While there are explorations of difficult topics in Remarkably Bright Creatures, the movie is ultimately about the good in people, and how human connection can lead to a fulfilling life. As such, it wouldn't be surprising for the film to wring a few (or a lot of) tears from its viewers, with its themes of resilience and recovering from devastating grief. But Newman and Whittington's script balances the darker moments of the movie's story with plenty of levity, helped along by Remarkably Bright Creatures' idiosyncratic octopus narrator.

Fast X is a breathless thrill ride that occasionally gets bogged down in melodramatic dialogue, but Jason Momoa's villain makes it a blast to watch.

It’s heartwarming, the occasionally funny moments aren’t shoehorned in, and the story has a solid message that plays into the fact the main characters are sloths.

Ultimately, The Pale Blue Eye feels like more of a missed opportunity than a story worth enjoying on its own. As far as historical fiction goes, the film fails to capitalize on its central historical figure, especially with Melling’s performance a beacon of light.

Edgar Wright and Glen Powell are consummate entertainers, and they made this dystopian Stephen King movie as fun and guilt-free as they could.

At its best, Mr. K is like being immersed in Hieronymous Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. More often, however, it's like living inside a trash heap.

Unfortunately for the streamer, their latest outing, Swapped, is not merely bound to be forgotten. It's also one of Netflix's worst animated movies yet."

Fortunately, Brave the Dark does deliver an engaging and enjoyable narrative, with excellent performances, an intriguing and compelling plot, and an important message worth listening to.

Between its familiar premise and genuine performances, Summerland is occasionally hindered by melodrama, but is overall a very sweet film.

While stellar performances balance out its disappointing attributes, they're not enough to save the movie from being a dull, sometimes plodding story about a mysterious disappearance.

The most glaring issue with Spaceman is that the leap from page to screen leaves quite a bit of the story behind and saddles its lead actor with much of the heavy lifting.

Ray still overcomes adversity, but writers Rick Santora and Randy McKinnon sidestep the stereotypes that so often plague sports films to do so, making it one of the better sports films to be released in some time.

It doesn't reinvent the rom-com wheel, but it makes for easy, pleasurable viewing.

Olympic Dreams' backstage look at the 2018 Olympics is much more compelling than the movie's bland and contrived romantic comedy storyline.

A decent feature debut, The Absence of Eden is a film that means well. Restrictions in the script hinder the film emotionally, which often show up in the actors' performances as well.

Shell is funny and nice to look at it, but it lacks the depth or the darkness that it needs.

Its sometimes rushed pacing and overstuffed arcs often work against the meaningful messages at the core of the story, particularly the ending, but with enough charming moments and soulful performances from its cast, particularly Bacon and Sedgwick, it really toes the line between being a must-watch and an acceptable skip.

Ultimately, Inheritance is a fairly good attempt to branch out into different technical abilities within the spy thriller genre. Hopefully, this method and films like Inheritance continue to inspire such attempts.

What they cannot ignore is that the film is otherwise still lacking. For all the epithets one could throw out about Wuthering Heights, the most surprising may be that it is an abject snooze, and that its nonchalance about color-specific casting reveals a filmmaker completely insensitive to the implications of race in the late 18th century.

Though not Guy Ritchie's best film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare has enough slick style and exhilarating action to be a helluva fun ride.

Unbearably tense at times, Ultrasound executes its high-brow sci-fi concept with ease, while some unanswered threads can make it a frustrating watch.

The Devil All the Time is a slow, sprawling thriller, unfurling with creeping tension, but the cast's performances are more rewarding than the story.

Clifford will entertain the youngest viewers, and is destined to be the kind of film preschoolers want to watch again and again, but most audiences will be bored by its stale jokes, two-dimensional characters, and lazy writing.

The horror film has an engrossing premise that remains engaging even in its lulls.

While Old is certainly a different kind of thriller, with plenty of elements that work to create a sense of tranquility and desperation in equal measure, it grows wearisome as it evades its deeper themes for the thrill of that final discovery.

We Summon The Darkness is a wickedly fun and delightfully devilish thrill ride led by electric performances from Alexandra Daddario and Maddie Hasson.

Just when it feels like it's going to hit the gas, The Wizard of the Kremlin holds back, all the way up to its confounding, out-of-left-field ending that is both abrupt and fittingly bleak.

While the film meanders for a bit and is longer than need be, it maintains a good balance between character dynamics and the thrill of the chase. And with a fantastic cast at its center, audiences will surely be entertained overall.

Directed by Rob Savage, The Boogeyman does an outstanding job of terrifying without forgetting about the very human emotions and relationships that anchor and elevate the story.

Love at First Sight has the potential to be a go-to choice whenever one is feeling in the mood for a light cry and swoon.

Despite the lack of strong characterization across the team, Rule Breakers still provides an uplifting story about women triumphing over their expected social roles on a global scale. It's a heartwarming story that, despite focusing more on its themes than any other aspect, still delivers a memorable tale with roots in real life.

The overall momentum stalls and prevents A Lot of Nothing from sticking its landing, but it's a promising debut from McRae, who has a strong grasp with regards to maintaining much of the film's tension through dialogue alone.

