A horror film that scares you to insomnia is good in the sense that it succeeds in what it sets out to do.

Homeroom is a fantastic piece of documentary storytelling

Few seasoned filmmakers can boast the lightness of touch, the comedic timing, and proficiency with an ensemble cast that the 21-year-old Lindon so nonchalantly possesses. The film would’ve been a treat if it were made by an established auteur; the fact that a complete newcomer concocted the entire thing makes it even more impressive.

While never sacrificing any of the hard-knock authenticity and specificity of his characters and their milieu, Brewer has crafted a deeply felt film.

Takes an unexpected turn towards originality where every other "David vs. Goliath-courtroom drama" only strives.

Eastwood once again takes a sharp stab at America’s penchant for attacking first, asking questions later.

Makes one interested in seeing the inevitable sequel, but one is also left to somewhat question the worth of sitting through this first installment.

The film has many great moments, but dare I say, it’s not melodramatic enough. To understand the magnitude of the miracle on ice, you had to live it, breathe it, and feel it.

Holding the entire movie together, Hall delivers an exceptional performance as a woman grieving, sliding in and out of reality. But her talents are eventually no match for a runtime that stretches things a bit and story beats that we have seen before.

An uplifting experience that doesn’t allow sport and competition to overshadow the stories of the runners’ lives.

Farhadi fails to provide startles and thrills, relying solely on the dramatic side of things to impress. But even that factor is disastrous as he tiresomely attempts to suggest connections between the past and the present.

The Wedding Banquet is the kind of film that reminds you why we fall in love with movies in the first place—because they surprise us, move us, and make us laugh at how messy and magnificent life can be.

Any minor flaws Off the Map has are easily forgiven by great acting and beautifully shot landscapes. Campbell Scott does a great job of adapting a stage play (by screenwriter Joan Ackerman) to film as well.

Other Music is a compelling story of nostalgia and a memento of what once was.

This film shows us that it is okay. We can survive. We can even thrive, and certainly, we can get by with a little help from our friends.

Works best as a beautifully executed and inspirational work of self-sacrifice.

Luckily, the attitude, the aggression, and the sex were let out in a burst of fire and they got it all on film.

A series of conversations that are sometimes clever and sometimes feel like screenwriting exercises about the details of life, but are always well acted.

The perfect mix of thrilling action, compelling storytelling, memorable characters, comedic moments — and all of that works in tandem like an orchestra bellowing an epic score. Infinity War leaves audiences wanting more… and with a lot to think about.

I thought director Arnaud Desplechin did just enough here to tell that story without betraying the nature of Mathias’s character, as audiences will see.

The story may be light, but the execution is strong, and the performances are engaging. It’s one of my go-to movies to see again this year, and it’s worth watching in a premium format.

The narrative may prove a bit indeterminate and slow-moving to jaded audiences. Yet it remains an incisive and unusual little tale, which we could certainly use more of these days. That is something I personally think about all the time.

A stale and poorly researched documentary.

When done well, they are scintillating cinematic brain teasers, and Timecrimes is one of the best time travel films to come along in, er, quite some time.

Entertaining and highly watchable but in the end, it just feels trite.

Enola Holmes is an engaging, exciting mystery that the entire family will enjoy. The direction is spot on, the acting is brilliant, the plot is intriguing, and the cinematography is fantastic. But the ending is a letdown, not trusting audiences to be content with Enola’s arc.

A Quiet Place: Day One failed to capture what we loved about the original films and instead decided to focus too much of its time on a rollercoaster ride of an alien invasion. Fun is fun, but without proper character development, Day One is more fast food than a hardy meal.

Crime 101 will get your pulse pounding on a wild ride.

What the movie needs more than anything is a script. The story is very disappointing and near the end, things start to get weirder and weirder.

The story's surprises range from clever to annoying, but DiCillo manages to hold it all together with his consistently amusing cast members, who make you laugh at their characters' self-absorbed folly.

