Scrapper is just the kind of scrappy triumph its title indicates. It's not the newness of the materials that matters here — it's how they are assembled with such care and consideration.

Featuring great performances from its two incredibly bearded leading men, and bosting a twist that offers something truly unique to the true crime genre, The Stranger takes loose inspiration from a true story to deliver a bleak yet subdued thriller. Sadly, the film banks everything on this reveal, which recontextualizes everything that came before but deflates all the tension.

Joy Ride is the big, broad, studio comedy to beat this year, an incredible directorial debut with one of the funniest scripts in a while, and a cast that should get all the praise in the world because they just became the dynamic quartet to watch.

With its flat hand-drawn characters moving briskly across the richly detailed backgrounds, Cryptozoo is bursting to the seams with dazzling, shocking, brutal (and edgy, this is an adult animated film, remember) visuals.

Between the charming hand-drawn aesthetic, the imaginative setting, and the myth-like narrative structure, it has that rare quality of being truly timeless; this is a film that could have come out forty years ago, and will feel as relevant generations from now as it does today. 

This is a stripped down story — the type of moving, romantic drama aimed at adults that's become an endangered species over the past couple of decades. If the director wants to take a sudden shift in his preferred mode of filmmaking at this stage in his career, I would greatly welcome seeing him make more movies in this mold.

Dream Scenario is a sprawling dissection of subconscious desires and how marketable popularity spells doom for its subjects, showcasing Borgli's flexible originality without sacrificing emotional investment.

Will & Harper is a sweet little road trip comedy, even if the "spontaneous" appearances of famous faces constantly pull the film into a "celebrities, they're just like us!" realm of faux-documentary authenticity.

Whatever the flaws in Lee's remake design, Highest 2 Lowest rises above its issues thanks to the filmmaker's inherent skill and Washington's unbeatable charisma.

Kill is a near-perfect action thriller that's stuck in overdrive.

Painfully earnest and positively exuberant, Tick, Tick... BOOM! isn't counting down to some kind of tragic fate. It's an explosion of life, energy, the ecstasy of being alive and making something. It's an ode to the creatives who fear they'll never reach the greatness they've been grasping at. It's a promise that they might.

She Said is not as economical in its filmmaking as "Spotlight" nor as robust as "Shattered Glass." Instead, as a journalism movie, it just feels rote. As a biographical drama, it feels too early. And as a Me Too movie, it feels too quiet.

Wild Indian is a singular achievement; a film so raw and centered that it dares you to look away from scenes that simmer and burn. It’s too early in 2021 to jump the gun and start calling out “best of the year” material, but Wild Indian certainly deserves to enter the conversation. It’s a film you won’t soon forget.

On the Rocks isn’t Coppola’s most momentous film — it’s a little too frothy, all crackle and no pop — but its near lackadaisical tone and a delightful Murray performance make it an entertaining watch. It goes down like a smooth glass of wine, with perhaps a little bit of tartness.

When the world feels like it's on fire and atrocities are inescapable, there are few outlets for cathartic stress relief quite like a Final Destination movie. We're a culture plagued by existential dread already, so why not have fun shrieking, laughing, and judging people for their dumb decisions without consequence? Watching a film like Final Destination Bloodlines in a theater full of screaming strangers is my kind of community building.

The Iron Claw is an emotionally eviscerating watch anchored by one of the best ensemble casts of the year.

Concrete Utopia is not subtle about its allegories, particularly when it comes to immigration. Thankfully, the focus on character and the fast pace of the story that moves us from one crisis to the other keep the message from becoming overwhelming. Likewise, the script and visuals tease a larger world with stories just outside of what is on screen, adding to the film's worldbuilding.

The biggest strengths of the film are its sharp script and phenomenal lead actors, both of whom give committed performances which vacillate between ruthless pragmatism and explosive emotionality.

Inside Out 2 may not reach the emotional highs of the first film, but don't be surprised when it reduces you into a sobbing mess at the end.

This is a major motion picture built on the hope that audiences will want to see a cast of attractive, charming, interesting actors bounce off each other on screen, trading barbs and dashing looks. There's no franchise-building here, and no ambitions beyond offering the audience primal, pure pleasures. 

Indeed, I sure hope "Creed" doesn't take the "Rocky" route and pump out sequel after sequel. Whether or not that happens will surely be up to studio execs and box office returns, but if this is the final round for the "Creed" series, it's a fitting, if predictable, end.

Worst of all, the film is loooong. It's not just low-energy. It drags. One could listen to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" three and a half times in the same 161 minutes. And perhaps one should. It would be a more edifying musical experience.

A Disturbance in the Force succeeds at telling the full story of how the infamous "Star Wars Holiday Special" was made. And yet, it doesn't really make the special look that bad in context.

