The gravity and tragedy of each shooting examined are intensely felt. While the subject matter is heavy, by looking at the grassroots movements that have cropped up to fight against this injustice, the director offers a glimmer of hope that change is possible.

Engrossing and brilliantly insightful production.

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.

Tell Me Who I Am is an incredible real-life mystery.

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.

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.

Vision Portraits heart lies within these stories, but its power stems from its style. The cinematography by Kjerstin Rossi and Mark Tumas is often obscured, fuzzy, out of focus, or so close it is uncomfortable.

This is war as a First Person Shooter, and it’s incredibly effective at putting the viewer in the moment.

This is what "Nightmare" fans have been waiting fifteen years for.

Even if you don’t care for saddles and sagebrush much, you are going to want to cowboy up for this one. It is an acid flashback wearing spurs. If you go out of your way for that old-school cool adult animation, slide right on over to Slide. It is another example of why Bill Plympton will always be one of the greatest animators of all time.

There is so much to love about the film. Its greatest achievement is its screenplay, which is very dense. Nothing is wasted — not a single side character, joke, gag, or plot point. Every element serves a purpose to the overall story.

It’s scary, intense, and moody. Derrickson’s first film since Doctor Strange (the first one, the good one) is one of the best horror films in a very long time.

Smartly edited, utterly engrossing, and as intelligent an examination of American race relations as I've seen.

Residue is a delicately balanced film that lands its points while exploring these conversations from angles that are often unseen.

Thanks to the cast and crew, this flamboyant tale of lavishness works on almost every level. At the heart of Pretty Problems lies a story about appreciating what you have and not relying on the compliments of strangers to influence your self-worth.

The story goes on and on, endlessly fascinating to the last - the sensational trial, the convictions, the revelations, the recriminations.

If there was ever a film that screamed Best Actress Oscar-bait, it’s Judy. But damn, Renée Zellweger is absolutely fantastic in this role, and absolutely deserves Best Actress honors. Yes, I know the year’s not over yet, but the bar is set high.

A call to action, a sobering first-hand look at the grueling ordeals refugees face, a story of love persevering against all odds, and a visceral, real-life thriller, Midnight Traveler is a unique cinematic experience that will hopefully snap us all to reality.

If you’re suffering from superhero fatigue, this is just the palette cleanser you need.

Take Me To The River: New Orleans is edited together in a way more organic to music than traditional documentaries, which works wonders.

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

The Whaler Boy is an engaging, somewhat fraught look at coming-of-age, sexual awakening, and a broken mind. Onokhov brings the role to mesmerizing life and is supported by a good secondary cast, though they’re playing thinly written parts. But, the epic look and majesty of the visuals carry this drama over any rough waters it occasionally hits.

The honesty of the troupe in telling their story is both brutal and hilarious.

So here it is, an arena rock type film event for lovers of Asian cinema. Good news is that you won’t have that annoying ringing in your ears the day after. Better news is that you’ll have food for thought way after witnessing these spectacles.

The countryside visuals, emphasis on naturalism, and remarkable ensemble must make Alcarràs the most grounded and humane interpretation of a telling representing an entire culture and living.

Bleached by the Southwestern sun, this blunt and biting look at a shattered family’s struggle to survive everyday life in Nowheresville, New Mexico, is not only inspired and entertaining, but accessible to thick-headed louts like myself.

Friedkin gives us a master class on the creative process of film and a set of expertly told war stories that thrill and inform. It just doesn’t get better than this.

It is sweet, engaging, and has a great message.

If you have been fiending all year for a quality drama that shares a different world, then Frybread Face and Me is what you have been waiting for. Luther’s deft screenplay ably gets across a lot of complicated family business in just a few strokes.

Wow. A heist movie that is more focused on people than it is crime. An incredible cast - Robert Forster and Donnie Wahlberg. Getting to see Kristin Minter's breasts and hearing her say, "F---." Damn near a perfect movie.

The best thing the filmmakers did was to pull a cast out of the stage productions. Importantly, the actors convey a sense of history and comfort with each other.

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

A New Love In Tokyo does for sex workers what The Sopranos does for the mafia: it shows what the people behind the jobs are like. I wished I hadn’t missed it the first time and relished this opportunity to finally see it.

