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.