A surprisingly fresh take on familiar material.

Mondocane is the finest Italian post-apocalypse movie ever made.

Safer at Home starts on an off-putting note, and the epilogue muddies the timeline to the point of confusion. But, nestled between those two baffling sequences lies a gripping thriller brought to life by astute direction, an intelligent screenplay, and a great cast. While not perfect, this independent production is still worth an adventurous audiences’ time.

Proved that cheerless, existentially unflinching literature can provide the basis for exhilarating cinema.

The film also has some hilarious moments and some that tug at your heartstrings.

As a comedy, Mark, Mary & Some Other People keeps the laughs light and the story grounded.

The Shadow of Violence has interesting things to say about violence and, ultimately, how far you would go for your family.

A magical vision of the ring of the imagination.

It’s jolly, childlike in a good way, and unusual where it counts. It’s a pop-up book that should be prominently displayed and never read.

If you’ve ever had a friend or family struggle with an addiction, you know that nothing you say or do will change their ways. It seems to always happen at their rock bottom. Nora Fingscheidt’s feature, The Outrun, starts at the bottom.

For the most part, the film is brilliant.

Learning about the old points of view can help us build better ones. Hopper/Welles is important for that reason. It’s also hilarious to hear Welles, who is never onscreen, browbeat Hopper to answer questions he doesn’t want to answer. Seriously, this film is a treat.

Its politics will please no one, but for fans of story and characters, the movie succeeds in its primary goal: telling a good story about humanity, warts, and all.

The script balances personal stakes with some pretty great extra-terrestrial action. The sequences in space are handled beautifully. The craft and the moon look convincing, and the lunar adventures have the look of hard science and the pulpy energy of Die Hard.

This soothing, elegantly-crafted film is such a marvelous piece of work.

The Damned is an oppressive film filled with static images of ice fields, dark, almost chiaroscuro moments in cabins, and thoughtful, if not over-indulgent, dialogue.

If we’re going to save this planet, we need more love. Space Oddity shows us the blueprint for the mission.

Gran Turismo captures a truly remarkable young man and his journey to professional legitimacy. This is for anyone needing a jolt to the system and focusing on getting back on one’s true path in life.

Not only does Standard Operating Procedure look closely at visual evidence and it's true meaning, it also strives to question the validity of any given photo and, digging deeper still, the meta meaning of a photographic image.

Although the idea isn’t fresh, the performances and visuals make up for the been there, seen that story at play.

Rebel Without a Cause has such beautiful color photography that it seems almost impossible to conceive of the fact that they initially started filming it in black and white. Dean is every bit as tormented here as he was in East of Eden, but it’s more of an existential torment this time.

Usually, films of plays are dull things. Limited access to camera angles, bad sound, lighting that doesn’t work for the movie camera. Theater and film are (appropriately) distinct media. Enter Spike Lee. He’s a master craftsman and his skills are as relevant as ever. Lee made use of all those potential disadvantages to inform his cinematic vision and encapsulate the stage performance into a striking moving picture.

I really liked this film more than I did “An Inconvenient Truth,” as Everything’s Cool made the subject matter into a palatable form that actually made it interesting instead of depressing.

Has more heart up on the screen than any film I’ve seen in recent years. I mean, we’re talking sappy, sweet, heart wrenching sentimentality.

Pain either destroys us or makes us stronger. The trick is knowing how to avoid the traps and use it for inspiration. While he could have stayed stuck in the black void of sorrow, White instead made something beautiful. Honestly, he could not have paid a better tribute to his friend.

Jimmy McDowell was intensely private during his short time on Earth, but the tale his brother unravels is that of a vital spark who lived what life he had to the fullest, and on his own terms.

One Missed Call plays like a good cover song. It's not just a repetition of the previous tune.

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.