Director Karen Cinorre has assembled a cast and production crew who work hard trying to bring life to her frustratingly abstract sketch of an idea that never coalesces into a satisfying narrative, or characters worth caring about.

Escape the Undertaker is a benign but effective use of Netflix's interactive abilities. Pairing the most macabre WWE Superstar with the company's most positive players makes for a fun showdown, one that you might wish had made it to official WWE TV -- not in this form, of course, but as a noble "turn to the dark side" storyline.

There's Someone Inside Your House tries to make you think it's got a catchy, viable gimmick when in reality it's empty and unsatisfying.

The Harder They Fall both subverts and embraces the Western tradition with some spectacular shootouts, slick dialogue, and a top-notch ensemble cast firing on all cylinders. Add a rollicking soundtrack to all of that and you’ve got fun and suave modern Western that smartly places a Black narrative squarely at its center.

The French Dispatch is both an ode to print journalism and one of Wes Anderson’s most richly detailed films.

Director Sean Baker continues his strong career of shedding light on the fringes of American society with incredibly human stories. The undeniable center of Red Rocket, however, is a powerful turn from Simon Rex.

It's a bizarre and overly rambunctious ride that forsakes cleverness for Billboard acts and dizzying set pieces.

Taking itself less seriously and having more fun, its relatively short runtime is packed densely with plenty of action, character development, and campy humor. At the same time, it’s a love story about relationships evolving and learning to grow and trust each other.

The direction is kinetic and frequently beautiful, especially through the fantastic opening act, and the supporting cast is largely great, but this is Craig’s film through and through

Lamb is a wonderfully strange film about parenthood.

Benedetta is led by a wildly fun performance from Virginie Efira as a real-life 17th century lesbian nun. Equal parts funny, sensual and incendiary, it’s a committed work from director Paul Verhoeven — a master of tonal balance — even if its exploration of the war between body and spirit occasionally falls short.

All five stories in V/H/S/94 feature a cult-like element, but only one of them feels like a true work of madness.

I’m Your Man promises Dan Stevens as a rom-com dreamboat, but what it delivers is far more intriguing and rewarding.

The Starling contains themes of grief and guilt that are worth exploration, but finds itself unable to delve deep into these elements, instead relying on bad bird effects and a needlessly quirky and eccentric tone to gloss over most of the uncomfortable elements.

The Many Saints of Newark is a solid and fan-friendly prequel to the classic HBO series, even if it does try to add too much to the Sopranos Universe.

A gorgeous black-and-white film that harkens back to several cinematic eras, Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth twists an old tale just enough to keep it fresh, but relies on tremendous lead performances by Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand to make the familiar feel exciting.

Inu-Oh is the electrifying, headbanging animated rock opera that film has been sorely missing, with a poignant message and unrestricted animation that reaffirms the visual prowess of director Masaaki Yuasa.

Copshop is meaningfully and enjoyably derivative as a patchwork homage to '70s shoot-em-up cinema (even Spaghetti Westerns), but it never quite reaches its potential.

Cry Macho has spare moments of charm and tranquility, but mostly it's a dry and unfinished story that fails to hit even the most basic of Story 101 beats.

Blue Bayou works as both an emotionally insightful character piece about a man looking for where he belongs, and as a brutal exposé of the lesser-known broken parts of our immigration system.

Though Chbosky’s staging is uninspired, the songs — both old and new — are nonetheless powerful, which might be enough of a lure for fans of the show or musicals in general. Sadly, Platt’s calamitous casting dooms this adaptation to cringe-worthy awkwardness.

Even if you loved Host, skip Dashcam, Rob Savage’s provocative but woefully shallow, ugly, and cruel follow-up.

Krysten Ritter, along with Winslow Fegley and Lidya Jewett, provide enough pizazz to keep Nightbooks afloat, creating an engaging supernatural hostage scenario.

Its efforts at social commentary mostly fall flat, but its thrilling moments and Gyllenhaal’s intense performance largely make up for that.

Though Jessica Chastain delivers a heartfelt performance as Tammy Faye, her faith in the filmmakers can’t save this drama from falling flat.

Though visually engaging, Malignant can’t overcome the genre identity crisis at its core.

The Last Duel’s staggering trial by combat allows for some brilliant performances, brutal fights, and impactful social commentary.

