Pharma Bro is a swiftly paced, engaging, and exhaustive look into the scandals that put Martin Shkreli on the map and turned him into the “most hated man in America.”

The director speaks to the beauty and longevity of cinema and the power and resilience of our past. But it's that interplay between sound and sight that proves the most penetrating. No talking head, or eloquent analysis, could be as powerful as that uncanny synthesis.

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.

Stop and Go ends up as you expect it to. Some treacly bits rob the movie of its honesty and compromise its goodwill with the audience. But for the most part, it’s a joyous celebration of life and family, as well as a reminder that both will persevere no matter how trying the circumstances.

It is a good movie, but what elevates it from the pack are the performances from Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer.

Yes, stories like this have been told before, but there’s an earnest, sweet charm to it all that really works.

It dares to tell an honest history, warts and all, from its inspirational beginnings, which led me to become a Christian to its rapid decline when I learned that even the godly were imperfect people. But then again, maybe God can still use these miscreants of music.

By turns horrific and hilarious, touching and repulsive, it showcases West Africa as an emerging force in contemporary cinema.

Farha, writer/director Darin Sallam’s debut, is so effective because it views the conflict through the eyes of a child, one with hopes and dreams and has no role to play in the ensuing battle. It asks viewers to remove their preconceived opinions of the struggle and approach it solely on the human toll that results from living through such tumult.

Tippett himself said he did not intend Mad God to adhere to any strict narrative structure, so it’s best to merely soak in the sumptuous, detailed visuals and extract your own meaning from the journey. It’s a ferociously engaging, if slightly flawed, viewing experience.

Ben Whishaw’s raw central performance keeps one glued to the screen, but the cold and distancing result doesn’t quite do it justice. Shame, as Karia, displays a knack for building tension and maintaining an almost nauseatingly melancholic atmosphere. If only he dug a little deeper.

With a little more filmmaking flair, or drive, or a fresh perspective, East of the Mountains could’ve been a real gem. Instead, it’s a decent little character study about a man facing death, worth a look for the magnificent central performance alone.

The Auschwitz Report is an intense, visually bold tale of a courageous pair of people who endured the tortures of a concentration camp to escape and become heroes.

We Need to Do Something simply doesn’t have the character-centered backbone to create an engaging 96-minute long story. It’s painfully obvious that atmosphere and style were the priority even though the premise made it so that the characters took the spotlight.

There’s much to like about The Electrical Life of Louis Wain — the Victorian setting, cats, Cumberbatch, and its visually stunning cinematography. But it may not be enough to spark enough life into a movie-going audience that wants something new.

If you’ve ever felt alone and ignored in life, Dear Evan Hansen may touch you in profound ways.

The fun of Sigourney Weaver in directors Wallace Wolodarsky and Maya Forbes’ feature, The Good House, is watching a master actor create an everyday character so believable that she could literally walk into a room and pass as one of us. By the way, everything I said about Weaver equally applies to her co-star Kevin Kline as well.

While the documentary doesn’t have headlines or columns, it does have gorgeous establishing shots, great music, and fantastic narration, all of which blend together, allowing Beth Levison and Jerry Risius to tell the true tale of Storm Lake, Iowa.

One could say that I Love Us can’t decide what it wants to be. Is it a crime thriller or a family film? This split focus is a legitimate criticism, but somehow director and lead actor Danny Abeckaser manages to pull it off. It’s far from perfect, but it works well enough.

While listening to all the admirative, warm-hearted yet poignant dancers’ testimonies, it is difficult not to think of the man as a tyrant who made people afraid that he would destroy their bodies! Yet Balanchine’s psychopathic techniques proved to work, as many of his students found success in their field.

Good movies make you feel, even if that feeling is not good. Chon ensures you’ll have feelings at the end of Blue Bayou, just not the happy ones.

Director Juho Kuosmanen excels in telling a story that seems entirely believable and realistic, never forced or predictable. The actors are equally talented.

The Killing Of Kenneth Chamberlain is a well-executed if a bit stagey, dramatic thriller that illustrates exactly why “defund the police” isn’t just a rallying cry but an important call to action. The actors are stunning in their raw performances, and the story will leave audiences infuriated. And that is precisely the point.

Eastwood is a formidable filmmaker, a force of nature, whose films like Mystic River will forever remain in the pantheon of Great Cinema. Alas, Cry Macho may likewise be forever regarded as a perplexing glimpse at a different side of the man, one who's created this macho persona and who now attempts to absolve himself, to only – pardon my crude use of the idiom – dig his own grave.

Throughout, the film is an idiosyncratic mediation on a pesky emotion that can simultaneously bond us and tear us apart. And with Pink and his exquisite cast behind The Wheel, the audience is in great hands.

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

Brennan takes the viewer on an intimate journey into the lives of the members, their families, neighborhoods, and the identity of Cuban people.

The description of the actual re-claiming of the prison by the corrections officers and the national guard is told in horrifying detail, and the torture and punishment of the surviving prisoner are much worse. I dare you to watch it today and not get angry about the racial divide that existed in the 70s.