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.

This is not as surprising or innovative as director Park's earlier work, but it is still a fascinating and exquisitely directed film about desire, regret, and love. The final moments will likely be talked about and discussed as much as any of his other work.

As far as directorial debuts go, The Rental is a strong start for Franco, who proves here he can take not just one but two different tried-and-true genre formulas and rework them into something neat.

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.

It is all at once a gleefully raucous rock romp and a freaky horror story of possession and gruesome murder.

One of the things that makes You Hurt My Feelings so enjoyable is that it's simply a film about adults having adult conversations. They drift around New York, or hang out in apartments and bars, and just ... talk. That might sound boring, but the snappy script and hilarious performances keep everything buoyant.

80 for Brady isn't the most original play in the playbook, minus the sheer atypicality of aiming a gang of protagonists with around almost 400 years between them at a sports event for which they aren't the usual fanbase. That said, the comedy has enough charm, memorable moments, and charismatic performances from legendary actresses that it's a good, breezy time.

As haphazard and messy as The Mortuary Collection is, its bloody, ripped-out heart is in the right place.

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

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.

With its deliberate (or sloowwwwwww, as some might call it) pacing and inherent lack of action, The Eternal Daughter might frustrate some looking for a more traditional ghost story. But The Eternal Daughter is plenty haunting. The ghosts here aren't the traditional specters returned from the grave. They're the type of ghosts that haunt us all — memories, both good and bad.

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.

There is a bittersweetness to be seen in "Ella McCay," as the movie openly wonders whether hope in our political system is as outdated as everything else. This theme may be fully intentional or it may be coincidental, yet it feels heartfelt in either case.

King Richard isn't looking to break the sports biopic genre or break the Williams' sister's legacy; it's purely a crowd-pleasing performance vehicle for Smith. But you know what? It does its job.

And underneath it all is a beating heart; a tribute to both Boseman's loss and legacy. The emotional punch is more impactful than the physical one here, and whatever the flaws of "Wakanda Forever," its emotional heft is strong — and honest. There's no sense of manipulation here, only a sense of grief coupled with acceptance. What else can there be?

Despite its many twists, The Outfit is a fairly straightforward thriller, buoyed by its sharp narrative turns and a quietly subversive Rylance.

Sometimes you want to sink your teeth into a gourmet meal, and sometimes you want junk food. Stylish, entertaining junk food. And that's what this is. So dig in.

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

If you're on the fence at all, there is a mid-credits sequence that truly leaves the mid-credits made mandatory by the Marvel Cinematic Universe dead in the dirt and is so damn good that it completely recontextualizes the tone of the movie that came before.

A Love Song is rough around the edges, but between its gorgeously crafted world and Dickey's ability to ground the film with a single expression, the flaws fade away when the finer elements sing together in harmony.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour may not be a great film, but it is a hell of a good time at the movies.

The Forgiven runs the risk of becoming a thoughtless movie about a vile white man who is taught a lesson by wise brown people, but McDonagh, who also wrote the script, manages to (mostly) avoid that with a subtle touch.

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.

Fear Street Part 2 also thrives once it really gets going. There’s a certain rough patch at the start that the film thankfully shrugs off, eventually sucking us into its night-dark story of doomed youth. A potential – and potentially questionable – romance that blooms between Ziggy and Nick Goode (Ted Sutherland), the boy destined to grow up and be sheriff, is charming in its clumsiness. A side character like punk rocker counselor Alice (Ryan Simpkins) seems annoying at first, only to blossom into someone we’re actively rooting for. After two films, the real strength of Fear Street is in its characters, not its scares. No one is expendable meat here – but that doesn’t mean they won’t get ground up in the end.

It’s an interesting idea on page, but in John and the Hole, it is all a little too opaque to make sense of Sisto’s muted portrait of adolescence.

Sadly, some only listen when the quiet part is said out loud — Sissy blares its concerns and horrors like neon demons in front of the brightest ring lights.