Those expecting that a movie about an occult sacrifice to ever become scary will be disappointed with Extra Ordinary. The filmmakers use the trappings of that kind of film for an all-out comedy. Thanks to its nonstop jokes, strong, likable characters, and marvelous cast the movie is hysterical.

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.

Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues is that rare insider music documentary that skips the skin and gets down to the bone.

The script for this film is absolutely incredible.

Do we want to live in a society that ruins people’s lives for their musical taste? Hopefully not. Watch The United States of Insanity to see what that means and decide for yourself.

A film to savor and to be thankful for.

Well-executed interviews of key people and all band members, along with excellent animation and archival research, The Go-Go’s reveals a story of talent, will, friendship, addiction, and forgiveness. The backdrop of the male-dominated music business highlights that these ladies who have stayed brash and whipsmart have always been entirely punk.

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.

Through Wang’s intimate and gifted storytelling, and her filmmaking abilities, she offers a lens of understanding to the delicate nature of life and death, especially for the frontline men and women who were tackling this faceless and mysterious illness changing life as we know it.

It achieves that magic combination of nuance, depth, and having a big heart that makes it both a crowd-pleaser and a favorite of critics.

This is one of those films that will either hit it big as an indie crossover like "Little Miss Sunshine,” or just make some money and become a film nerd favorite. Either way I recommend you don’t miss this awkwardly fun gem.

On top of the tried-and-true prison genre formula coupled with the misfit gang formula, Rupert Wyatt's "he Escapist flips everything on its ear by playing out in two timelines simultaneously.

The cast is perfect in every way, and each actor brings the right amount of silly and serious to their respective role. This might not be quite as good as Kaufman’s beloved property, nor as brilliant as the stage musical, which remains the definitive distillation of Toxie’s antics. Still, it is a damned fun time at the movies with enough nods and references to please even the most diehard of Troma purists.

As with all of Mann's films, Manhunter is an intense experience. All of the actors, including even legendary goofball Chris Elliott, give brooding, serious performances.

A timeless classic, full of excitement, humor, witty asides and memorable characters.

Taking on the melancholy, rain-tapping-a-window tone of Leonard’s music, Broomfield doesn’t try to draw a line through the story artificially but embraces the natural disorder of real life.

Beautifully shot, this character study fascinates in an almost perverse way, building up adequate levels of tension throughout and bursting with disturbing scenes of violence. It is also a tale of solitude, equally tragic and funny, heavy and whimsical.

The sequel is a shout-out to horror movies of the past.

Antarctica is a rare gem that stands as one of this year’s best.

The director’s new masterpiece is a summation of nearly everything he has learned as a filmmaker, and about black culture, but he doesn’t feel the need to beat the audience over the head for each lesson he’s trying to impart.

Roots of Fire has the power to make you a fan of Cajun music for life, while also (maybe) making you more of a fan of life itself.

Room at the Top remains a highly satisfying and beautifully conceived study of the human experience. It is one of the most important films in the history of British cinema and, mercifully, it is still one of the most remarkable dramatic productions of all time.

A masterful comedy that will divide audiences, but it left me laughing hysterically. I hope that doesn’t make you think I’m a sick bastard, but if so, piss off.

A wicked good time.

To picture the depth of visuals in The Beautiful Summer, imagine a hundred beautiful moments in time standing out in sharp contrast like a string of Christmas lights.

Here Breillat directs one of the most thrilling actresses working today, and the latter makes this calculated study into a tale brimming with passion and sorrow.

With an authenticity rarely seen in contemporary cinema, it examines the lives of those that struggle to survive in ecosystems that function according to their own decrepit principles.

As successful as this family drama is, Demme proves himself to be quite a multitasker. With the skill of an ethnographer and the passion of a sentimentalist, he celebrates the traditions of marriage in a handful of tender set pieces.

The best fairy tales always have so much darkness in them. That's why they resonate so deeply. This is a magnificent film.

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.

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.

The acting is flat-out wonderful.

It’s one of the most exciting genre mashups I’ve seen in years.

A very funny comedy. It’s a very funny comedy that almost made me cry.

It checks all the boxes you want in a fun, summer action film while not insulting your intelligence.

