Flaws and all, Cold Pursuit is a gleefully violent good time. Moland’s movie is silly but sharp, with barbs drawing blood despite a story that we’ve seen before.

For every scene that doesn’t work there is another that’s spellbinding. It’s gutsy and provocative and, frankly, that’s a compliment you can’t give many independent films these days.

If the performances were as wooden as the plot, “Imaginary Order” would be unwatchable ... Instead, McLendon-Covey’s lead turn and some savvy supporting performances (most notably Kate Alberts as her daughter) keep things compelling for the film’s overstretched 100-minute run time.

A somewhat cool robot does not make a movie. ... The eventual twists aren’t that surprising and don’t really make sense in the context of even the film’s most basic world building.

A film that features a few fantastic comedic highlights unfortunately weighed down by a misfired performance from its lead actress. The result is an occasionally funny, inventive, but inconsequential, feature.

An uncommonly knotty and fiercely intelligent story of assault and blame in the social media age.

Ultimately, it’s hard to figure out exactly what movie Anvari was trying to make.

Survived pain arises as both a vehicle for growth and catalyst for the revaluation of one’s impetus in Joanna Hogg’s introspectively awe-inspiring stroke of virtuosity The Souvenir.

There is drama in the source material for sure, but maybe a little more style could have helped elevate this moment in history for the masses.

Paddleton is so busy not doing much, it blindsides you with its honestly-earned emotions.

Though Monos feels very contemporary aesthetically, its subjects are timeless: the malleability of group dynamics and how subtle changes can lead to either violence or harmony. It’s a philosophical film with very few words, examining its ideas through powerful images and feelings.

A thrilling, subjective, portrait of one family’s attempts to navigate the corrupt economy of emergency health care while, also, providing much-needed services for a city desperately in need of EMTs.

Light from Light is a quiet and modest film with big subjects on its mind and it will reward those viewers with the patience to listen to the faint wavelengths at the end of the dial.

The combination of Thompson’s sharp delivery and Kaling’s commercially friendly script make the film’s charms hard to resist.

The film team is so strong and the direction so fine that it’s simply hard to believe this is actually Talbot’s first full-length feature film. And to detail much more would spoil the genuine surprise of their many on-screen artistic contributions.

Honey Boy may center on the impressive portrayals of three talented actors, but it’s the woman behind the camera that makes it soar. You simply can’t wait to see what she does next.

[Nyong’o is] so good, in fact, that the pleasure of her performance makes “Little Monsters” worth seeing. But just barely.

Hala is keenly observed and quietly powerful, and we’ll be hearing much more from the talented women on either side of its lens.

Appropriately frosty and aloof, The Lodge is a meditative plumbing of the darkest parts of the human psyche, our vulnerabilities, and self-doubts and it’s these personal fears that resonate loudly.

It’s Wang’s singular gift for life’s simplest moments which makes The Farewell ring so truthfully bare, funny and emotional.

A superficial tale about the casualty at the center of the story, Extremely Wicked, rings hollow and false and is really just as interested in the sensational and salacious as any other reductive thriller.

The drama engages with the ever-present theological question of how the faithful endure the silence of God during times of great suffering. But it also ponders the extremes the devout will go not only to receive an answer from on high, but proselytize in His name.

There are no dull moments in this ridiculously brutal, often severely dumb, but enjoyable, film

Alfre Woodard may have graced us with the performance of her career.

The initial inspiration was clearly there, but the execution simply falls short.

Miss Bala fails both when judged on its own merits and when compared to its predecessor. Just like Gloria in the film itself, Rodriguez is the only hero here. She works hard to elevate the material, but both she and her character deserve so much better than this.

Where it surprises is in Bell’s fantastic performance and the fact it eventually stops becoming a laugh out loud comedy. It soon dives into much more of a heartwarming drama with a few random jokes thrown in.

The director resists the urge to make the family too heroic – in fact, his own character takes an unsympathetic turn near the end, which must’ve been a tough call. But it matters, because it renders his deeply-felt joy and pride at the picture’s conclusion all the more potent.