Sadly, as creative as The Silent Twins is, and as much homework as the filmmakers clearly did in replicating the details of the story and the works of the twins, the film never fully says anything meaningful. Not about the real Gibbons sisters, not about race, not about mental health and its treatment in the U.K.

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.

Damsel lives and dies by the performance of Elodie and thankfully, Millie Bobby Brown establishes herself as the new Mother of the Dragons. She expertly finds the balance between a terrified woman thrown into an unthinkable circumstance, and a fighter unwilling to give up when things get tough.

Great as our actual dads might be, they simply cannot compete with Costner. The guy perfectly hits all the right notes: honesty, dignity, quiet reserve, rugged Americana – all qualities we want in a hyperbolic father figure. Let Him Go exploits all this and reminds us of one other thing he’s good at: ass-kicking. But Let Him Go isn’t really Costner’s movie. Instead, it belongs to Diane Lane as his wife.

The final 20 or so minutes of In the Earth are downright impenetrable, and while that’s no doubt the point, it doesn’t make the experience any less frustrating. In a sense, Wheatley has successfully recreated the experience of stumbling around, lost in the woods, unable to see the forest for the trees.

While it does occasionally feel a little too one-note and repetitive, even in its brief runtime, a host of wonderful performances, meticulous set detailings, and expertly claustrophobic cinematography make Peter Von Kant worthwhile.

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.

Chon aims for the pulse at the end, but he may not have realized that he didn't have to try so hard — he had already effortlessly plucked at the heartstrings.

The greatest mistake the devil ever made was underestimating a woman with a gun, and director Kitamura has come to collect.

Moana 2 bites off a bit more than it can chew at times, and the pacing is as smooth as it can be for a series that was condensed into a feature film, but it's hard to be bothered by any of the film's shortcomings when "Moana" stories embody resilience, the pursuit of curiosity, community-building, defying gendered expectations, and embracing personal growth.

While the material they’re working with may not be great, it is fun to see Louis-Dreyfus and Ferrell go head-to-head. Maybe they can try doing that again sometime in the future. With a better script.

A Man Called Otto has its moments, both humorous and heartwarming, and it works better than it should due to the strength of its performances. Unfortunately, it's also plagued by choices that blunt its overall coherence, seeming like Forster wanted to make an entirely different kind of film than the material dictated.

The film is so laser-focused on Joy there's often no room for anything, or anyone else. But I hope "Call Jane" finds a wide audience, and if the film's somewhat sanitized portrayal of events helps change a few minds in regards to the issues at hand, that will be a net good.

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.

For how borderline cheesy the movie is on occasion, director Lucie Jourdan does an excellent job of emphasizing the heinous nature of the doctor's actions, while humanizing the patients and making the children's plight sympathetic.

Is it exceptionally groundbreaking? No. But it's fun, and frothy, and clever enough that it makes for an easygoing hour and a half watch.

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.

Despite its minor missteps, In the Heights is an unabashed delight. The cast all give deeply felt, deeply fun performances, with Ramos, Merediz, and Barrera as standouts. In the Heights is a celebration of a rich culture and a group of dreamers, who are messy and full of contradictions, but whose emotions always ring true.

Over Your Dead Body pulls off the magic trick of bringing exploitation cinema into a timeline that's a walking parody of itself, delivering one of the bloodiest and most entertaining films of the year.

Glorious might not save the world, yet it's still a wonderful way to pass the time while humanity as we know it is devoured by threats we'll never comprehend.

After this solid set-up, The Devil Made Me Do It occasionally grows a bit murky.

While there may be a few folks out there for whom Hell of a Summer gives them a chill, the majority of horror fans probably won't find themselves too fearful. What Bryk and Wolfhard have here instead is one of the coziest horror movies in recent memory, one which instantly feels charming from the start.

