Holy Spider shines a light into the murky corners of a society that emboldens its aggressors. In that sense, the film is essential viewing. Even if it is completely devastating.

Watching Lawrence and Henry act off each other is what really makes "Causeway" worth watching.

Though Verbinski's smallest movie since "Mouse Hunt," it still feels as ambitious as the director's blockbuster work.

So while Timothée Chalamet doesn't have the magic to hold the movie on his back, the movie around him is still rather splendid and enjoyable. Even if Chalamet ends up leaving a displeasing taste in your mouth, he doesn't end up ruining this sweet treat. 

Much like the characters themselves, Pieces of a Woman is constantly chasing after what came before, only to never get it back.

While 136 minutes is a bit lengthy, even for this story — White Noise drags in parts, but again, so does life — the movie's electric, eccentric, and delightfully hilarious dynamic keeps you engrossed enough to make it to the end and finish out their story.

Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers is a proudly very daffy and strange movie.

For a story as surprising and unpredictable as the true GameStop story was, it's frustrating to see Dumb Money follow such a familiar structure. What it does do especially well is its exploration of the community aspect of the situation.

Skinamarink is an experience of warped mundanity, dreary moods, and repressed paranoias most prevalent in our youths, which Ball recreates with alarming intimacy. We often seek comfort in feeling like kids again, but in this case, Ball presents a monkey's paw solution brimming with supreme juvenile terrorization.

While the story at the center of 892 is undeniably compelling, the film has trouble keeping the engine running beyond the natural tension that comes from holding up a bank. If it wasn't for Boyega and Beharie's performances, this probably would have been a letdown. But thankfully, the movie still packs a powerful punch.

Thirteen Lives is a film that truly orients itself around a grounded cinematic approach to story, one largely told without big, grandstanding emotional speeches but instead focused on visually capturing subjectivity, demonstrating tension, and highlighting the life-or-death weight of the characters' choices.utm_campaign=clip

Some may get a kick out of how over-the-top and pulpy Shadow in the Cloud is, but what’s on display here is so abrasive and so bombastic that it begins to sap the life out of you, ultimately leaving a bad taste in your mouth when all is said and done.

The brothers tend not to dally much with their narratives, but even adjusting for their typical brevity, Young Ahmed feels like a cursory examination of the social issues they raise. It lacks the incisiveness of their other glances directly into the heart of Belgian society.

The film may end on a bleak note, but there's some levity mixed into the very batter.

The film occasionally has trouble balancing the two subjects, with the more personal side of the doc occasionally getting lost in the archival clips and photos of the Hollywood fervor Spaz stirred up with his innovations. But it's still fascinating, insightful, and certainly entertaining.

The frenetic pace may keep kids hooked, but parents will appreciate the sequences when Elio hits the pause button and allows audiences to sit in the silence — of complicated ideas, of emotionally challenging conversations, and of the wonders around us we too often fail to appreciate.

Despite its formulaic nature and its somewhat predictable beats, The Way Back extends beyond the typical sports drama by acknowledging the fantasy of it all: that one basketball game triumph becomes the easy solution to his problems that Jack is dreaming of. The road to recovery is hard work, and as The Way Back reveals, the work is never over.

Vivo is plenty colorful, with a bright pastel palette both when the film’s action takes place in Cuba and in Florida, though the backgrounds are far less detailed than would be ideal. It’s good, but not good enough. The same is true of the story, and of the songs.

Blair made a movie that feels built to amuse himself. And I'm glad it exists. It feels like he got away with ... something.

While the film does struggle a bit with some jumbled tonality, the latest work from the famously prolific French filmmaker strikes a new and surprisingly stirring combination of steamy and sweet thanks to the love story at its core.

A kitchen sink drama, a pulpy crime movie, and a bloody revenge tale all held together by one hell of a performance.

Last Night in Soho, with all its warts and wonders, shows you can teach an old dog some new tricks. Wright shows he still hasn't hit his ceiling as a filmmaker, but's heartening to see him stretch and reach rather than just keeping his artistic ambitions planted on the floor.

It’s a love letter, full of scribbles and crossed out words, and parts of which are more eloquent than others. And while Tigertail is a messy and somewhat incoherent love letter, it’s one filled to the brim with that a sincere love and emotion nonetheless.

Paddington in Peru is ultimately a missed opportunity, but it's also a pleasant, entertaining-enough time.

The end result is a slow-burn romantic thriller that's so slow it doesn't really seem to go anywhere.

