With bold performances, a strong vision for the source material, and a wise decision to focus on this under-represented portion of this narrative, The Return makes for an effective character piece that proves these stories are not only timeless, they’re as timely as ever.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes explores the past while creating a new future, starting this fresh angle on the series to a rocky, but promising start.

But despite how charming and fun Elio is, it still falls prey to some of Pixar’s occasional problems. Yes, this is a story of intergalactic adventures and a wide universe of possibilities, but it still can get a bit convoluted at times.

If you’re looking for a typical teen movie riddled with clichés and stereotypes, keep scrolling through your Netflix queue. This daring dark comedy both pays homage to and deconstructs the ‘90s high school set films you know and love, and does so with deliciously satisfying results.

If you come solely for the comedic stylings of four powerhouse actors, Mountainhead will certainly win you over if you don't take it too seriously. But should you expect a scathing takedown of Big Tech's best and brightest, the movie will act largely as a reminder that watching a bunch of rich guys spout off ignorant crap inevitably gets old and adds nothing to the conversation.

Steve is an adequate film about teachers, students, and the struggles that they both go through, but it’s also hard not to think that a bit more insight into the lives of the students earlier on — particularly from the perspective of Shy — could’ve made this into something even more special.

There's no doubt that it's been a blast to watch McShane ham it up in the John Wick films over the last decade, but American Star offers a nice counterpoint, showing just how good the actor can be when given a role as layered and engrossing as this one.

Crowder’s documentary could have just felt like another puff piece and, in some ways, it can be. However, the movie always feels completely genuine and told from the heart.

It's a silly movie, make no mistake, but it's an endearingly one nonetheless.

For all its faults, Mickey: The Story of a Mouse is at times a charming look at one of the biggest icons of our time, and while this story has been told many times before, it’s never been told with the sort of scope and frankness about how Disney has maybe failed with their mascot.

The Grand Finale tries to bring some weightiness back into this world, and, for the most part, it works with a fitting conclusion to this universe.

It is moody and creepy, though perhaps not brave enough to wander into true melodrama or bizarre fantasy. In the end, its performances and the way it incorporates Gothic elements, along with a strong visual aesthetic, make the film a worthwhile watch.

An unrelenting and visceral experience, Julia Max's feature film debut boasts unique and enthralling horror that is more than worthy of haunting your screen.

Till the End of Time remains an extraordinary exploration of what happened when the boys came home...and when they didn't. In many ways, it's a landmark film.

It's a joyous, heartfelt, hilarious, and emotional dramedy that won't leave your mind.

Bennett lifts the story up just like the bubbles in the veuve's own delicious champagne, showing us the brilliance in this biopic drama.

For the most part, Kalki 2898 AD is a strong epic that's certainly worth visiting, thanks to a unique genre hybridization, interesting worldbuilding, and skilled performances.

Sure, it might not be The Searchers or Rio Bravo, but The War Wagon deserves a share of the praise The Duke’s more well-renowned movies regularly get.

Paddington in Peru might not be at the same level as the first two films, but it’s still absolutely a worthwhile adventure. We’re still getting all the characters and ideas that we love, just packaged in a different way than we’re expecting. If anything, Paddington in Peru proves just how malleable this character is, and how well he can work in either quiet, simple stories or grand adventures.

The End We Start From leaves the audience with plenty to ponder and think about alongside reminiscing about Comer's incredible performance.

It's a fun movie to watch just to see how Presley even keeps up with the constant changes in this young girl. His reactions are funny, and it's a very playful movie that many people don't really talk about.

For better or worse, Kostanski's throwback creature feature wants older horror fans to feel like their childish selves again — as long as their childhoods were filled with Charles Band and Pee-Wee Herman.

Where the script falls short, Norton and Dunne pick up the slack and carry these characters through to the finish line.

Even though the cast helps to nurture the sense of nostalgia in the film, it doesn't prevent the screenplay from failing to match the tone of the OG series.

Father of the Bride has its heart in the right place, trying to adapt this beloved story for another generation and audience, but by shifting too much away from the traditions of the past, Father of the Bride doesn’t have the same magic that its previous versions have been able to generate.

