Prieto also does manage to craft some beautiful images in the flashback sequences. While he doesn't harness his cinematography experience often enough to push the story forward visually, it is impossible to deny the power of certain images.

There's lots of bells and whistles, but in attempting to deconstruct and reconstruct Christmas spirit there's just never enough charm to carry the spell.

With a game cast and thrilling action sequences, Huang’s film offers more than expected to keep us engaged.

Elevation comes across as a mild copycat rather than a compelling project that stands on its own merits.

Even if it's ultimately forgettable, the movie has an undeniable feel-good appeal, and during the cold winter months, there's no reason to take that away from anybody. Flaws and all, there's no question that this movie will find its audience and be celebrated for its nostalgia and pathos.

Hitpig seems to have gone all in on the goofy humor and left the movie with an unappealing and unenthusiastic story that, despite the novelty of a bounty hunter pig, can't make up for a movie with no stakes.

The animators bring this world to life with expert skill.

It’s a film so soulless I questioned the point of it.

It’s an imperfect film that is intriguing until the end.

The film is grounded, avoiding sensationalism and empty indulgences.

The film is unable to sustain any tension and is seemingly afraid of its own potential for violence, despite gesturing toward the creative weapon choice that is practically a bar for entry into the slasher genre.

The Gutter is ultimately an enjoyable throwback to the broad-skewing sports comedies of the '90s.

While Blitz may not be transformative, it isn’t all bad. McQueen is a capable director who deftly moves between different points in time, offering a glimpse into Rita and George’s life before and during the war.

Mielants’ film does a lot with little dialogue, setting the stage for something rich and thought-provoking.

Though competently shot, the storytelling and performances leave much to be desired.

The film offers an inspiring and remarkable story of hope, creativity, and adaptability, through the eyes of Mats and his alter ego, Ibelin.

Memoir of a Snail never asks us or the narrative to compare the depth of sadness or experience. Every experience is treated with equal weight and importance. Even as we realize that Grace's life is becoming a string of misfortunes, it's impossible not to stick with her.

Venom: The Last Dance shows what happens when you let a perfectly cast actor and a director with a lot of affection for the character run wild in a world of Marvel superheroes. You get a movie that's a little weird, a lot silly, and full of fun.

The film brings the drama, but it’s never overdone and the performances from the cast elevate the material, adding dimensions to the characters’ lives.

MadS shows what can be done with a little imagination and faith in the audience.

With the exceptional performances from the cast and several laugh-out-loud moments, this creative film is wildly entertaining.

It's hard to pick out exactly what was supposed to be funny when you take the slapstick away, and it occurs to me finally that Brothers was never actually a comedy at all, it's an indie drama wearing a clown costume for no discernible reason.

As a story of parental reckoning, Goodrich lacks the interrogative instinct of something like Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks, and it rushes Grace's catharsis as a result. But as a story of a man's late-stage awakening, it strikes a more resonant chord.

The film effectively illustrates how hazing is not singularly a university issue.

Even though it doesn’t take its own storyline seriously enough, Smile 2 is entertaining. Don’t expect the horror film to have the best commentary on mental health issues, but be ready for some jump-scare fun.

The film is melancholic and contemplative in a way that isn’t always the case with romance genre films.

Instead of simply marveling at the beauty of the world, Blink invites us to step out of our comfort zone and explore everything the world has to offer.

House of Spoils is an exploration of witchcraft, land, and the respect it should be given, and a study of the perversion and stress of the restaurant industry.

What the documentary lacks in depth it makes up for with style, creativity, and entertainment value.

Terrifier 3 has a real lack of tension that all the sawed-off limbs in the world can't Frankenstein together.

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.

Killer Heat delivers something new and refreshing that deserves to stand out for its creativity and clever storytelling.

Writer-director Simon Hacker has a good grasp on his characters and story, but while Notice to Quit has a spark, it lacks any true heartwarming moments, which are buried beneath a surface-level premise that refuses to engage with vulnerability.

It's clear there were several great ideas in The Radleys, wonderful casting across the board, but the edit leaves much to be desired.

The doting relationship between the couple does some heavy lifting for the film and even in the third act (so conveniently announced by chapter cards that appear throughout Sleep), when things nearly go haywire, their believable bond papers over any horror movie lapses in logic. Yu is also wise enough to primarily put the focus on one half of the couple and Jung delivers.

When a film is trying to tell three stories at once, it’s bound to get tied up in its own narrative misgivings, and Hold Your Breath is certainly culpable of that.

Despite its flaws, the film has plenty of memorable, engaging moments thanks to strong characters and a story that feels true to history while offering some hope along the way.