Even with a runtime twice as long as the typical "Monk" episode, "Mr. Monk's Last Case" has the same breezy pacing — mostly.

It's romantic escapism at its finest, a brief diversion from our grim reality that is just novel enough to make it worth our time.

Face the Music is just so overwhelmingly nice. It’s a cheesy, dopey, pure comedy about people who care a lot — maybe about trivial things, maybe about the wrong things — but boy do they care. And they just want to share their joy for the things they care about (namely rock ‘n’ roll) to the world. So sit back, don’t think too much, and party on, dudes.

Drunk Bus straps you in for a semi-wild, uplifting ride out of somber darkness and into speedy reclamation.

Pound for pound, segment for segment, death for death, this is everything we could possibly want from a horror anthology.

Vengeance manages to balance its self-effacing and sentimental tones in a way that is extremely satisfying and entertaining to watch.

If you hand Paul Feig a good script, he becomes a better director. With "The Housemaid," he doesn't just explore his characters well, but wisely delves into themes of class. The dishonesty of the rich dangles over "The Housemaid," pointing out how wealth is a moral trap. It's alluring and dangerous. Wealth is practically a living creature. It seems to be dazzling and charming and seductive, but hides its true intentions, fangs secretly in its otherwise perfect smile.

Sometimes, you just want to watch a handsome guy try to get out of trouble while taking care of an ornery, fluffy cat. We could use more modern movies like Caught Stealing.

Unlike some movies that feature a group of urban teens inspired by a teacher and their lessons, it doesn’t make it seem like merely winning a chess tournament will make all the problems in their lives go away. It’s one victory that might make everything else feel less overwhelming, at least for a little bit.

A triumphant, inspiring movie about the heroism of human decency, Ironbark is a rock solid spy drama that, if it came out 20 years ago, would have easily become a mainstay on TNT or TBS. Hollywood doesn’t make movies like this very often anymore, and if does prove to be part of a last gasp of character-focused period thrillers, at least the genre is going out with some style.

No matter how you end up feeling, you will leave "Men" with questions; questions you'll have to draw your own answers to. There's something exhilarating about a new movie that dares to leave us groping in the dark, wondering where the hell we're going to end up.

Most of all, it’s empowering to watch Swift finally come into her own. To realize she doesn’t have to give a fuck about making everyone in the world like her anymore as long as she’s found a way to like herself.

Twisters has its fair share of clunky dialogue, an endless amount of indiscernible technobabble (honestly, it's kind of impressive), and even a smidge of contrived melodrama, to be sure, but it balances out these shortcomings with a relentless sense of earnestness and heart that's difficult to resist.

Though Strange World has no meme-worthy songs like "Encanto," its imagery is singular and unforgettable, and its adventurous spirit is genuine and thrilling. This is the kind of thing Disney should make more often.

Alice Darling successfully lays bare the realities emotional and verbal abuse has on victims, while also highlighting how the smallest shows of support can be exactly what victims need to change their circumstances.

It's a lean, crowd-pleasing ride worth taking. Buckle up for one bad yet wilding entertaining, nail-biter of a date.

The Good Nurse is strangely flat.

Magazine Dreams will alienate some viewers, but even those who aren't able to get on board with what Bynum is doing will be unable to deny how incredible Jonathan Majors is here. It's the type of unique, highly memorable performance people talk about for years to come.

As a sensory experience, Knocking is stunning. The heightened sounds mixed with a stuffy, collapsing ambiance create an unforgettable experience. Pity that the narrative in the midst of all of this fails to match that power. 

Transformers One is the breath of fresh air the franchise has tried to achieve for years, a movie that feels new and unique but also familiar and fitting with the rest of the franchise.

For my money, The Black Phone is more complete and effective than Derrickson's previous horror movie "Sinister" and is the first feature adaptation of Joe Hill's work that demands more big-screen Joe Hill adaptations.

It's a film that never feels neutered or held back, and as such it lingers in the mind for days afterward.

Ride Your Wave may be predictable, but it quickly becomes a charming and heartfelt story about loss and clinging to life, one with realistic and likeable characters that may even teach you something about yourself.

Bleak, severe, and awesome, "The First Omen" is the best horror movie of the year so far.

For audiences curious to know the ins and outs of the early days of MMA fighting, you'd be better served by watching the 2002 documentary. If, however, you're more curious about the people involved, and if you're someone who feels like either a winner or a loser (or, more to the point, both at once) in life's big match, then The Smashing Machine is for you.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in a world that I wouldn't mind living in. Even if there are occasional, ineffable cosmic deities plotting to devour me, and terrifying silver aliens ripping my soul apart with their eyes. "First Steps" is a superhero movie where we're already better. And I love that.