At the end of the day, it's an earnest, good movie looking at a very specific part of this mythical figure's story. It's a story that deserved telling, and this was the right guy to tell that story.

Amy Poehler relies heavily on this intimate collection of media, provided with the full support of both the Arnaz and Luckinbell families, and honestly, it's the most fascinating way to tell their story. It adds the kind of intimacy and personal touch that fans hope to see from a documentary like this.

Gaztelu-Urrutia’s camerawork is inventive enough – his pacing tidy enough, his tone clever enough, his performances engaging enough – that we never get tired of seeing the same four walls and few faces throughout The Platform’s running time. For being so deeply dark, the film is surprisingly funny and thoughtful, and it’s got a wonderful, sly energy to it.

Audacious, heartfelt, and uproariously funny, Hoppers has all the makings of an instant classic for Pixar.

The result is a chaotic, surprisingly funny, and intense night gone wrong that masterfully balances comedy, drama, and suspense. 

Though Mija finds a powerful emotional core between these two young women, it feels somewhat incomplete.

The film develops not in grand gestures but in an accumulation of small, gentle moments.

Perhaps The Killer doesn't need to be anything more than what it is: a showcase for Fincher to do his thing, and do it well, just like the assassin at the center of the story. This is a lesser work from the filmmaker, but even his lesser entries are better than most of what we get these days. Sometimes it's okay to let an artist play the hits.

Although there's sometimes a disconnect between parts of the story that deal with Enzo's personal life and the frenetic racing scenes, they somehow work together in tandem, combining to create one of Michael Mann's most emotionally satisfying films in years.

The drifting from town to town gives the whole thing an episodic feel, and as great as Hanks is, even his talents aren’t enough to distract us from the sheer predictability of what’s going on here.

Good Boy may not exactly reinvent the haunted house subgenre, but it proves you can still teach an old dog new tricks.

Pope's performance is so raw, so honest, that we're with him every step of the way.

Zootopia 2 may be the gateway to teach young viewers to question who sets the rules, and be inspired to break those rules if it means doing what's right. Zootopia 2 may not be as politically biting as something like "BEASTARS," but if you need the Mouse to validate your politics, you don't actually have politics.

While the atmosphere, visual effects, and camerawork keep tensions high, the plot begins to wear thin.

The Shadow Strays feels more like a step back than a step forward. By the time the mid-credit coda arrived, I wanted less, not more. Still, those craving copious amounts of carnage will find plenty to dig here.

It’s a crowd-pleaser, to be sure, and a little on the corny side, but it’s so unwavering in its sincerity that it manages to hit all the right notes.

Fire Island is every bit the hilarious and semi-meta rom-com you expect, packed with quips and well-timed jokes, but also makes ample time to continue the pursuits of Austen's story, exploring the emotional nuances of overcoming judgment for love.

What follows is an unconventional love story that — although is diverts from and subverts many of the tropes we've grown accustomed to in the genre — feels honest and real for anyone with experience in LGBTQ+ spaces.  

With lush, fun cinematography, creative staging, and some true powerhouse music and dance numbers, the strengths of "Matilda" more than make up for its weaknesses. Here's to the children of the revolution.

Armed with mythology and its evocative atmosphere, Nikyatu Jusu's directorial debut revels in slow-simmering horror, haunting with its shadows.

Friendship is a delightful, vulnerable, agonizing film, and it's a new career height for Tim Robinson. 

The Coffee Table is one of the most unique experiences you can have in a movie, a torturous dark comedy with a fantastic ensemble, a great eye for visuals that maximize the emotional gut punch, and a script that ties you down to a chair as you go through the nine circles of hell, laughing like a maniac along the way.

From a horror standpoint, M3GAN could be scarier, but it's difficult enough for a film to balance suspense, a nuanced look at grief, and intelligently meta jokes, and M3GAN does all that surprisingly well. The long and the short of it is that, while M3GAN could perhaps be scarier and it doesn't feel entirely conceptually novel, it's a genuinely great addition to the horror-comedy canon.

Mickey 17 crystalizes our horrific reality into an existential parable, one that fundamentally understands the hell of working-class existence with the allegorical precision of "The Twilight Zone." It's a story about people finding love, connection, and community under hopeless circumstances, and a rallying cry that we all deserve better conditions for existing.

When Let Them All Talk finally reaches its destination, it feels like another Soderbergh experiment. He literally took his cast on a cruise for the flick – shooting for two weeks with his cast improvising whenever they could. The journey is enjoyable – but oddly forgettable. It’s like a quick vacation that immediately starts to fade from memory the moment you return.

