The Old Way takes on a classic Western storyline in which a formerly ruthless gunslinger (Nicolas Cage) is forced to return to the brutal violence of his past years after his nature was tamed by the love of a good woman (Kerry Knuppe). Though it is not the same level of masterpiece as Unforgiven or even the more recent Old Henry, The Old Way is still a compelling film that is well-made, despite its obvious budget limitations, and well-performed by an exceptionally talented cast.

Cage plays Colton Briggs, a highly stoic and mild-mannered shopkeeper who obviously (though quietly) holds a great deal of affection for his good-natured wife but keeps his equally stoic and precocious pre-teen daughter (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) at arm’s length. Briggs’ world is soon shattered when his past, in the form of a gang of gunslingers (which includes Clint Howard and Abraham Benrubi) led by the son (Noah Le Gros) of a man Briggs murdered years prior, comes back to haunt him. After the gang brutally murders his wife, Briggs seeks vengeance against those seeking vengeance against him and begins tracking them through the frontier of the Old West. He is begrudgingly forced to take his daughter along for the ride, teaching her the unwritten laws of the land as they go.

Though it contains a few finely executed shoot-outs, The Old Way refreshingly avoids being an outright action film and instead focuses on the development of its characters and their relationships, namely the one between Briggs and his daughter. The film exists more to showcase excellent and in-depth performances than it does to contain stand-offs and gunfights that have already before been executed countless times in countless ways.

Cage and Armstrong have a wonderfully effortless and life-like chemistry, with each of them portraying their emotionally closed-off characters with honesty and humor. Their moments together are the true highlights of the film. In particular, the scene when Briggs teaches his daughter how to shoot a gun gets to the root of each character and their difficult relationship in a complex yet funny fashion.

Cage portrays Briggs with subtlety and stillness, never once relying on his trademark boldness or exuberant theatricality. It’s impressive and exciting to see him continue to challenge himself and push himself to new limits, even in the later stage of his career. Armstrong is downright excellent, portraying her character’s emotionally complicated arc with the grace of a seasoned professional. It’s one of the best, wisest, and most adult-like child performances since Julia Butters’ outstanding work in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Unfortunately, screenwriter Carl W. Lucas’ supporting characters are not nearly as interesting or developed as the film’s main characters. Noah Le Gros, a fine young actor who previously worked with Cage in the underrated A Score to Settle, does the best he can with the material he is given as the film’s primary antagonist. The under-written and underdeveloped role, however, should have been as complex and as rich as the protagonists. Instead, Le Gros is more of a black-and-white villain that conveys little-to-no interior conflict or ambiguity. As a result, scenes centering on his character fall into Western clichés and don’t properly blend with the more developed and mature scenes that center on Cage and Armstrong’s characters. It’s quite obvious while watching the film that Briggs and his daughter are the characters who most captured Lucas’ interest and affection while he was writing it.

Director Brett Donowho and his behind-the-scenes collaborators accomplish quite a lot with their limited resources. The Old Way is classically executed, devoid of show-off camera moves and angles and flashy editing techniques, and utilizes an overall unobtrusive style that allows the story, characters, and performances to be the main priority. Cinematographer Sion Michel captures the frontier scenery quite beautifully but never allows it to take precedence over what is happening within it. Editor Frederick Wardell maintains a smooth and steady pace throughout the film’s rather short 95-minute runtime. The many character-driven moments never weigh down The Old Way’s momentum, and the intermittent quick bursts of violence are that much more effective because they complement the otherwise even pacing so well.

The Old Way is an overall solid effort with strong performances and exemplary low-budget filmmaking. Though its screenplay is a tad inconsistent and derivative, it still contains some fascinating characters and wonderfully thoughtful themes. The film could have been a masterpiece with a little more pre-production finessing and a slightly higher budget but, as it is, it still manages to be a rather impressive accomplishment.

GRADE B+

65

An astronaut (Adam Driver) and a teenage girl (Ariana Greenblatt) are the only survivors of a crash landing on a planet filled with dangerous prehistoric creatures. The film is consistently exciting and engaging, and is filled with a number of great jump scares, moments of tension, and impressive visual effects. Though logic is a bit glazed over throughout, it’s usually hard to care because 65 does such a great job of putting you right in the middle of its action and making you forget about pretty much everything else for the majority of its brief ninety-minute duration.

GRADE: B+

Air

Set in 1984, this nostalgia-laden film tells the fact-based story about the business practices and struggle involved with the genesis of Nike’s Air Jordan tennis shoe. At first glance, the story doesn’t exactly seem like a fascinating one that urgently needs to be told. That being taken into account, it’s all the more impressive how entertaining, engrossing, and moving the final product actually is.

Featuring profound and funny writing by Alex Convery, impressively sturdy filmmaking by director Ben Affleck and his behind-the-scenes team, and flawless performances by Matt Damon, Affleck, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Chris Messina, and Chris Tucker, the film boasts all-around impressive craftsmanship. Air is a surprisingly great film about perseverance, determination, and hope. It is a much-needed feel-good film executed with intelligence, care, and extraordinarily sincere heart.

GRADE: A

Albert Brooks: Defending Life

This documentary on comedian/actor/writer/director Albert Brooks is a lively, hilarious, and heartfelt historical examination of not only his life and career, but also of comedy in general. Centered on an intimate conversation between Brooks and lifelong friend Rob Reiner (who also directed), the film is littered with clips from Brooks’ television appearances and films and also features interviews with well-known comedians, actors, and filmmakers who cite Brooks as a major influence. Albert Brooks: Defending My Life is a warranted and joyous celebration of a one-of-a-kind comedic genius whose outstanding and brilliant body of work has yet to be appreciated by mainstream audiences the way in which it deserves.

GRADE: A

All of Us Strangers

A lonely, gay screenwriter (Andrew Scott) starts to inexplicably communicate with his deceased parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) while starting a relationship with an exciting and mysterious man (Paul Mescal) who lives in his building. Ethereally and surreally beautiful, precisely photographed, and exceptionally performed, this thoughtfully profound film opens many wonderful doors leading to many complex ideas that require deep contemplation.

The effectively moody film’s overall point is hard to digest in one sitting and with only one viewing, but the experience is still full and unique. The staggering quality of its execution, the grandness of its themes, and the powerful emotions it begets enable All of Strangers to rise above its minor faults and difficult opaqueness to be a fascinating experiment that almost entirely pays off.

GRADE: A-

American Fiction

A Black writer (Jeffrey Wright) writes a stereotype-laden book out of spite and, to his absolute horror, sees it become a smash success. The satire is sharp, the laughter is consistent, the characters are all believably human, and the story’s overall point of Black artists having to appease simplistic and ignorant white viewpoints is clearly and intelligently communicated. Unfortunately, the film falters with its sometimes sluggish pacing (it could have been fifteen minutes shorter) and its inability to end correctly or satisfactorily.

Faults aside, however, American Fiction is a must-see for those who want their beliefs intelligently tested and their mind thoughtfully provoked.

GRADE: B+

Anatomy of a Fall

A successful novelist (Sandra Hüller) is accused of murdering her husband (Samuel Theis) and her visually impaired son (Milo Machado-Graner) is the main witness. Beautifully acted and exceptionally realized by its entire filmmaking team, this character-based mystery is an overall compelling film-watching experience. Unfortunately, its pacing drags more and more as it progresses and, most frustrating of all, it winds up disappointing heavily by favoring indecisive ambiguity over a satisfying dramatic resolution.

Anatomy of a Fall is an exceptionally crafted film that showcases many merits and moments of undeniable quality, but its notable faults keep it from being truly memorable and fantastic.

GRADE: B

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

This third entry in the MCU’s Ant-Man series is an overall passable, entertaining, and endearing film that manages to primarily stand on its own without relying too heavily on the many MCU entries that preceded it. That being said, the film’s pacing is sometimes haphazard, its storyline is far too cluttered, and its two-hour-plus runtime is at least fifteen minutes too long. Though it contains some cool visual effects and inventive designs, has select moments of heart and humor, and, at least, tries to do something different from the previous two entries in the series, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania can’t fully overcome its inherently bloated and rough nature.

GRADE: B-

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

This last entry in the DCEU before James Gunn’s DCU officially begins is an overall fun though mildly underwhelming piece of work. It has a cluttered and generic plot, underutilized and underdeveloped supporting characters, and it doesn’t have anything particularly groundbreaking to offer the superhero genre.

That being said, the beautiful visuals, well-choreographed action sequences, tight pacing, and lead Jason Momoa’s natural charisma all work together to create an overall entertaining couple of hours. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom isn’t quite the grand and awe-inducing sendoff that the DCEU needs and deserves, but it still manages to pass and do just fine, regardless.

GRADE: B

Asteroid City

The films of Wes Anderson all belong in their own individual genre. They are similar to one another but unlike anything else. They all feature an overall unemotional execution, an individualistically quirky tone, obsessive attention to detail, clean and precise cinematography, theatrically stylized staging, dry humor, absurdist wit, and deadpan performances from an all-star cast. His films are as easily identifiable as those of any all-star auteur, and they all have the connective thread of being the product of Anderson’s unparalleled sensibilities.

Asteroid City contains all these qualities but it is, unfortunately, not one of Anderson’s best or most accessible works. The characters lack clear definition, the play-within-a-film storyline about a small town’s reaction to an alien encounter is meandering and sporadically dull, and any discernible overall point is primarily lost and/or uncommunicated. There are moments of exception, but the frustratingly uneven film simply doesn’t demand its audience’s attention or focus with any consistency. Though it has plenty of charm and style, Asteroid City simply doesn’t live up to the potential of its creator’s exceptional talents.

GRADE: C+

Barbie

For a big-budget studio production that is largely geared toward children and teenagers, this film is a surprisingly intelligent, edgy, and profound piece of satire on gender politics. Compared to adult-oriented productions with similar themes, however, it’s a tad obvious. With pacing that sometimes drags (it could have been a good fifteen minutes shorter) and an affinity for overly silly humor that only works as often as it doesn’t, the movie sometimes falls flat. Its excessively talented co-writer and director, Greta Gerwig, could have made a smarter movie, but, in all fairness, most likely not without losing some of its commercial appeal. As it stands, Barbie is an entertaining and thoughtful work whose criticisms of modern misogyny and whose message of female empowerment can be easily understood by mass audiences—and this is nothing short of a good thing any way you cut it.

Margot Robbie injects humanity and humor into her role as the titular plastic character, and Ryan Gosling is simply priceless as her airheaded and hopelessly needy suitor, Ken.

GRADE: B+

BlackBerry

This fast-paced, lively, funny, and heartbreaking depiction of the rise and fall of the BlackBerry phone (and, not to mention, the beginning of smartphones) is an overall standout film. It may belong to a group of like-minded, fact-based titles that depict cutthroat, high-stakes business practices associated with the national breakthrough of popular and influential products (The Founder, Air, Pain Hustlers), but that doesn’t steal too heavily from its overall thunderous impact.

The depiction of the eventual downfall of the BlackBerry isn’t quite as fascinating, exciting, or developed as the rise. The film’s energy dips like a sugar crash in its last act, but it still manages to have a satisfying and informative conclusion that meets the promise and strength of its beginning. Jay Baruchel, co-writer/director Matt Johnson, and Glenn Howerton all deliver knockout performances that do justice to BlackBerry’s intelligent and insightful intentions.

GRADE: A-

Blue Beetle

Though it features the members of a lovable and vivacious Mexican-American family as its central protagonists, there is nothing else that is particularly memorable or unique about this DCEU superhero effort. The action is forgettable, the story is flat, and the visual effects are completely uninspired. Aside from containing some quality characters and performances, Blue Beetle has nothing new to offer its genre and is an unfortunate example of how current-day comic book movies are significantly running out of steam.

GRADE: C

The Boogeyman

This slow-burning, character-driven horror film is based on an early Stephen King short story and it shows. It features the author’s love of depicting true-to-life relationships within damaged families and combining it with creepy-crawly supernatural horror elements that endlessly shock, frighten, and entertain. Though its pacing is sometimes sluggish and it doesn’t offer anything particularly new to its genre, The Boogeyman is still a well-acted, well-crafted, and memorable effort that offers some keen insight into the human condition while also delivering some solid and effective scares along the way.