Queenpins works best when Kristen Bell and Kirby Howell-Baptiste are allowed to let their effortless chemistry be the focus. Their comedic instincts are pitch perfect as their naïve pursuit of trying to get ahead financially snowballs into a multi-national coupon-stealing scheme that they are entirely unprepared to navigate. But the fun fizzles with depressing side stories, and especially when Vince Vaughn and Paul Walter Hauser commandeer too much screen time with middling results.

Ultimately, this storied provocateur deals out shocking imagery and disturbing scenes, but he refuses to lay down a thrilling climax much less anything satisfyingly entertaining.

Co-writer/director Julia Ducournau delivers a superb sophomore effort, which surpasses her cannibal horror-comedy Raw in provocative content and twisted laughs. Newcomer Agathe Rousselle is an extraordinary find, hurling herself face-first into grisly violence, lusty dances, and nerve-rattling emotional terrain.

Halloween Kills suffers from being the second chapter in a trilogy, but it still delivers gory fun, fantastic performances, and an electrifying score from John Carpenter. There are enough callbacks to the original film to satisfy Carpenter fans while also expanding the mythology around Michael Myers and the town of Haddonfield in meaningful ways.

Spencer is a narratively ambitious film that remixes reality and fiction to get us inside the head of the Princess of Wales, exploring mental illness and past trauma with high camp that captures the suffering of its main character. Kristen Stewart gives a career-best performance while Pablo Larrain cements himself as a go-to director for unique and thoughtful biopics.

Dune is a gorgeous but imperfect epic, a technical wonder that spends too much time setting up a third act that never comes.

Kate is a bland and unoriginal action movie that fails to make us care about its title character.

Billy Porter's five fantastic on-screen minutes as the electric "Fab G" are over far too soon. Instead, Cinderella focuses on humor that rarely works (like James Corden’s huge head on a mouse body), an overstuffed, meandering soundtrack, and underwhelming vocals to back it. Ultimately, live-action Cinderella peaked in 1997.

The cast is wasted in such lame roles, and the horror story’s uncertain tone falls far short of intriguing. So, despite one supremely frightening moment, this movie is not scary. It just stinks.

Addison Rae and Tanner Buchanan are magnetic leads in this reboot that pays homage to the first film, but fully stands on its own. It manages to cut through modern high school b.s. while transforming two posers into presentable, likable people.

Vacation Friends may be a touch predictable, but John Cena and Meredith Hagner will make you wish you had friends like them on your next trip.

The‌ Deer King may feel familiar to fans of Studio Ghibli, but it’s made with such dedication to the craft and the story that it results in a brand-new experience full of heart and action.

Director Lee Haven Jones elevates this ripe premise with a masterful use of color and a garnish of gore. This makes for a feast of the eyes, bursting with visuals gorgeous and gruesome. Tied together with a surreal tone and topped off with a generous sprinkling of carnage, The Feast serves up a heady and haunting experience that sticks to your ribs and rattles your nerves.

Demonic promises a fun and fascinating premise, but its scattered pieces barely coalesce.

Cryptozoo may be overstuffed with ideas, but its central dilemma is a fascinating and poignant message that carries a dazzling animated adventure.

Phil Tippett’s Mad God unleashes decades of pent-up creative darkness into a trippy and troubling ride with astonishing craftsmanship, but little substance.

Nia DaCosta’s slow-burn sequel makes Candyman feel vital, both building on and course-correcting the movies in the series that came before it.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a confident introduction to Marvel’s first Asian superhero, delivering the MCU’s best fight choreography and one of its most emotionally complex villains.

Sweet Girl is front-loaded with fun action, and it has a great performance by Jason Momoa as a widower seeking vengeance against a pharma CEO. But its story slowly loses steam, before being replaced by an entirely different movie with much sillier political messaging.

Like its doomed romantic pair — Marion Cotillard’s radiant stage actress and Adam Driver’s macabre comedian — Annette pours dreams, perversions, and self-fulfilling misery into its titular puppet-child, a beautiful creation that sings heavenly tunes in the darkest of moments.

Paw Patrol: The Movie is a precious and peppy offering for the pre-preteen set that utilizes gentle character drama and buzzy action to stand out as a big-screen adventure. It won't be any parent's first choice, from an animation standpoint, but the standards of storytelling hold firm, making for an overall calm and comforting watch.

The Protégé is so bad that it feels like it has to be on purpose.