While Page’s beautifully nuanced and searingly felt performance will stick with me, the movie as a whole feels like something I watched through a window myself — one with frosted-over panes that, try as I might, I couldn’t scrape clean for a clearer, closer view of the story playing out on my screen.

Megalopolis isn't just a transcendental delight for the senses, it's a manifestation of Coppola's dreams for humanity and his dedication to cinema.

Arkansas struggles to find an internal rhythm - resulting in a laid-back crime film that suffers from flat execution, in spite of some bright spots.

It’s a fun B-movie with timely elements and some exciting kills. It may not be much more than that, but sometimes that’s enough.

The Flash is a passable multiverse superhero movie, but no amount of DC cameos can make audiences forget the awful off-screen actions of Ezra Miller.

Uneven yet sincere in its execution, Sergio combines simplified political melodrama with a tragic love story powered by its leads' performances.

Though the script is not spectacular it has its moments and a realistic tension that cannot be ignored.

Riddled with uncomfortable dialogue, audacious sequences, and a piercing score, Club Zero has all the ingredients to become a future cult classic. It’s for a great reason, too. The film contains a terrifying yet wonderful performance from Wasikowska, it includes brilliant commentary on the dangers of following blindly, and it provides great entertainment.

A Perfect Pairing may not stand out to most, but its wholesome aura, charming leads, and beautiful cinematography is enough to warrant an enthusiastic watch. If the goal for any romantic comedy is to fill one with that particular, indescribable warm and fuzzy feeling, then A Perfect Pairing accomplishes that.

Despite some of Bunnylovr's shortcomings, Zhu has a knack for filmmaking, and it's an exciting debut for the young artist.

The Prom is a bright yet flawed musical extravaganza that, while holding a vital message about acceptance, sometimes gets lost in its own celebrity.

Spy Kids: Armageddon is creatively deficient. With each new Spy Kids project, Rodriguez mines an empty cave; there is nothing but dirt and hopeless dreams.

The story is just so rushed, there’s barely any time spent on establishing the world we’re introduced to before it’s full-speed ahead.

Ultimately, it is a gorgeous film that's empty inside despite all of its interesting ideas and good intentions.

Ultimately, The Eyes of Tammy Faye has to compromise its story with real events, and at least it gives Tammy Faye a celebratory note to end on.

The incomparable Daniel Giménez Cacho stars as Silverio Gama, giving an unforgettable performance that captures the intensity of the film’s concepts. While everything doesn’t always work in Bardo, Iñárritu takes his time painting a visually scrumptious tale even though it’s overly saturated with style over substance.

Kindred is packed with significant talent, but the slow pace and tedious script leaves the audience looking for the exit before the movie gets going.

The Adam Project is a charming and fun sci-fi throwback, fueled by a strong script and one of Reynolds' best performances.

Infused with a sharp exploration of the immigrant experience in America and a smattering of such high school tropes as mean-girl cliques and prom queen competitions, the movie is a wonderfully bonkers ride.

Along for the Ride captures the magic of young adulthood and first love, delivering a relatable coming of age story with a sweet romance.

The plot of the movie works, but the dialogue definitely does not. The style is fine, but the tone is lacking. The Sacrifice Game is a film with the potential to be something cool and eerie, but the final product doesn't live up to that.

Though it risks a slip into fully formulaic territory at times, the new movie is building to a far more interesting endgame than it appears to be, in which all the fleshing out of Cenobite lore and mechanics actually amounts to something quite profound.

Maggie Gyllenhaal's second feature is an explosive representation of social disruption. A screaming cry of a film, The Bride! utilizes its literary and filmic influences - Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Bartleby, Bonnie & Clyde - to belt a clarion call against upper-crust hedonism, police complicity, violence against women, and the patriarchal system that binds them all.

It doesn’t always capitalize on its strengths, but Don’t Make Me Go is a journey worth taking thanks to fantastic performances from its two leads.

It would be unfair to assign blame to any one performance, or even to Winslet's direction, when the script is the obvious culprit. Story or character hurdles are thrown up and surmounted with the same neatness, sapping them of their impact. The movie becomes so certain of its footing that the two-hour runtime starts to feel like a chore.

Wander, the latest collaboration between director April Mullen and writer Tim Dorton, straddles the thin line between paranoia and truth, yet emerges as a compelling thriller with a genuine thirst for exposing what lies beneath.

Upholding genre tropes whilst subverting them, Son is an unsettling fever-dream drenched in unspeakable acts that leave viewers on edge until the end.

The fashion alone, from design supervisor Stefano De Nardis and the costume team, elevates the film, turning it into an extravagant spectacle.

The story is very high concept and the tone is completely aware of itself, leading to a truly enjoyable experience

Black Crab is a little long, but the movie is too cool to notice.

It’s rare for a final film in a horror franchise to deliver character development, a chilling story, and a satisfying ending for the characters. The Conjuring: Last Rites does all three. As a farewell to the Warrens, Chaves balances the terrifying with the heartfelt to great effect.