For all of Old‘s flaws – and those flaws are bounteous! – it’s a film with energy; a film with life. Shyamalan doesn’t appear to have a firm grasp on this material, but again, he’s trying! He’s trying to give us something different. And these days, that’s the sort of thing we should all be longing for.

Most of the time, attaching visuals to these songs I know so well enhanced my experience because actually seeing the performers, chests heaving and sweaty from performing choreography while singing, gave me a newfound appreciation for the disembodied voices that have been branded into my brain. But occasionally, a lighting or camera choice actually lessened my enjoyment of a song.

From a filmmaking standpoint alone, "Nothing Lasts Forever" is one of the more memorable recent documentaries. But it helps that the narrative being told is so fascinating, scooping us up into this globe-trotting world where money talks and everyone — and every diamond — has a story, true or otherwise.

Plaza's performance, which grows more desperate and more fierce, is what keeps things going. Tension continually mounts and builds, and writer-director Ford stages several anxiety-ridden set-pieces that inspire a sick-to-your-stomach feeling.

Underneath all the jokes and humorous moments, the movie is fundamentally about how important it is to love yourself – and about how something so seemingly simple can sometimes be incredibly difficult.

The horror on display here is so powerful, and Hall’s work is so strong, that you’re bound to come away from The Night House properly haunted.

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

It's a delightful surprise that the Disney+ sequel, Disenchanted, in spite of having a thudder of a title, is a moderately charming affair bolstered, per usual, by a phenomenal lead performance from one of our best living actresses.

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.

Clocking in at a little over an hour, Lovers Rock is naturally a little lean, limited by its one-night premise and its brief sojourn into these characters’ lives. But it’s a tone poem that feels at once a love letter to the style of reggae music which it’s named after, and to the people who danced and fell in love to that music in ’80s London.

Ambulance is unlikely to convert those who loathe Michael Bay and all he creates. But if you're on board, you're in for one hell of a ride.

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

Souvenir Part II is an easy recommendation on every level, a film that stands comfortably alone and allows Hogg’s journey to filmmaking, and Honor Swinton Byrne’s capabilities as a performer, to finally shine in a light that almost every cinema lover will be drawn towards.

The Bob's Burgers Movie is a little overlong. It takes a while for the plot to kick in, and by the time it does, it drags out the conflict, heightening the stakes to ludicrous degrees. And while it could've just been an episode of the show, it justifies its existence with its surplus of joyful musical songs and its surprisingly dark turns — which really only emerge in the last half hour of the movie. But mostly, it justifies itself by reaffirming why we always come back to the Belcher family. They're the sweet, emotional core of the movie, the meat of this mystery burger that we want to order over and over again.

Bright, colorful, and truly nuts, this movie is a breath of fresh air for those who are a little over the sameness of American blockbuster filmmaking.

Anaconda taps into a sweet spot that's just edgy enough to make adults laugh and just family friendly enough to let kids have a good time with their parents too. It's hilarious, harmless, and puts a fun spin on a familiar formula, even if the snake still looks fake as hell.

Nighy brings a dignity to the proceedings that you can't help but admire, especially when it comes to Williams' sudden self-awareness in his final days, and that helps keep your attention.

There's something near-magical about the strands of multicolored lights that occupy nearly every frame of the film, offering a winter wonderland contrast to all the carnage. 

There's a lot of room for cheap, silly schlock here, but Goldhaber and Mazzei actually attempt to take this (sort of) seriously, which results in a far better movie than you might be expecting.

It takes some smart turns in the finale that modernize old tropes and give familiar beats a refreshing upgrade to relevant (but perhaps insufficient) degrees. The dialogue and situations feel real and authentic, and the performers land the material and have strong cast chemistry. At the same time, much of the movie is enjoyable but feels inescapably familiar.

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.

Avatar: The Way of Water overstays its welcome but it sure is thrilling when it wants to be.

One can't help but note the irony of a film about the pivot from the silent era to the talkies having such a loud, booming start but ending with a muffled thud.

