Like a brooding nightmare, Burning washes over audiences with passing visions of multiple lives, secrets and betrayals, all leading to no single, clean-cut or simple explanation.

We’re left with a perhaps too tidy ending that picks up the spirits but doesn’t delve into the questions about human nature that the movie raises. Had it dug a bit deeper, it might have been something more than the overall pleasant entertainment vehicle that it is.

What saves Adrift from an instant wreckage is Woodley’s performance, but still, it’s preferable to read the facts than cope with its cinematic adaptation.

Everett looks at home in this role and breathes new life into Wilde. The Happy Prince proves that Rupert Everett was born to tell the tumultuous story of a kindred spirit. Oscar Wilde would be proud.

The action is dumb, the plot is weak, and the story is pitiful. Venom is a bad movie, yet surprisingly I still loved the hell out of it.

Try as I might, I just wasn’t all that invested in the fate of Alex and Sean or their own private close encounter with the third kind. Which is a shame as the filmmaker shows a keen flair for creating both an interesting visual and aural palette.

It’s a film that will surprise you if you give it a chance.

Strip out the thriller moments and you have an interesting film, instead, we’re left with a mediocre thriller that phones in the final act.

Celebrities. Privilege. Debauchery. Hedonism. We’ve all heard the stories about the most infamous (and legendary) nightclub of all time, Studio 54, but we didn’t have all the facts…till now.

Bomb City isn’t a phenomenal effort for a first-time director, it’s a phenomenal film, period.

Non-Fiction is incredibly witty, fast-paced, and unmistakably French.

After a slowly developed first section, the low-key indie drama gets some grittiness coming from the hostile relationships, leading us to an offbeat finale that, understandably, may be classified as pointless or unsatisfying by many viewers.

In the end, you get a sense of what actually happened and what was imagined. However, you are still left feeling uneasy.

The cast in this film is incredible.

The directing style of Strange Nature fails to bring any atmosphere, the acting is so nondescript that it barely registers (with two notable exceptions), and a lack of cohesive vision leaves the movie uncertain of what it truly is. An absolute waste of time for all involved, especially the audience.

If you like unconventional indie comedies, this one can’t be missed.

He has the capacity to both enlighten and infuriate simultaneously, making it impossible to take our eyes away from the beautifully shot trainwreck before us. American Dharma is the height of that signature Errol Morris style.

Serious actors will find a whole new respect for these women and their individual contributions to film and theater, who fought through way through a system made for men and blazed a path for those who followed. And fans of one or all the dames will see the object of their fandom be real, open, and honest.

With characters that we watch but never know and some imitative storytelling, Galveston can’t help but feel like a compilation of cover songs, which, while listenable, are stilted and perfunctory.

Adam Sobel’s 2017 documentary, The Workers Cup is a maddening heart-wrenching inside look into a group of construction workers in Qatar, building facilities in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

This is absolutely Eli Roth’s best film. It’s scary, poignant, thrilling, and just a ton of fun.

e-Demon is original, told in a striking, engaging manner, with stellar acting, and a good number of scares.

I really liked that Robert Greene chose to have the citizens of Bisbee play the roles of the strikers and deputies the reenactment. I feel that it really added something special to the documentary.

There are so many wonderful, well-crafted scenes in The Last Suit. Pablo Solarz’ script is a multilayered masterpiece.

Dan Habib certainly has noble intentions in mind with Intelligent Lives. The energetic, ambitious young people at its core are a joy and discovering where they wind up is sweet. However, the documentary never goes far enough to explain vital elements in the civil rights advancements for those with disabilities, and the directing style fails to generate forward momentum.

The Bogarin siblings use many methods of storytelling to tell us the tale of their family, creating an atmosphere in 306 Hollywood that is Errol Morris-meets-Wes Andersen. It’s a beautiful documentary filled with magical realism and most importantly the heart and soul of their grandmother.

Content-wise, Cruise is dull, with a script that brims of potential but is done injustice by uninspired leads.

Superb acting by all the leads and supporting players populate the desolate landscape with human dramas large and small in a place where people scrape a living out of harsh conditions.

In Making Montgomery Clift, you see how brilliant an actor Clift was. You see his love of the art of storytelling, developing characters with depth and dimension, and his willingness to put the final product over his own ego. He loved living life just as much as portraying it on screen.

The film captured why Joan Jett is amazing not only as a musician but also as a human being.

Although skirting the inexplicable and the absurd, Assassination Nation is a pulpy and immensely entertaining roller coaster, hallmarked by its relentless sociocritical bite and refined cinematic craft.

The film’s absurdly strong performances, music, and aesthetics all bring to life a wonderful film you won’t want to miss.

It’s Cangialosi’s writing and direction that result in a watered-down, emotionally manipulative experience.

Call Her Ganda is not a bad documentary, but it is one with entirely too much to say in one 93 minute piece. Brevity is the soul of wit, but in this case, focus would be the soul of the debate.