GRADE: B

Boston Strangler

Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon deliver committed, focused, and grounded performances as Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole, two real-life reporters who tackled the Boston Strangler case in the early 1960s. The film, which is a fascinating history lesson that depicts the difficulties women faced (and continue to face) while trying to find equal opportunities in male-dominated workforces, is engaging more on an intellectual level than it is on an emotional one. Boston Strangler is consistently interesting but often forgets to pack dramatic power, resulting in a well-made film that thoughtfully examines some important issues and topics but isn’t exactly thrilling to watch.

GRADE: B

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

Though the irreplaceable directorial touches of Nick Park and Peter Lord and the vocal talents of Mel Gibson and Julia Sawalha are sorely missed in this sequel to 2000’s Chicken Run, it’s still a movie with a good deal to offer. The family-friendly satire is intelligent, the story is clever, the stop-motion animation is beautiful, and the character and set designs showcase endless skill and ingenuity.

The absurd humor is more modestly amusing than it usually is laugh-out-loud funny, and it takes some time before the story becomes engrossing enough to demand full attention. Forgivable faults aside, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is still a highly creative and entertaining movie that will delight audiences of just about any age.

GRADE: B+

Cocaine Bear

Inspired by true events, this film follows the murderous rampage of a mammoth black bear after it ingests an absurd amount of a drug dealer’s lost cocaine. The premise has the potential to be a campy good time, but Cocaine Bear is, unfortunately, a disappointing horror/comedy that is neither scary nor funny. Its forced and overbearingly quirky tone unintentionally softens moments meant to be terrifying, suspenseful, and thrilling.

Despite an exceptionally talented cast (Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Isiah Whitlock Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Ray Liotta, Margo Martindale) and some sporadic moments of innovation by director Elizabeth Banks and her filmmaking team, the film fails to make its true nature and intentions clear. It mostly succeeds at being a befuddling mixture of conflicting tones that overshadow most of its strongest and most noteworthy aspects.

GRADE: C-

Copenhagen Cowboy

Creator/director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Too Old to Die Young) delivers another surreal and dreamy crime drama that is executed with stylistic innovation and is primarily bathed in blue/red/magenta lighting. Unfortunately, Refn’s signature style and visuals are about all this six-part miniseries has going for it. With Copenhagen Cowboy, the filmmaker has crawled so far up his own ass that it’s hard to decipher what the hell is going on for the vast majority of its duration.

Character definitions and relationships are sloppily underdeveloped, the storyline is intentionally and pretentiously vague, and the pacing moves slower than a sickly snail moving uphill. It’s hard to believe that a filmmaker as great and as unique as Refn could create such a massive misfire, but the evidence is there for over five hours of this overall failed, painfully boring, and maddeningly unclear filmmaking venture.

GRADE: D+

The Covenant

Set during the Afghanistan war, this film centers on a sergeant (Jake Gyllenhaal) and an interpreter (Dar Salim) who are forced to survive hostile enemy territory and make their way to safety alone. Co-writer/director Guy Ritchie finally completely ditches his signature kinetic style and overtly obnoxious bravado for something more grounded and maturely inconspicuous. The Covenant is an intense and dramatically engaging film that is executed with care, realism, and sincerity. It isn’t anything we haven’t seen before and it starts to overstay its welcome towards the end, but the film is made so well that it’s easy to forgive its faults. Gyllenhaal and Salim both excel in their roles, delivering fiercely committed performances that only add to the movie’s impressive believability.

GRADE: B+

The Creator

During a futuristic war between mankind and artificial intelligence, a human solider (John David Washington) befriends an android in the form of a child (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) that is the enemy’s most powerful asset, forcing him to question his beliefs and duties. Great and topical ideas, wonderful performances, and downright poetic moments make the movie notably stand out from other science fiction/action titles with similar themes and storylines.

Unfortunately, the emotions don’t quite soar the way they’re obviously intended to in key dramatic moments, the action sometimes lacks thrills and suspense, primary themes aren’t fully explored or properly developed, and the movie increasingly has trouble bouncing back from its consistently uneven pacing. Due to these faults, The Creator has to settle on being a pretty good movie instead of the great one its potential often suggests it could be.

GRADE: B-

Dream Scenario

Nicolas Cage excels as a college professor who becomes a worldwide celebrity after he inexplicably starts appearing in countless peoples’ dreams. Innovative, absurdly hilarious, and often surreally fascinating, the film is an overall Charlie Kaufman-esque success. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite know how to wrap itself up, as the last act somewhat mars the movie by presenting ideas that are too concrete and specific for a premise that would have been better left mysteriously and tantalizingly abstract.

Dream Scenario falls short of its potential to be great, but it still manages to be a compelling, amusing, and unique take on modern-day celebrity and the backlash that eventually and inevitably comes with it.

GRADE: B+

Dumb Money

Based on a true story that took place in the early 2020s, this film stars the limitless Paul Dano as an internet personality who becomes a stock market sensation. Director Craig Gillespie admirably tones down the kinetically lively style and sarcastic tone that dominates much of his recent work in favor of an even pace and a mature and observational execution.

Unfortunately, a story about the rise and fall of stocks isn’t exactly riveting, and it doesn’t help matters that high-stakes drama is lacking due to unempathetic characters who don’t start to feel satisfyingly developed until the movie’s end. However, solid filmmaking, the successful communication of facts about Wall Street, and excellent performances from Dano, Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, and Shailene Woodley (among others) help to make Dumb Money an interesting and modestly entertaining movie–though it’s a bit far off from being a great one.

GRADE: B

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Select moments of well-timed and quirky humor, well-staged action sequences, and the movie star charms of Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant can’t quite make this adaptation of the ever-popular role-playing game something that is truly worth seeing. The story is nonsensical and cluttered, characters and their relationships are thinly developed, and the rather shoddy (though occasionally inventive) digital effects are often unbelievable. There are a few entertainingly noteworthy aspects to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, but none of them can fully save the film from being a hopelessly average effort.

GRADE: C

The Equalizer 3

Star Denzel Washington, director Antoine Fuqua, and screenwriter Richard Wenk return for another graphic, brutal, and entertaining entry in their action/thriller series based on the popular eighties television series. The story takes itself a tad too seriously and is a bit too involved to be enjoyable on a purely escapist level, and the action is often too stylized and postured to truly feel real.  As a result, the film struggles to fully and solidly exhibit a single and dominant tone. However, Washington’s endless icy charisma and Fuqua’s bold directorial flourishes, however distracting they can be at times, make The Equalizer 3 an overall worthwhile effort.

GRADE: B-

Evil Dead Rise

After an initial horror/comedy trilogy that was masterfully directed by Sam Rami, a straightforward horror reboot that was skillfully directed by Fede Alvarez, and a playfully gruesome three-season television series, it’s hard not to walk into a new Evil Dead movie without some serious expectations. Unfortunately, those expectations are not met with this flat, dull, and uninspired entry into the series. The film lacks the darkly humorous personality, twisted ingenuity, and demented charm of its predecessors. It relies far too heavily on cheap gross-out scares that increasingly lose their effect as the film progresses. Evil Dead Rise is a typical and generic horror effort that offers absolutely nothing new to its genre or its otherwise exceptional universe.

GRADE: D+

Expend4bles

This fourth entry in the Expendables franchise lacks the macho charm, personality, and humor of its predecessors. Though it has its rare moments of quality, it is overall marred by a lack of ingenuity, a dull execution, poor writing (particularly for Megan Fox’s newly added character), and distractingly bad digital effects. Expend4bles is a disappointing, stale, and tired ride that forgets what made the previous films in its series so completely and brainlessly fun.

GRADE: D+

Extraction 2

Chris Hemsworth returns as Tyler Rake, a highly skilled mercenary who is also apparently immortal, in this sequel that heavily and surprisingly improves upon its original. Most of the characters and pretty much all of the story aren’t particularly interesting, but that hardly matters because the true point of the move is its action sequences, and they are exceedingly and captivatingly well-done. The frequent use of extremely long takes lets the action unfold naturalistically onscreen in a way that makes their skillful choreography and impressive stunt work stand out. Extraction 2 may not be the most unique movie, but its skilled, ambitious, and lively execution makes it a thrilling and memorable experience, regardless.

GRADE: B+

The Family Plan

While this film may owe a substantial debt to True Lies, it still has just enough energy and personality to stand on its own. Mark Wahlberg stars as a former assassin whose incognito life as a suburban husband and father is disrupted after his cover is blown on social media. Though it can be a tad cutesy and a bit too self-aware of its own cleverness at times, The Family Plan is still an overall endearing and entertaining effort that mindlessly and breezily gets the job done.

GRADE: B-

Fast X

This tenth installment in The Fast and the Furious series is every bit as joyously ridiculous, unrelentingly kinetic, and purely entertaining as its predecessors. Featuring a plethora of tough guys and girls, fast cars, big guns, extraordinary explosions, gravity-defying stunts, and plot twists that stretch all forms of believability, Fast X is great fun if you just remember to check your brain at the door. Jason Momoa steals the show as the film’s primary villain, exhibiting a bold and theatrical exuberance that would make Nicolas Cage proud.

GRADE: B

Ferrari

Directed by Michael Mann, this biopic centers on Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) and his entry in the 1957 Mille Miglia race in Italy. The film will probably be fascinating to car lovers/race enthusiasts, but, for everyone else, it’s an overall tedious chore through which to sit. It takes too long to get moving, its characters are only sporadically interesting or relatable, and it lacks any form of dramatic urgency or tension until its final moments.

On the positive side and like all Mann-directed films, the filmmaking is top-notch and refined. Also, the performances are all dedicated and believable, particularly Driver’s. On the surface, the film appears to be bursting with quality. Ferrari’s failure to dramatically engage its audience for the majority of its duration, however, keeps it from being a filmgoing experience that is worth having.

GRADE: C

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Despite a clever and potentially fun premise involving lethal animatronic characters residing at a family-themed pizzeria, this disappointing film can’t help but be a tedious chore through which to sit. Unnecessary subplots interfere with the pacing, lifeless characters (despite being portrayed by talented actors) fail to provide the audience with anyone to care about or identify with, and the core action of the story takes far too long to begin. Based on the popular video game, Five Nights at Freddy’s may appeal to fans familiar with its source material, but will most likely be an excruciatingly dull experience for just about everyone else.

GRADE: D+

Genie

Melissa McCarthy again proves in this family-friendly Christmastime movie that she is every bit as lively, affable, and entertaining doing clean comedy as she is doing the edgier, raunchier, and adult-oriented type of comedy that launched her career. McCarthy plays a genie who attempts to help a workaholic man (Paapa Essiedu) get his estranged family back in time for the holidays. Though the film is fairly formulaic and predictable, it’s still a well-made, well-acted, and entirely entertaining piece of work. Genie is a nice, heartwarming, and adorable film that is guaranteed to bring you some good, old-fashioned holiday cheer.

GRADE: B+

Gran Turismo

A gamer (Archie Madekwe) who devotes all his time to playing the Gran Turismo car racing video game is presented with the opportunity to race in reality. Based on a true story, this formulaic and feel-good movie hits many familiar notes, but it does so with enormous heart and charm. Director Neill Blomkamp and his team of filmmakers execute Gran Turismo with endless ingenuity and impressive skill. The resulting film hits all the right notes and often makes you forget how predictable its story is. David Harbour delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as a tough-as-nails racing coach with a hidden (though unsurprising) heart of gold.

GRADE: B+

Godzilla Minus One

This movie is proof that if you want a Godzilla movie done right, you have to go to Japan, its country of origin. Not only is it a great, suspenseful monster movie with endlessly impressive effects, but it’s also a beautiful and surprisingly poetic metaphor about the tragedy, destruction, and consequences of war. Godzilla Minus One is an emotional and thrilling ride that thrives due to an intelligent and sensitive execution and overall flawless craftsmanship.

GRADE: A

A Haunting in Venice

Kenneth Branagh returns as both director and star with his third depiction of Agatha Christie’s classic detective character, Poirot. The delightful and alluring film is finely crafted, well-acted, and evenly paced. Though it occasionally lacks dramatic urgency and power in select scenes, the film never ceases to quickly recover and envelop the audience in its enticing murder mystery storyline. Minor faults aside, A Haunting in Venice is an overall intelligent and mesmerizing piece of escapist entertainment.

GRADE: B+

Heart of Stone

This Mission Impossible-esque actioner starring Gal Gadot goes through some pretty familiar motions, but is still well-executed enough to be moderately worthwhile. Involving action, impressive stunts, capable filmmaking, and sturdy performances make the film rise above its generic and derivative design. Heart of Stone isn’t anything new, though it does provide enough thrills and spectacle for an entertaining couple of hours.