Much like its main character, To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You is so sweetly, openly earnest in its love of love that it transcends cheesiness and gives viewers permission to indulge in unabashed intimacy and romance for its entire one hour and 40-minute runtime.

It may not do anything particularly innovative from either a storytelling or filmmaking perspective, but Spiderhead is proof there's still material to be mined from well-known ground when talented people are bringing the narrative to life.

Despite everything, it has its fair of shining moments. There's a clear direction Snyder's Justice League has that the 2017 version of the film does not, and for that alone viewers can appreciate this film a whole lot more because of it.

Although there is much to love in the picture, and the subject matter is a topic that needs to be part of the public discourse, the film's many faults distract from the compelling people and events that Joe Bell is trying to honor.

In The Voyeurs, writer-director Michael Mohan takes all the lessons of the truly wild erotic thrillers of the 1990s and brings them into the modern age. With a dose of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Brian De Palma’s Body Double, The Voyeurs perfectly captures all there is to love about the genre.

As a film birthed from the pandemic, the presentation already feels outdated. There is an attempt to revitalize the format, but it falls flat. All in all, the family dramedy has all the right pieces, but, like any dysfunctional family, they don’t come together in the most cohesive of ways.

Badland Hunters may not be a worthy successor to Concrete Utopia, but it is an entertaining zombie actioner.

Though following a familiar formula that's running the risk of wearing thin, Kung Fu Panda 4 still finds heart in the reliable Dreamworks franchise.

While the animation may struggle to convey some character nuance, its voice cast is more than up to the task. This is particularly true for Doug Cockle.

It's a strong, engaging story that showcases some striking animation, and if I am to return to the wider world of Peter Jackson's Middle-earth, this seems to me an ideal way to go about it.

No Exit is a gratifying thriller with a stellar lead performance by Liu. It is a concise and impactful piece of work, even when it stumbles in the third act. It is well worth a watch, especially for fans of the single-location thriller subgenre.

Mark Wahlberg leads a good ensemble cast while sweetly interacting with Arthur the dog, and it’s cute and heartwarming, with the film doing exactly what it aims for.

Bad Boys continues chugging along with Ride or Die. Watching the sequel reminded me a bit of the Fast and Furious franchise — it tries to go bigger than before, while also maintaining its core relationships as a key to its success.

Sure, the script takes wild liberties that bear no resemblance to historical accuracies, but with Vikander and Law leading this wonderful ensemble, it’s a rather welcomed addition that will keep your eyes glued to the screen from start to finish.

With Stiller at the center, Nutcrackers is a solid, if not incredibly memorable, holiday effort.

Despite a compelling first half, False Positive fails to imbue the pregnancy horror trope with depth or ingenuity, accelerating to a banal finish.

While it's not as good as the first, it ups the ante on gore and insanity, and will delight those who enjoyed Re-Animator.

The Critic was far less fun than I had hoped it would be.

M3GAN 2.0 doesn't lose this completely, but the more polished and grown-up world doesn't fit as easily into the silly sense of humor that made M3GAN so popular.

Moxie has some heart and teeth as its Riot Grrrl-inspired teens smash the patriarchy, but it's more love letter to Gen X than a call to arms for Gen Z.

Despite finding a sweet spot, The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer falters as a whole. Buscemi, Magaro, and Lower give great performances, but it does little to fill in the gaps of the story.

By the time the film turns off autopilot, it's far too late, and the ending lands with the dull thud of a long-rotted body wrapped in an old rug.

Ungar’s Bandit entertains because of genre alone, but the ambiguous messaging leaves much to be desired.

While the film is romantic and poignant in parts, the whole thing falls apart when it relies on the central couple, who lack intense chemistry and substance.

Where’s the passion and the drama, the heart and the tension? Clooney’s lackluster film strips all that away, leaving behind a muted sports film that barely engages with its characters in any meaningful way.

Compared to other, stronger animated films, Spellbound sits comfortably in the middle. Kids will likely be delighted with it — though at nearly two hours long the wait to get to the end might be a struggle — and it offers just enough for them to keep watching.

The Craft: Legacy excels when reveling in its girl power witchcraft, but falls apart in the third act without a well-developed villain.

Orphan: First Kill is a kooky romp, way too relaxed to be considered a psychological horror.

It doesn't quite have the courage to be the best version of itself. Still, it works. War Machine is an action movie you feel in your body, and it mixes in the right dose of sci-fi VFX without losing sight of the character that keeps you caring.

Cocaine Bear is exactly what one would imagine from its title, yet the carnage and shocking scenes yield an experience that soars beyond expectations.

Sympathy for the Devil is a missed opportunity with a collection of engaging moments, none sustained enough to really satisfy.

Watching Echo Valley isn't long at a little over an hour and a half. However, even in that amount of time, I had hoped to witness more of the story and fewer hollow twists.

With top-notch performances and production design, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a worthy addition to the Hunger Games franchise.

Although helmed by Washington’s visceral performance & nostalgia-addled slow-burn, The Little Things eventually falters due to its own clichéd tropes.

Ultimately, Railway Children struggles a bit in balancing its tone and grand ambitions. However, for those looking for a sweet story about the power of friendship and childlike willfulness, this movie just might win them over.