Whether it’s a big, emotional scene or something comparatively more low key, the animation always does a great job of capturing the humanity of the cast and story, making an already great story even better to go through.

While the movie may never fully overcome its feeling of familiarity, Panettiere and Williams' performances truly ground us throughout the tense ride.

Will & Harper is a beautiful story of friendship and change, with plenty of laughter along the way.

Rez Ball is a wonderful sports drama with a story that is equal parts insightful and inspiring.

Winslet’s got plenty of fire as the titular photographer, but the biopic’s spark quickly fades.

As a vampire movie, Salem's Lot is refreshingly old-school.

The whole thing feels like a slightly wayward, if well-intentioned retread that was created out of the opportunity to answer three very specific mysteries in Rosemary's Baby, but muddled things too much. It's certainly passable, and there are things to admire, but this is nothing on the original.

His Three Daughters is a balancing act. The characters are layered and the story is so simple yet thoroughly touching and, at times, painful to watch because of the flood of emotion that comes through.

Despite sturdy performances, Without Blood doesn’t fully come together.

The true story aspect will leave audiences wanting to dig deeper into the two disparate accounts, but even if they don’t, Howard’s Eden is a compulsory watch that does enough to satisfy.

The Assessment, directed by Fleur Fortuné, is conceptually sound and looks incredible, but while it’s psychologically involved and provoking, it doesn’t go beyond the surface of its ideas.

Structurally, Fitting In isn't perfect. It overuses the montage and features dialogue that leans more into preachy territory than Lindy's natural expression of their feelings. However, it's impossible to accuse the film of being anything less than emotionally truthful.

This particular narrative is a sound idea but for a documentary instead.

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

With a little more thought, and some effort made to elevate the narrative beyond sexy killer robots, it could have carved out a space as a cult hit, but Subservience falls short.

The film has two major things going for it: Goldstein and Poots' casting and their characters' chemistry. The only thing that fully captures our attention from beginning to end is Laura and Simons’ undeniable spark and charming banter.

I don’t go out of my way to drag films, as there is so much time and effort put into every project, and a film of this caliber was likely made with the best of intentions. But intending to craft a pitch-black dark crime comedy is different from actually executing one well. And Riff Raff just doesn't land.

The Piano Lesson captures the importance of honoring our ancestors through legacy.

Like many other great documentaries, The Pitch is not satisfied with simply showing the surface level of the problem, nor is it fulfilled when it reveals possible solutions. The Pitch drives deeper to the core of the problem, making its argument in a concise and undeniably powerful way.

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

For all its flaws, The Deb is hilarious and entertaining. The music is infectious.

Though the script fails to follow through on some of its promises, the subtext is there and Elordi, Edgar-Jones, and the rest of the cast give quietly devastating performances as their dreams manifest in ways they cannot predict.

Strange Darling is an effectively disturbing movie, labeled as an erotic thriller, which visualizes some interesting themes even if it distracts from them.

Horror movies often have to rely on the stupidity of their characters for the story to work: victims in waiting either make terrible decisions in high-pressure situations or simply lack any survival instincts until the bodies start to rise up. Speak No Evil plays with the audience by subverting those expectations very precisely, posing the question of when exactly you would have walked away from all the red flags.

Bring Them Down is 105 minutes worth of violence and misery, but it’s great storytelling, nonetheless.

It's not a perfect film, but Emilia Pérez is endlessly captivating, an exercise in genre, tone, and sheer fearlessness.

While the point of the film is excellent, The Cut has a bit too much trauma. It’s like the writers wanted to throw everything at Boxer and see if he could survive it, but it’s a lot.

The Fire Inside manages to accomplish a lot in its nearly two-hour runtime. It’s a sports drama that encapsulates the experience of living in Flint and a powerful, character-driven story that isn’t afraid to show the gritty aspects as they actually are.

Transformers One is simply good storytelling. It offers detail, solid action, and narrative depth that longtime fans will appreciate while being a nice entry point for those who are newer to the world of Transformers.

It's one of Adams' best performances in a career full of them, messy and feral and unwiedly, just like Nightbitch itself.

Conclave is not trying to be some treatise on the state of the Catholic Church, nor is it saying anything new about modern religion. It's engrossing nonetheless, and it milks the titular event for every dramatic drop its worth.

Heretic knows exactly how to keep us mesmerized. It's a unique horror experience that's sure to have everyone talking.

The film is outstanding in almost every regard. It's an uplifting, hilarious, gut-wrenching, and stunning animated adventure that reaffirms the power of a parent's love.