12 Hour Shift never takes itself seriously enough to make the calamity that ensues anything more than “dumb fun,” and I mean that positively.

Carl W. Lucas‘s script is never quite as smart or profound as it thinks it is, but it does manage to tap into an inherent sweetness – an underlying sense of humanity and acceptance that counter-balances all the chaos and occasional bursts of violence.

There are countless superhero movies better than this. Better written, better directed, better acted, better made. And yet, Let There Be Carnage has a weird, quirky heart, and sometimes, that's exactly what you need to see.

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.

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.

Skolimowski's close camera work and gripping story keep us alongside EO every step of the way. We're all rooting for him. And even when scenes veer ever more into the surreal side of things, we can't help but feel connected to the little donkey that could.

It's one story that provides a mere snapshot of a larger problem in the U.S. — but it's a very detailed picture, and one that humanizes the people behind the addictions.

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. 

Suspenseful, sinister and bittersweet, The Djinn is a cut-throat example of how effective horror can be with succinct decisions around dialogue and theatrics.

How to Make a Killing is a movie that sneaks up on you, and like Becket himself, doesn't simply stab you in the chest or punch you in the gut. Instead, it slowly poisons you, leaving you bewildered by the end as to how sick you and the country you live in has become.

There's plenty of slow creeping dread on display here, matched with that dark humor and two fantastic leads. It all comes together to make "Birth/Rebirth" one of 2023's more interesting horror entries.

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.

As a celebration and an elegy for a creature that isn't and never was, "Sasquatch Sunset" is kind of beautiful and kind of ridiculous.

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.

This movie veers in some truly wild directions and it's not quite as polished as its predecessor. At the same time, it feels in line with what came before. It certainly doesn't betray the characters or the world Feig has set up.

"Brainwashed" isn't so much of a shocking revelation as it is an eye-opening wake-up call to be more thoughtful about how women are depicted in film and how that translates into our everyday lives.

It's a hilarious low-low-budget, rough-around-the-edges oddity that makes me very happy, and I hope someday it'll make you feel the same crisp beaver-beatin' joy.

Problemista won't be for everyone, but it doesn't want to be. It simply exists as its own magical thing, and for an auteur like Torres, that is the best possible result.

God's Country" is a headier exploration of how impossible it can feel when trying to enact change in institutions, and how, when systems are rigged against the same people they're ostensibly set up to support, the empty hopelessness of that realization can lead to devastating outcomes.

Introducing, Selma Blair rips the Band-Aid off society’s view of chronic illness with a raw portrayal of her medical diagnosis that is authenticated in its emotional and physical intensity.

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.

There is something about the humanity of this specific type of dread that seeps into your bones and hangs on for dear life. It’s the type of horror that taps into the fears we’re either too afraid to articulate, or would rather keep to ourselves lest we be judged.

Tatum and Johansson are the stars of the show, oftentimes conveying with a mere look what entire monologues couldn't have accomplished. These are the two engines propelling the movie into the stratosphere, taking what could've been a disposable, forgettable effort and transforming it into an experience that'll have you floating on air out of the theater ... likely as you hum a very apt Frank Sinatra tune to yourself.c

The movie works mainly because of the magnetism and sincerity of its cast, who are giving it their all throughout. Engels and Noel have excellent chemistry, and their world is populated with charismatic, dynamic supporting players, best represented by Saunderson’s maximalist take on Mercutio. If this is what it takes to introduce a new generation to a classic story, so be it.

I'm not quite sure what "Leave the World Behind" is trying to say, other than the fact that as a species, we seem to be inherently doomed because we're too neurotic to help ourselves. That might leave a sour taste in the mouths of some viewers, but there's something refreshing about a film so unapologetic about its unflinching hopelessness. 

In Coppola's mind, all that matters is the work, and the act of creating it. We are lucky he returned to make a new movie, and even in its messy, muddled state, we are lucky to have Megalopolis.

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.