A demented and often-uproarious class-conscious satire, Parasite falls slightly short of Bong’s greatest work.

While not quite arriving at the delirious cult highs of a classic like “Ichi the Killer,” “First Love” is Miike’s most accessible work in years.

Either this movie was made due to one of the most humongous creative blind spots in all of filmmaking, or it was made because in this, the year 2019, there are still people who believe that eroticized, lightened-up rape scenes are not only permissable – they are empowering.

The film is a gem, especially for anyone yearning for a superhero film that gleefully torches the familiar “good versus evil” formula and introduces far more sinister sensibilities.

Aladdin is at its best when it ventures out to form its own interpretation and while not all of the choices necessarily work, it is refreshing to see Ritchie and the ensemble attempt a genuine reimagining.

Having never been entirely won over by the clever-clever period genre revisionism that has been Tarantino’s mainstay since Bill was killed, I was delighted — after all the lurid what-if speculation over the film’s relationship to the Charles Manson story — to find that his latest is, in such large part, a kind of gorgeously lacquered megabudget hangout movie.

This comedic thriller is witty and diverting without selling out on the Romanian reputation of thoughtful, challenging work.

With its capable cast and sterile aesthetic in tow, “Little Joe” commands the bleak futurism of a “Black Mirror” episode, yet with slightly more muted drama.

Absent from Young Ahmed is the frenetic urgency that defines the directors’ greatest work, replaced here by the titular character’s unshakable tunnel vision.

Kapadia’s tight focus and compelling viewpoint make “Diego Maradona” a must-see for soccer fans, and certainly a biographical doc of interest to wider audiences.

Ly makes it hard to paint these characters in broad strokes, no matter how we might try.

In short, the driving factor of Covino’s relentlessly funny, affecting comedy is neither cinematographic ingenuity, nor its tongue-in-cheek facetiousness, though these elements surely help. No, what’s most persuasive about Kyle and Mike is, simply put, Kyle and Mike themselves.

Sciamma ... has a magnificent capability for elegant prose that wouldn’t feel out of place in a classic novel, the kind of dialogue that simmers long after it is spoken.

If the immediate, textural pleasures of the film are such that you can almost miss the deftness of its construction, the skill with which Eggers balances out his ambivalent storytelling, while still ramping through ever-escalating climaxes, can’t be overstated.

The Tree of Life spanned eons to capture the entirety of existence, and while the filmmaker works on a tighter four-year canvas this time around, the feeling that the stakes are nothing less than the soul of all humanity has persisted. This is art of salvation.

“Jeanne” is the passion project of a director who clearly fancies himself a humorist, yet the attempt translates unfavorably as pretentious self-indulgence.

Tolkien is an unfortunately typical biopic riddled with obvious influences and ham-fisted thematic hypocrisy, but it is effective in capturing the moral consequences key to the humanity of Tolkien’s masterpiece.

Full of astutely droll observations, Chokri’s script lends relatable credence to the film’s sharp situational comedy.

A beautiful, full-hearted celebration of the craft of filmmaking.

As typical as it may sound from the outside, tender and devastating in turn, “Sorry We Missed You” is essential viewing.

Careful and deliberate character work in the script paints a striking picture of two friends who are outcasts in their little world yet still find a way to integrate into a community.

For a romantic comedy, Photograph is a little light on romance or comedy, but it makes up for this in thoughtfulness and charm. Photograph is a wistful, old-fashioned romance for those struggling to move forward with one foot in the past.

Fletcher’s inventive reimagining of several musical numbers, in particular, blends striking visuals and affecting storytelling.

It bears the aesthetic and thematic hallmarks of an expertly rendered film with an impressively nuanced subjectivity.

There may not be a map for navigating this gonzo film, but nevertheless, Bacurau is a blood-soaked adventure worth seeking out.

Ash Mayfair’s debut film is an astonishing achievement for a first feature, one not every film-goer will be able to stomach, but a work every caring cinephile should see.

A sensitive, if occasionally orthodox, treatment of a compassionate friendship enacted in the face of societal apathy.

A hilarious and twisted festival amuse-bouche with tremendous cult appeal.