The Last Mercenary has bounding energy and a fun take on star Jean-Claude Van Damme's past exploits as an action star, but the humor is way more miss than hit and the actual nuts-and-bolts spy plot is a trudge.

Vivo's animated musical sequences are gorgeous to look at and fun to listen to, even if the plot loses the rhythm about halfway through.

Not even John Boyega’s solid performance can salvage Naked Singularity, a thinly sketched, disappointingly generic crime thriller.

Val is a refreshingly candid documentary that uses its title star’s impressive array of archival footage to delve into larger questions about the nature of stardom itself.

Hellbender, a coming-of-age movie from a family that’s built their own indie horror house, is a captivating, smart, and delightfully witchy tale.

Shirobako: The Movie is a beautifully animated treat for fans of the series, but it might’ve benefited more from exploring less familiar territory.

John David Washington falls short of the story’s emotional demands, but he brings a desperate physicality as a man on the run, which makes the film just about worth watching.

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf isn’t a bad film, but it fundamentally lacks an identity of its own.

While it may not always pay off the tension it builds, the film’s story — about a woman seeking closure after her husband’s suicide — makes the lingering unknowability of romance feel just as unsettling as any supernatural force.

The Last Thing Mary Saw is an intriguing and atmospheric but uneven horror offering, with a disappointingly lackluster romance at its center.

Director Liesl Tommy and co-writer Tracy Scott Wilson provide a shocking backdrop for Franklin’s life, and Hudson balances all this with a skill that’s worthy of a second Oscar nomination. It feels more like a Broadway-ready musical than a biopic, but that doesn’t take away from the impact of the performances.

Like memories themselves, some portions of the movie feel like they’re on a loop. Luckily, excellent performances from Hugh Jackman, Thandiwe Newton, and Rebecca Ferguson, in addition to some gorgeous production design choices, make this an intriguing watch.

The movie's full of clunky dialogue, underdeveloped characters, and unbelievable scenarios. When all is said and done, Lang's performance just can't save the follow-up from the trappings of horror sequel mediocrity.

Free Guy delivers a first hour that is outrageously entertaining, stuffed with gonzo action, goofy gags, star power, big ideas, and plenty of Easter Eggs for lovers of movies and video games. However, in its second half, the joyful journey is derailed by a slog of a side quest, falling short of the potential set-up.

The Suicide Squad is a gut-wrenching, gut-busting wild ride and DC’s best film in years.

Jungle Cruise is a rollicking adventure full of humor and heart anchored by Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt's winning heroes.

The Green Knight is truly astounding.

Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans delivers an emotional and action-packed conclusion to the Tales of Arcadia saga, although the movie format doesn't give its large cast the chance to shine.

Blood Red Sky could lose a few minutes, but overall, it's a ferocious and fun merging of vampires and hijackers.

Old isn't M. Night Shyamalan’s best work, but it is one that shows maturity – a movie that tackles universal and intense themes over twists and puzzles.

Fear Street Part 3: 1666 becomes that final puzzle piece that clicks into place, making the big picture clear. On its own, it's spooky fun, reveling in shadows, suspicion, and twisted reveals. In the broader context, it’s a climax that’s sensationally bold, thrilling, and joltingly entertaining… and perhaps not just an end, but also a new beginning.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions twists the puzzle premise of its hit predecessor into an unsolvable slog.

Space Jam: A New Legacy enters the 21st century with LeBron James, impressive visuals, more personal stakes, and a fantastic villain in Don Cheadle. Unfortunately, the movie is too concerned with showcasing Warner Bros.’ biggest franchises that Bugs Bunny and Friends get sidelined in their own movie.

Pig subverts the expectations of the average revenge-thriller and accentuates the deep emotional scars that often underscore these stories. It features a measured, meticulous performance from Nicolas Cage.

Gunpowder Milkshake does its formidable cast dirty with a bland script, recycled story, and an empty comic book style that does little but shine up a stale outing.

While Fear Street Part 2: 1978 still offers some thrills, it's not a cut above its predecessor.

The Boss Baby: Family Business delivers middle-road mirth, full of action and quasi-clever jokes, and featuring the fun voice additions of James Marsden, Jeff Goldblum, and Amy Sedaris.

It’s astonishing that the helmer of The LEGO Batman Movie followed that vibrant, funny, and wildly entertaining offering with an action movie that is such an inane eyesore. And yet that turn still makes more sense than the plot of The Tomorrow War.

