The most interesting and beautiful piece to this puzzle is the fact that Dillane's performance can steer the audience in any direction emotionally and at any given moment.

As a first-time director, Hart has certainly shown his aptitude for evoking a strong lead performance and working in tandem with his technical team to create rhythm and tone, making me excited about what he will do next.

Ritchie is a prolific action director, and he leans action here, which is fine. When it's not being distractingly stylized, the action is good. But treasure hunt movies have a nerdy side that sometimes feels undervalued by this film.

The beauty of a musical isn't just in the songs themselves, but the feelings they leave us with as we exit the theater. Leave One Day opts for a cheerier disposition that undermines staying power beyond its infectious tunes.

Some may find this despairing and baffling, but Ducournau finds a strange layer of hope and love beneath all the dust and grime.

It’s less challenging and possibly less rewarding but it’s no less fun.

It is consistently sweet and charming.

Enzo is subtle in its examination of queer desire, understanding that quick glances and soft touch can be just as sensual — and even more effective — as anything intense.

This story of civic injustice isn’t just a great achievement by the director. It’s a cautionary tale about the repetition of tragic moments in history.

Audiences want to be moved and given a reason to revisit the emotions sparked by the story, and Lilo & Stitch delivers.

Despite the film’s title, though, The Secret Agent isn’t your typical espionage thriller, but it’s all the better for how it plays with genre, tone, and expectations.

What makes Dossier 137 a fascinating watch is being able to observe a singular character battle all the complexities of morality when it comes to justice, truth, and conflict of interest. Moll doesn’t write Stéphanie with the intent of letting her take the easy way out, which creates some exceptional character study moments.

A fever dream in the bleakest sense, Sirat is a wild and apocalyptic epic, mythological in scale but intimate in its story about family.

Building to a fairly satisfying conclusion, The Severed Sun is scattered, but Puckett makes sure that it is confident chaos.

What could be a basic struggling artist's journey of self-discovery and inspiration has many nuances and idiosyncrasies, making for a thoroughly off-the-beaten-path narrative that provokes thought despite some minor loose threads.

With The Ruse , writer-director Stevan Mena aims to go for a more grounded and slow-burning thriller, but unfortunately, it lacks any kind of burn or tension.

While it's a very standard documentary in terms of style, and it's not brave enough to fully delve into race and gender, Deaf President Now! is never redundant and always urgent. It'll surely make your heart explode in happiness.

At times, it can be bitterly hysterical, with Aster, who also wrote the film, further flexing his comedic muscles after his previous film with Phoenix. On the other hand, Eddington can be almost too on-the-nose, knicking the surface of complex issues but pulling the blade away before it can really draw blood.

The Chronology of Water is a boisterous spectacle of the female experience directed with pure love and sincerity.

Visceral, bruising, and darkly humorous, Die, My Love hits like a sledgehammer thanks to Lawrence and director Lynne Ramsay's uncompromisingly grim vision of domestic life.

For all The Phoenician Scheme's eccentric thrills, sardonic performances, and globe-trotting adventure, the film still feels limited in the grand scheme of things.

There is a lot to recommend it, including a strong visual sense (especially when it comes to the many scenes that feature single light sources), solid performances (particularly Apte, who commands every second of her screentime, which is essentially every second of the movie), and plenty of kooky moments the likes of which are not going to be seen in any other movie this year.

Given The Furst Brothers are clearly aiming for an over-the-top and ridiculous tone, I'm sure the awful CGI was part of their vision, but rather than feel like a tongue-in-cheek genre film, it instead makes the movie one of the best it's-so-bad-it's-good horror films I've seen in a long time.

I imagine that Sound of Falling will reward repeat viewings. There's almost too much to take in upon first glance, decades of life condensed into two and a half hours. Schilinski's vision is so confident and so bracing that it's hard not to be arrested by what's happening onscreen, even if you're not sure what's going on.

The movie tells a tight, contained story, but spends a little too much time sharpening its emotional knives to craft a truly compelling supernatural story. Bring Her Back gets lost in the weeds of its desire to rip your heart out.

Hurry Up Tomorrow isn’t awful. It stays at the surface, really afraid to interrogate any deeper than required, but it has its moments and aesthetic flair.

As a testament to its strong script, Basir’s latest tackles various themes related to addiction, religion, and even manhood. And in its methodical approach towards addressing mental health, To Live and Die and Live defies and exceeds emotional expectations.

While fans of the Mission: Impossible franchise might shed a tear watching this emotional tribute, all audiences will be swept away by its action.