GRADE: B-

The Holdovers

Paul Giamatti simply shines as a strict prep school teacher in 1970 who is forced to watch over the students who were unable to go home over Christmas break. The film is plenty charming and moving, though it does drag, overstay its welcome, and run out of steam towards the end. However, The Holdovers is still a solidly made, intelligent, and endearingly humorous character study. It just forgets to consistently keep a tight pace and sometimes loses its audience’s interest and focus as a result.

GRADE: B

Infinity Pool

While on vacation on a foreign island, a young married couple (Alexander Skarsgard and Cleopatra Coleman) joins up with up another couple (Adam Boncz and Mia Goth), has a little too much fun, and consequently gets into some pretty hefty legal trouble. The film gets increasingly surreal, aggressively psychedelic, bluntly sexual, and violently horrific from there.

The film’s screenplay (by Brandon Cronenberg, who also directed) goes off the rails in its second half, losing sight of an overall point and the exceptional quality of its first half. If Infinity Pool knows what it’s ultimately trying to say, it holds its cards rather close to the chest and plays it frustratingly coy. At its best, the film is a disturbingly Kafkaesque nightmare executed with innovation and skill. At its worst, it is a muddied and unnecessarily graphic (to a distracting degree) film that disempowers some highly intelligent ideas with cheap shock value.

GRADE: C+

Inside

Willem Dafoe stars as an art thief who gets trapped in a high-security penthouse while in the middle of his latest heist. He then has to utilize his wits and survival instinct while simultaneously attempting his escape and fighting off a steady descent into madness. Inside is an overall intense and riveting film whose success is heavily indebted to the strength, commitment, and endless intensity of Dafoe’s performance. Though it concludes with an unsatisfying ending that is more frustratingly unfinished than it is tantalizingly ambiguous, the journey getting there is still memorable and worthwhile.

GRADE: B

John Wick: Chapter 4

Time and repeat viewings will tell whether or not this fourth part in the John Wick action franchise is a victim of its own inflated hype. For my first viewing of it, I found the film to, at times, be overly long, roughly paced, disappointingly uninspired, and lazily derivative of previous installments. Keanu Reeves is still a lovable badass in the title role and director Chad Stahelski delivers some sporadic moments of ingenuity and well-executed carnage, but their contributions just aren’t enough to make the film stand up to the exceptional quality of its predecessors. John Wick: Chapter 4 is a tired sequel to an otherwise fantastic series that is most likely now due for permanent retirement.

GRADE: C+

Jules

Ben Kingsley stars as an elderly man suffering from early signs of dementia who comes across a crashed spaceship manned by as peaceful alien in his backyard. The film is primarily a quirky and sincere character study that also happens to contain some amusing science fiction elements. The results are wholly charming, inventive, and, ultimately, quite touching. Though the under-developed government-employed antagonists feel tacked on to the story, Jules is still a successful and unique film that thoughtfully examines the unavoidable journey of growing old.

GRADE: A-

Jung_E

In the 22^nd century, the brain of a heroic and skilled soldier (Kim Hyun-joo) is repeatedly cloned to help win a war that ravages the few who remain on a now-inhospitable Planet Earth. This South Korean science fiction film is another smart, exciting, and thoughtful genre effort from writer/director Sang-ho Yeon (Train to Busan). While some of its more interesting ideas are underdeveloped and forced to take a backseat to the action and spectacle, Jung_E still manages to, overall, be an insightful and thought-provoking film that never forgets to entertain.

GRADE: B+

Knock at the Cabin

This apocalypse-themed horror/thriller from co-writer/director M. Night Shyamalan is a thought-provoking, suspenseful, and overall unpredictable film that should successfully keep its viewers engrossed for the majority of its duration. The film could have used a tad more development of some of its story aspects, character relationships, and character motivations, but it also deserves credit for keeping things simple, direct, and intensely tight. Dave Bautista delivers a powerhouse performance that impressively stands out from the film’s exceptionally talented ensemble cast. Knock at the Cabin is an intelligent and dramatically robust exercise in nonstop cinematic tension.

GRADE: B+

Leave the World Behind

After a cybersecurity attack causes a widespread blackout, a vacationing family is forced to survive without life’s modern luxuries. Echoing similar stories found in The Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” and the film The Trigger Effect, Leave the World Behind manages to stand on its own by making its events seem plausible with the exploration of real-life modern threats. Interesting camerawork, a consistently suspenseful tone, and excellent performances (Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts, and Mahershala Ali all excel) help make the film’s frustratingly inconsistent pacing somewhat forgivable. Faults aside, Leave the World Behind is a topical and intelligent film that manages to get its warnings and its point across by way of overall enthralling and intense storytelling.

GRADE: B+

Luther: The Fallen Sun

A spinoff of the BBC One series, Luther, this film mostly stands on its own for those, like myself, who are unfamiliar with the show. A few character details and a couple of storyline beats could have been better developed and explained to those new to the world and the former detective character portrayed with intensity and likability by Idris Elba, but such details don’t detract too heavily from the film’s overall success. Luther: The Fallen Sun is an enjoyable and suspenseful detective-hunting-a-serial-killer (a believably sadistic Andy Serkis) thriller that is executed with stylistic grit and impressive skill.

GRADE: B+

M3GAN

A recently orphaned child (Violet McGraw) goes to live with her robotics developer aunt (Allison Williams), who can’t think of any other way to properly comfort her niece than to build her a robot companion in the form of a young girl. It being a Blumhouse horror movie, the robot, of course, becomes dangerously self-aware and maniacally homicidal.

M3GAN has fun with its clever premise, never taking itself too seriously and consistently showcasing an amusingly and darkly humorous tone. Though it ceases to take full advantage of its best ideas at times, especially with a formulaic climax that could have belonged to dozens of other horror movies, it still manages to be an overall intelligent and joyously demented romp that has solid performances and is executed with skilled filmmaking.

GRADE: B+

Maestro

This biopic centers on the complex relationship between the complex composer Leonard Bernstein (an impressively unrecognizable and endlessly sensational Bradley Cooper) and his complex actress wife Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (a flawless Carey Mulligan). Director/co-writer Cooper delivers a film with grand theatricality, stylistic ingenuity, and dramatic boldness. The only problem is that it doesn’t seem to fully understand who its subjects are or have the ability to communicate why their lives are interesting enough to warrant their own large-scale production. As a result, it’s not a particularly engaging experience, despite the care and talent that was obviously put into it. The flawed/complicated genius thing has been done before, and, despite impeccable craftsmanship and select moments of emotional power, Maestro doesn’t do much new with it.

GRADE: C+

The Marsh King’s Daughter

An excellent and focused Daisy Ridley stars as a grown woman who is forced to confront her father (an equally excellent Ben Mendelsohn), who kidnapped her mother and held them both in captivity for a large portion of her childhood. Intense, suspenseful, and emotional, the highly effective film is a character-based thriller that is executed with thoughtfulness and high quality. While the screenplay occasionally (and lazily) stretches believability in favor of plot progression, the film is still consistently engaging throughout.

The Marsh King’s Daughter is a finely crafted film that provides both solid entertainment and a healthy dose of dramatic power.

GRADE: B+

The Marvels

The MCU continues its downward trajectory with this silly, uneventful, and downright obnoxious entry to their canon. The thrills are basically nonexistent, the childish humor consistently falls flat, and the story never truly progresses in a manner that is interesting or involving. The Marvels is a mere shell of what Marvel and superhero movies once were, and it is a prime example of what needs to be corrected as future films with similar intentions are being considered for production.

GRADE: D+

May December

Julianne Moore is as great as she always is in her portrayal of a grown woman who made headlines years prior for having an affair with a thirteen-year-old boy who later grew up to be her husband and the father of some of her children. Natalie Portman is also mesmerizing as the Hollywood actress who is researching Moore’s life for a role she is playing in a movie about the affair.

Director Todd Haynes and his filmmaking team execute the story with exquisite filmmaking, intoxicating style, subtly sharp humor, and bold emotions. While the film is never boring, its pacing is sometimes so loose that it feels aimless. May December always gets back on track, however, and is ultimately a courageous and thought-provoking film that has edgy fun with tackling some fairly uncomfortable but highly relevant topics head-on.

GRADE: A-

Meg 2: The Trench

Jason Statham reprises his role from the 2018 giant shark thriller/horror movie in this ridiculous but fun sequel. This time, Statham has to survive numerous creatures (along with some more giant sharks) in the depths of the ocean, and the results are quite entertaining if you don’t take pesky things like logic or reality into account. Meg 2: The Trench knows it is not great cinema and unabashedly celebrates its B-movie design. It is a charmingly cheesy and endearingly silly good time.

GRADE: B

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

This seventh entry in producer/star Tom Cruise’s action series contains all the spectacle, excitement, and death-defying stunts that audiences have come to expect. One of the most impressive things about the film is how, at nearly two hours and forty-five minutes, it just flies by without its runtime ever being felt. Its pacing is simply unrelenting, keeping the viewer enthralled in its adventure for the entirety of its duration.

The film somewhat falters, however, with its over-reliance on knowledge of previous films in the series to make full sense. It expects audiences to remember the development of some of its characters and their relationships that had previously been spread out across several other films, never providing quite enough detail or humanity to make this particular film stand on its own. Adding to this drawback, the film is also designed to set up the next movie in the series and its storyline, while not entirely dissatisfying, is frustratingly unresolved. However much these faults interfere with its overall quality, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One still manages to persevere and be an endlessly thrilling and captivating piece of popcorn entertainment.

GRADE: B+

Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie

This feature-length follow-up to the beloved Monk show that ended in 2009 is a fun, charming, and occasionally dark (though always tasteful) effort. Tony Shalhoub, Taylor Howard, Jason-Grey Stanford, Melora Hardin, Ted Levine, and Hector Elizondo all reprise their roles and exhibit the same, special, and irreplaceably lifelike chemistry that helped make the crime/mystery/comedy series such a success. Though it relies a bit too heavily on its audience remembering details and characters from the long-over series, Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie is still a wonderful reminder of how great of a show Monk was and how lovable the characters were within it.

GRADE: B+

The Mother

Jennifer Lopez stars as an assassin who is forced to come out of hiding in order to protect the daughter she had to give up over a decade prior. Believable and developed characters and relationships, solid writing, sturdy filmmaking, all-around great performances, and endlessly riveting action make this effort a must-see. Its story may not be particularly original, but the care with which The Mother is executed makes it stand out from many other, blander modern-day action films.

GRADE: A-

Next Goal Wins

A reluctant soccer coach (Michael Fassbender) with nothing to lose is assigned to lead a notoriously poor America Samoa team, and the results are predictably humorous and inspiring. Set in 2014 and based on a true story, the film follows a pretty standard feel-good sports film formula. Though it doesn’t offer any real surprises, it’s still a pleasant, inclusive, and effervescent film with some cleverly quirky humor (no doubt courtesy of director/co-writer Taika Waititi), lovable characters, and charming performances.

Next Goal Wins doesn’t break any new ground or light the screen on fire, but it is quite likely to bring a large smile to your face many times throughout its duration.

GRADE: B

Nyad

Annette Bening is outstanding and Oscar-worthy as the true-life Diane Nyad, a swimmer who made multiple attempts in her sixties to be the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida. Jodie Foster is just as amazing as her endlessly loyal coach. The film may follow a traditional inspirational sports film formula, but it is so well crafted in every conceivable way that it simply doesn’t matter. Nyad is beautifully acted by every key player (Rhys Ifans also deserves to be singled out for praise), visually striking, inescapably engrossing, tear-jerkingly moving, and wholly uplifting. Seek this one out.

GRADE: A

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

This comedic spy thriller from co-writer/director Guy Ritchie carries the filmmaker’s trademark bravado, flashy style, and kinetic pacing without, as his films often have a tendency to do, too heavily teetering over the line towards obnoxiousness. Featuring playful performances by Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Hugh Grant, Carey Elwes, Bugzy Malone, and Josh Hartnett, the film manages to mostly rise above its screenplay’s overly involved and convoluted nature to be overall cleverly entertaining. It’s hard to always stay focused on Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre due to its unnecessarily complex design, but the fun with which Ritchie and his cast and crew executed the film is, more times than not, rather contagious.

GRADE: B-

Pain Hustlers

Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, and Andy Garcia deliver dynamite performances in this rise-and-fall tale of greedy pharmaceutical workers capitalizing off of selling dangerous administrations and dosages of fentanyl. Charged, flashy, and stylized in a similar manner to such films as The Big Short and The Wolf of Wall Street, the film is an entertaining ride, but there also isn’t much that is particularly new being explored in it. That being said, the layered characters, great acting, intelligent writing, and lively execution all make Pain Hustlers a film that is well worth seeing.