Unfortunately, Another Time spends a chunk of the film giving viewers an unnecessary, unwanted and mind-numbing quantum physics lesson, which spoils all the romance and fun.

Diane is incredibly satisfying, especially at the end, with all the loose ends tying themselves together in a way that isn’t entirely expected but is kind of in your face the entire time.

Love Gilda is one of those documentaries that will make you laugh, touch your heart, and inspire to make the most of your life without fear.

Green Book is a real crowd pleaser — aside from the banter between the oppositely-minded characters, it has clear heroes and villains. The writers do manage to sneak a few nuances in, especially when discussing Shirley feeling out of place in both the white and black communities.

A Wizard’s Tale is blandly animated, badly edited, terribly, terribly written and its dearth of creativity hurts its core conceit. While most of the voice actors try their best, it is all for naught.

Carefully balancing breakneck momentum and a heartfelt investigation of the grieving process is no simple feat, but Kienle is mostly up to the task.

Filmmaker Heather Lenz pieces together a fascinating story of this little-known, yet wildly popular artist.

Sun Yi’s stoicism is admirable and moving, but it’s his ex-wife Fu Ning’s tearful recollection of their separation that cements the story in your mind. Her testimony does what so many activist documentaries fail to do: make large-scale suffering real to the viewer.

Chic, sexy, and just the right amount of sleazy, A Simple Favor is a stunning thrill ride, a viciously engrossing experience that has become so rare in studio filmmaking.

It’s easy to forgive its melodramatic excesses, especially if you happen to be partial to the genre. And things do pick up as the story unfolds.

This is a fantastic film. Imagine any John Hughes film as a drug-fueled drama.

I Think We’re Alone Now is an exercise in ambiance, and Morano is nothing if not a brilliant conductor of tone. Favoring dreamy over dreary, the movie is a handsome and often mesmerizing addition to Morano’s expanding oeuvre.

While The Dawn Wall brings you up close to the miraculous feat of Caldwell and Jorgeson, the backstory (particularly of Caldwell) is just as amazing.

The Children Act is a masterpiece from beginning to end and it should not be missed.

A Boy. A Girl. A Dream may seem simple but every frame is a vibrant work of a passionate filmmaker.

The film actually succeeds on several levels. Long and Davis both turn out strong performances, bolstered by above-average writing by the directors. The strongest element, however, comes in Julia Hapney’s gruesome gore effects.

As a documentary, Rodents of Usual Size makes good use of animation illustrating how Louisiana got itself into this environmental disaster. The filmmakers interview a wide variety of citizens who come at the problem from their own unique perspective. They also capture some of the most once beautiful and now devastating images of Louisiana itself.

If you can’t check your brain at the door then don’t even bother with The Predator. The film is loud, improbable, manufactured within an inch of its life, and takes absolutely no real risks with the franchise. If you want action movie comfort food, this might be your movie.

No amount of words that can convey the sense of the film, because it is such a gut-punch of emotion.

Hellsgård and writer Olivia Vieweg have crafted a morbidly beautiful, uniquely character-focused, and decidedly feminine take on familiar apocalyptic tropes, and while it doesn’t always entirely deliver on a narrative or visceral level, Endzeit – Ever After emotional resonance – and the singularity of its worldview – is undeniable.

The lightning in a bottle you have to catch to make an epic love story work is chemistry between the leads. With one actor a relative novice, and the other trying to stretch himself and direct his first feature, the deck was stacked against them. But wow did they pull it off. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are terrific together.

The movie feels like a Sunday drive with your own thoughts, where you get some good thinking done, even if you don’t come to any lasting conclusions.

The tender story addressing the oppression of domestic workers includes brilliant moments of humanity, making the film attractive to the average viewer, but this film would not have received such praise had it come from a lesser known director.

Every line of dialog, every camera angle, every beat is precisely engineered.

Fahrenheit 11/9 is a call to action and a powerful one at that. It really brings something to the table that we’ve been missing, and something that most of the mainstream media is not well equipped to deliver, but Michael Moore is — emotion about injustice.

It is a violent, funny, well-acted pulpy delight.

Dead Envy seldom rises above its stock story plots and underdeveloped characters.

Sunset Society manages to abuse what little b-grade credibility it earns through its cast and premise with an unbearable slog through monotony and surprising tameness.

A failure on virtually every level, Peppermint is a slapdash, half-hearted affront to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in its crosshairs.

Hal is a loving tribute to a filmmaker who rarely gets the attention he deserves.

It should be noted that the film, directed by Corin Hardy, looks great. From a visual standpoint, The Nun is a success. There is an effective use of framing, color, and light that Hardy executes with polish.

Directed by Colin Minihan, What Keeps You Alive is an exercise in extreme style and visual trickery in the hopes of keeping the tension high. He isn’t subtle when dropping clues, cutting to an object more than a couple times as to warn us this will be important at some point. Working from his own script, the movie deserves some credit for not always arriving at the most obvious conclusions, even if it takes a well-trodden path.