It's a more conventional, less anachronistic cousin to the Bridgertons of the world, absent of any orchestral pop music covers or scandal that will steam up the screen, but there are still plenty of familiar genre motifs included to satisfy the most ardent of Regency romance lovers.

Shoshana may be relevant and powerful, but lacks balance and emotion.

While parts of it are laudable, unfortunately, Emmi’s film feels underbaked, never truly elevating its story to generate the kind of deeper effect that similar thrillers have managed to elicit.

It works for about half an hour, but its excess of panache eventually gets tiring, and the story's seams are just too frail to hold it together. Still, those dance sequences are really something.

Crater's stakes are low for its characters and the audience. It abuses clichés, never deviates from its formulaic script, and fails to surprise the viewer.

V/H/S/Beyond falls in the middle of the pack for the franchise. It's not as terrifying as the first film, and nowhere near as bad as V/H/S/Viral. Instead, it's more on par with recent entries.

There’s promise, but Vengeance at times feels like a West Texas version of Under the Silver Lake, but without the focus and care. Unfortunately, Ben’s editor was right, Vengeance is more a theory than a story.

When it's sexy, violent, or bonkers, it's a wildly enjoyable romp, and lead Sydney Sweeney kills it any time she's allowed to dial emotions up to 10 (as fans of Euphoria or Immaculate can attest to). Was it great? For the majority of its runtime, no. Would I watch the sequel it teases? Yes. Inside you are two wolves, and if they're watching The Housemaid in different parts, the one watching the ending is the happier wolf by far.

Caught Stealing, on the surface, doesn’t look like what we expect from an Aronofsky film, and yet, once you dive deeper, it seems like the most obvious version of a dramedy crime-thriller that the director could make. The film isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty and go to some truly dark places, yet it always manages to come back to a place where this story becomes entertaining again.

Ashford’s screenplay and Madden’s excellent direction all manage to take what could’ve easily been a fairly standard historical war drama and turn it into something more intricate, layered, and surprisingly powerful.

Carousel definitely has some rough edges on the fringes of this romance story. But when Lambert gives us the quieter moments of Noah and Rebecca, or puts them together in a scene, it’s absolute magic.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is a fun movie that knows how to use its humor and has fun with the fights, but it’s very conscious that you need to care about those characters to enjoy the ride. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero isn’t afraid to let go of brainless action in favor of developing its own plot and spending quiet time with some fan favorites.

By boldly balancing historical responsibility with modern social critique, Poitier establishes his Western masterpiece as both a time capsule and timeless adventure, flowing effortlessly between the genre’s entertaining shootouts and robberies and the prescient commentary of subverting racist systems by all means necessary.

It is exciting to watch a writer and director like Garland take a huge swing like Men, even if it doesn’t entirely hold together as tightly as something like Ex Machina or Annihilation. Men is certainly more about asking questions than providing answers, a challenging, strange, and often horrendous journey that certainly doesn’t hold back in terms of weirdness, and wants to crawl into the viewer’s brain.

It ends up in an odd space between psychological thriller and straight-up jump-scare horror that unfortunately drags down an otherwise compelling film.

It might not be a future genre classic, but thanks to Courtney's utmost commitment to his villainous role, you'll be glad you dipped your toes in the water by the time the credits roll.

While he isn’t an unstoppable hitman, the cold capitalist Julio Blanco rivals the most ruthless and calculating characters Bardem has ever portrayed. Even when the film can’t match his strong performance, he still elevates everything with overwhelming ease.

Stopmotion is a one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted horror film with a great performance from Aisling Franciosi.

The 2008 remake of Easy Virtue starring Jessica Biel and Colin Firth, is a lot livelier and more entertaining, but the original is worth watching, particularly to note the difference in the portrayal of the female lead character.

Oppy’s origin story and her adorable, human-like qualities will surely attract a wide audience, but the vulnerability and passion of the engineers are what makes this documentary special.

On balance, Twisters is nonetheless a thrilling crowd-pleaser that takes the disaster picture in exciting, novel directions, and an excellent showcase of talent across the board.

As rich and exciting as this new world is, the characters and script that have been thrown into this scenario are fairly banal, full of tropes and platitudes that we’ve heard countless times in this type of film.

