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.