Walking on Water is essential for any devotee of the arts, as this shows a project from fruition to dismantling, a full life cycle of an art installation if you will. I, for one, found it very fascinating.

At times, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is all about the performances because the movie itself struggles a bit with settling on a tone.

Whatever the final analysis, Reno 911!: Miami is a welcome breath of fresh air in a year that's already forced audiences to endure the likes of "Norbit."

If you’re in the mood for some mindless zombie entertainment (pun intended), then Wyrmwood: Apocalypse has got you covered.

It’s refreshing to see a sex comedy that recognizes that it’s really not all that simple for all of us.

More than just a crime thriller, The Accidental Getaway Driver is a melancholic journey through the quiet corners of lost souls.

Had that window been opened just a bit more, Z Channel would be a remarkable film. As is, it's thoughtful and arresting.

Wil Wheaton is the true star of this film. His creepy therapist/creepy children’s TV show host take on his character was exactly what Rent-A-Pal needed.

Not too far below the gloss you can still feel director Denis Villeneuve's beating heart and the fondness he has for his characters. Because he does, you and I can too.

Nadja succeeds most when embracing its lineage, those visual echoes of Universal and Hammer Studios, with the visual weight borrowed from European art horror, yet falters when maintaining cool distance from material that demands a stronger commitment

Higashide effortlessly switches between the two polar-opposite men, both utterly convincing.

Benedict Cumberbatch proves yet again he’s a star and Merab Ninidze is equally brilliant at his Russian counterpart.

A fine character study and a solid look at a specific political movement and a certain time and place.

While Howl’s Moving Castle is far from perfect, it’s still a very good movie. It’s just not a great one.

There's some darn poignant stuff going on here.... The problem is that the audience will try to connect everything to the explicit Eden analogy, and not everything will. The director wins points for enticing you to figure it out, though, and I did enjoy it.

Devilishly clever and boasting a killer finale, Intacto is this year's "Memento" -- only Spanish.

This film is designed to turn your stomach and make you feel ashamed of your fellow man.

For me, the relevance outweighs my enjoyment of Ailey, but this relevance bears a massive weight. Alvin Ailey has a fantastic story, but this might be a narrative that lends itself more to a bio-pic than a detail-oriented documentary.

The script’s extremely well written, the direction flawless, and the performances -- especially by the fantastic Joaquin Phoenix, gobsmacking.

Scarlet is at its best when it is simply moving and letting the visuals, the fights, and the bond between Scarlet and Hijiri do the heavy lifting. Even when the destination feels obvious, the ride is so gorgeously constructed that it’s hard not to admire how confidently Hosoda brings it home.

For those who enjoy worldbuilding and sci-fi sagas, Storm Rider: Legend of Hammerhead will scratch the itch of Dune, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings fans. Don’t forget to watch the credits for a teaser of future installments. After all, the Hydroverse is just beginning.

The film works best on a subconscious level.

Everything in Easter Sunday is played for laughs… crazy family, wacky mob thriller, and lots of cameos. It’s all good, light fun. See it because you’re a fan of Jo Koy or just to get to know a little more about your Filipino brothers and sisters.

On the pages of the script, it could come across as forced, but thanks to good direction, editing, and the performances by Robert and Fortas this love story works.

Neither hater nor admirer, I still get wrapped up in his (Owen) mannerisms and emerald stare.

For an ultra-low-budget Indie horror comedy, The Day After Halloween provides a good share of laughs and jolts.

Regardless of how someone might feel about what she’s done, XY Chelsea will definitely give you some insight into why she did it and maybe will help inform a better understanding of what’s going on behind the scenes in these long, awful wars that America keeps getting into.

For the most part, Gwen achieves what it sets out to do. It surrounds you in scenic hopelessness and lets you stew in it until you’re done, or Gwen’s done. By the end of this movie, somebody’s definitely done.

A pretty provocative film, that is until it implodes into standard formulaic Hollywood crap.

Driveways is short but effective. It’s more about mood than the overall plot.

Whether you’re astonished or offended, Travolta gives a marvelous and unforgettable performance.

The backdrop of this seedy motel is just the perfect place to illustrate the awkward times of early teen life.

Eccentric and pure like its hero, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis will appall or bore many, but, a worthy piece of cultural history, it should delight devotees of the "real" reel underground.

There is an earnestness within how the story is told and an attention to detail that is increasingly lost in the world of high-definition digital filmmaking. The movie may have its rough edges and shortfalls, but it effectively captures the underbelly of a generation.

May be formulaic but never fails to find other ways to entertain.

Reprise is an energetic romp through creative frustration, stagnant relationships, the fear of change and romance-fueled insanity.

While it may raise more questions than answers and not quite cohere as a whole, the film nevertheless is poetic and at times breathtakingly beautiful, anchored by a superb cast.