The Last Showgirl isn't perfect - it's melodramatic by design, and it wears its heart on its sleeve. But Anderson's raw and unfiltered performance, one clearly tailor-made for her, makes up for the film's weaker elements, as does the chemistry between the cast.

The transition of tones is subtle - you don't realize you're watching a horror movie until it's too late.

The action isn't elegant. It's erratic and loud and ugly. . . it's a symphony of chaos. It's also a damn good time, even if Kurosawa leaves us with the haunting notion that we're all too connected, just one click away from finding opportunity or something much more dangerous.

The End is a challenging film and the rewards may be minimal, but that it exists at all is a miracle itself.

Thanks to a stunning lead performance from Jean-Baptiste and an ending that doesn’t take the easy way out, it is a must-watch.

It isn’t just stellar filmmaking, it’s necessary viewing for those of us aching to break the cycle of abuse.

Being halfway between film and TV gives it the weaknesses of both and strengths of neither; trying to straddle the real with the mythic gives us characters that mostly feel too representative to connect with as individuals, and too individual to make compelling representatives.

We Live in Time gives us what we’ve been missing from romantic dramas. It might be a tearjerker, but there’s a sense of peace watching the couple live as full a life as they can together. And really, that’s all we can ask for while we’re still here.

I’ll Be Right There is worth watching for the acting and occasionally fantastic writing, but it ends on an inconclusive and unfulfilling note.

Joker: Folie à Deux is not always fully thought through. This is why the original was often misread in the first place. This film is full of quality craftwork, performances, and images. There's much here to appreciate, especially visually, and I enjoyed my time with it. But I'd recommend not asking much more of it than that.

Rebel Ridge is consistently precise in tone, theme, and pacing throughout.

It's as rewarding as it is challenging.

The Spanish director's fingerprint is there, undoubtedly. But the movie feels strangely incomplete, as if made with one hand tied behind his back.

The Brutalist is a colossal achievement, balancing intimacy and scale at every level of craft. At 3 hours, 35 minutes, it asks a lot from its viewers. Every second is well spent.

Wolfs isn't just funny, it's funny in all the different ways it needs to be.

The surface-level script and refusal to commit to any character's development make the story and characters shadows of what they could have been.

Kurzel's film can be watched at face value, and anyone inclined to like this type of movie will enjoy it. But as it chugs along, it also shows us what hate can look like and what it can do. Like Husk's story, it is a warning, and it leaves us with the chilling sense that the events depicted haven't, or maybe can't, come to an end.

Even once the movie elects to deal away with its ambiguity and get right to its demonic horror, The Demon Disorder still feels largely too familiar and predictable.

The Deliverance is bolstered by the cast’s commitment to the story and their characters. Without them, the film's ending wouldn't have been remotely believable.

While body and survival horror fans might not find anything particularly groundbreaking here, and while the toxic masculinity plot is thinly veiled by the bloodthirsty wolves thread, the movie accomplishes what it sets out to do. Ultimately, the bones of the story have been licked clean of any excess, making for a film that will successfully holds our attention in its jaws.

It delivers a beautiful and promising dressing before unveiling a largely by-the-book story. It is not bad by any means, but it doesn't push the envelope or explore anything new, either. Slingshot is a pleasant watch, but it doesn't ever rise above that.

The cast deserves real credit for that, Biscayart especially. His physical expressiveness is truly extraordinary, and without his performance to transition us to the final act, Kill the Jockey doesn't succeed.

A movie that means well, looks solid and is brimming with acting talent, but has neither the script nor the soul to bring home the bacon.

The Becomers could have achieved more, but it's a movie that struggles with definitions, relationships, politics, and just about everything else it attempts to authoritatively establish itself as.

Truly, all of Babygirl is fascinating to watch. There's such clear perspective in the filmmaking, and even though I've dwelt on Reijn's more thoughtful touches, the defining trait for many might be a wicked sense of humor. Laughter came easy and often for me and the audience I saw it with – sometimes with the characters, sometimes at them, but always with the movie. It's as if we're being reminded that, however serious the themes, this is supposed to be fun. And it is. But be prepared to find yourself grappling with a whole lot more.

There's plenty to admire in Maria, and in Jolie's performance, but my connection to certain scenes shouldn't be mistaken for my being emotionally engrossed. In fact, I typically felt kept at a distance.

Beetlejuice and Delia are deployed just the right amount, each injecting the movie with their own flavor of chaos whenever things risk feeling stale.

Hell Hole is a really rewarding experience for horror genre fans who have longed to see a crazy body horror outing in the vein of The Thing.