At times as gaudy as Flynt’s gold-plated wheelchair, it also depicts the dream of a country that refuses to sit down and remain silent.

To both the filmmaker and subject’s credit, neither feel that the transition to Zoey should excuse past behavior, and the director lets her sit with her thoughts. She processes her actions in front of the camera as she surveys the wreckage of her life. This is what makes Whirlybird such a wholly unique story, ultimately resonating as a portrait of a deeply flawed person.

If you bought into the messy magic of the first film, you will undoubtedly find much in which to revel with its successor.

In the end, I’m not sure if thriller, drama, or action would be best suited to describe Lakewood. Maybe it is not quite the edge-of-the-seat movie one might expect, but it is entertaining enough to keep one fully engaged.

The reason Titane works is director Ducournau and actors Lindon and Rousselle’s commitment to their characters and stories. Each performance is played straight without a single wink to the camera.

Lanksy is a workman-like film with decent production values, but Rockaway is not Scorcese or Coppola. There are no great faults to find with it, except one: fans of the genre have literally seen every element of it before.

Kempff walks the fine line of being frustratingly vague and trusting the audience to grasp the film fully. Knocking, for the most part, lands in the latter category.

Gigi Saul Guerrero is a Mexican director who works in Vancouver’s thriving female production-driven indie horror scene, as documented in Vancouver Video Vixens. After honing her talent with many shorts, television episodes, and anthology segments, she has arrived as a fully formed auteur with Bingo Hell.

Boasting a formidable cast and a keen eye for detail, Killing Eleanor makes it easy to forgive its flaws. Marks deserves major props for making an old story seem fresh again. Here's hoping her next tale won't be so old.

No Time To Die tells a fantastic Bond story. It has everything you expect from Bond and appropriately honors Daniel Craig for his service to the Queen.

Pharma Bro is a swiftly paced, engaging, and exhaustive look into the scandals that put Martin Shkreli on the map and turned him into the “most hated man in America.”

The director speaks to the beauty and longevity of cinema and the power and resilience of our past. But it's that interplay between sound and sight that proves the most penetrating. No talking head, or eloquent analysis, could be as powerful as that uncanny synthesis.

The writings of Ma Feng appear to have evoked much of the themes Zhangke captures in his beautiful story and its surface simplicity and deeper subtext. Although it is a bit lengthy, Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue is a well-done and beautifully expressed film for understanding a people and their history.

Stop and Go ends up as you expect it to. Some treacly bits rob the movie of its honesty and compromise its goodwill with the audience. But for the most part, it’s a joyous celebration of life and family, as well as a reminder that both will persevere no matter how trying the circumstances.

It is a good movie, but what elevates it from the pack are the performances from Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer.

Yes, stories like this have been told before, but there’s an earnest, sweet charm to it all that really works.

It dares to tell an honest history, warts and all, from its inspirational beginnings, which led me to become a Christian to its rapid decline when I learned that even the godly were imperfect people. But then again, maybe God can still use these miscreants of music.

By turns horrific and hilarious, touching and repulsive, it showcases West Africa as an emerging force in contemporary cinema.

Farha, writer/director Darin Sallam’s debut, is so effective because it views the conflict through the eyes of a child, one with hopes and dreams and has no role to play in the ensuing battle. It asks viewers to remove their preconceived opinions of the struggle and approach it solely on the human toll that results from living through such tumult.

Tippett himself said he did not intend Mad God to adhere to any strict narrative structure, so it’s best to merely soak in the sumptuous, detailed visuals and extract your own meaning from the journey. It’s a ferociously engaging, if slightly flawed, viewing experience.

Ben Whishaw’s raw central performance keeps one glued to the screen, but the cold and distancing result doesn’t quite do it justice. Shame, as Karia, displays a knack for building tension and maintaining an almost nauseatingly melancholic atmosphere. If only he dug a little deeper.