GRADE: B+

Pamela: A Love Story

This moving and intelligent documentary is the perfect antithesis to the guilty pleasure Hulu miniseries, Pam & Tommy. Offering a sensitive and sincere depiction of the world-famous sex icon, the film exposes the brain, heart, and humor behind Pamela Anderson’s very public image. Pamela: A Love Story is an intelligent and engrossing examination of fame, abuse in its many forms, and the sexism that is often present when female sexuality is explored and/or discussed. This is a strikingly moving achievement.

GRADE: A

The Pope’s Exorcist

Even star Russell Crowe’s massive talent cannot save this hopelessly mediocre horror effort. Yet another exorcism film, there is absolutely nothing about this particular production that stands out as unique or interesting. Functionally well-made but severely lacking inspiration, The Pope’s Exorcist is an overall bland and impotent excuse for a horror film.

GRADE: C-

Priscilla

Writer/director Sofia Coppola’s film boasts some downright exquisite filmmaking and craftsmanship. It is a tasteful examination of the long-term courtship and eventual marriage between a covertly abusive and slyly manipulative Elvis Presley (Jacob Eldori) and an initially teenaged Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny). Coppola captures the whimsical passion of naïve teenage love beautifully, but she also has trouble grasping the full and complex emotions involved with the eventual and inevitable downfall of the film’s core relationship.

The film offers mere snippets of Elvis and Priscilla over a passage of time and, as the film progresses, the snippets become more abrupt, more rushed, and less connected. Key dramatic moments are increasingly and trivially glazed over, significantly weakening its overall impact and heavily marring its otherwise exceptional quality. Priscilla contains a fascinating beginning to a fascinating story but unfortunately doesn’t seem to care much about properly developing or concluding it.

GRADE: C+

Reptile

This murder mystery/thriller is an annoyingly uneven and unfocused film that had the potential to be so much better than it is. The sluggish and meandering first half is only partially rectified by a more involving and intense second half. The film never fully gets on track, however, because it never clearly defines most of its many characters or the convoluted story they inhabit. While performances by Benicio Del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Michael Pitt, Alicia Silverstone, and Eric Bogosian are all naturalistically believable, the emotionally dry and overly-intricate screenplay never gives any of them the chance to showcase any real dramatic power. Reptile is a missed opportunity of a film that fails to take full advantage of the talent involved in its creation.

GRADE: C

The Retirement Plan

Nicolas Cage stars as a former government worker who is forced to protect his previously unknown granddaughter (Thalia Campbell) from deadly criminals (Ron Perlman and Jackie Earle Haly amongst them). Despite solid work from a strong cast, the movie is forgettable, derivative, and uninteresting. The distracting and obnoxious nature of its forced flashy style resembles a poor man’s Guy Ritchie—who is already a poor man’s Tarantino. The Retirement Plan simply needs to be retired.

GRADE: D+

Saltburn

Barry Keoghan continues to stand out with another dedicated portrayal of an oddball that only he could accomplish. This time around, his role is that of an Oxford student with highly ambiguous and potentially sinister intentions who latches onto a popular classmate (Jacob Eldori), and then goes on to summer at his upper-class family’s estate.

Shocking, perverse, and refreshingly unformulaic, the film admirably follows the beat of its own drum, making its twisty narrative difficult to predict. Unfortunately, the revelation of the story’s core point is saved for the very end, making it a sometimes-tedious and sometimes-bewildering experience to make complete sense of or fully enjoy during the first viewing. Saltburn is an overall high-quality film with exceptional performances and impressive filmmaking, but it is told in a frustratingly lopsided manner that doesn’t allow the viewer to understand its intentions until it is too late to fully care.

GRADE: B-

Scream VI

This sixth entry in the Scream slasher franchise is tired, dull, uninspired, and highly (to a distracting degree) implausible. Despite some good performances, solid filmmaking, a few suspenseful moments, and an impressive set piece or two, there’s simply nothing new to the story or screenplay that justifies the film’s existence. Scream VI is rarely scary or amusing, and it’s nothing short of depressing to see the hopelessly mediocre and money-grubbing depths to which this once-innovative series has fallen.

GRADE: C-

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

This sequel to the hit 2019 DCEU entry about a boy (Asher Angel) who can change at will into a fully grown superhero (Zachary Levi) is an overall entertaining though slightly tired and uninspired effort. The sincerity and heart behind the first film are still present in this one, but its conveyance of innocence and its message of family unity are a little more forced and harder to buy now that most of the cast have outgrown the script’s intentions for their roles. Despite some contrivances, uneven pacing, and an unfocused story that is hard to always care enough about to fully follow, Shazam! Fury of the Gods still manages to provide solid escapist entertainment with some well-timed humor, impressive action sequences, and a handful of memorably touching moments.

GRADE: B-

Sick

This COVID-19-centered horror/thriller centers on two carefree college girls (Gideon Adlon and Bethlehem Million) who throw caution into the wind and take a lake house vacation during the height of the pandemic, only to be stalked by a knife-wielding maniac. Sick is a relentlessly intense, tightly paced, consistently shocking, aggressively violent, and highly suspenseful film that knows how to grab its audience’s attention and hold it for the entirety of its eighty-minute duration. Though a few of its jump scares and plot points are a tad predictable, it’s easy to forgive the film of its minor faults due to its expert execution and overall consistent high quality.

GRADE: A-

Silent Night

Director John Woo’s return to American filmmaking after a near-twenty-year hiatus is a welcome one, but it’s too bad he wasn’t given better and more original material from which to work. While the dialogue-free action film makes sense for its central mute character (Joel Kinnaman), it feels forced, gimmicky, and unnatural for all the other roles. The film contains some inventive and thrilling sequences that result from Woo’s world-renowned gift for handling action, but the unshaded characters and weak script leave a bit too much to be desired.

The film also can’t quite settle on a tone, as it seems to want to be both a colorfully living comic book and a deeply serious drama about the loss of one’s child. Silent Night ultimately takes itself too seriously to provide pure escapist entertainment, and it’s far too ridiculous to be taken seriously.

GRADE: C

Slotherhouse

An adorable but lethal sloth (that is quite obviously a low-budget puppet) is plucked from its tropical natural habitat and taken to America. The creature then somehow becomes a sorority house’s mascot and begins a brutal killing spree where it picks off the house members one by one. Slotherhouse knows how absolutely ridiculous it is, and it is undeniably and endlessly fun, funny, and campy as a result. The movie is by no means a masterpiece, but it is well worth checking out when you’re in the mood to laugh at some truly absurd depictions of mayhem and horror.

GRADE: B

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

This gorgeously animated and highly inventive incarnation of the Spider-Man universe is undeniably a massive artistic and technical achievement. Its comic book-in-motion design is aesthetically beautiful and endlessly breathtaking, but the overall flow of its narrative is consistently disrupted by obnoxious business and an over-saturation of ideas. As it progresses, the film becomes increasingly exhausting and scattered. Its kinetic execution only seems to serve the purpose of showing off how clever and flamboyant it is trying to be instead of providing excitement and entertainment to its audience. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a (no pun intended) marvel to look at, but it’s much too often a chore through which to sit.

GRADE: C+

Spy Kids: Armageddon

Cinematographer/editor/co-writer/director Robert Rodriguez reboots his charming, inventive, and family-friendly action/adventure series with this latest Spy Kids entry. Rodriguez’s family movies have a tendency to be a bit obnoxious in their cutesiness at times, but their faults can often be overlooked due to their imaginative ideas and storylines and their energized, adept, and beautifully stylish executions.  Spy Kids: Armageddon is no exception to this, as it contains a few moments that might make you want to roll your eyes, but it overall manages to be an impressive, exciting, and entertaining experience.

GRADE: B+

Sympathy for the Devil

Joel Kinneman stars as an expecting father who is forced at gunpoint to drive a mysterious, dangerous, and amusingly exuberant passenger played by Nicolas Cage to an initially unknown destination for an initially unknown reason. Though Sympathy for the Devil occasionally struggles to keep up its momentum (even with its brief ninety-minute runtime), the film is an overall taut and intense thriller that will keep its audience engrossed for the majority of its duration. Kinneman is solid, sympathetic, and grounded in the lead role, providing a necessary contrast to one of the nuttiest and most unhinged performances of Cage’s endlessly brazen career.

GRADE: B+

Talk to Me

A group of Australian teenagers learns to communicate with the dead by way of a disembodied hand, only to meet with dire and terrifying consequences. The pacing is air-tight, the acting is solid, the filmmaking is impressively refined, and the overall tone consistently induces horror and suspense in its audience. The mostly solid screenplay does lose some steam in its last act, but Talk to Me still manages to prevail, overall, as a smart, scary, and highly potent horror effort.

GRADE: B+

Thanksgiving

Co-writer/director Eli Roth finally realizes a feature-length version of his mock Grindhouse trailer with this highly amusing holiday horror effort. The story is gleefully demented, the scares are fun, the suspense is gripping, and the gross-out moments are effectively and hilariously shocking. Thanksgiving may not be the most original, surprising, or terrifying horror movie ever made, but it still delivers enough gore and good old-fashioned scares to appease just about any horror addict’s insatiable craving.

GRADE: B

They Cloned Tyrone

After a murdered drug dealer (John Boyega) is mysteriously cloned, the door is opened to a complex conspiracy that targets African Americans. This satirical, mind-bending, and occasionally nightmarish sci-fi/comedy is loaded with great and amusingly bizarre ideas. It is executed in a notably realistic fashion, making its stranger and more outlandish aspects feel all the more tangible and probable. The only downfall to this approach is that the film isn’t quite as fun as its premise suggests it could be. It consistently misses opportunities for humor and doesn’t always explore the full entertainment value of its inventive concepts.

They Cloned Tyrone is a fascinating, intelligently absurd, and finely made movie that sometimes misses its full potential by relying on a presentation that is a tad too restrained and dry.

GRADE: B+

Totally Killer

A teenage girl (Kiernan Shipka) travels back in time to the ‘80s where she is forced to stop the serial killer who has haunted her mother (Julie Bowen) since her teenage years. Yet another horror comedy set in the ‘80s, the film is neither scary nor clever enough to compete with many other retro-oriented titles that have similar styles and designs. It fails to take full advantage of or have complete fun with its time period or concept, and the results are painfully lackluster as a result.

Shipka and her co-stars do their best with the material they are given, but Totally Killer still can’t help but totally be a waste of time.

GRADE: C-

When You Finish Saving the World

This character-based dramedy centers on a teenage internet musician (Finn Wolfhard) and his desire to be politically interested so he can impress a such-minded classmate (Alisha Boe). While struggling with his identity, he also struggles with his well-meaning but somewhat lost mother (Julianne Moore).

Though it’s not exactly dramatically robust and the pacing is sometimes glacial, the film is an overall warm-hearted, affably quirky, and insightful film with a familiar but important message about staying true to oneself. When You Finish Saving the World doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s still a nice, pleasant, and overall life-affirming way to spend ninety minutes.

GRADE: B

You People

Jonah Hill stars as a Jewish podcaster who falls in love with a Black woman (Lauren London)—much to the chagrin of her family and the discomfort of his. This feel-good comedy has its heart in the right place and delivers some thoughtful and thought-provoking insight into modern interracial romance. That being said, the film is often formulaic and predictable, and its jokes sometimes fall flat. The pacing is also uneven, no doubt the result of its overly long near-two-hour runtime.

You People’s good intentions and the overall exceptional talent of its cast (which includes Eddie Murphy, Nia Long, David Duchovny, and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) manage to make the film rise above many of its shortcomings, however, and be an overall rewarding effort.

GRADE: B-

The Zone of Interest

In this film, we see the basic, ordinary, and everyday lives of an Auschwitz commandant (Christian Friedel) and his family as they lead a peaceful existence right outside the walls of the camp. Did I enjoy this glacially paced film that showcases little dramatic urgency? Not really. Do I appreciate its impeccable and precise craftsmanship, respect its intentionally detached style, and find myself deeply affected by its examination of evil in its most apathetic and mundane form? Absolutely.

The film isn’t exactly exciting, but it will stir emotions and provoke thought in a completely profound and unique manner that will leave you speechless. The Zone of Interest is ultimately a highly valuable experience, but it’s one you most likely won’t ever want to repeat.