Oh, Canada is a more reflective work from Paul Schrader with plenty on its mind that still falls short of his best works.

Alice, Darling is a bold and powerful step forward in Anna Kendrick’s career that allows her to really show off the range we knew she had, but maybe hasn’t had a chance to fully explore yet.

Landon has proven himself to be one of the best studio filmmakers in delivering enjoyable genre-forward movies, and Drop may just be his best movie yet.

There are no easy answers, and Nuisance Bear presents none of them.

The Good Nurse is a shocking drama that seeps under your skin with its ferocity and terror. Yet Lindholm makes this story about a disturbing individual into a film about how important kindness and consideration for others can mean in the larger scheme of things.

Magazine Dreams is a difficult and challenging watch, bolstered by an incredible performance by Majors that could easily end up being one of the year's best.

It's a fun, action-packed outing with surprisingly effective emotional resonance, adding layers to existing Transformers lore while being a worthwhile story in its own right.

There are very few classic hallmarks of horror films in The Black Phone. They arrive in the third act, but before that, it is a lot of… nothing. Talking. No cat-and-mouse chasing. No killing. Not even any suspense.

The idea is good, but in practice The Prosecutor doesn't fully feel like a legal drama, nor does it feel like a martial arts film. It's a decent film with strong direction, but laden with regrettable missed opportunities.

With Joaquin Phoenix at the height of his abilities, Eddington is, if you look close enough, just as, if not more terrifying than anything Paimon or a Swedish cult could ever unleash.

The End paradoxically feels ornamental and operatic while at the same time almost iconographic in its simplicity.

Ultimately, there's much to enjoy in Sharper, with a premise that offers intrigue and a strong group of performances, but it falls flat at the end, unwilling to dig deeper into its characters or the meaning behind its story.

Stevenson's debut feature is a smart handling of horror with imagery that won't soon leave your mind, elevated by an uncomfortable performance by Free. Stevenson shows how to bring a franchise back from the dead, and proves that maybe this series doesn't have to be all just for Damien.

Wild Diamond operates in both the very new wave of movies incorporating the ubiquitous presence of TikTok and the decades-old subgenre of class commentary.

The Smashing Machine boasts strong performance, but the film hits fairly generic story beats.

The Fantastic: Four Steps successfully invigorates the MCU, but it’s the tectonic shift that audiences thought it would be.

From references to Lin-Manuel Miranda (Moana) to songs that don’t rhyme and even metalinguistic performances – the one with the clocks is especially good because it completely underscores a particular character’s personality – Leo shows a surprising level of maturity that we’ve only come to expect from Pixar and Studio Ghibli films.

While the documentary of the same name might be able to capture the more human elements better than any adaptation could, the technical marvel of this feature film's underwater sequences is well worth diving into.

100 Nights of Hero is a profound and folkloric tale that evangelizes the beauty and importance of female solidarity, creative power, and defiance against oppression. It is political though playful, satirical yet thought-provoking, and radically challenges modern societal norms.

Granted, the footage itself and the intense quest to save these eight still make Hanging by a Wire a documentary worth seeking out. It’s just one that doesn’t have as much depth as one would hope.

It epitomizes and distills all of Hammer's hallmarks into a product that’s so damn good, it’s hard to find fault.

Along with his co-writer Bossi Baker, Erkman has made a distinctly eerie and sinister debut that succeeds at sneaking into the depths of your subconscious.

Alien Romulus has a promising beginning and end, but the middle gets a bit too muddled in nostalgia for this franchise.

Attachment explores the joys and tribulations of new love, splicing a delicate love story with truly horrifying elements.

What makes The Damned so effective is how grounded it all is in the characters and their perception of the world.

Sure, the story isn’t groundbreaking, but it makes up for it in its tribute to why we love cinema, specifically horror, so much. Even though it wasn’t needed, MaXXXine secures Ti West’s trilogy as one of the best in horror history.

Enola Holmes 2 is tightly paced, leaving just enough breathing room for the characters to thrive and do what they do best. It is a film with a lot of moving parts, but not so many that the audience will lose track, and in that way, is a film deserving of a rewatch — or several.