Green makes you think and his films are so quiet and subtle, you almost find yourself in the film, wrapped up in the moment.

Smoothly seductive.

Paradise Hills has pacing issues, and a made-for-TV feel it can’t quite escape. A firmer grasp of tone would’ve benefited the narrative. Yet its creators’ boundless imagination carries it through the rougher patches.

Not bad for a mainstream suspensefest. Gere's good, Lane, as I said, is amazing in places and Lyne does some of his most assured work in years.

The script offers up some deviously clever twists and dark laughs reminiscent of the over-maligned French (coincidence?) Stewart spite-a-thon, “Love Stinks,” only with a jaunty European twist.

With his darker secrets hidden away, secrets that could have provided us with the final layers to this influential man, we’re left with an incomplete portrait of Bayard Rustin. But thanks to the documentary “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin,” we at least have that much. And for a man who’s as important and relatively unknown as Rustin was, an incomplete picture is far better than no picture at all.

It’s an easy target that’s been cinematically dissected many times, with the recent Nocturnal Animals and Velvet Buzzsaw coming to mind... Yet Grant manages to explore the subject from some enticing angles. The resulting painting may be a bit too busy to qualify as genius but contains brushstrokes so vivid it’s certainly worth scrutinizing.

Much like how its employees and patrons don't want to see the barbershop close, once one has become acquainted with these people and this place, one may not want Barbershop to end.

While this adaptation isn’t in the same league as Gordon’s or Richard Stanley’s Lovecraft work, it does have the hideous glow that horror fans will be drawn to.

The film’s intended audience is those who enjoy romantic stories, and it definitely delivers in that regard. Personally, I would have preferred if the story had taken a darker and grittier turn, but I appreciate the filmmaker’s effort to maintain a positive direction.

Burton fans and those eager for a more accurate adaptation of the novel will be happy with this new movie, while nostalgia-addled Gen X-ers and stoners of all ages will always have the original.

Love is indeed the greatest mystery, as Lantana's tagline goes, and while the film is ultimately still and interesting and fairly involving one, it's a bit unfortunate that the filmmakers weren't content to simply explore that quandary instead of manufacturing another.

Violent, vulgar, disgusting and incredibly funny.

The reason that Once Upon A Time In Venezuela is so effective is that it explores a microcosm of the events.

Bigger, brassier, and gayer than its predecessor, Mean Girls (2024) is a saccharine overload of cinematic bombast.

This is exactly the kind of movie that improves on subsequent viewings, allowing you to enjoy it more once you accept the narrative on its own terms.

Might've been a great film without Lester, the Deputy, getting in the way of the key relationship between Behrani and Kathy.

Strong performances from Vera Farmiga and Hugh Dillon keep things from becoming overdramatic.

It’s all about the action, and the story only gets in the way a little bit. I have high praise for this, though I’m not sure if The Killer’s Game is the vehicle that will launch Bautista into the action star he’s capable of becoming.

I found the entire emotional journey on which Weightless takes viewers to be rewarding as well as heartbreaking.

An unconventional fairy-tale. There are no monsters to kill, the Prince character doesn't strike you as too charming, and the heroine is not the fairest maiden in the land.

A mostly-smooth, sometimes-uneasy blend of pitch-black drama and absurdist comedy, Sunlight may follow the age-old “road-trip movie” structure, but it fully commits to an offbeat, non-sequitur style/logic that will either compel or repel audiences.

The dialogue is biting, crisp, smart, and frequently heartbreaking. It’s disappointing, then, that the narrative drags in places, particularly in the middle stretch. Brevity is key here; it all just becomes too much.

Overall, there is a lot of flip-flopping between stories, sometimes jumping back and forth more frantically than an episode of "Seinfeld."

First time director Zack Snyder has done an amazing job of creating a sense of doom and dread while sprinkling it with some wicked humor and amazing music.

Ultimately, Greek Mothers Never Die succeeds because it honours the fierce love at the heart of every immigrant family story. It reminds us that mothers have a way of inserting themselves into every corner of our lives, even after they are gone.

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

Halloween Party is not scary, and as a horror movie, that is a problem. But, the characters are engaging and fun, brought to life by a wonderful cast. And the directing and writing are excellent, so there’s a lot for eager audiences to take in. Just go in expecting an engaging mystery, not scares, and you’ll be fine.

Like its Russian hero, it aims for the stars and at times reaches exhilarating moments of weightlessness.

Gustafson gets great performances from her leads, yet the main storyline is not given a succinct resolution.

Gets off to a rocky start as you try to rationalize Lee’s place in the plot, but it soon has enough surprises and funny moments to keep you watching to the end.

Rockaway takes on, and a large part successfully addresses some very serious, very adult themes: abuse and its legacy for future generations, familial protection, and preservation, loss and redemption — all with a strong measure of grace and empathy.