With a little more filmmaking flair, or drive, or a fresh perspective, East of the Mountains could’ve been a real gem. Instead, it’s a decent little character study about a man facing death, worth a look for the magnificent central performance alone.

The Auschwitz Report is an intense, visually bold tale of a courageous pair of people who endured the tortures of a concentration camp to escape and become heroes.

We Need to Do Something simply doesn’t have the character-centered backbone to create an engaging 96-minute long story. It’s painfully obvious that atmosphere and style were the priority even though the premise made it so that the characters took the spotlight.

There’s much to like about The Electrical Life of Louis Wain — the Victorian setting, cats, Cumberbatch, and its visually stunning cinematography. But it may not be enough to spark enough life into a movie-going audience that wants something new.

If you’ve ever felt alone and ignored in life, Dear Evan Hansen may touch you in profound ways.

The fun of Sigourney Weaver in directors Wallace Wolodarsky and Maya Forbes’ feature, The Good House, is watching a master actor create an everyday character so believable that she could literally walk into a room and pass as one of us. By the way, everything I said about Weaver equally applies to her co-star Kevin Kline as well.

While the documentary doesn’t have headlines or columns, it does have gorgeous establishing shots, great music, and fantastic narration, all of which blend together, allowing Beth Levison and Jerry Risius to tell the true tale of Storm Lake, Iowa.

One could say that I Love Us can’t decide what it wants to be. Is it a crime thriller or a family film? This split focus is a legitimate criticism, but somehow director and lead actor Danny Abeckaser manages to pull it off. It’s far from perfect, but it works well enough.

While listening to all the admirative, warm-hearted yet poignant dancers’ testimonies, it is difficult not to think of the man as a tyrant who made people afraid that he would destroy their bodies! Yet Balanchine’s psychopathic techniques proved to work, as many of his students found success in their field.

Good movies make you feel, even if that feeling is not good. Chon ensures you’ll have feelings at the end of Blue Bayou, just not the happy ones.

Director Juho Kuosmanen excels in telling a story that seems entirely believable and realistic, never forced or predictable. The actors are equally talented.

The Killing Of Kenneth Chamberlain is a well-executed if a bit stagey, dramatic thriller that illustrates exactly why “defund the police” isn’t just a rallying cry but an important call to action. The actors are stunning in their raw performances, and the story will leave audiences infuriated. And that is precisely the point.

Eastwood is a formidable filmmaker, a force of nature, whose films like Mystic River will forever remain in the pantheon of Great Cinema. Alas, Cry Macho may likewise be forever regarded as a perplexing glimpse at a different side of the man, one who's created this macho persona and who now attempts to absolve himself, to only – pardon my crude use of the idiom – dig his own grave.

Throughout, the film is an idiosyncratic mediation on a pesky emotion that can simultaneously bond us and tear us apart. And with Pink and his exquisite cast behind The Wheel, the audience is in great hands.

Montana Story is a solid film set on a standard story structure.

Brennan takes the viewer on an intimate journey into the lives of the members, their families, neighborhoods, and the identity of Cuban people.

The description of the actual re-claiming of the prison by the corrections officers and the national guard is told in horrifying detail, and the torture and punishment of the surviving prisoner are much worse. I dare you to watch it today and not get angry about the racial divide that existed in the 70s.

Kurosawa has not attempted to make a thriller but a vivid deconstruction of one.

Sometimes reality is stranger, more unbelievable, and more inspirational than fiction.

Tim Roth is great as Neil.

Writing with Fire accomplishes what any good documentary should—it allows the viewer a visit a world that they might never even have known to exist.

LaBruce dresses up kink in priestly robes and biker leather and raw skin and sets it out on a runway walk in open daylight.

The directors’ reverence is clear, but they don’t shy away from giving a three-dimensional examination of their subject.

The Starling is trying to be a feel-good movie about finding hope in dark times. That’s admirable, but the main problem is that it does it in such a down-the-middle, straightforward way. As a result, there aren’t any surprises and at least a few missed opportunities. Still, Melissa McCarthy and Kevin Kline are worth the price of admission alone.