It is very much an ensemble film, yet it also serves as one of the final demonstrations of how Cloud could command a scene like no one else. That alone makes Your Lucky Day a bittersweet gift, but the sharp film also has quite a lot else going on as well.

There’s a lot to like about The Listener, with Thompson’s performance easily being the highlight. It’s a simple yet powerful story of finding connection and hope through the dark times.

It may not feel fully original, and some moments could be honed, but it's a solid, visually gorgeous outing from Huston anchored by an excellent central performance from Michael Pitt.

Rental Family’s intent is to create a satisfying, touching, and ultimately emotional film with sweet performances and quiet drama, and that’s exactly what it delivers.

Although the film is by no means a groundbreaking biopic, it has an effective execution that will appeal to the masses, especially viewers urging for another hero to root for in the face of adversity.

With undertone, Tuason has created one of the few horror films that’s even more horrifying to hear than it is to see.

Confess, Fletch is decent—not quite a great mystery, not an excellent comedy, but fully enjoyable for what it is. A major part of that is Hamm’s ability to play up his charms, while also showing his gifts as a comedic actor.

In short, this is the perfect cinematic venture for those who are fond of chaotic, psychological thrillers that keep you engaged, but that don't keep you guessing when it all comes to a close.

Meet Me in the Bathroom is a tremendous document of one of the most integral musical periods of our time, when the kids asked "is this it?" and responded by changing the world.

The Lost Bus may not reach the heights of some of Greengrass' finest work, but that's a high bar to reach. Thanks to some immersive setpieces, grounded performances, and stellar direction, the latest film from Apple TV+ rises above its shortcomings, resulting in a gripping docudrama that is worthy of your time.

The New Boy is a movie about how colonization can disguise itself as kindness, and how that kindness is still violent and destructive.

The Bad Guys 2 is a gorgeous, fun animated film that occasionally spreads itself too thin.

Pizza Movie is a charming throwback to the stoner comedies that inspired it, an ambitious college movie that knows how to take a simple idea and turn it into something broad, wild, and expansive. While the joke might start to get a bit thin near the end, Pizza Movie is a clever bit of fun, and we definitely need more broad comedies like this in the world.

While Luhrmann can do his best to recreate the glitzy, nonstop nature of Presley’s life, in those final moments, it’s easy to see that Elvis lacked the weight that this real footage captures. It’s that little bit of substance that reminds how hollow the previous hours of style have been.

Buddy is a blood-soaked nightmare full of dark humor and surprisingly touching moments. Like its title character, Buddy isn’t just fluff, there’s something deeper inside.

Napoleon is a grand film, both in terms of Scott creating a story with a size we’ve rarely seen from him, and the bold, large choices made by a completely game Phoenix.

Like so many of Frears’ films, The Lost King works because of the compelling cast on hand.

Even if The Musical isn’t always a hit, it’s worth it when the film does find its high notes.

Regardless of its slight fallbacks, Turtles All the Way Down tells a moving story about a teenager's isolating struggle with mental illness, and her resolve to build a life for herself despite it.

Cora Bora is a bit of a surprise first leading role for Stalter as it's a comedy that’s soaked in heartache, trauma, and self-discovery. It’s a vehicle that proves she can not only make us laugh, but make us feel some feelings, too.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 isn’t just the ideal sendoff for this group, it’s the best MCU film in years, and a reminder of how much fun and moving the Marvel Cinematic Universe can actually be after film-after-film of recent disappointments. The Guardians of the Galaxy were the best corner of the MCU, and Gunn has created the perfect goodbye to this gang of misfits.

There’s an edgier, grittier, and more thought-provoking movie hiding in here somewhere — about chasing adrenaline and the commodification of your body, safety, and existence — but what we get is still plenty entertaining.

There is just enough magic that it discovers by the end to give it a closing spark, but there is a mighty long road to get there, ensuring it all just remains merely okay as opposed to comprehensively good.

Cold Storage is a far better movie than you'd expect, thanks to its clever script, committed cast, and energetic direction. If you are hankering to watch more of Joe Keery battling monsters in the wake of the Stranger Things finale, this is just what the doctor ordered.