In his inevitable next feature, Cronenberg could use more, dare I say, logic and warmth, to counterbalance all the madness and viscera. Otherwise, gorehounds and cineastes: dive right into this viscous pool.

Skincare is the perfect vehicle for Banks’s style, the cinematic equivalent of a Barbie-mobile with 60s Cadillac fins. The audience gets to ride shotgun as she speeds through the flashy, splashy visuals to get to the long tunnels of persecution.

I enjoyed Subservience for what it is: a Megan Fox vehicle with a dash of sci-fi. Casablanca it is not, but that’s okay.

Overall, I found myself not hating the film. There's just one thing that troubles me about the way Nancy Drew is depicted. She is determined, a perfectionist, uber-organized, and efficient. Those qualities can be associated to geekdom, but they’re also symptoms of someone with a propensity for disordered eating or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Hmmm.

What Cuarón and friends have done is made a cute genre film. What's the harm in that? I’m sure Bernal will be back to his edgy roots soon enough.

No one portrays and skewers really intelligent morons the way Albert Brooks does. Oddly enough Lost in America has a lot of similarities to everybody’s favorite TV show Green Acres. They are both about men who have dropped out of society and their inability to convince all the insane people in their world about the usefulness of common sense and rationality in an insane world.

The direction keeps things moving along nicely, while the cinematography makes the whole production look bigger and slicker than it would come across otherwise. Couple that with a decent script and two strong lead performances, and one gets a fine entry into the survival-thriller genre.

Overall, The Cherry Bushido is a fun time, and I found it to be a very different sort of samurai film. It’s loud, brash, and seeks to propagandize the Japanese to embrace their warrior nature. I quite enjoyed that. If you’re into unsubtle tales of demons and samurai, this is the film for you.

Bruce Thierry Cheung adapted this story from a novel by Dean Bakopoulos, brilliantly changing the setting from Michigan to the California desert. The film is light on dialog and heavy on brutally beautiful cinematography painting the mood.

A fun movie. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. It’s a great first date movie.

My biggest frustration with Summerland is three major plotlines mixed like a tossed salad. Each plot is interesting to watch as well as engaging, but transitions from one to the next can clash with the good feelings generated by the previous.

Raw, irreverent and uncompromising, Cho transforms her life into a form of performance art like no other.

I love zombie movies. I love George Romero even more. It is easy to say that every movie he comes out with is an event for me, so it brings me great sadness to say that I felt let down by his latest effort, Diary of the Dead.

Gaia uses its atmosphere to great effect.

In Bale, Herzog has found a talent who transcends the challenges of a brutal shoot. "Rescue" reveals new capabilities for an actor who's already proven himself in other intense and ever-focused performances.

Luz does have trouble giving depth to its characters. Rather than a deep dive character study, the film is very plot-centered. That is not inherently a bad thing, but unfortunately, when moving the plot gets in the way of developing characters, it can be a shortcoming.

Perhaps most compellingly, it’s a reminder to open our eyes, to notice the bigger world around us for what it is, to see who we really are. Toussi never preaches, gently luring you into an utterly tranquil state, wherein you may just find yourself booking a ticket to Colombia.

Hate crimes, racial tensions, economic strife, illegal immigration, and the preservation of white neighborhoods are familiar issues in this nation, but the crux of the documentary Farmingville is where these issues play out.

Freakier Friday is perfect for the mother/daughter set and offers a lot that we haven’t seen from Disney in a while: solid cast, strange plot, and a heartfelt message about family.

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.

In 30 years’ time it might seem as incisive a document of its time as, say, “Don’t Look Back” or “Gimme Shelter.” As a study of how the current corporate idiocy impacts one man’s art, it’s priceless.

The Hole In the Ground surprised me, took me on a fun ride, and returned me, almost unshaken. This was a brilliantly satisfying monster movie.

Ultimately Impossible Monsters is a perfectly adequate film with good production values and quite a few engaging twists and turns. If you are interested in the psychology of dreams and nightmares, or the thrill of a murder mystery, then this film is worth a watch.

I think what sets Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It apart from other end-of-life docs is that this one is just so honest, so forthcoming, and so remarkably detailed. Mariem Pérez Riera has perfectly captured an American icon at the moment we need her the most.

The White Crow demonstrates that, if perhaps not having yet mastered all of the nuances of directing an artful biopic, Fiennes possesses a keen eye for detail – and the man just can’t help but exude sophistication.

Despite being overall quite enjoyable, it feels very rushed in places, especially towards the end, and it fails to cap off Midway’s epic rise and fall as it deserves.

New territory for the Vermont director, and he shows every sign of feeling right at home in it.

The guy (Grace) simply steals the show here. He's at once goofy and hammy, yet so lost, sad and sensitive you buy into his performance from the get go.