HBO presentation is a snapshot that echoes far beyond its specific moment.

Lionel Richie serves as the de facto tour guide for this trip down memory lane, which fulfills its promise to make a better day (or at least 90-some-odd minutes) for you and me.

Ultimately, American Fiction raises questions about the price of Black success in a White-dominated media and entertainment culture. What it doesn’t do, while maintaining its satirical edge and eye, is provide any easy answers.

Watching Cooper and Mulligan portray their characters across decades, it’s hard not to be impressed, while nurturing a greater appreciation for why Cooper found Bernstein’s contributions and complications deserving of such a tribute.

Slay the Dragon does an extraordinarily good job of taking a complex issue and connecting the dots, which seems particularly appropriate for a documentary about gerrymandering.

From the title to the execution, this National Geographic presentation has the right stuff.

Getting the delicate balance of the story mostly right, “Till” captures how Mamie Till Mobley turned the inconsolable grief over the murder of her son, Emmett, into resolve and activism. Anchored by Danielle Deadwyler’s towering performance, it’s a wrenching portrayal of reluctant heroism under the most horrific of parental circumstances.

The "important" label can weigh heavily on a documentary, but the description applies to "Final Account," director Luke Holland's decade-long odyssey to capture and preserve the memories of Germans who lived through the Holocaust, acknowledging their complicity to varying degrees. While much has been done to chronicle survivors' stories, this sobering companion belongs on the shelf alongside them.

Sara Bareilles headlines this adaptation for which she wrote the lilting songs, in a show that manages to be alternately sweet and silly, touching and raunchy.

The destination, frankly, is probably less compelling than the journey. But Frye's wide web of contacts offers a compelling window into not only her past, but the very specific cultural moment when it all unfolded.

The One and Only Dick Gregory highlights Gregory's particular knack for getting people to laugh with him, and more significantly, the sacrifices he made in pursuit of greater objectives than the roar of a crowd and that nightly paycheck.

“Stan Lee” is obviously intended to be celebratory in nature, but by allowing Lee to tell the story largely in his own words, it conveys a genuine sense of what made him as big and colorful as any of the spandex-clad figures that he helped birth and spring off the page.

Every year seems to bring some new teen comedy that breaks through the clutter, showcasing new talent, and in this case, speaking to the times in a very specific way. 2021 is still young, but unless or until something better comes along, "Plan B" lays a pretty strong claim to that mantle.

Like his trademark bandanas, “Disciple” wears its soul, and its love for the music these artists created, brightly displayed where all the world can see it.

Whether it's on a large screen now or a small one later, Blinded by the Light represents such a sweet, easy-to-relate-to story that it deserves to be seen, at the least, by anyone who has shown a little faith that there's magic in the arts -- either in music, or a darkened theater.

Where's My Roy Cohn? is by no means a flattering portrait; rather, the film portrays Cohn as being emblematic of everything that's wrong with politics, class disparity and the current toxic political environment. Were he still around, though, it goes without saying that Cohn would characterize the project as a stunning victory.

Taking place almost entirely inside a hotel room, it’s a movie bathed in poignance and sweetness as well as sex and longing.

Writer-director Rian Johnson again assembles a solid cast behind Daniel Craig, but it’s his use of language – where nary a word is wasted – that finally gives the sequel its edge.

Coffy is undeniably entertaining and perhaps one of the best films of its kind. [26 Dec 2001]

An entertaining, wonderfully simple comedy with the qualities of a smooth martini -- it goes down easy, but delivers a bit of kick.

There's always the risk of sounding preachy in this sort of exercise in a way that scares off those who can be reached, or perhaps worse, being unduly optimistic. Attenborough finds a middle ground.

Elemental doesn’t quite join the studio’s hallowed top tier, but it does yield moments of magic and beauty – reflecting both the immigrant experience as well as the power of love – worthy of that legacy.

Woodstock 99 makes a compelling case that the sewage from that weekend didn't stop flowing when the music stopped, metaphorically if not literally.

MLK/FBI not only offers a compelling portrait of what was, but beyond just looking back, sets up a debate about what will be. In the process, the documentary sheds light on a dark part of US history while leaving viewers to contemplate just how dark its more sordid corners should remain.

"Ruth" admirably contextualizes Ginsburg's lingering legal influence, and how her writing in dissent during her 27 years as a justice often influenced subsequent opinions from lower courts.

While this represents a considerably lighter story than his Oscar-winning “Argo,” in terms of its sheer appeal Air flies pretty high indeed, in part because its coach is savvy enough to let his winning lineup of all-stars take the ball and run with it.

Even in a boom time for musical profiles, this HBO presentation shines brighter than most.

All told, there's not a whole lot new here. Still, for anyone who hasn't waded through Bob Woodward's book "Rage," or deeply reported accounts by the New York Times and others laying out Trump administration shortcomings, Gibney and company have delivered what is clearly intended to be a powerful closing argument, pulling the case together. And to underscore the title's ironic nature, the evidence suggests it's a response characterized more by chaos than control.

The Father isn't a picnic to watch, but it is -- somewhat ironically, given Anthony's condition -- a movie, and performance, that's hard to forget.

Like its predecessors, Deadpool & Wolverine is loud, proudly vulgar and repeatedly shatters the fourth wall with gleeful naughtiness. Yet beneath the outlandishness, half-dozen belly laughs and nerd-centric beats resides sweet nostalgia for the last quarter-century of superhero movies, while demonstrating that Marvel Studios possesses the power to laugh at itself.

At the end of Sr., a documentary so personal the word “intimate” almost doesn’t do it justice, Robert Downey Jr. ponders what his 90-minute ode to his father was really all about. The simple answer, stripped of celebrity, is the painful process of saying goodbye to an aging, increasingly infirm parent, filtered through the careers of these two entertainers.

The Go-Go's has pretty much everything you'd want in a rock documentary, presenting an oral history of the chart-topping all-female group with sex, drugs, music, money, and the intramural squabbling and wounded egos great success tends to unleash. Hard to believe it's been 40 years, but anyone who remembers the band should fall head over heels once again.