GRADE: A-

The 355

The 355 may boast an impressive array of acting talent (Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Bingbing Fan, Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, Sebastian Stan, Edgar Ramirez) but it fails to be a movie that lives up to the expectations that their presence creates.

The film contains some well-executed (though rather underwhelming) action and moderately well-developed characters. It just doesn’t have the charm, personality, or edge that it needs to stand out from all the other generic actioners being produced today. There is nothing glaringly wrong with The 355, but there’s nothing particularly right about it, either.

GRADE: C

The Adam Project

The Adam Project is an endlessly entertaining, fun, and surprisingly heartwarming family science fiction/adventure film. While it owes a significant debt to just about every eighties family favorite you can name (it sometimes feels like a cinematic mixtape of classic eighties scenes), it still manages to be entertaining and unique in and of itself. Ryan Reynolds finally pushes himself to move beyond his nervously sarcastic shtick with an effortlessly charming and emotionally moving lead performance.

GRADE: B+

All Quiet on the Western Front

This Oscar-winning German production is an exceedingly well-made and overall mesmerizing film about WWI. Following in the footsteps of such classic WWI efforts as Paths of Glory and 1917, the film isn’t exactly something we haven’t before seen. Despite its lack of originality and its occasionally uneven pacing, the film is still a highly memorable one that is full of extraordinarily committed performances, downright exquisite filmmaking, and deeply harrowing depictions of battle and its aftermath.

Based on the classic novel by Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front is an exceptionally haunting effort with some truly brilliant moments that powerfully reminds us of war’s pointlessly destructive and saddeningly painful nature.

GRADE: A-

Ambulance

After a bank robbery goes awry, two criminals (an energetic Jake Gyllenhaal and a sympathetic Yahya Abdul-Mateen III) hijack an ambulance and lead the police on a high-speed chase. There is no denying that director Michael Bay knows how to execute an action movie. There’s also no denying that he rarely gets a full handle on tone, character, or story. Ambulance is an intense film with nonstop action that is filled to the brim with Bay’s signature techniques (glossy lighting, constant camera movement, kinetic and nonlinear editing). However, the film’s often serious-minded tone flattens its overall experience and impairs a significant amount of its much-needed entertainment value.

Ambulance is a highly well-made movie with solid performances that, unfortunately, doesn’t always know how to hold its audience’s attention.

GRADE: B-

Amsterdam

This ‘30s-set, partially truth-based comedy/drama/mystery from writer/director David O. Russell is a frustratingly wasted effort. It boasts one of the most impressively talented casts in recent memory (Christian Bale, John David Washington, Margot Robbie, Andrea Riseborough, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Taylor Swift, Rami Malek, Zoe Saldana, and others), but not a single performance escapes coming off as lifeless, uninteresting, and flat. From its bland cinematography to its poor pacing to its overly whimsical and redundant score, the film’s execution is uninspired in just about every imaginable way.

It’s hard to say what, exactly, is going on in Amsterdam because it becomes progressively harder to pay attention to it as it progresses. It is a hopelessly boring film that entirely lacks the dramatic power it needs to keep its viewers’ interest.

GRADE: D+

Babylon

This three-hour-plus epic about Old Hollywood primarily examines the silent film era to the beginning of synchronized sound. For the first two hours, writer/director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land) both revels in and satirizes the debauchery that has seemingly always taken place behind the scenes of major studio productions. Its last hour focuses on the inevitable downfall that such excess begets, expertly shifting tones to something that is much darker and increasingly devoid of the humor that is so present in earlier scenes.

The all-star cast consists of Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Olivia Wilde, Tobey Maguire, Samara Weaving, and many others. They all deliver typically committed, highly exceptional, and intelligently heightened performances that fit the film’s thunderous execution quite nicely. Babylon is a highly revelatory film that both celebrates and cautions against the intoxicating magic of the silver screen.

GRADE: A

The Banshees of Inisherin

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson give priceless performances as formerly close friends whose lives are shockingly upended when the latter decides that he no longer likes the former. This is yet another brilliantly written, flawlessly executed, darkly hilarious, powerfully poignant, and oddly moving effort from writer/director Martin McDonagh. The Banshees of Inisherin is a great film that masters many conflicting tones with expertise and finesse, making it an unforgettably vibrant and endlessly unpredictable cinematic experience.

GRADE: A

Barbarian

A young woman (Georgina Campbell) arrives at an Airbnb where she made a reservation and nothing goes as planned or is the way it appears to be or should be. To say any more would risk giving away the countless surprises that this gleefully twisted horror film contains. Barbarian is a wholly unpredictable, endlessly shocking, and dementedly thrilling experience that never lets up on tension or terror until its very last frame.

GRADE: A

Bardo: False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths

A Los Angeles-based Mexican documentarian (Daniel Giménez Cacho) returns to his homeland seeking self-discovery, world examination, and the many hidden truths behind his heritage in this film by co-writer/director Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant). Comically surreal, absurdly satirical, and dramatically powerful, Bardo: False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths is an artistically daring collage of different tones that evokes comparisons to Fellini’s most fantastical efforts and to Malick’s most poetic.

Iñárritu’s voice and style are as bold and as sensitive as ever, though the film does sometimes cross over the line to self-indulgence with its endless flights of fancy and its near-three-hour runtime. It’s a film worth seeing, for certain, but also one that could have used a little less of, well, everything in order to convey more of a direct point.

GRADE: B+

The Batman

On a technical level, co-writer/director Matt Reeves’ latest incarnation of the classic superhero/vigilante character is an exceedingly well-crafted and well-designed film. It lacks the vision and the courage of previous cinematic Batman interpretations, however, by failing to deliver anything new. The Batman’s reality-grounded approach is just too similar to Christopher Nolan’s films and is, simply put, not as good. The film has no distinct vision or heart, and it’s lacking a certain emotional grandness that we’ve all come to expect from a Batman movie. The near-three-hour runtime is also completely unnecessary and overly indulgent.

Despite being an excellent actor, Robert Pattinson has little to offer the role of Batman. His interpretation is all broodiness and moodiness, and he spends a good portion of the movie acting like he’d rather be somewhere else. Much like the film itself, Pattinson’s performance lacks personality and character.

GRADE: C+

Beast

While on vacation in South Africa, a widowed father (Idris Elba) and his two teenage daughters (Leah Jeffries and Iyana Halley) must thwart a killer lion’s non-stop attempts at making them its prey. While it’s not anything particularly special, Beast is still a moderately thrilling and suspenseful movie that knows how to entertain and engage its audience. Likable and well-developed characters, sturdy performances (Elba always knows how to own the screen), and capable filmmaking make the film rise above its potentially ridiculous storyline.

GRADE: B

Bigbug

This intelligently satirical French-language sci-fi/comedy centers on a group of people who are trapped in a suburban home during an artificial intelligence uprising. Director/co-writer Jean-Pierre Jenuet (Amelie, The City of Lost Children) delivers another unique piece of eye candy that is filled to the brim with quirky humor and highly innovative concepts.

Bigbug’s main fault, like some of Jenuet’s previous works, is that its constant business can sometimes be over-stimulating and exhausting to witness. The gorgeously designed film may lack subtlety, but it more than makes up for it with its endearingly endless stream of ingenuity.

GRADE: B+

Black Adam

Despite the presence of the always-affable Dwayne Johnson in the title role, this entry into the DCEU is a noisy, annoyingly busy, and overall hollow film that offers absolutely nothing new to the superhero genre to which it belongs. The movie is full of dizzying spectacle, but its relentlessly rapid and action-focused pace fails to emotionally engage the audience in its events or characters. Instead, the movie lifelessly and uninterestingly goes through the motions with a hopelessly generic and overly familiar style and storyline.

Black Adam wholly lacks inspiration and increasingly comes across as little more than complete and utter nonsense.

GRADE: D+

Black Crab

Noomi Rapace, today’s ultimate cinematic badass, stars as one of a group of post-apocalyptic soldiers who has to skate across a frozen body of water in order to deliver a top-secret package. Black Crab contains an intriguing plot, solid performances, refined filmmaking, and some thrilling, impeccably executed action sequences. It is occasionally bogged down, however, by sketchy character development, muddy subplots, and a distracting flashback structure that causes uneven pacing.

Complaints aside, the film does still manage to be a predominantly entertaining experience that is lifted by Rapace’s fierce intensity and wholly watchable presence.

GRADE: B-

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Despite being an overall moving tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, this sequel to Black Panther seems to be grasping at straws as to what to do without him. The story is unmemorable, the action and spectacle are uninspired, and the development of characters and their relationships is spotty at best. Not to mention, the near-three-hour runtime is highly indulgent and completely unnecessary.

Like many of the film’s contemporary MCU entries, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever overall follows a formula that is becoming increasingly tired and stale. The excellent actors who comprise the cast (Letitia Wright, Angela Basset, Winston Duke, and Lupita Nyong’o chief amongst them) can’t save the movie from its overall lack of originality.

GRADE: C

The Black Phone

A thirteen-year-old boy (a fully committed Mason Thames) is kidnapped by a serial killer known as The Grabber (an impressively and disturbingly sinister Ethan Hawke) and held captive in a basement where he is able to communicate with the killer’s previous victims by way of a disconnected and mysteriously powered phone. Directed and co-written by Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange), The Black Phone is a strikingly well-made, suspenseful, and creepy horror/thriller that knows how to keep its audience’s attention. The film has a plethora of positive attributes that are only slightly muffled by the fact that it doesn’t always fully utilize and/or develop its best concepts.

If The Black Phone had a slightly more finessed screenplay that matched the quality of its filmmaking and flawless performances, it could have been a masterwork. As it is, however, it’s going to have to settle for being highly watchable and very good.

GRADE: B+

Blasted

This Norwegian sci-fi/comedy, which centers on a bachelor party that has to fight off an alien invasion, is perfectly funny and enjoyable. Though its fast-cutting and wildly shot style are highly derivative of Sam Raimi and Edgar Wright, the film still offers enough surprises and moments of big laughter to be worth your time. Blasted may lack originality, but its highly energetic and endearingly effervescent tone mostly makes up for it.

GRADE: B

Blonde

This artfully challenging examination of Marilyn Monroe’s painful internal life is, sometimes, as hypnotic as it is, at other times, frustratingly difficult and exhaustive to sit through. Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, the film dives deep into Monroe’s emotional torment, mental instability, and toxic relationship with fame. Writer/director Andrew Dominik takes a Lynchian approach to his subject, presenting Monroe’s story in a dream-like, surrealistic haze that often morphs into an unsettling and expressionistic nightmare. Though the filmmaking is exemplary, it doesn’t always emotionally connect with the audience and, resultingly, the film doesn’t quite reach the greatness to which it is aspiring.

As Monroe, Ana De Armas gives it her all with an effectively raw and emotionally volatile performance. Though she looks like Monroe, it’s sometimes hard to fully believe her in the role because her voice and accent are noticeably flimsy and inconsistent. Despite its roughness and faults, however, Blonde can still be regarded as a courageously ambitious and bold piece of filmmaking. It just could have used a little less artistic showmanship and a little more straightforward storytelling to fully convey the extraordinary pain behind Monroe’s sunny public image.

GRADE: B

The Bubble

Co-writer/director Judd Apatow makes one of the biggest blunders of his career with this star-studded yet excruciatingly unfunny comedy about a nightmarish film shoot that takes place during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bubble is loud and obnoxious, overstuffed with expensive set pieces and ambitious VFX but far too short on good writing, developed characters, and laugh-out-loud comedic moments. The sluggishly and loosely paced film is, to put it bluntly, quite painful to sit through.

The Bubble is a poor example of comedic wit and the perfect example of a big-budget and excessive waste of colossal talent.

GRADE: D+

Bullet Train

A group of criminals led by Brad Pitt converges on a fast-moving Japanese bullet train, resulting in a plethora of brutally violent moments and tiresome attempts at cleverness. This action-packed, distractingly hyper-edited, and frustratingly over-stuffed film tries very hard to be exciting and darkly charming, but its embarrassingly over-confident nature only makes it increasingly unappealing as it unfolds. Bullet Train lacks almost all likability and is hopelessly marred by its own obnoxious bravado and forced wit.

GRADE: D+

A Christmas Story Christmas

This sequel to A Christmas Story comes nearly thirty years after its classic predecessor. At first, it seems to be as dated as its early ‘70s setting. During what is roughly the film’s first half, the silly humor primarily falls flat, the overly light and falsely sentimental tone lacks edge, and the characters don’t exhibit much personality or relatability. However, as A Christmas Story Christmas progresses, you can’t help but get sucked into its nostalgic charms and its magical holiday feelings. The film’s destination is quite worthwhile, but the road to getting there, unfortunately, isn’t always so great.

