While Paint It Black isn’t quite as bold and as brilliant as its influences, it is none the less captivating, anchored by two stellar performances and sincere drama that offers a few unexpected twists along the way.

Everything Roberts wants to convey is obtrusively front and center, leaving little room for the viewer to have any interpretation for themselves.

At its core, The Wall serves as a well-made, engaging war-time thriller that showcases Liman’s abilities as a top-notch storyteller, no matter the shape or size of the story being told.

McDonnell and Golden’s Elián is a sweeping, definitive look at the saga, engaging and entertaining even if it contradicts what it sets out to do.

[Fanning’s] performance is what you’d expect and the character is too—strong, dedicated, and on the cusp of hopelessness. It’s because of this that Watts actually shines brighter.

With director Wang Bing‘s penchant for capturing the human relationship to nature, one could only imagine what he would do with a fictional film, perhaps a western. But his continuing dedication to subjects so underrepresented feels genuinely important, even within a niche of art cinema that so favors depictions of poverty.

Take Me proves to be a tonal mess with weak comic timing.

There’s no denying the level of craft and performance involved that probes human depravity so compellingly, you’re left with much more than just rattled nerves and a taste of bile.

Virtually free from quirk and black humor, the film is an effective, nasty thriller and a rare horror film that provides an emotional investment because the portrait of teenhood is utterly authentic.

Dabka is a visceral, engaging, fast-paced journalism drama with authenticity and a few rough edges.

Gunn maintains the unenviable job of giving each piece of his ensemble their due screen time to avoid making it the Peter Quill show, but the proceedings often feel manic, disjointed, and overstuffed.

Through focused, economic storytelling director J.D. Dillard turns Sleight into the rare kind of film that feels both familiar and unique.

For fans of the series, The Trip to Spain gives one a wholehearted meal of all they could possibly desire.

Featuring superb performances from Tracy Letts and Debra Winger, writer-director Azazel Jacobs has assembled an impeccable ensemble, but his script doesn’t quite have the dramatic acumen to make his Terri follow-up much more than an amusing farce.

Far from a didactic faith-based picture pandering to church groups, Abundant Acreage Available is a simple, yet evocative character study with no easy answer, and it has stayed with me longer than most pictures.

For all of the technical skill of the production (and the general lack thereof among the actors), there is a sense of hollowness, as if Green’s insistence on examining each performer under a microscope robs both the actor and the person they are portraying of their humanity.

Like an extended episode of Black Mirror but without a dark sense of humor or bleak horror, The Circle wails about how technology is affecting society with little grace or flair.

Suspense moves to boredom, boredom to frustration, and frustration to ambivalence.

Below Her Mouth is sexy and captivating, telling a familiar story with a fresh sexual frankness.

Roessner hasn’t written an anti-war or pro-war film. Sand Castle merely shows the honesty of war’s infinite complexities.

It’s easy to forgive it for its shortcomings, for rarely does the idea of death elicit the warmth and utter charm as it does in this documentary.

What works best in Guardians is, in fact, the camaraderie of the team itself and the heart applied to their slowly gelling sense of family.

This is a strangely believable dystopia, and all the more brilliant for it.

Wakefield fights formula and creates its own unique cinematic language.

Be content with flirtation because it’s more than enough when coupled with a pair of the most charming performances of the year.

There’s so much happening that the whole gets boring for long stretches throughout.

It’s difficult to imagine something funnier, dumber and more action-packed coming from this group.

Together, writer/director Joseph Cedar and lead actor Richard Gere craft a singularly memorable character in Norman Oppenheimer.