The Guilty manages to keep things interesting with a propulsive plot.

It is a worthy return to feature directing by Jane Campion and a thoroughly relevant film to our modern discourse.

Despite its slight story and tiny budget, the music that pulses through the heart of the film buoys it above its limitations.

Another problem with the film is the pacing. The main story is interesting enough, but it just feels padded and stretched.

The Mad Women’s Ball avoids caricature or stereotype, though the grounds it walks may seem somewhat familiar. Laurent treads them with skill and passion, immersing us into a period wildly different and dishearteningly similar to ours.

Fire Music is a comprehensive overview of the major players in this wild, unrelenting scene. Keep in mind, this is a 90-minute documentary, not a 20-hour Ken Burns epic, so it moves quickly. The point, however, is not to be the ultimate authority on the subject but to discuss the motivations and mindsets of the artists involved.

Cinderella fails spectacularly on just about every level.

Farhadi is, of course, excellent at revealing character through people thrust into morally complicated circumstances. This is achieved here through a slow build and a masterfully nuanced set of character choices.

Wan has style to spare, his direction brimming with confidence and his by-now-familiar trademarks.

I will say Candyman is worth watching. But I will advise not going in with preconceived ideas or comparisons to the original because that is where the disappointment will hit you like a brick to the head.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is an origin story, and director Destin Daniel Cretton, working from script he wrote alongside Dave Callaham and, Andrew Lanham did a masterful job telling a story that’s not only Asian-American but a Marvel movie at the same time.

Kai Luke Brummer is a revelation in the central role, his introverted performance buoying the plot with nuance and charisma. We navigate through the horrors right alongside him, and we root for him, and in the end, despite a striking and sad realization, we gaze at the ocean and wonder if there’s hope for humanity yet.

This is one of the better examples of art imitating life that I have seen in a long time. It’s very real and takes no prisoners. Watch it when you feel like having a good cry.

You may think you know what to expect from Nebbou’s gem, but as it unfolds, the tragic, hilarious, deeply cynical, and oddly uplifting film proves to be as multidimensional and expectations-defying as its formidable protagonist.

Every so often, a motion picture comes around that’s so dreadful you wonder what prompted anyone to want to waste their time making it and your time watching it to such a degree. When I’m a Moth holds that dubious distinction.

The Old Ways is a masterpiece that shows how great horror will be done in the future: swiftly paced, engrossing and terrifying.

Please seek out The Human Voice as soon as you can. It is a short, shockingly beautiful exploration of the stages of abandonment.

The Seer and the Unseen has more to offer by showing us the kind and gentle landscape and people of Iceland. It’s best to take the movie for what it is at face value. If you’re the type of person, who just wants to mock an old lady, then you best move on to a different film.

The Protégé is just good action-y thriller-y fun with great repeat value. It falls in that mid-range budget for an action film, maybe just a few notches below the Bourne films. So it’s the perfect popcorn and movie outing for the weekend.

It’s a thrilling, poignant accomplishment, as uncompromisingly bleak as it is epic in scope.

Infinitum: Subject Unknown works as a scary, anxious thrill ride.

I’d describe A Dark Foe as a dark ride at Disneyland. You’re invited to step into a vehicle, buckle up, sit back, and enjoy what happens around you. The steady progression into darkness moves rather quickly through one revelation after the other.

Liesl Tommy extracts the proper emotion from every scene, and the music is like truffles on top of a fantastic meal.

Beautifully filmed and incorporating interviews and impressive archival news footage, Pray Away digs deep into the pathology of fundamentalist Christian conceptions of reparative therapy. By showcasing survivors of the “ex-gay” movement and illustrating the personal tragedy that has resulted from individual involvement, the film provides a lens of hope for those who think there is none.

Stephens knows how to get outstanding performances from all the actors. He creates a whimsical atmosphere in a scenario that could be unbearable heavy. This is probably one of the most fun movies I’ve seen that hangs its hat in a land of death. Yet, it celebrates life, which we all need a little bit more of, don’t you think?