Do we really want to live in a world void of "Wild Man" Fischers, and all their unique forms of creative expression? Savor the fascinating, thought-provoking Derailroaded, and you be the judge.

Peak Season is a well-written and engaging drama. The characters are likable and relatable. The three leads are perfect and play off each other wonderfully.

Fran Kranz’s debut feature-length dramatic film Mass will linger in your head as you process its ability to provide solace in the face of atrocity. Perhaps the most defining quality it exudes is Kranz’s ability to evoke impressive thought-provoking drama within a bare environment of a table, chairs, and four people in an auxiliary church space, the primary location for the entire film.

Wright provides a film of hope and faith with extreme, challenging, and harsh realities and presents them with flawless character and a connection to nature and its healing properties.

Mangold has time to build sensational, studied characterizations, brilliant pacing (courtesy Mike McCuster, who also edited the director’s previous effort, the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line”), and blistering action.

Despite its obvious flaws, To Your Last Death, is one of the best action/horror films I’ve seen in a long time. It presents a nontraditional protagonist, has a fresh take on a tired formula, and leaves room for a sequel. It is a fresh, campy evening of brutal fun.

Perhaps one day, gender will cease to be an object of discrimination, but that day is still far off. In the meantime, we need warriors like these brilliant composers to wage war against a stacked patriarchal system.

The Peanut Butter Falcon refuses to condescend to its star and tells a story that’s authentic to the life and experiences of adults with Down Syndrome.

The female-centric, lo-fi South Mountain is an excellent example of how little a budget matters when all the other puzzle pieces are in place. We need more cinema like this.

A charming, highly entertaining romantic adventure full of life, spectacular vistas, and sensual delight.

The script, written by David McKenna, is extremely impactful, as are the performances.

It's a remarkable film; the dialogue takes our breath away with its sharp skewering of expectations and realities, the bleak honesty is balanced by the freshness of real life and moments of raw truth and comedy -- Don't miss it.

There’s a darkly unique spin to it that makes the old and tired feel fresh and new. ... This film is straight up magical.

Donny’s Bar Mitzvah just works from start to finish.

Like its central performance, Hope manages to convey and dissect so much with (seemingly) so little: the way real struggle makes us realize how much we love, truly see, and trust each other; the hidden reserves of human perseverance in the face of certain death; the healing power of art; and hope, of course. Hope and despair give life meaning, one unable to exist without the other.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the graphic imagery, this feature is a brilliant look at obsession and the possible grisly endpoint of reductio ad absurdum.

The director, who also stars in the film, and his fellow lead Christopher Abbott, share amazing chemistry that turns any run-of-the-mill conversation into entertainment.

Huesera: The Bone Woman will take your conception of the limits of the horror genre and break every bone in its body.

Though it has many moments of sarcasm and humor, the overall tone, like the comics themselves, is a depressing one.

Women of the White Buffalo is a major triumph from a multi-talented artist. It may be grueling at times, but it is one of the best visions of something unseen released yet.

Unlike its male protagonist, who seems to remain immune to the town’s charms, you will surely not want to leave International Falls.

Thought provoking and brimming with charm, match that with an infectious sense of humor and outstanding performances.

This version of Hamlet is raw in its emotion, incredibly natural in its performances, and heartbreaking in its conclusion. Even after centuries of retellings, the story still cuts deep, and Aneil Karia’s version proves that its power has not diminished. At the center of it all is Riz Ahmed, whose incredibly raw performance ensures this adaptation will be remembered.

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.

This film is pure delight.

It’s a nearly perfect film.

How to Build a Girl is an incredibly fun movie.

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.

It’s tempting to talk about Making Waves as being educational, but it is not dryly academic, though it does introduce the subject in some detail. This is a fun film to watch, with the interviews and graphics illustrating how the sound comes together, the doc is an exciting behind-the-scenes look at the effort and skill required to create movie sound artfully.

If being dull is the cardinal sin of the movies, as Capra supposedly said, then Sorrentino is a saint. There’s not a dull moment in Loro, whether it’s the hypersexual, reality-bending party scenes or the quiet backroom conversations where the truth comes at the characters so unexpectedly, they don’t have time to prepare their usual defenses. All of it is visceral pleasure at an eye-bleeding volume.