Every scene in Never Steady, Never Still feels focused and intentional, like someone has agonized over how to most directly and honestly express the characters’ inner states.

Let the Corpses Tan is a fiendishly clever, meticulously stylish, lean, comedic thriller. Its sole purpose is to grab you by the lapels and entertain the living hell out of you, boy does it.

Despite Arterton’s outstanding performance, the film weakens considerably in its last section.

Horror’s goal is simply delivering fun. The thrill of constant frights releases rollercoaster-level endorphins the fans can’t get enough of the rush. Blood Fest shoves it right in our faces and then some. Get ready to bleed.

Hardy and Nachman’s film is the uncommon near-perfect documentary: the filmic elements fade, done so well the viewer focuses on the dogs and their journey. All of this leads up to the tremendous joy of freedom and partnership for those whose lives are transformed by their new guide dogs.

Sure, Blindspotting can feel a bit rough around the edges. Diggs and Casal have so many ideas they want to explore, and they aren’t always able to articulate them in a concise, economical way. But even if they haven’t quite honed their craft as screenwriters yet, theirs is a story that desperately needs to be told and they continue to find compelling ways by which to convey its urgency.

An impressive documentary-style drama film, whose soulfulness and elegance dazzle.

Dark Money does succeed in presenting a strong case for campaign finance reform.

Record nerds be damned, The Public Image Is Rotten rises to the top of rock documentary filmmaking with a refreshing sense of candid storytelling only made possible by the genuine frankness of its subjects.

It’s a film too real to be written. It was lived and continues to be lived in Alabama every day.

Nyoni’s handling of tone is astoundingly careful, and because of it, I Am Not a Witch is a truly unique and stirring experience.

You must see Operation Finale solely for this interaction between Malkin and Eichmann (Isaac and Kingsley).

Spiro has produced a beautiful film on loss, and the cycles of violence that all too many are understandably pulled into, yet she still manages to give us a glimmer of hope in a world of desperation.

In the end, Restoring Tomorrow reminds us that you can restore an old historic building to its original beauty, but it’s ultimately about the people.

This isn’t a movie, it is anti-cinema; an endurance test to discover how malleable a human’s brain is.

It doesn’t serve up the belly laughter or lightheartedness expected of the genre, at least in the traditional sense. Nor is there a satisfying ending that would align it snugly into the dramatic grouping. What it does do is excel in outright mockery of a persistent cultural issue. Primarily, the ignorance of those immersed in affluence towards the plight of their suffering neighbors.

The Happytime Murders eventually ends up spinning its wheels, telling the same joke over-and-over.

It’s unfortunate that The Swan doesn’t fully catch fire as a family drama or a rites-of-passage story, but a film with such a rich and finely honed sense of place is one that nevertheless deserves to be seen.

Thematically relevant and persistently moving the form forward, Searching is an emotional roller coaster, taking a familiar premise and invigorating it along with biting commentary on viral video culture.

The adaptation of Penelope Fitzgerald’s 1978 novel The Bookshop by Spanish director Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, Elegy, Learning To Drive) is not devoid of plot disturbances but provides fair moments of gorgeous filmmaking and acceptable entertainment.

There are occasional moments of inspiration, stylistically and thematically, where the movie hints at its true potential. But most of the time, the movie is tripping over its desire to be noticed.

As far as romantic laments of starving artists go, Blaze is one of the better ones.

Rockwell and Schwartz are basically doing their version of a Hope-and-Crosby road film. They play characters very familiar to an American audience and that is played against a British comedic landscape. The result it interesting to watch, but I think more for the Brits than its American counterparts.

We the Animals, a stirring portrait of youth, is a requiem for innocence lost.

The Motive is a fun, light film with a sad sack lead we can love and good laughs sprinkled throughout.

It is a documentary that shows the passion one entertainer has for one of the most iconic singers of all time. Davi’s drive to see it happen is what keeps the audience engaged, and the discovery of his singing voice is worth the time to watch the movie all on its own.

Björn Runge’s The Wife is an unmissable drama, largely in part to Glenn Close’s stunning performance in the title role.

Lough has attempted impartiality by showing both sides without overtly stating a position. Either side could interpret the film as presenting evidence supporting their ideology. This both works and does not.

Do You Trust This Computer is informative at the least. Everyone and everything comes off as credible, and the philosophy comes off as plausible. It effectively plants the seeds of paranoia.

The spontaneous performances of the duo are half the battle for the success, but definitely, Ms. Israel is also influential and decisive as she merges both the comedy and drama genres with gracious artistry.

It’s interesting to watch a movie where some aspects of the production are of such a higher quality than others. The script’s dialogue is wooden, character motivations are often unclear, and it’s hard to infer what we’re supposed to get from some exchanges.... Meanwhile, the acting is all-around excellent.

Every glimpse behind the curtain brings new meaning to your favorite songs. You discover how intimate and personal this album is for Sheeran and how much it means to his family. After watching Songwriter, you will listen to Divide with a newfound perspective that makes each song sound even better than it did before.