A lovingly crafted ode to female friendship and the idea that it's never too late to embrace your true self.

Weathering With You is far and away one of the loveliest and most beautiful animated films in years.

Cronenberg creates an atmosphere of nauseating dread through it all as things grow increasingly deranged. No fooling: this is not an easy movie to watch. It gets under your skin and makes your flesh crawl. It infects you. You'll probably want to take a shower after the credits roll, and then take another shower just to be sure you're extra clean.

While the film as a whole is slightly haphazard, and the revelations are relatively few, there’s still a strong sense of engagement and excitement that illustrates better than most the thrill of discovery and the scope of what these humble rocks represent.

The banal insidiousness of it all began to fill me with a type of nameless dread. Backed up by a droning, unsettling score, "Mister Organ" begins to seem like a horror movie. Organ himself seems harmless, at least physically. But he exudes a certain temperament that appears slightly off.

The result is a lively, kinetic film that dances between the natural and the fanciful, centered on a dynamo of a cinematic character played by the first-time actress.

The Outwaters is an immersive hellmouth waiting to, quite literally, swallow us up and spit us back out into the landscape more horrified of what the universe is capable of than ever before — and trust me, you don't stand a chance against what it has in store for you.

Blitz Bazawule and a cast of talented performers do their best, but the end result just doesn't gel.

Babes would be a stressful film if it wasn't such a funny one, if its leads weren't so charming, their chemistry so lived-in.

Whether this atypical Burroughs adaptation and unconventional love story truly works for you in the end or not, you won't regret getting swept up in the journey.

It's sick and twisted enough to stick with you, and the closing moments are particularly delightful (in a bleak sort of way). I just wish it all added up to a little bit more.

It is a singular work – one so ghastly, so unique, and so brutal that it will awe some and disgust others.

A dark, ominous undercurrent runs through "Candyman," signaling Nia DaCosta as a filmmaker with a firm, unique grasp on the genre. The original "Candyman" already had a few sequels, but none of them are as clever, as interesting, as effective as this. Go ahead. Dare to say his name five times in the mirror. "Candyman" will live on.

Naturally, like any major studio movie based on a well-known IP, the film is full of big action and big special effects, but the charm never dissipates.

The razor-thin premise can't quite sustain itself. Taken as a whole, the film is a bit like a vampire draining an older victim of their blood: cold, thick, and unnourishing.

Make no mistake about it, The Dark and the Wicked is by far the scariest movie at the Fantasia Film Festival, and its due in large part to Ireland’s neurotic catatonia. You find yourself holding your breath, waiting to see what spine-chilling event hovers just ahead, hiding behind a dark corner.

The film lives and dies with Lawrence, who's fearless performance here reminds us why she became so acclaimed to begin with. Let's hope we start seeing more of her again now that she's back.

It cannot be overstated how integral Arnett and Dern are to making this movie work. It's deceptively simple in its presentation, but it couldn't be a more complex tale of a crumbling marriage and two people struggling to keep their lives together for the sake of their kids.

It's all appropriately eerie and off-putting, but never quite as satisfying as it should be. Watching Watcher isn't a complete disappointment, but it sure would be nice if there was just a little more to look at.

At times, The Suicide Squad feels less like a movie than a mission statement from a director. Behold, look what I can do with a budget and all the comic book characters I can play with. But, the unexpected heart at the center of the film, a sneaky anti-imperialist bent, and Gunn’s wild visual leaps make The Suicide Squad a bloody, gory delight.

Cameron and Colin Cairnes succeed in developing a time-warp slice of Halloween spookiness, a vessel for David Dastmalchian to prove himself (for those who don't know) as a commanding lead performer.

If you’re into “Splatterhouse Cinema” that respects its elders and tenderizes human bodies without remorse, Joe Begos has a pile of discarded corpses waiting for you. It’s vile, slick with repugnance, and appropriately inhumane. A canon full of guts blasted straight into your face – the Fangoria way.

Oldroyd lulled me into a false sense of expectation and then dropped a bomb into his movie that completely shifted the ground under my feet. I can't remember the last time I was so energized by a surprise.

Some may be tempted to refer to The Shrouds as Cronenberg playing in a minor key, but that does no justice whatsoever to a chilly, almost shell-shocked drama that derives so much meaning and even poignancy out of its emotional remove. Cronenberg fans, you will not want to miss this one.

Moss gives yet another fearless performance – hers is a raw, exposed, physical, and ultimately fierce role, and it’s often stunning to watch the manic energy in her eyes as she attacks a scene.

Do we really need yet another "Batman" reboot? The answer, after watching Matt Reeves' tremendous The Batman, is apparently a resounding yes.