It is always unclear what the film is really about.

Bill Murray is as funny here as anyone has ever been funny and I can’t see anyone else getting away with half the things he says here much less have them sound so cool and inspired.

The real miracle of this film is in its performances and direction.

Yes, Make Me Famous highlights the life and work of a brilliant artist, and just for that, the documentary is worth watching. The film also vividly describes what life as an artist was like on the Lower East Side of New York.

This is a brutal, exhausting, and genuinely horrifying little ghost flick.

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.

Stevenson’s story is engaging as the David versus the Goliath of the state’s district attorney. There are a lot of great actors on display and put together it feels like an A-List repertory company featuring Michael B. Jordan, Brie Larson, and Jamie Fox, to name a few. Then add some outstanding supporting veteran and up-and-coming actors, Just Mercy becomes a solid drama and film.

The ham-fisted approach undercuts the valuable information that makes up Fail State.

Fabian: Going to the Dogs is poetic, ugly, romantic, tragic, and side-splitting. Some sequences approach the edge of sanity, take a glimpse into the abyss, then the plot reassembles itself – but the threat of derailing remains, and it’s quite exhilarating.

Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror is an excellent love letter to one of the longest-running films in cinema history. Linus O’Brien honors his father’s work, and it is felt throughout the entire film. Watching this terrific documentary will make you want to do the Time Warp and enter the B-movie world of Dr. Frank-N-Furter all over again!

For a supposed mainstream movie, Kubrick’s The Shining isn’t very audience friendly. Half the time you have to guess what the hell is going on, and if you're not familiar with Kubrick's narrative style you’ll be completely lost.

Far and away the best of the Star Wars prequels (tough chore, that) and also holds its own with the hallowed films of the original trilogy.

Quite frankly, the film looks terrible and moves with painful slowness, while the voice performances by both the juvenile and adult actors are so lacking in character that one could almost assume the cast performed their lines phonetically.

What Superman felt like was that someone had taken my childhood box of action figures and found a way to tell an exciting story with it.

In a case where the most dangerous are kept dangerously close, here we have a rarity: a suspenseful, yet dramatic Western.

Fracture may be smarter than the majority of movies out there, but it's not half as clever as it thinks it is.

On its own terms, Departures is a thing of rare and remarkable beauty.

A wicked good time.

Heist movies seem pretty quaint and analog in our era where high stakes crime is primarily electronic in nature. But until someone can make embezzlement cinematically interesting, we’re left with theft and this movie just gets away with it.

The Beastie Boys have delivered the ultimate gift to their fans and the title couldn't be more perfect.

The film becomes at once an argument for the accuracy of fictional conventions and for the power of true, personal experiences.

The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent offers something for hardcore Cage fans, cinephiles, or anyone looking for something refreshing and unique. It’s original, funny, dramatic, and action-packed without the tonal whiplash one might expect from such an ambitious narrative.

Whip It doesn’t just refer to whipping around the track or whipping ass. It’s about a girl who must whip herself into shape and grow up.

Soucy’s documentary joyfully fulfills the mission of educating and entertaining, infused with the tremendous delight and loyalty of all those who worked with this seemingly magical production group.

I’m being overly harsh with Climate of the Hunter because it was frustrating to watch. I had to work hard to follow the story and figure out what was really happening between the characters and I find myself replaying various scenes to see what I missed.

In many ways, Dragonslayer is a realistic fairy tale. All of the classic pieces are here: heroes, bad guys, monsters, virgins in peril, mysticism and staggering odds.

Inspires plenty of head scratching and maybe a little irritation.

If there was one reason to see 40 Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie is for its music. Constantly playing in the background, you’ll find an appreciation for how good this band was, how a band this good could never find success, and how the group’s dynamic tore it down.

Rustin is an important story well told, with an outstanding must-see lead performance.

The individual sequences, along with the confidence with which the two lead actors navigate the sometimes-turbulent currents, elevate the film into the realm of art. After all, sometimes it’s okay for the whole to be less than the sum of its parts.