As a film, it shuffles around, shouting out the one thing it’s desperate for: ‘Purpose!’

Daniel tells Natasha of his elements for falling in love, “My ingredients are friendship, chemistry, the X factor,” and he assures her that they have that last one. But that’s what The Sun Is Also a Star lacks: that ineffable quality that makes it work. Though we spend nearly two hours in its presence, it never makes us fall in love with it, despite its best efforts.

Despite a tone that oscillates between quirkish and mawkish, it’s yet another warmed-over male midlife crisis movie, given supposedly higher stakes because the middle of life will be as far as this male will get.

While the overwrought dialogue does test attention spans, its prevailing message — humanity is malignant and inherently wicked— and the hint of something more cryptic makes Passon’s film beautifully disturbing.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is a sure-fire hit and continues the momentum set forth by the previous installments only to surpass them with explosive energy.

The Hustle is profoundly stupid and it treats its audience as though they’re even less intelligent than it is.

A thin but heartfelt piece of work ... But with Ferrara content to let his subject mostly drive the show and not impose more of an authorial vision and context that could have created a grander narrative about the history of moviegoing in New York, the passion is missing.

You absolutely want to hang out with these charming, amusing women off-screen, but the time spent with their on-screen counterparts isn’t nearly as fun as you’d hope.

The restraint with which Youmans characterizes is refreshing, but the performances can also feel diminished by inscrutable elements, whether that’s missing narrative context or simply parts of scenes that are simply hard to see or hear entirely. Still, Burning Cane would be an impressive debut at any age, showing a distinct style, a suggestive eye for setting and detail, and an admirable willingness to experiment.

Beyond the strength of the visuals, there’s promise in the young cast that you see glimpses of here. ... However, it’s never enough to make “Gully” worth watching. Its raw, gritty approach feels like an effort from the filmmakers, but it’s mostly work for the audience to endure.

A noir-ish melodrama so oversaturated with dourness that it borders on parody.

Equal parts choppy and charming, “See You Yesterday” has trouble balancing quirk and melodrama.

Despite its flaws, it goes down easy and guiltlessly, like cheap champagne.

Lyrical, emotional, and intuitive, but also meandering in its ephemeral flitting from reality to the imaginary world.

There aren’t enough synonyms for the word courage to do Sasha Neulinger’s story real justice. Rewind, is simply an astounding movie and a milestone in psychiatrically minded filmmaking.

And while it’s a difficult sit sometimes, “17 Blocks” is essential viewing for anyone interested in how the confluence of race and class have codified into a sort of informal caste for an entire subsection of America’s citizenry.

Thankfully, ‘Recorder’ salvages its lack of narrative control with enough emotional weight to earn its memorability.

A staggering accomplishment in its storytelling, visuals, and performance.

[A] bland, sometimes dull film ... Those unfamiliar with the history of the Manson Family murders won’t gain any real understanding of the crimes or the character of those who committed them, while those who know the details won’t get any new insights into it either.

Detective Pikachu is a fun, occasionally-funny, and almost always-beautiful to look at kids adventure film that doesn’t insult the intelligence of its audience and offers them great, positive lessons that are earned.

The Intruder is a blunt but effective instrument. This thriller lacks subtlety and craft, but it succeeds at what it’s intending to do: keep the audience stress-eating popcorn for 100 minutes and leave entirely satisfied with the experience they just had. It’s not a good movie, but boy, is it fun.

Gentle but sharply observed, Good Posture is an uncommon cinematic look at an intergenerational female relationship.

Come To Daddy is definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. ... Provocative and ballsy ... [the film] doesn’t give a shit if you like it and perhaps even dares some audiences to sit through it unfettered. Ultimately, it knows that those who stay are on its weirdo wavelength and are in for something insanely entertaining.

All thanks to Herzog’s keen eye at having a continuous fluid flow to the story and his subject’s willingness to lay bare in front of an audience, this is one of the most important documentaries of the year because it still feels fresh and relevant to our times.

