It’s a fun diversion.

Red Snow is a lot of fun. The two leads are well written and excellently performed. The jabs at traditional vampire lore prove to be most amusing. While it never becomes creepy, the film still is an absolute blast from beginning to end.

Those who seek their sci-fi with a more cerebral slant will find quite a bit to admire here. The film certainly demonstrates a cast and crew who are dedicated to their craft and provide anticipation for future endeavors in which they continue to polish it.

The film is quite funny and very well written by writer/director Morgan Ignari.

I liked The Tender Bar for its simple story and fantastic performances. But, honestly, it works best as a straight-to-streaming title, as it hits familiar beats and feels small in scope. Clooney has concocted cinematic comfort food.

I should be complaining about how bloated Being The Ricardos is, but I can’t. There’s a lot going on, but I wouldn’t cut a single word or scene. Like Lucy herself, the film is funny, deadly serious, and heartwarming all in one package.

To me, the story is the reason to see The Matrix Resurrections. Lana Wachowski brings unexpected freshness to this new evolution of Matrix stories.

It’s nowhere near the intimacy of Homecoming and Far from Home. Still, considering the heavy lifting it’s required to perform, it makes for a fitting grand finale for one of Marvel’s (and Sony’s) most enduring heroes.

It never attains the balance between gloomy allegory and Disney-like adventure, the former element too challenging for the wee ones, and the latter too infantile for their parents.

Joy Womack: The White Swan is a riveting, bold, and inspiring documentary exploring the life of an American ballerina who paved her own way to success.

Most of us are aware of the “production” inherent in television news. Dumont presents to us the contradiction and spurs us on, in Brechtian fashion, to try to resolve it.

All Speilberg really did was take a masterpiece, keep it a masterpiece, and add a little flair (and backstory). He took gold and made prettier gold.

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

Yogi brings us close to Masao’s personal tragedy while at the same time pulling back to see life and death at a cosmic level. The movie delves into the cycle of life and death enough so that that audience members can understand and accept the beauty of the process.

The Sleeping Negro is unlike your typical drama in that it has a dreamlike visual tone and style and is more an essay about the trials and tribulations of being black in America.

This film is as funny as it is scandalous.

The story and music shine. Maybe it is not an instant classic like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, but it definitely will enrapture a new generation of Disney fans.

Jared Leto's performance as Maurizio’s cousin, Paolo Gucci, is so over-the-top that it bursts right through the top and swallows up the film whole. Unrecognizable under layers of make-up, speaking in high-pitched, heavily-accented intonations, he’s a live-wire but also a caricature that borders on nasty stereotyping. He out-gagas Gaga (who’s at least partially of Italian ancestry), which is no small feat.

Cruz effortlessly holds the screen in a tricky performance: phlegmatic and ambivalent, radiating charisma and sophistication, making you feel for her despite some morally dubious acts.

For a sequel/reboot, Ghostbusters: Afterlife delivers the fun of the original, albeit in very different ways.

This is one intensely-flavored meal that begs to be swallowed in a single bite. Compliments to the chef.

All around, King Richard is a solid, inspiring film.

This Is Not A Story boasts stunning acting, fantastic music, a heartfelt plot, and impeccable directing.

Heartfelt and genuine sentiments abound, making Petite Maman one of the finest titles of the year, one that can appeal to the (weird) kid in all of us.

With unprecedented access to overfilled, frenzied hospital rooms, as well as quarantined homes, Heineman makes one cringe at every prolonged beep of the vitals monitor, delves right into the patients’ eyes, their very souls. He imbues the documentary with the same sense of urgency and empathy that were evident in his previous docs Cartel Land and City of Ghosts. A tough watch but a necessary one, The First Wave marks the finest cinematic account of the COVID-19 pandemic yet.

Hit the Road is a gut-punch of a film, strikingly gorgeous, as tender as a mother’s touch, as uncompromising as an aggrieved father. Panahi is acutely, painfully aware of the infinite nuances of family, how humans interact, and how to slow down the pace for things to sink in, or simply take a breather, or even sing a song. It’s the best film I’ve seen this year.

The true-to-life repartee between the leads – at times tender, at others snappy, one minute heated, brutally cold the next – is a joy to behold.

The marriage of Johnson, Reynolds, and Gadot is beautiful, and they support one another incredibly well.