Nolte looks like a man with one foot in the grave and nothing to lose. He single-handedly rescues this caper flick from its own mediocre storyline.

Moon is one of those rare gems of the sci-fi genre that takes its acting as seriously as it treats its special effects.

The film-craft is high quality, with the passion and care taken evident. Schwentke brings the brutal winter during wartime to realistic life. If you have historical interest in deep details of the war, or are fascinated by psychopathic war criminals, this might be a film for you.

While the film has some laugh out-loud moments, it’s very poorly constructed and what we see onscreen seems to be the victim of either bad editing, poor direction or a script that was rushed into production too quickly.

I definitely enjoyed Avatar: The Way of Water much more than the first. Its message of family and the portrayal of a strong father and mother protecting their children is refreshing.

Lee gives us cross-section of characters, almost none of whom escape the summer unchanged.

With a deep understanding of his characters, Green has crafted a film that's devastating and uplifting without sounding a false note.

Once you get into the groove of Harmony and Me and realize the film is not only very tightly scripted, hilarious, and quite brilliantly acted, you’ll quickly be won over.

While it will not win many (if any) awards, The Blackening is hands down the best time that has been offered up in a movie theater since the Dungeons and Dragons movie last March. This horror comedy plays with genre conventions in a sparkling and vividly delightful way.

Thanks to strong direction, fantastic editing, and good acting, Deadstream is frightening, funny, and enjoyable.

Affleck carries a great deal of weight in the movie, but its Pniowsky who shines as the young pre-teen learning quickly what it means to be an adult.

Part of what makes this film a must-see for Titanic fans is that it truly puts you closer to the wreckage than anyone else can get.

B movies are fun because they're rinky dink. I got the joke and just didn't like the joke even though I respect Gunn for doing what he wanted to do.

In a film full of great performances, Ralph Feinnes steals the show as Harry, the boss.

A treasure in celebrating remarkable women with a unparalleled zest for life.

Aside from the poorly considered inclusion of staged drama, Framing John DeLorean competently breezes through the rise and fall of the legendary car mogul.

If you happen to be in the mindset for a long, leisurely, spiritual cinematic rumination about the fragility of life, the futility of our professional pursuits, the power of femininity, and the sheer bliss of living in the moment, then delve right in. The writer and director’s aim is not to shock or devastate, nor elicit any strong reaction, but to make one ponder the Meaning of It All.

The filmmaker’s careful modulation of tone and rhythm, how gradually he reveals mysteries, and the mere fact that this is a dialogue/character-driven horror tale make it hard to believe that this is O’Brien’s feature-length debut.

There is a great deal of heart in My Old School.

The movie's strength is in the performances. And they're enough to make Steel City worth a look.

I'm sure the filmmaker would disagree, but, honestly, I don't see the point. It's a visual Rorschach test and I must have failed.

Where earlier Moore films showcased a fair amount humor, even when covering weighty topics, Fahrenheit – especially the latter half – gives us Moore at his most serious.

The film is not without its problems, some inherent to Wilde's original play.

The performance of Fathia Youssouf is impressive as she transforms her diminutive, naïve self into a towering force.

David Gordon Green’s Halloween is able to graze the brass ring that 9 other sequels and remakes have tried to touch, but it still doesn’t run home with the prize.

It is a sprawling, ambitious and very long look at so many things, it's almost a miracle he was able to wrap it up in just two hours. And yet, for a film that is principally about death, the conclusion is surprisingly life-affirming, especially coming from Kaufman.

The two actors (Hanks/Seymour Hoffman) have terrific chemistry and riff off one another like partners in a veteran comedy team.

This film is pure delight.

More inanimate than haunting, The Little Stranger is Abrahamson’s least interesting feature.

It’s stale, a relic from another time that’s strenuously updated and forced into 2024.

Shows that war is horrible, but fails to fully understand the people who experience the horror beyond their sad exteriors.