It falls flat. There are a variety of reasons — one-note characters, an overly-familiar story arc, a laughable sequence of bee heroism (!). (Alternate title idea: “Secrets and Hives.”) Still, there is the work of Grainger and Paquin.... They make Tell It to the Bees watchable, and are worthy of high praise.

This is a filmmaker in total command of every visual element — his compositions more compelling than ever, the production design almost verging on steampunk, and a special mention has to go to the extraordinary costumes — but it doesn’t feel stifling or precious either.

And to say that directors Joe and Anthony Russo fulfilled the promise set by last year’s blockbuster, and the 22-film MCU story arc, is a gross understatement. The directing duo has really outdone themselves with this one. It’s just that outdoing themselves comes with some consequences.

Save for an overdependence on neon lighting, a general misunderstanding of how entertainment journalism works, and perhaps more alcohol consumption than is responsible for a film sure to be watched by teen girls and young women, Someone Great is a heartfelt and hilarious first feature with ample female talent.

What the doc proves is that a talented filmmaker, combined with a thought-provoking subject and intensely fascinating characters can truly make some fun black magick pop off the screen.

Midnight Traveler is a brutally honest film about the hardship and inhumanity a family endures and their bravery, love, hope, and, above all else, desire to control their own fate.

There should be more films like Fast Color. Movies that demonstrate that you don’t need a giant budget or decades of established IP to do superhero or sci-fi well on the big screen.

Unfortunately, the peripheral factors worth championing are not enough to save the film from being a routine slasher, with an unremarkable mystery at the center, that puts its prescient anti-bullying message first and genre second, making Thriller feel a bit like a chore.

You might not feel the need to attend church this Sunday after the credits roll, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself praying for your time back.

Wild Nights with Emily feels at once revelatory and a total delight, a surprise for both for literature geeks and those who didn’t do their required reading in school.

In the end, Hellboy is a juvenile delinquent you want to slap and a colossal mess that damages the brand, the character and probably breaks the heart of its more well-intentioned cinematic forbearers.

Little is a blast, but it’s a shame that it’s not a better movie.

The Best of Enemies has good intentions, and some potent things to say, but its novice direction and limited perspective fail it from becoming anything other than this season’s Green Book.

It’s the kind of movie you sit on, but then can’t wait to revisit. Suburban Birds is a rewarding and revelatory first feature from a fresh artistic voice.

Farrands proves he’s no Tobe Hooper, but he might not even be Tom Six. What he ultimately crafts is a terribly foolish movie featuring wooden acting, a disgusting premise, and none of the redeeming qualities that even the most repellant exploitation schlock film might offer. Stay away at all costs.

Amazing Grace is a showcase of one of America’s greatest talents and a rush of pure spiritual uplift. There are only so many ways to praise Franklin’s voice and they all fall short – just go and hear it for yourself.

The film is not meaningless, or even trifling, but, Stockholm never rises above mediocre, and that is what hurts the most.

Even though The Public ultimately doesn’t come together as a dramatic piece, particularly in the hammy climax, it does take some impressive chances. Just making a story about the invisible homeless is a brave move to start—audiences tend not to like stories about intractable issues, after all.

Missing Link is a fun, if uneventful and uninspired, trip, but at least it won’t annoy the parents who are along for its fast-paced ride.

There is an unassuming languidness to Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s anthropologic documentary about a rural Macedonian beekeeper, “Honeyland.” It’s a quiet and passive film that’s content to luxuriate in place and revel in solitude, which, in turn, both drags the narrative’s loose pacing and instills a certain natural structure that, once embraced, becomes almost mesmerizing.

A magnificent, tight exploration of romance and what it means to walk that path wearing blinders. Most people have done this at one point or another, and Silver’s triumph is that he’s crafted a film that puts his audience both inside of this, but also at a distance where it can be appreciated.

Phantom Cowboys is a stylish treat for viewers who enjoy meditative cinema. As an enrapturing stroll down the dusty backroad pathways and flame-covered grassland that comprise a country, the documentary manages to offer an invigorating perspective on the United States by exploring the day-to-day lives of the unseen.

Shazam! is carried aloft by an exuberant performance by Zachary Levi as the title character, all muscles and wide-eyed naïveté.