Brooklyn 45 is a tragic fireside reminder about how easily good men and women can be corrupted, whether by propaganda rhetoric or the ghosts of miseries past.

Mogul Mowgli is an imperfect exploration of cultural identity and generational trauma, but in its messiness and chaos, it feels all the more genuine.

The film reiterates every detail you already know from the key reports that have been published about him, but the true power of this movie (and for me, the only reason it should exist at all) comes in its interviews with Weinstein’s victims, and the stories from these women are just as heart-rending and disturbing as you probably imagine.

As Marvel remixes go, Shang-Chi is one of the more successful ones. Maybe not as stylistically strong as Black Widow and certainly not as much of a watershed moment as Black Panther, it is elevated by the strength of its hard-hitting fight scenes and the supporting performers — especially the Tony Leung of it all.

The layered dynamics and pure, honest emotions underneath Luca‘s simple coming-of-age story are what elevate the film to one of Pixar’s best — and an example of what animation can be if they stop trying to race forward, and just stop and take a breath.

Trachtenberg and company have put together a crackerjack monster pic, full of clever new approaches to old material. Those looking for the familiar will recognize plenty of callbacks to other "Predator" films . . . while anyone searching for new thrills will get a kick out of the film's genre mash-ups.

The set-up is sound, and the film is gloriously twisted. But The Menu also lags — once we're clued into what's happening, some of the fun is gone.

Eventually, Heretic does evolve into something a bit more familiar, shedding the heart-pounding sense of pure wrongness that defines the first hour in favor of more action, violence, and traditional excitement. And it's all very well-executed, frequently very scary and, honestly, probably the right choice for filmmakers who clearly care about their audience.

The Long Walk is an emotionally obliterating all-time great Stephen King adaptation, and undoubtedly one of the best films of 2025.

If you poke too many holes in the narrative, Spider-Man: No Way Home starts to become undone. But if you take it at face value, it's a sweet, moving swing of a "Spider-Man" film that (mostly) manages to land.

Ultimately, your enjoyment of Exit 8 will hinge on how much repetitiveness you're willing to tolerate. Liminal space horror fans will likely enjoy the film's moody aesthetic, and there are times where Exit 8 feels like a movie to be digested via spooky gifs and screenshots. Exit 8 may very well give you the creeps, but that might not be enough.

While Pretty Red Dress might be a bit too ambitious and it spends too much time delivering its message, this is a thoughtful, charming study of masculinity and gender expression, anchored by some brilliant performances. Its great musical energy keeps the pacing strong, and it's an exciting new take on the family drama.

It’s a dichotomy that makes up most of the movie — is it a horror or a post-apocalyptic adventure? Krasinski frequently rejected the “horror” label for the first A Quiet Place, presumably to make the film more accessible to all audiences, but it might be that he doesn’t have the interest in making a straightforward horror film. In the process, A Quiet Place II falls somewhere in between, with the effective thrills and jump scares of a horror film, but with an overly familiar post-apocalyptic plot that we’ve seen many times before.

From the impressive cinematography to its refreshingly non-pandering script, Gilford further proves himself to be a powerful voice in modern queer art.

By far the funniest, most heartfelt, and boldest "Predator" movie of them all, "Badlands" etches its place in franchise history — right alongside the classic that started it all and the three worthy follow-ups that Trachtenberg has delivered so far. Let's hope there are many more to come.

The Hidden World isn’t “big.” It doesn’t offer a shattering emotional moment, it doesn’t tear your heart in pieces. Instead, it tugs at your heartstrings and gently guides you to the finish line of a wondrous, lovely franchise that was more than we deserved.

There’s artificiality to Emma. that, while it makes it a joy to watch and admire, doesn’t leave us with much of a lasting impact. But despite all that, it is refreshing to see an Austen adaptation that finally captures the author’s witty, satirical talents.

By the time The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial comes to its somewhat startling conclusion, I was saddened by Friedkin's passing all over again. What a loss. But at least he left us one final stunner.

Though the flavors of past genres are present in Lucky Grandma, all those ingredients add up to a truly unique, unforgettable dish that brings a familiar formula to a whole new level.

J.D. Dillard's Sweetheart is fierce aquatic horror without any frills.

The genius of Sundown is how little it tells us while keeping us glued to what we're seeing.

Moviegoers often cry out that they want fresh, original films instead of more endless remakes and sequels. Well, here you go. Companion is exactly what you're looking for. Don't miss it.

A Complete Unknown doesn't break new ground, but it knows how to play the hits. 

Heroes Rising is an impressive piece of fan-service with beautiful character work and some of the most inventive and dazzling fight sequences that the series has ever seen. But a recycled plot and villain threaten to doom the film to the lower echelons of forgettable anime movies.