GRADE: B-

Clerks III

This entry into Kevin Smith’s View Askew universe is a charmingly nostalgic, big-hearted, and emotionally moving effort. You pretty much have to already be a fan and have knowledge of Smith’s previous movies to find value in this particular one, but that’s hardly a valid criticism because the movie was rightfully, unabashedly, and whole-heartedly made for his fans. The in-jokes, endless self-references, already-developed character relationships, and overall comforting familiarity are what make Clerks III feel like the cinematic equivalent of dinner with an old friend.

GRADE: B+

Crimes of the Future

A pair of futuristic performance artists (Viggo Mortensen and Lea Seydoux) proclaims that “surgery is the new sex” and perform live surgeries for the art gallery crowd as part of their act. From writer/director David Cronenberg (and based on one of his earliest independent films), Crimes of the Future is every bit as bizarre, surreal, nightmarish, and grotesquely rewarding as the filmmaker’s other “body horror” efforts.

Those familiar with and fond of the filmmaker’s previous work should be pleased, as the highly unsettling film is stylistically and thematically a significant continuation of his voice. Those unfamiliar with Cronenberg, however, will most likely find very little amusement or relatability in the film, as it is one of the most challenging and esoteric efforts of his career. Crimes of the Future is a must-see for Cronenberg fans and an enter-at-your-own-risk for just about everyone else.

GRADE: B

The Curse of Bridge Hollow

A young family (Marlon Wayans, Priah Ferguson, and Kelly Rowland) moves to a small town whose community takes Halloween decorating very seriously. When the town’s lawn decorations come to life on Halloween night, all forms of rambunctious havoc ensue. The Curse of Bridge Hollow is a fast, fun, and humorous film that entertains with an inventive and lively premise and warms the heart with its primary theme of family unity.

GRADE: B

A Day to Die

Kevin Dillon stars as a disgraced former police officer who is forced to pay a drug dealer (an impressive Leon) ransom in exchange for his kidnapped wife. Bruce Willis and Frank Grillo also have small supporting roles but, as is the norm for most of their low-budget endeavors, their top billing is quite deceiving. A Day to Die contains some interesting commentary on the war against drugs but that, along with good performances from all the key cast members, is all it really has going for it. The film is simply unable to sustain the weight of its overly ambitious execution, noticeably faltering throughout by trying to do far too much with far too little.

GRADE: C-

Deadstream

A struggling video blogger with a tendency for cowardice (Joseph Winter) live streams himself being locked in a haunted house overnight. The success of the film largely rests on the shoulders of star (also co-writer/co-director) Winter’s performance, and it’s, fortunately, a great one. Deadstream is nail-bitingly suspenseful, surprisingly scary, and playfully hilarious—and it all stems from Winter’s dramatic facial expressions, skittish physicality, and comically hyper-emotional reactions. He’s a likable, relatable, and sympathetic protagonist with human faults and painfully unheroic characteristics.

The film’s main fault is its uninspired and slightly cheap ending, but that’s not nearly enough to spoil the overall fun of this endlessly inventive and wholly entertaining horror/comedy.

GRADE: A-

Death on the Nile

Director/star Kenneth Branagh returns for his second round of bringing Agatha Christie’s classic investigator character, Hercule Poirot, to the screen. Death on the Nile is a beautifully shot, impeccably performed, and classily executed film that successfully engrosses its audience in its clever story and intricate murder mystery. Though the film is a bit too polite to make an indelibly dramatic impact, it’s still a highly intriguing and perfectly pleasant way to pass some time.

GRADE: B+

Deep Water

Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel, Deep Water centers on a married couple (Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas) whose open relationship may be causing more turmoil than either one of them fully comprehends. Adrian Lyne’s return to the director’s chair after a twenty-year hiatus produces a sensual and hypnotic film that never lets up on intrigue, enticement, or tension. Though it somewhat falters with some shaky logic, a slightly unbelievable climax, and an abrupt ending, the film still makes an unshakeable and noteworthy impact.

Deep Water is the kind of intelligent, adult-oriented, and character-based erotic thriller on which Lyne founded his career and that we just don’t see enough of, anymore.

GRADE: A-

Dig

A father and his teenage daughter (portrayed by real-life father and daughter Thomas and Harlow Jane) are taken captive by two criminals (Emile Hirsch and Liana Liberato) and forced to dig up a dead body from a soon-to-be excavated home. Though some storyline details are a bit unclear due to some improper communication, the film’s tight pacing, excellent performances, and well-executed moments of suspense still make it overall worthwhile. Dig may not be anything groundbreaking (no pun intended), but it still manages to be an effective and entertaining thriller that mostly delivers on its intended excitement and tension.

GRADE: B

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was directed by Sam Raimi, one of the most unique and previously established talents to helm an MCU installment yet. While the film contains a number of his stylistic flourishes, it overall feels like it could have been directed by anyone, as it is an entertaining but, at this point, generic work that feels like an insignificant piece of a much grander design. In other words, this Doctor Strange sequel doesn’t really stand on its own, as it is too reliant on other Marvel films and streaming series to help explain its unnecessarily convoluted and overcrowded narrative.

Complaints aside, the film does contain a number of thrilling set pieces, some dazzling visual effects, and solid performances from its talented cast. It’s a must-see for hardcore Marvel and/or Raimi fans (the Bruce Campbell cameo alone makes it worthwhile), but doesn’t seem to be particularly geared toward anyone else.

GRADE: B-

Don’t Worry Darling

A housewife (the fantastic Florence Pugh) living in an idyllic 1950s suburban neighborhood slowly becomes aware that nothing about her life is as it seems. Though it sometimes buckles under the weight of its hefty ambition and the specifics of its involved storyline are ultimately and frustratingly a tad too vague, Don’t Worry Darling is still a highly powerful, astutely observed, and boldly nightmarish examination of female oppression. It’s a movie that meddles with the mind in order to prove a point that undeniably needs to be made.

GRADE: B+

Elvis

Co-writer/director Baz Luhrmann’s vivaciously energetic biopic of Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) centers on the icon’s relationship with his greedy and opportunistic manager, Colonel Tom Parker (an impressively slimy Tom Hanks). The film is primarily fast, fun, and exciting, capturing the power of Elvis’ eternal influence on popular culture and music. Even at almost two hours and forty minutes, however, Elvis just doesn’t seem to have enough screen time to fully explore its subject’s life off the stage with the same care and attention as it does his life on it. The film still succeeds, overall, it’s just not quite as fulfilling or complete as it should have been.

Though Butler doesn’t particularly look much like Elvis, he exudes his essence so accurately and has such full command of his voice and physicality that it’s easy to forget you’re not actually watching The King himself in grand and lifelike motion.

GRADE: B+

Emily the Criminal

The endlessly amazing Aubrey Plaza portrays a young artist who, buried under a mountain of student debt and unable to find a well-paying job, turns to credit card fraud as a means of survival. Emily the Criminal is a mesmerizing, intense, and tragically frank examination of an individual who, like so many in reality, is unable to comfortably fit into modern-day society.

The film is a bit too neat and easy in depicting its protagonist’s downfall and most of its supporting characters are too dull to warrant the screen time they’re allotted. However, Emily the Criminal still manages to be an overall riveting experience that packs a sizable and memorable dramatic punch.

GRADE: B+

Empire of Light

Writer/director Sam Mendes’ thoughtful, warm, and humane film takes place in 1980 England and focuses on a movie theater manager with mental health struggles (Olivia Coleman) and her close friendship with a younger, Black employee (Michael Ward). Though a tad sluggish in spots, the film is an overall beautiful effort that sheds light on past prejudices involving race and mental illness while also making the audience question how, after all this time, they are still so prevalent today.

Coleman and Ward are both outstanding, as is the rest of the supporting cast, which includes Colin Firth, Toby Jones, and Tom Brooke. Needless to say, the gorgeous cinematography by Roger Deakins only adds to the film’s exceptional quality.

GRADE: A-

End of the Road

An African-American family (Queen Latifah, Chris Bridges, Mychala Lee, and Shaun Dixon) traveling across the southwestern states faces one intensely dangerous misadventure after another in this engrossing action/thriller. The pacing is notably tight, the suspense is ever-present, and the ninety-minute runtime is effectively brief. The characters are all well-developed and the cast chemistry is effortlessly vivacious. Director Millicent Shelton takes time and puts care into emotionally involving the audience through the film’s charming and relatable characters before the plot kicks off into high gear.

The screenplay occasionally uses some minor contrivances and unbelievable conveniences to propel the plot forward, but End of the Road is still a highly engaging and well-executed thriller that contains a number of downright excellent performances.

GRADE: A-

Everything Everywhere All at Once

This ambitious, mind-blowing, and exceedingly well-made adult fantasy/adventure centers on a woman (Michelle Yeoh) and her escapades in parallel dimensions. The film’s bottomless energy and endless creativity are exciting but, at times, exhausting. Everything Everywhere All at Once is an overlong movie that is so overstuffed with inventive ideas and absurdly random events that it occasionally becomes unfocused and undisciplined. However, the film’s undeniable and unique charm allows for most of its faults to be forgiven.

GRADE: B+

The Fabelmans

This semi-autobiographical tale from co-writer/director Steven Spielberg examines an upper-middle-class Jewish family in 1950s and 60s America and a growing boy within the family who falls passionately in love with cinema and ambitiously aspires to be a filmmaker. The Fabelmans is a touchingly human film that succeeds in many ways, but it also can’t decide if it should give its primary focus to complex family drama or to depicting the start of a legendary filmmaking career. The two elements never work together as naturally as they could or should, and they are both unsatisfyingly underdeveloped and unresolved in the end.

Despite its sometimes-bumpy and unfocused design, however, The Fabelmans still manages to be a movingly honest and bravely personal film that shines a revealing and fascinating light on the early days of one of Hollywood’s most celebrated filmmakers.

GRADE: B

Falling for Christmas

Lindsay Lohan stars as a spoiled rich woman who discovers the true meaning of Christmas after getting amnesia from a skiing accident. Particularly in its first half, the film is blandly acted, contains a vomitous amount of forced sentiment, and is so predictable that it’s a chore to witness. Falling for Christmas mildly improves in its second half, however, to deliver some select moments of holiday cheer, feel-good warmth, and charming romance. These moments are few and far between, however, and don’t fully make up for the fact that the overall film is hopelessly and tiresomely trite.

GRADE: C-

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

This third (and, sadly, most likely final) entry into the Harry Potter prequel series is an enchanting, inventive, and entertaining effort. Mads Mikkelsen fills Johnny Depp’s shoes quite nicely (however unnecessary Depp’s termination may have been) as the villainous character of Grindelwald. Though it is a little too reliant upon previous films in both this and the Potter series to stand on its own and be fully understood, it is still hard not to be won over by Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’s many magical charms.

GRADE: B+

Father Stu

This truth-based biography of a former boxer turned wannabe actor turned Catholic priest (Mark Wahlberg) is an endearing and charming effort that hits all the right notes of the standard biopic formula. Though Father Stu is nothing new and sometimes fails to be fully engaging due to its sporadically sluggish pacing, the film is still an overall nice, enlightening, and emotionally moving way to spend a couple of hours. Wahlberg delivers a wholly committed, impressively vulnerable, and intensely focused performance as Stuart Long. Mel Gibson, Teresa Ruiz, Jackie Weaver, Cody Fern, and Malcolm McDowell are all excellent in supporting roles.

GRADE: B+

Fresh

A lonely young woman (Daisy Edgar-Jones) with a nightmarish dating history meets the man of her dreams (Sebastian Stan) but is soon shocked to discover that he may not be exactly who he seems. To say anything more about its storyline would only risk giving away the film’s many wonderful surprises.

Director Mimi Cave and screenwriter Lauryn Kahn deliver a unique, rule-breaking, and riveting entry into the horror/thriller genre. While it slightly succumbs to a climax driven by a predictable thriller formula that the vast majority of the film intelligently avoids, Fresh is still, simply put, quite fresh. Jones and Stan both deliver fiercely committed and naturalistically believable performances.

