A lack of flash or energy does nothing to detract from the sheer depth of film exploration present in The Story of Film: A New Generation.

Syms’ debut is anything but desperate; au contraire, this is the mark of a relaxed, confident filmmaker with a long, bright future.

Clemons does a fantastic job of making tense moments very believable.

Riotsville, U.S.A. brilliantly uses the aesthetic of its archival footage to not only place us in a historical era but also to inform, to critique state power.

This shameless excuse for children’s entertainment would be a blemish on any hack’s resume.

Part of the problem with Moonage Daydream is that it is trying too hard.

Decision to Leave deals with the biggest subjects humans have to grapple with: love, sex, and death, and does so in what amounts to a serious, dramatic fashion.

LaBute rewards patient viewers with two amazing lead performances, crackling dialogue, and genuine suspense. While the film might be flawed, it is imminently watchable.

Blind Ambition has plenty of drama to make a wine tasting engaging for even the most devout tea-totaller.

Loving Highsmith is about loving Highsmith and all that implies. As such, it gets the job done perfectly.

Empathy and balance is the reason you must see This Land.

The Book of Delights is the meeting of mindful deconstruction and visual intrigue about falling and being in love.

The only thing lacking, in this case, is the pay-off in actual scares. Surrogate is a worthwhile journey that held my attention throughout, with top-notch performances from a mostly female cast.

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

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.

Couple the brilliant construction with the intense performances from Saboia and Fasanaro, and we have one of the more memorable foreign romance films in recent memory.

A moderately fun B-flick masquerading as an “elevated” genre piece, it doesn’t quite bury itself but never quite finds its footing either.

Despite budgetary limitations, Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes perpetually surprises with its ability to keep all its plates spinning throughout its kaleidoscopic journey.

Lie Hard might be slightly too quirky for those who prefer their films a bit more grounded and realistic. For everyone else, Niles and company have provided a fast-paced, witty, charming feature. If you want to laugh while still getting a slight emotional pull at the end, then look no further.

Adieu Godard is generally a blast. Cinephiles will love it because it should, without fail, bring to mind our own journeys into “challenging” cinema. Casual viewers not well-versed in the New Wave catalogue will still find plenty of enjoyment in the chaos that erupts as a result of the backlash against the film.

The film explores themes of free will, destiny, and the tales that we consume while also revealing how they become part of us as we pass them down to future audiences. Ultimately, however, Three Thousand Years of Longing is about bearing the weight of pure love with no one willing to ease the burden — yet resolving to give it away freely nonetheless.

I was enthralled with Bardem’s performance, even in the subtle moments. This is important because The Good Boss focuses on him for almost the entirety of its one-hour and fifty-six-minute runtime. The rest of the cast is excellent as well.

I adore Plaza as a unique and magnetic actor, but she wasn’t given enough to work with here. Likewise, for the usual affable yet conflicted characters that Brie is so good at portraying, there’s not enough meat on the bones of the role here for her to sink her teeth into. Spin Me Round is like going out to dinner and expecting an authentic Italian restaurant but instead ending up at the Olive Garden.

The ambiguity in this glacially-paced but atmospheric and at times striking little film doesn’t so much tantalize as frustrate – only because the filmmaker duo approaches something so much deeper, wiser, and subtler.

It’s a showcase for what great independent filmmaking is all about, taking an interesting concept and applying excellent acting and directing on a limited budget. I will say that the ending felt a little weak to me, but the film is akin to life in general in that the most important aspect is the journey.

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

The proceedings have that perfect narrative balance of a simple fairytale, leading to baffling visions and fantastic ideas.

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.