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.

Jeanne du Barry’s straightforward script might not convince the average moviegoer to spend two hours in the French court. However, fans of period romances will be well-served with a love story that puts a sex worker in the spotlight. And while Maïwenn and Depp are not the steamiest couple in period biopics, Jeanne du Barry is still entertaining enough to be worth your time

It has a lot on its mind that it wants to tackle, but that leaves much of the explorations it is undertaking feeling half-baked. This doesn’t drag things down too much, as it is mostly able to keep light on its feet, but it does make things a bit wobbly.

Sympathy for the Devil should be thankful for Cage and Kinnaman's brilliant dynamics as, without them, the movie would be nothing more than a bland thriller.

Even though it is a fairly straightforward, surface-level doc at times, A Disturbance in the Force is a worthwhile look at accepting the flaws of the past, the media of the 1970s, and a period when the biggest franchise in the world could do some weird-ass shit that would still (mostly) be embraced by the fans.

While the road is frequently more important than the destination, the lack of surprises may test the audience’s attention span, especially in the third act, when both characters are already well-established and we understand their inner struggles. That said, You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder is still a powerful family drama enhanced by phenomenal performances.

Though the ending is somewhat disappointing and less dynamic than everything that preceded it, this can’t take away all that the film still has going for it.

As far as feature debuts go, Purev-Ochir delivers a solid offering, one that showcases her strengths and leans into the soul of her original short, elaborating on an intriguing concept to impressive results.

If you are looking for a good slasher film, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a fun family-friendly film with a few good monsters, then try Spirit Halloween: The Movie.

The Watcher in the Woods is a great movie for seventy minutes, but the subpar ending really does stain an otherwise solid watch.

Luckily, Neeson’s performance is compelling enough to keep you interested, even though as the case unfolds you realize that it’s going in a pretty obvious direction. That’s why the movie greatly benefits from its cast, whose undisputable talent fire up the screen and make you feel like the trip to Golden Age Hollywood — which was beautifully recreated with a grade-A production and costume design — was worth your time.

For horror fans who prefer a more subtle and nuanced brand of horror that verges on the very outskirts of psychological horror, the lo-fi grunginess of Falling Stars will certainly appeal to them, though the outcome may leave them with more questions than answers.

While it is not going to be among the very best of 2023 when it comes to its story, the craft that went into its presentation is unlike anything you’ll see this year or any other. It manages to burst through the surface of its frequently stormy narrative waters and grab hold of your heart just as it does your eyes.

The characters are consistently charming, the humor sufficiently silly, and the animation often beautiful, though the standard path it takes holds it back from fully exploring the potential lurking just beneath the surface. When it all bursts free towards the end is when the film is at its best.

Even with its many narrative flaws, The Silent Twins gives us an insight into not just the lives of the two sisters but the way they made sense of it through stories of their own.

Though it doesn’t have the audacity to close when it should with its characters at their very lowest, The Estate is still proper fun in seeing a deeply improper family tear each other apart.

While Bird Box Barcelona is only following the trend, it is too bad to see the spin-off try so hard to keep fans excited about the next chapter that it undercuts the emotional weight of its ending. So, while the film surpasses the original in every sense, it still gets dragged down by the needs of a franchise.

Christmas Bloody Christmas makes two promises in its title: it’s going to be about Christmas, and it’s going to be bloody. It succeeds on both fronts to create a fun, fast-paced Christmas horror that is all style, very little substance – but when it works this well, it's totally fine.

It is an experience built around surprise revelations and plunging into the unknown. What is found there is not nearly as impactful as the actual journey itself, making for a mixed bag of horror and humor that rises above its lesser parts enough to hold together.

All in all, Incredible but True remains an unmissable movie for Dupieux fans. And for those worried about getting lost in the filmmaker’s passion for nonsense, the movie might be his most accessible work yet.

To anyone interested in the history of film, Champagne includes the earliest known examples of freeze-frame techniques, highlighting how innovative Hitchcock was.

Beyond the clichés and the added elements to try and boost the drama, Tetris at its core works because the true story is inherently an interesting one, and when the film sticks to these details, it's at its best. Like a difficult game of Tetris, this film might fumble some of its pieces, but in the end, it's ultimately a satisfying experience.

Led by two solid performances by Pugh and Freeman, A Good Person shows growth from Braff as both a writer and director, as he attempts to push himself into a more mature story that we’re used to from him.

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

National Anthem may at times feel a bit too simple, but the craftsmanship and the core performances are enough to make it worth a watch.

Blue Beetle brings a breath of fresh air to DC with its focus on smaller stakes and family dynamics, standing out just enough from other superhero films.

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.

It offers a solid police investigation story though fails to use its unique sci-fi world as well as it could have.