Beyond Dumbo’s cuteness (which was so overwhelming that I now want a baby elephant for a pet, which is surely not the point of the film) and Keaton’s perfectly over-the-top performance, there’s little to latch on to in this Disney film. It throws so much at the audience that nothing really sticks, leaving such a small impression for such a big movie.

The award-winning filmmaker is a one-woman crew on the project, and Klayman’s tenacious fly on the wall, verité approach illuminates the cynical limitations of Bannon’s cruel human worldview through day-to-day contradictions, far more than an interview-style documentary where such a figure is given a platform to talk in circles ever possibly could.

Above all, Tigerland pays respects to that awe-inspiring creature at its core.

Sober, unflinching and fits perfectly with the current political movements such as #MeToo and #TimesUp.

Cousins’ new doc will undoubtedly be essential viewing for a sea of cinephiles, but it might not easily capture the attention of audiences less familiar with Welles’ legacy.

As a simultaneous introduction and farewell, An Elephant Sitting Still might be one of the best movies that you will only watch once, but won’t ever completely leave your mind.

The Dirt is ultimately supposed to be an unapologetic tribute to living the fast life, but in the end, it’s just painfully dated and pointless with zero depth or insights.

It’s always dangerous to wonder about what a film might have been rather than contending with what it is, but in this case what it is, is so bland, and so stolidly workmanlike in execution that even the most dedicated viewer might find her attention sliding off DP Zac Nicholson‘s ration-book-colored images and wandering to the what-ifs.

It’s not a bad film, by any means, as there are definitely worse action movies to spend 90 minutes with. Yet, there are so many other, better, martial art films out there, with many including at least one actor from this film.

Villains is wacky off the walls fun and it constructs a solid sandbox for its actors to play in and deliver four colorfully captivating performances about the shades and degrees of human wickedness.

With a popular subject, and some downright corny visual devices, The Inventor doesn’t knock it out of the park as neatly as some of Gibney’s other works. Still, it’s a worthwhile and damn entertaining addition to the developing Elizabeth Holmes canon that makes up for its flaws with undeniable watchability.

While Lagoze’s film may not offer any genuinely new insights, it is an unsettling opportunity to bear witness to the numbing chaos of war.

For as impressive and smart as the film is throughout, the weightlessness to the drama keeps it just out of arm’s reach of films that masterfully examine loss like “The Changeling,” but the craft at least firmly plants it in the upper-tier of contemporary horror remakes.

It’s technically impressive and faulty in equal measure, expunging most of the substance in favor of occasionally effective, but mostly cheap, scares.

Oscillating between traditional documentary and experimental, subjective attempts to capture what it’s like to be impaired, Evans creates a moderately successful portrait of, what the film references as, the space between seeing and not.

"Well Groomed" is not revolutionary cinema by any means, but it certainly is enjoyable; and sometimes, an adorable documentary about competitive creative dog grooming is exactly what you need.

The story as a whole, doesn’t quite click.

Elba’s debut doesn’t belong to the upper echelon of films from well-known actors stepping behind the camera – it holds your attention, but it’s never as gripping as the material should be.

Though “Pink Wall” rarely breaks new ground in its focus on the evolution of a couple’s relationship, Cullen’s truly raw, intimate approach helps it feel fresher than it might have otherwise.

What keeps the film mostly on track is its proudly confrontational nature, quick-witted dialogue, and performances to match. But it’s a dark, sobering film too—the corruption, dishonesty and immoral law enforcement practices employed to screw over expendable brown and black people is depressingly distressing and it’s here where “The Day Shall Come” has trouble sealing the deal on its uncomfortable remit of awkward laughs and somber realities.

“Boyz in the Wood” is a jolt of irreverent fun that wants you to laugh at the stupid and depraved behavior of teenage boys but also to know that at the end of the day, the kids will be all right.

On paper, Five Feet Apart has all of the components to fit squarely into the sub-genre of films that have come before it. In execution, the teen romance never packs the emotional wallop it so obviously, self-satisfyingly, believes it does.

A halfway interesting story with a few too many ideas and a lack of tonal cohesion.