Alcock’s Supergirl has to grow into the hero she’s destined to become, and by the time the credits roll, it’s her performance — not the increasingly oversized spectacle surrounding it — that leaves the strongest impression.

Early claims a number of influences for his movie, with the most prevalent seemingly the overwrought, problem-of-the-week TV specials he watched as a gay kid with his female friends in the 1990s. But with its colorful yet shadowy lighting (the cinematographer is Max Lakner) and Gordon Landenberger’s vibrantly painted, hipster Los Angeles production designs, “Maddie’s Secret” is a real work of cinema.

Something about “Magic Hour” overcomes its lapses. Perhaps its saving grace is as simple as the fact that it’s unmistakably a pure and sincere statement by a filmmaker who really means it.

Though it’s not any better than most romantic comedies, Voicemails for Isabelle has aspects that are genuinely interesting. It touches on ideas and suggests nuances of psychology that feel serious, even though the movie itself does not.

It is Jessie’s show, and Cusack, the two-time Academy Award nominee, makes the most of it. There’s one scene under a tree atop a hill that harks back to her origins in “Toy Story 2” and is as moving as any scene in the franchise.

This “Robin Hood” transitions into contemplative, philosophical registers while never slacking in suspense. It is, at its core, a redemption story, simple in persuasive ways yet richly complicated by difficult personalities and atrocious revelations. Coincidences that would seem narratively convenient in lesser narratives are imbued with a classical feeling of fate.

In terms of pure, unhinged action, “The Furious” is the best of its type from the last decade.

It’s a cracking good thriller.

México 86 may be a little too inside baseball — er, fútbol — for some, but its light breezy comedy goes down well.

It has all the excitement of a movie about crime, but if you took all the crime out of it, it would still work as a love story. Director Adam Rehmeier and screenwriter Tom Dean are not trying to create something mythic here, but something small-scale and affecting.

Utilizing Magnason’s voluminous supply of home movies and supplementing it with cinematographer Pablo Alvarez-Mesa’s spectacular footage of Icelandic landscapes, Dosa portrays the passing of a way of life that hints at an uncertain planetary future.

While the movie may not get the overall music business as right as it could have, Carney sure can cut the beast where it hurts. His blend of ruthless, observant Irish humor and admirably restrained vein of sentimentality doesn’t make for the cuddliest cinematic singalong, but it delivers a message every daydream rock star ought to hear.

Freed from the burden of contemporary relevance, “Masters of the Universe” succeeds by doing something refreshingly straightforward: telling a rousing fantasy adventure with conviction, humor and heart.

Propeller One-Way Night Coach tells a simple story, but with such detail and nuance that we come away feeling that we really understand these people and their times.

Hoffman, last seen in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” is a delight, and Jean Reno provides added charisma in a small role in the film’s second half. But the film belongs to Woodall, who turns brooding silence into riveting cinema. His is a star-making performance, perfectly in tune.

Most of the liberties taken with the real history in “Pressure” only serve to enhance the drama, in a film where the built-in dramatic takes are already incalculable.

The Mandalorian’s memorable catchphrase is: “This is the way.” His first theatrical feature gets about halfway there.

It’s hard to imagine a more original movie, or a more unfiltered vision from the mind of its maker.

The weakness of “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” aside from the fact that at 136 minutes it’s a little too long, is that it follows the less interesting character of Baranov. But this isn’t Dano’s fault. He can’t make this fictional fellow more interesting than Putin.

Visually mesmerizing, lyrical and with a unique cadence, “Is God Is” is a one-of-a-kind experience. It’s angry and yet imbued with wry, fatalistic humor.

Blows an opportunity to be as great as its subject.

If “Remarkably Bright Creatures” only had that magnificent octopus going for it, it would be halfway to a good movie. But the human characters are interesting, as well, showing the stresses of the different stages of life.

For those who just come for the music, “Hit Me Hard and Soft” hits the spot, covering most of her best songs, from “Chihiro” to “Everything I Wanted” and “Bad Guy,” while providing a limited yet fascinating window into Eilish’s workaday world.

One might quibble that Jackman and Thompson aren’t in the film enough, but really, humans are a distraction. The movie rides on its woolly sleuths, so audiences won’t feel fleeced.

Mortal Kombat II is a sterling example of an action movie that starts out dumb but gradually becomes kind of awesome — and a little bit smarter.

At its best, “Erupcja” feels truthful, even insightful. At its worst, it’s an off-putting selfie of the chronically self-absorbed, like a big-screen “Girls.” It does offer an interesting perspective on its case of apparent synchronicity late in the film, but leaves plenty for viewers to ponder on their own.

The result is smart and witty, with just enough obvious nods to the present to serve as a capsule of this unstable moment in media, much as the first film captured for the waning golden days of glossy publications.

Uncertainty is a genre trope this director is particularly gifted at manipulating. So many horror films are incoherent due to a lack of good writing; if anything in McCarthy’s script isn’t fully clear, it’s in the same manner that life itself fails to make sense.