Though Leo is perhaps not the most groundbreaking animated film of the year, its gentle tone and emotion mixed with some standard anarchic gags from the Happy Madison school of comedy work in its favor.

Plus One isn’t a knock-off of one of the greatest rom-coms ever, it’s a deserving successor.

CRSHD has some promising ideas and visually inventive ways of presenting them, but it still feels like a rough draft of a film. The humor lands, and the character dynamics offer a charming backbone for CRSHD, but this coming-of-age comedy could do with some workshopping.

Those craving a well-put-together monster movie with creepy creature effects and sturdy set-pieces will probably find plenty to like here. But it shouldn't be controversial to want better results. As I said at the start of this review, there are no bad "Alien" movies. But with Alien: Romulus, there's definitely a disappointing one.

Even a minor stumble or two does little to hold back one of the year's better horror efforts, leaving us to grapple with images that will haunt us long after the credits roll.

Oz Perkins‘s mystical, occult-heavy take on the classic folktale from the Brothers Grimm has so much style, and so many bold ideas, that it seems destined to become a cult classic someday – the type of film people find years from now and ask, “Why the hell haven’t I heard of this before?”

The result is an erotic cataclysm of gnarly kills, an aesthetic to die for, and another powerhouse performance from Mia Goth.

Casablanca Beats drums its ideas loudly and effectively. The result is a boisterous and crowd-pleasing delight, showing a community with deep specificity that nonetheless speaks to the concerns of young people all over the world.

Between strong character work, adept mystery writing, amusingly tongue-in-cheek fourth-wall breaks which broadly work, and swift action sequences, Enola Holmes 2 is by and large a welcome and engaging mystery experience.

Gaia is a dazzling bio-horror excursion.

undertone is so effectively spooky that I found my eyes nervously darting to shadows as I walked to my car after the screening. The best horror movies don't need cheap jumpscares, they just need to make you feel like something dreadful is out there, lurking, waiting to make itself heard.

Confess, Fletch, based on Mcdonald's second novel in the series, entirely misjudges the comedic appeal of its predecessor, transforming a setup of one sardonic man at the center of a hardboiled mystery into a barrage of eccentricities and bits that just sit dead on the screen.

As told through Szumowska’s highly symbolic aesthetic, The Other Lamb makes for a chilling glance at the strange pull that cults exert on their members and how their values imprint themselves on their members in irrevocable ways.

Even if you're not totally on its wavelength, watching Chokri's stylish fable is like panning for gold: It will present you with several nuggets worthy of closer examination.

Elvis is the Baz Luhrmanniest film Baz Luhrmann has made yet, a compilation of his greatest filmmaking hits, all employed for a film as excessive and grandiose as Elvis himself. Though the framing device doesn't always work, Austin Butler's stunning performance, lavish production design, and comic book-like editing make for a movie not unlike one of Elvis' own — full of personality, kind of empty, but undeniably enjoyable.

The feeling persists that something is missing here. That Scott and company are merely lightly touching on things that require deeper exploration. Which brings me back again to that 4-hour director's cut.

Marvelous and the Black Hole is a satisfying showcase from Tsang, who really draws from her animation background to show these moments of intense emotion from Sammy, but its broad strokes are a little...broad.

An amorphous film that flashes the middle finger to conventionality from its launch, Coma blossoms into a metaphorical and allegorical Rorschach test.

Come to Daddy is a frenzied thriller pouring out Tarantino quarts of gore and laughs. Lurking beneath its surface, there’s also an unspoken philosophical contemplation on what it means to be a father.

A pair of endearing and hilarious lead performances from teenage Griffin Gluck and comedy prodigy Pete Davidson turn the movie into a real gem.

This film is intentionally exhausting because it wants you to feel the way Sissy feels as the special concludes: chewed up, spit out, used, abused, martyred for something you thought could love you back.

And that, perhaps, is the real fatal flaw of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." Gunn's first two movies felt different. They stood out from the pack and had their own unique personality. But "Vol. 3" feels like more of the same. I'm not suggesting Gunn and company are phoning it in this time around, but it certainly feels like the magic has faded. Whatever alchemy the filmmaker worked to make the first two "Guardians" movies memorable has evaporated into the ether.

Skywalkers: A Love Story is a dizzying and dazzling look at a hyper-niche culture that delivers some of the most jaw-dropping real-life footage you'll likely ever see.