GRADE: A-

The Glass Onion

This lively, quirky, and highly complex whodunnit follows up Knives Out and gives us the further adventures of its world-class detective protagonist, Benoit Blanc (an endearingly fantastic Daniel Craig). Writer/director Rian Johnson executes the storyline with cleverness and innovation, but he also has so many ideas that the film becomes progressively overcrowded and bogged down. The impressive ensemble cast (Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, Janelle Monae, etc.) each get their individual opportunity to shine, but, at the same time, their excellent performances and interesting characters occasionally get lost amidst the film’s ever-increasing business.

Though it is an overall success, The Glass Onion either needed some screenplay editing and simplification in pre-production or some fleshing out and runtime lengthening in post-production in order to be the masterwork that it often comes so close to being.

GRADE: B

Glorious

A man (Ryan Kwanten) is forced to face himself and his past after he is inexplicably locked in a rest stop bathroom and finds himself at the mercy of a disembodied voice (J.K. Simmons) coming from within a stall. Glorious is an intelligent, character-driven, and technically well-made horror/comedy/drama that has high ambitions within its limited locations and low budget. Unfortunately, the film’s overall plodding pacing doesn’t always hold its viewers’ interest and its bigger ideas are underdeveloped, underexplained, and ultimately unclear. Though the film tries to pack an emotional wallop in the end, it winds up befuddling its audience more than wowing it.

GRADE: C+

Gone in the Night

Winona Ryder portrays a woman whose boyfriend (John Gallagher Jr.) goes missing after an overnight stay at a cabin with two strangers (Owen Teague and Brianne Tju). With the aid of the cabin’s seemingly affable owner (Dermot Mulroney), Ryder goes searching for what turns out to be a very convoluted and somewhat confusing truth. Gone in the Night is a technically well-made and well-acted film whose overly complex story persistently unravels as it progresses, so much so that there’s not much left of interest by the time it reaches its befuddling and unsatisfying conclusion. Though it’s good to see Ryder headline a film again, there’s not much else to this dull and confusing thriller to make it worthwhile.

GRADE: C-

The Good Nurse

Based on a true story, The Good Nurse focuses on a nurse struggling with heart issues (Jessica Chastain) who befriends the new nurse (Eddie Redmayne) in her hospital, only to discover that he might be sneakily murdering patients. The wholly hypnotic and engrossing film demands focus and sucks the viewer right into its drama. The voyeuristic cinematography by Judy Lee Lipes and the mesmerizing sound design by Morton Green aid in keeping the viewer wholly consumed. Chastain gives a typically strong performance, supplying her sympathetic character with the integrity and class she needs to be the film’s moral compass. Redmayne is a stunning mixture of affable warmth and cold derangement, giving an infallible depiction of someone who hides their true sinister character behind a well-rehearsed, though perhaps partially sincere, mask.

The film’s only true fault is that it doesn’t fully examine or develop the relationship between Chastain and Redmayne’s characters. Though it’s believable that they become close, there is never a satisfying moment that tells us how Chastain is affected when the accusations against Redmayne begin. There’s no moment of denial or confrontation, the topic simply moves forward without any dramatic weight. The film skips a step or two in its storytelling, something that mildly mars The Good Nurse without ruining its otherwise exceptional quality.

GRADE: A-

The Gray Man

Ryan Gosling stars in this action/thriller, portraying a rogue CIA operative who has to thwart attempts on his life by a psychotically determined former operative (Chris Evans). While the story is unimpressively formulaic and predictable, the kinetic, thrilling, and wholly inspired execution by directors Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers: Infinity War, Cherry) more than makes up for it. The Gray Man is literally packed with colorfully inventive action sequences, so much so that the film becomes moderately exhausting and numbing by the time it reaches its final act.

Gosling is his usual smooth, effortlessly watchable self while Evans obviously has a great deal of fun portraying the dementedly vivacious bad guy. Julia Butters (Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood) and Billy Bob Thorton give memorable supporting performances. Ana de Armas is solid, though somewhat wasted, in a forgettable role as Gosling’s colleague.

GRADE: B+

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

You pretty much have to be Ebenezer Scrooge if you aren’t moved, entertained, and filled with the holiday spirit after watching this 45-minute holiday special featuring most of your favorite Guardians of the Galaxy characters. It may not be a full feature-length effort, but this is still the most fun, most inventive, and most rewarding entry into the MCU since, well, the last Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

Writer/director James Gunn manages to expertly balance some amusingly demented humor with just the right amount of feel-good holiday cheesiness. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is more than a mere appetizer to the next Guardians movie, it is a joyously unique accomplishment in and of itself.

GRADE: A

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Co-screenplay adapter/co-director Guillermo del Toro’s take on the classic fairy tale offers a refreshingly original approach to the material. Set in 1930s Italy during Mussolini’s reign, the film is darkly themed, historically detailed, and contains an awareness of the time’s violence in a frightening manner that is more geared towards adults than children.  It is also a visually stunning and exquisitely crafted feat that is executed with unbelievably smooth and impressively detailed stop-motion animation.

Unfortunately, however, the film is sometimes marred by its uneven pacing, overstuffed narrative, overly long runtime, and ill-timed and wholly unnecessary musical numbers. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio still works, overall, but certain aspects of it should have been significantly less busy and ambitious in order for the entire film to qualify as the masterpiece that its exceptional craftmanship deserves.

GRADE: B

Halloween Ends

This (hopefully) final chapter to director David Gordon Green’s rebooted Halloween films is not just an unsatisfying sequel to the filmmaker’s previous two efforts, it’s an underwhelming and unforgivably boring move in its own right. This time around, we jump ahead four years from the previous film (which is already a bad idea that breaks the momentum built up by the first two films) to focus on the town outcast (Rohan Campbell), who teams up with a weakened Michael Myers after they share some ludicrous form of a Vulcan mind meld (or something like that). Nothing particularly interesting happens after that until the last fifteen minutes, which is the only part of the movie that actually feels like a proper Halloween sequel.

You have to give the creators behind Halloween Ends some credit, however, because they, at the very least, tried to do something different with the franchise. If only they were equally concerned about trying to do something good…

GRADE: D+

The House

The House is a trilogy of half-hour short films that are connected by storylines about the trials and tribulations of homeownership. The films are all surreally and quirkily comedic, and they all have differing dominant tones of ominousness, absurdly dark satire, and whimsical hopefulness. The extreme artistry and care with which each story is crafted—all in gloriously detailed and impressively smooth stop-motion animation—make up for the occasional sluggish pacing and for the lack of seamlessness between each contrasting storyline.

The House is a beautiful, though, as a whole, slightly haphazard viewing experience.

GRADE: B+

House of Darkness

Justin Long plays a man who drives a woman (Kate Bosworth) home after meeting her at a bar. When she invites him inside, things get increasingly tense, uncomfortable, and dangerous. Writer/director Neil LaBute (The Shape of Things, In the Company of Men) delivers an overall intelligent and suspenseful horror/thriller that is reliant upon well-written dialogue, a moody atmosphere, and organic human behavior. Though the predictable final reveal is a letdown, the events leading up to it are highly engrossing and well-executed by the talent both in front of and behind the camera.

GRADE: B

I Came By

A serial vandalizer/graffiti artist (1917’s George MacKay) with a purpose uncovers some dark and dangerous secrets after breaking into the wrong house. This British thriller is, overall, unpredictable and intensely captivating. Though most of the characters within the film suffer from underdevelopment and lack of charm, Kelly MacDonald (Trainspotting) somewhat makes up for it with her portrayal of a layered, likable. and sympathetic mother desperately searching for answers regarding her missing son.

I Came By may be a bit emotionally dry and dramatically underwhelming, but it still predominantly succeeds as a suspenseful and intelligent thriller.

GRADE: B

I Love My Dad

Patton Oswalt is, in equal measures, hilarious, painfully vulnerable, and despicably slimy as a father who poses as a young woman (Claudia Sulewski) online so he can talk to his estranged son (James Morosini). Needless to say, the result is squirm-inducing, but it’s also darkly hilarious and, ultimately, oddly moving.

I Love My Dad is an endlessly engrossing and surprising film that fearlessly examines some uncomfortable and messy human emotions. Writer/director Morosini delivers an original and painfully honest film that is executed with exceptional innovation and whole-hearted care.

GRADE: A

The Inhabitant

A teenager (Odessa A’zion) with a bloodline connected to Lizzie Borden experiences flashes of madness and soon comes to suspect that Borden’s murderous ways might be inheritable through a family curse. Though it has an intriguing premise and is overall well-acted, The Inhabitant falls short of being a success due to its stale execution and its annoyingly unclear plot details. It has moments of terror and a nice surprise or two towards the end, but the film is an otherwise lifeless and dull experience.

GRADE: C

Interceptor

Elsa Pataky makes a formidable action star and proves she can carry her own movie with this enjoyable action/thriller. Capitalizing on current fears of nuclear war, the film centers on a group of terrorists who overtake an American missile interceptor station and the badass woman (Pataky) who has to defend it. It may not be anything particularly original, but Interceptor delivers enough thrills, suspense, and likable, well-defined characters to be regarded as a quality piece of entertainment.

Executive producer Chris Hemsworth also has a memorable and amusing cameo in which he serves as the film’s primary source of comedic relief.

GRADE: B

Jurassic World Dominion

This is the sixth entry and third reboot sequel to the Jurassic Park franchise that began in the early ‘90s. Dinosaurs are freely and dangerously roaming modern-day Earth at the story’s beginning, and the greedy head of a corporation (Campbell Scott) wants to capitalize on the situation by controlling all food production. It’s up to a fun and nostalgic blend of newer heroes (Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard) and older, familiar ones (Laura Dern, Sam Neil, Jeff Goldblum) to help save the day.

The movie is occasionally underwhelming with some minorly sloppy staging and editing choices that don’t always produce tension or suspense as well as they should. The movie overall survives its faults, however, due to its excellent cast, brisk pacing (the bloated two-and-a-half-hour runtime is, overall, surprisingly unfelt), and always-impressive visual effects. Jurassic World Dominion is an overall fun, exciting, and careless way to spend two-and-a-half hours of your time.

GRADE: B

Kimi

Zoë Kravitz stars as an agoraphobic woman who, while working for an assistive artificial intelligence company, uncovers the evidence of a murder. This modern-day Rear Window is a smart and suspenseful thriller with many Hitchcockian elements that are updated for the age of the internet and COVID-19.

David Koepp’s script is full of surprises and well-set-up payoffs, though it falls short of greatness because of its lack of clarity regarding its antagonists’ identity and motivation. Steven Soderbergh’s direction, editing, and cinematography are as top-notch and skillful as ever. Kimi is his best-paced and most focused film in quite some time.

GRADE: B+

Last Looks

A former Los Angeles police officer (Charlie Hunnam) takes a private investigator job to help solve a murder that involves a popular television star (Mel Gibson). While the film has plenty of charm and was obviously made with care and talent, its convoluted and conversation-driven story/screenplay (by source novelist Howard Michael Gould) is hard to focus on and follow. Though it has a number of impressive moments, the film’s dramatic energy too often falls flat, causing the story to sometimes lose momentum and, subsequently, its audience’s engagement.

Last Looks had a great deal of potential that is only partially realized. It could have been something truly special with a little screenplay finessing and tighter editing, but, instead, it’s going to have to settle on being a flawed work that houses some solid filmmaking and some highly memorable performances.

GRADE: C+

Last Man Down

After a pandemic wipes out the majority of the world’s population, a secluded soldier (Daniel Stisen) is forced to protect a young woman (Olga Kent) who is being hunted so she can be the subject of inhumane testing because it is believed that she holds the virus’ cure in her blood. Though Last Man Down has a somewhat generic style and storyline, it’s still an overall entertaining film with some thrilling and well-staged action sequences, tight pacing, and sympathetic and likable characters. Stisen is well-suited to his role as an unstoppable action-hero badass.

GRADE: B

Last Seen Alive

Gerard Butler stars as a frantic husband who takes matters into his own hands after his wife (Jaimie Alexander) mysteriously goes missing at a gas station. It’s been done before, sure, but Last Seen Alive is still successfully suspenseful and attention-grabbing due to its brisk and tight pacing, disciplined filmmaking, and committedly intense performances. Butler’s natural charisma and watchability make it easy to sympathize with him and follow him on his character’s exasperating journey.

GRADE: B

Lou

An ex-CIA operative (Allison Janney) braves a severe storm in the wilderness to help a young girl (Ridley Asha Bateman) who has been kidnapped by her dangerous father (Logan Marshall-Green). Though the film is functionally well-made and features outstanding performances by Janney (who is an unsurprisingly tough and believable action hero), Bateman, and Marshall-Green, there’s no life, personality, or inspiration to be found in the film’s story or execution. Lou is simply a bland, generically styled, and passionless film that overall fails to sustain interest and only fully succeeds in wasting some exceptional talent.