The film has a whimsical surreality to it, just like the actor himself.

Clearly a deeply personal project for the director, it radiates utmost sincerity, rendering the more baroque parts palatable, if not as affecting as they were clearly intended to be. Within 90 despondent minutes, Dante encapsulates a plethora of themes and ideas, and that by itself merits plaudits.

Spare and laconic almost to a fault, the film nevertheless haunts with its indelible imagery and enigmatic vibes.

he feature’s laid-back, lo-fi, semi-improvised approach and brevity ensure that it never lags. Although never quite reaching revelatory status, Leonard, a keen observer of the human condition, pieces together scenes that are bound to strike a resonant chord – especially with expecting couples.

The ending does have a pretty good payoff to push Masquerade over the recommendation line.

No one is safe, and decency is thrown out the window. Not since Deadpool has a movie ever been so f****d up. Though Deadpool wandered more into the sexual and scatological terrain, The Suicide Squad, instead, blurs the line between cartoon violence and gory realism.

The result is tonally-uneven and predictable, down to its lame stabs at exploring xenophobia.

It should not go unnoticed that Ducournau gives viewers some amazing scenes that capture the poetry found within the grotesque.

Jungle Cruise is just plain, good, not-to-be-taken-seriously fun.

The suspense in Tailgate is cringe-inducing. Crijns keeps his foot on the gas for the entire runtime, artfully ensuring that neither the victims nor the audience ever gets a moment to breathe. Even with a premise we’ve seen before, this film delivers right up to the credits and beyond.

Had these themes of accepting the consequences of actions, living up to one’s word, the moral weakness of youth been better capitalized on, or had a little fun been had, The Green Knight would have done a better job at earning itself a place in the storybooks.

As family movies aimed at the tween demographic go, Dolphin Island is entertaining enough. The beautiful vistas could be a balm to anyone who’s thinking about the islands but can’t get there.

At first glance, the feature, which Johnson co-wrote and co-produced, may seem like yet another granola indie about a middle-aged man reassessing his life. And it is. But there’s magic to it.

Never Gonna Snow Again says so much with so little: how thinly shielded these people are from the encroaching doom, how said doom is brought about by utter ignorance (an extended shot of a tree being devoured by metallic jaws scars the soul), and how this distance from the realities of the world manifests itself in their distance from each other.

Sheep Without A Shepherd is good fun as both an action flick and a heartfelt crime-thriller at the same time. In case you were wondering, the ending is fantastic, which is traditionally problematic for thrillers in general. It wraps everything up nicely and in a satisfying way.

The New Bauhaus tells a fascinating story, as Moholy-Nagy’s art and life are worthy of being told. But, Nahmias tells it in a largely pedestrian fashion.

It makes me curious about what Noel David Taylor is going to do next. This weirdo indictment of Hollywood is just that interesting.

The actors do what they can, but even the talent assembled here can’t help getting swallowed up in the Shyamalan vortex of nonsense.

Downeast captures the essence of the frozen life in Maine better than any other film in recent memory.

The highlight of Snake Eyes is the action.

The story is lively, and the mixing of music, skateboarding, interviews, and footage of the past is amazing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a “hip hop head,” a skater, or a stockbroker. You’ll be engaged from beginning to end.

With Settlers, Rockefeller and his crew have created a striking little treatise on our misguided ambitions.

I recommend Die In a Gunfight to any film fan that wants to see a different take on the mob love story. I think the romance takes a back seat to the violence when I think an equal footing would have made the film so much better.

If there is any complaint to be laid against Big Hero 6, it is that the team itself takes a back seat. The story is primarily about the relationship between Hiro and Baymax. This is not a negative comment because the relationship between the boy and his robot is endearing and effectively told.

Homeroom is a fantastic piece of documentary storytelling

Mogul Mowgli elegantly deals with essential issues while remaining entertaining.