Furies is a double-barreled adrenaline shot of ladies-first action extravagance that shines a light on Vietnamese genre cinema.

It’s a sturdy spy thriller from Zhang, a competent first outing in the genre for the filmmaker. But most of all, Cliff Walkers is safe.

A film that ultimately feels forgettable as nothing about it, from visuals to score, finds a home in your brain (and that includes ending with a weird music video during the end credits).

Gladiator II gets the job done. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, and it doesn't have to. I don't for one second think Scott is setting out here trying to make an absolute masterpiece; he's content to simply make a damn entertaining action pic with an pulpy old school sensibility. Third act machinations aside, Gladiator II ends up being rather simple in its construction, and perhaps that's ultimately its greatest strength.

Nobody seems to think that if it follows a paint-by-numbers Wick formula, that’ll be enough. It’s not, and that’s a damn shame, because Bob Odenkirk: Action Hero deserves better.

It may not be the best Lanthimos, but it's certainly the most Lanthimos.

An icy cold mix of The Shining and religious mania run wild, The Lodge opens with a bang, and never lets up. Take it from someone who doesn’t scare easy: The Lodge is scary as hell.

The Apprentice is a good movie, albeit a difficult one to watch, with stellar performances elevating the proceedings.

Where previous wartime productions that Hanks helped spearhead had the grit, suspense, and complex characterization that defines great modern drama, Greyhound is a stripped-down touring production with an unexpectedly recognizable lead. It’s a serviceable way to spend 90 minutes, but serviceable isn’t saying much.

The film adaptation of Aaron Blabey's series of kid-friendly graphic novels maintains a welcome visual flair and features a game voice cast while treading extremely familiar ground.

James Cameron's "Avatar" is often criticized for its derivative story, but it works because its simplicity makes it universal. The Creator forgets that second part and just goes for simple and derivative. Still, watching Edwards pull his "A New Hope" is entertaining, and proof that we can still have stunning-looking works of original sci-fi.

As a showcase for Gyllenhaal's talents, The Guilty is passable, but that's just not enough.

Another lighthearted, fast-paced adventure that is both enjoyable and can't help but feel slightly like reheated leftovers.

On a scene-by-scene basis, this picture has so much to offer in terms of some fairly unhinged and wild work from a bunch of artists at the height of their powers.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is often quite charming and sweet. But there's an undercurrent of sadness running through the entire affair, and even when the film tries to convince us that there were good times among the bad, it's hard not to think how awful life must have been for several characters here.

There is a great deal missing from Ritchie's film. "The Covenant" is almost aggressive in its complete lack of wartime litigation. While the harrowing nature of a soldier's experience is laid bare, the meaning of the actual, prolonged quagmire of the Afghanistan occupation will be lingering in the back of most audience's minds.

It's a story that feels equal parts ludicrous and lived-in, and it's a promising debut for Ebo, and I hope we'll be hearing plenty more from her in the future. If you're still looking for evidence that Regina Hall is one of our finest working actors, look no further.

"A New Era" is two hours of charming, breezy escapism that made me happy to see this ensemble learn to grow beyond the roles they've been given to play. Only time will tell if "Downton Abbey” continues this streak of progress, or further settle into its opulent creature comforts.

Lindy doesn't just make a fun genre mash-up of a film, blending together comedy, fantasy, romance, horror, and musical theatre, but uses the movie's genre elements to tell a subversively wicked story of suppressed emotions, and what can result when those feelings aren't kept behind a closet door.

Tension is the name of the game, and Shyamalan knows exactly how to build it. It rises and builds to the point of breaking. This might be the filmmaker's most intense film to date, and while there are occasional bursts of genuine humor, "Knock at the Cabin" is more concerned with leaving you perturbed and unsettled by what you're witnessing. On that front, Knock at the Cabin is a success, even if its script can't quite match the visual intensity. Whatever is lacking here is balanced by Shyamalan's filmmaking. Say what you will about the director, but he's still got it.

Matthew Pope country-fries gutter luck, sizzles up a healthy portion of stand-off tension, and serves one nasty slice of homestyle revenge. Maybe too bleak for some, but sorry. Life isn’t all rainbows and Skittles. Kudos to the filmmakers who don’t shy away from the lows we’re forced to stomach and those failed in the process.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is a big kiss of a movie, one so genuinely loving that it's hard not to swoon.

Blood Quantum makes some important points, gives us stuff to care about and then drenches it all in audacious gore. And isn’t that exactly what we want from our zombie movies?