The dystopian fantasy elements of the saga are now at their thinnest, painting a cinematic world that may hit too close to home for some. Ultimately, it's a solid entry that can either act as an ending or a new beginning.

Fear Street Part 1: 1994 is a film rich with character, world-building, Easter eggs, and scares. Horror fans will be grinning over a visual allusion, then be pulled to the edge of their seat by this slaughter-packed adventure, then catch themselves screaming at a harrowingly portrayed murder.

America: The Motion Picture is like Drunk History if the history were not only drunk but also on nitrous. Channing Tatum once again proves he's a comedy force to be reckoned with, backed by a stellar cast of capable and cunning joke spitters.

While it has action and humor aplenty, Marvel's Black Widow still isn't quite the stellar solo film the fallen Avenger deserves.

Justin Lin knows exactly what makes a great Fast & Furious movie. He’s directed several. For the latest, he re-teamed with cast and crew to allow this fantastic film series do what it does best. He delivers bold plot twists, grit-teethed gravitas, and out-of-this-world action to create the kind of cinematic spectacle that demands to be seen on the biggest screen with the loudest sound system possible.

Werewolves Within easily separates itself from the pack by delivering a quirky monster mystery filled with gentle laughs and massive maulings. Not every joke lands, and not every character fits, but overall it's an entertaining alternative to the season's more ghoulish and grim offerings.

There's not much to praise here. The script is beyond parody, the jokes fall flat, and it arguably wastes some of Hollywood's biggest names. But if you want to see lots of people getting blown up in some very pretty locations while Salma Hayek and Samuel L Jackson make sweet (gross) love while torturing Ryan Reynolds, then this one's for you.

Pixar's Luca may not be one of the animation studio's strongest efforts, but it's still a sweet summer getaway.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie is a feel good adventure that boasts stunning animation, vibrant storytelling, and the return of our favorite magical girl Sailor Scouts in a dynamic double bill that will inspire and entertain.

Infinite is a chaotic film. Plucking from well-worn cliches, it’s familiar enough to scratch the itch of action entertainment. Yet its world-building is so wonky you might do better to switch off your brain and let the flashy stunts wash over you.

Though The Devil Made Me Do It is a smart recalibration for The Conjuring series, its successes have little to do with its strengths as a standalone horror movie. Ed and Lorraine Warren's investigation may be an engaging mystery, and their opponent is a franchise-best, but the scares are just not as potent in part because half of them center on a possession victim who’s really not easy to root for.

Cruella's gonzo fashion, complicated characters, and truly bonkers backstory are compromised by obligations to be kid-friendly and its time-consuming need to over-explain everything it does.

In the Heights moves smoothly between cinematic realism and the magic of the stage, in a defiant musical about what it means to belong, and what it means to be remembered. It is one of the most moving and joyful films this year.

While it does some fascinating things with the zombie genre that we haven't seen since George A. Romero, Army of the Dead ends up bogged down by its own self-importance and forgets how fun it's supposed to be. Its promising opening credits sequence is so much better than the rest of the film.

Director John Krasinski delivers that rare horror sequel that (almost) stands toe-to-toe with its predecessor.

The Woman in the Window has both flash and fizzle. Amy Adams is great in the lead role, presenting us with a shattered recluse who wages war on lucidity daily, but the rest of the cast, while noteworthy, are sort of relegated to being plot pawns. Still, if you're looking for a higher class of claustrophobic Noir, and don't care too much about the resolution, there's a playfulness on display here that might scratch an airport novel itch.

A pleasant surprise that both undermines and elevates typical revenge sagas, Riders of Justice is a unique blend that charms and captivates.

While there’s plenty of large entertaining set pieces, Sheridan’s intriguing premise withers under its overabundant components.

A sequel that hopes to court Saw fans and mainstream audiences alike, Spiral: From the Book of Saw is likely to alienate them both. It’s a hollow imitation of the series, unable to meet its most basic visual and narrative expectations. It’s also a bad film in general, which tries to tell a socially relevant story that it can’t seem to handle.

Wrath of Man has plenty of anger and action, and it's at its intriguing best when the entire story gets sorted out and all the players are on the board, but it stumbles at being a time-release mystery.

Despite the powerful child performance at its center, David Oyelowo’s The Water Man struggles to focus on more than one narrative or visual idea at a time.