GRADE: C-

Luckiest Girl Alive

Mila Kunis gives a powerful and edgy performance as a rape survivor and high school shooting survivor who is forced to deal with the rumors that she may have had a hand in the latter’s violent events. Luckiest Girl Alive is an overall pertinent and harrowing depiction of two important topics (sexual violence and mass shootings) that deserve a great deal of examination.

The oftentimes-darkly humorous tone overall works, but is occasionally at odds with moments of strong drama and direct sincerity. Minor faults aside, this an exceedingly well-made and thought-provoking film that deserves to be seen by a large audience.

GRADE: A-

Lux Aeterna

This fifty-minute experimental feature from the explosively daring auteur, Gaspar Noé, takes place on a fictional movie set for a film about witches. While it is thrillingly inspired with its utilization of innovative filmmaking techniques, Lux Aeterna falls short of the greatness that most of Noé’s other films achieve because it’s hard to relate to or understand any of its characters. The film is aesthetically bold but, overall, dramatically flat and unengaging.

Lux Aeterna still manages to be mesmerizing in select moments due to Noé’s aggressively psychedelic style, but it would have been nice if the master magician had a clearer point with his fevered illusions this time around.

GRADE: B-

Mad God

Every frame of this nightmarishly surreal, beautifully grotesque, and predominantly stop-motion-animated epic is bursting with ingenuity and skill. All the painstaking effort put into this groundbreaking, thirty-years-in-the-making achievement by visual effects pioneer Phil Tippet is evident while viewing it. Mad God’s mad brilliance is something you just have to see and experience for yourself in order to believe it.

GRADE: A

A Man Called Otto

This charming character-based comedy/drama stars Tom Hanks as an antisocial widower who is plotting his suicide, only to constantly have his plans thwarted by unforeseen life events. Though the film is a tad too polite and slightly oversimplifies grief and depression, it’s still a highly thoughtful and overall moving film that is a terrific vehicle for Hanks’ bottomless talent. A Man Called Otto induces laughter, pulls at the heartstrings, and reminds us to look at life from different angles in a very endearing and sensitive manner.

GRADE: B+

The Man From Toronto

Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson star as a bumbling everyman/deadly assassin odd couple that is forced to work together despite their extraordinary differences (can you imagine?!). The story is tired, the jokes are stale, the tone is obnoxious, the action sequences are exhaustingly unspectacular, and the airtight pacing allows little room for character development. On the positive side, Hart and Harrelson display an effortless and lively chemistry, but it’s too underexplored and lost amongst the noise to save The Man From Toronto from being a creatively bankrupt production.

GRADE: C-

Men

A young woman (Jessie Buckley) rents a remote house so she can heal from the troubling death of her husband (Paapa Essiedu). Shortly after arriving, she is stalked by a mysterious male entity and soon finds that all the men with whom she comes into contact seem to hold an increasingly misogynistic grudge against her. Are these events real? Or are they all part of her traumatized psyche?

Despite its deliberately paced, downright brilliant, and utterly terrifying build-up, the film’s unclear final act proves that writer/director Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) doesn’t entirely know how to make sense of his own story. And if he does, he certainly doesn’t seem to want to share it with his audience. Rather than being tantalizingly ambiguous in a Lynchian sort of way, the film instead falls quite short of dramatic satisfaction. However, the first hour of Men contains some of the best and most effective horror of its time, which alone makes it worth seeing. Just don’t expect any closure or catharsis. Enter at your own risk.

GRADE: B-

The Menu

A snootily enthusiastic foodie (the always impressive Nicholas Hoult) and his date (an equally impressive Anya Taylor-Joy) visit a highly exclusive restaurant headed by a legendary and brutally perfectionist chef (a steely, smooth, and typically brilliant Ralph Fiennes). The Menu is an overall unpredictable and gleefully shocking satire/horror film that is filled with intelligence, tension, and scathingly dark humor and absurdity. It succeeds with just about all of its many aspirations and is executed with expert craftmanship and endless originality. There is simply nothing else quite like this wonderfully shocking film.

GRADE: A

Minamata

Set in the early 70s, Minamata tells the story of the celebrated WWII photographer, W. Eugene Smith (Johnny Depp), who exposed the devastating effects of mercury poisoning on a Japanese city. Though its heart is in the right place, the film fails to captivate its audience on a dramatic or emotional level. Minamata is a good history lesson, but it’s one that is increasingly laborious to sit through the further it progresses. Depp gives as much character shading as he can to a role that is underwritten and underdeveloped.

GRADE: C

Morbius

This Sony/Marvel production lacks the heart and character it needs to stand tall amongst the plethora of other comic book movies. Morbius is sluggishly paced, blandly executed, and filled with uninteresting and thinly developed characters. Jared Leto does his best in the titular role, but his efforts can only go so far when he’s working with such an uninspired screenplay.

Morbius, despite the talent associated with it, is an inexcusably dull viewing experience.

GRADE: C-

The Munsters

Writer/director Rob Zombie’s reboot of the classic, spookily family-friendly series centers on the origins of the titular family of lovable monsters and how they came to live in suburban America. Though sometimes poorly paced and often thinly plotted, The Munsters isn’t nearly as bad as it should be. It boasts beautifully and boldly colorful cinematography by Zoran Popovic, innovative and eye-catching set and costume designs, and fun, bubbly performances by Sheri Moon Zombie, Daniel Roebuck, and Jeff Daniel Phillips.

Unfortunately, the movie is also a bit of a tonal and structural mess with sometimes-odd comedic timing, numerous unsuccessful bits that simply don’t know who they’re playing towards, and a runtime that is at least twenty minutes too long. However, there is still a charming and intentional silliness/childishness to the movie that should make it appeal to younger audiences and, at the very least, mildly amuse older ones.

GRADE: C+

My Southern Family Christmas

A journalist (an excellent Jaicy Elliot) gets the opportunity to meet her estranged biological father (a layered and likable Bruce Campbell) through the guise of a piece she is assigned to write for Christmastime. All-around good acting, solid filmmaking, and an intelligently touching script make this charmingly cute Hallmark movie a good fit for anyone’s holiday viewing list, no matter how formulaic it may be. My Southern Family Christmas is a holiday movie that is unabashedly designed to make you feel good, but it does so with striking intelligence and sincerity.

GRADE: B+

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes

This documentary examines the tragic, painful life and mysterious death of America’s most iconic actress, Marilyn Monroe, by way of previously unheard interview tapes featuring those closest to her.

While the film is perfectly intriguing, it fails to be fully riveting due to its haphazard structure and uninspired filmmaking style. The audio clips are organized without concern for clarity or dramatic impact, and the visuals that accompany them largely consist of tiresome roaming shots from the point of view of a car driving through Los Angeles at different time periods. The film manages to raise interest in its subject’s questionable death, but it fails to be a wholly gripping or definitive examination of the topic.

GRADE: B-

Night’s End

An agoraphobic and anxiety-ridden video blogger (Geno Walker) suspects that his apartment may be haunted and decides to seek help in the form of an online exorcism, which has unexpected results. Director Jennifer Reeder’s feature follow-up to her highly inventive and genre-defying effort, Knives and Skin, is a bit more straightforward and an even larger bit less inspired than her previous film.

Night’s End is a low-budget effort with limited locations and cast members, and it does deserve credit for trying to accomplish a lot with very little. The film is well-made on a technical level, features some excellent performances, and has a notably strong first act. However, it just doesn’t know how to sustain its audience’s interest for the entirety of its duration and it, ultimately, fails to come together as anything memorable or impactful with its dull and unclear climax.

GRADE: C

Nope

This new and updated take on extraterrestrial invaders from writer/director Jordan Peele is, at the very least, uniquely executed. However, the overall storyline is unnecessarily complicated and intentionally jagged to follow, making it quite difficult for the audience to become fully immersed in the film. Peele, despite his massive talent, gets in his own way this time around by being more concerned with breaking new narrative ground than he is with telling his story with clarity and inclusivity. Considering all the talent associated with it, Nope could have been something much more memorable if it would have rethought and finessed some of its more frustrating and over-ambitious narrative choices.

GRADE: C

The Northman

Alexander Skarsgard stars a former prince turned Viking who seeks vengeance against the man (Claes Bang) who killed his king father (Ethan Hawke) and kidnapped his queen mother (Nicole Kidman). Co-writer/director Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse) pushes his bold filmmaking style to the limit with The Northman, a challenging, brutally violent, and visually hypnotic film that rises above what easily could have been a simplistic, revenge-themed storyline.

The sometimes-tediously paced film can come off a bit emotionally cold due to some underdeveloped character relationships. However, it’s still a work of undeniably high quality, as it features a number of striking performances, gorgeous cinematography by Jarin Blaschke, and a creatively courageous and overall unforgettable style of execution.

GRADE: B+

Not Okay

Zoey Deutch continues to prove herself as one of the most adept comedic and dramatic actresses of her generation with her layered portrayal of a depressed young woman who pretends to have survived a terrorist attack for internet attention. She conveys the wince-inducing situation by effortlessly shifting from hilarious, airheaded vanity to pained, vulnerable self-awareness. It is a highly complex performance that is all the more impressive because Deutch makes it look so effortless.

This intelligent and thought-provoking study of social media fame, gun violence, and mental illness challenges its viewers in a variety of ways. Writer/director Quinn Shephard creates a direct, edgy, and fiercely funny piece of satire, but also tackles the film’s subject matter with sincerity and open-minded, non-judgmental integrity. Not Okay refuses to simplify itself and never takes the easy way out, resulting in a film that bravely asks a number of important questions about today’s world without providing any false or easily digestible answers.

GRADE: A

One Way

This intense, minimalistic, and character-driven thriller is wholly engrossing from beginning to end. Featuring an excellent and hyper-focused lead performance from Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) and directed with precision and skill by Andrew Baird, One Way never loses its momentum and never fails at keeping up the suspense. Though its supporting characters could have used a little more development and the ending is a tad abrupt, the film is still a surprisingly successful low-budget accomplishment.

GRADE: A-

The Pale Blue Eye

Christian Bale gives another committed, focused, and quietly hyper-intense performance in this darkly moody and tangibly atmospheric effort from writer (based on Louis Bayard’s novel)/director Scott Cooper. Bale portrays a detective trying to solve an inexplicable murder in 19^th century New York with the aid of a young Edgar Allan Poe (an also excellent Harry Melling). 

The Pale Blue Eye is an effective and engrossing mystery/thriller that contains beautifully dark cinematography (by Masanobu Takayanagi) and some otherwise excellent filmmaking. Its deliberate pace is hypnotic at its best, but sporadically sluggish at its worst. The two-hour-plus film could have easily been trimmed a good ten to fifteen minutes of its runtime to provide a steadier pace. Looking past this, however, The Pale Blue Eye still has a number of wonderful surprises and is an overall mesmerizing and impressive piece of work.

GRADE: B+

Phoenix Rising

This two-part documentary centers on actress Evan Rachel Wood outing her abuser, shock rocker Marilyn Manson, a decade after their toxic relationship ended.

Phoenix Rising is an inspiring and heartfelt look into surviving and standing up to emotional and physical abuse. Though the slightly unfocused and sometimes redundant film would have been more impactful if it were presented as a standalone feature with a half-hour shorter runtime, it still manages to make its point with clarity, empathy, and painstaking honesty.

GRADE: B+

Pinocchio

This (kind of) live-action retelling of the Walt Disney animated classic about a puppet who is on a mission to become a real boy is a simple and direct pleasure. The film doesn’t hold much appeal for adults, but it’s charming and innocent enough to bring out the kid in you for nearly a couple of hours, regardless. Director Robert Zemeckis and his team’s filmmaking is solid, the songs are mercifully brief, and Tom Hanks’ lead live-action performance as Geppetto is as loveable and as integrity laden as the actor has ever been.

GRADE: B

Prey

This prequel to the Predator series, about an alien race that hunts humans for sport, is set three hundred years in the past and features the titular antagonist sparring with a female Comanche warrior (an intensely focused Amber Midthunder). Though the outcome of each action sequence is relatively predictable, director Dan Trachtenberg still keeps us engaged with tight pacing and sturdy staging. Prey may not be overly wowing, but it does still manage to be highly entertaining for most of its duration.

GRADE: B

Resurrection

A single mother (Rebecca Hall) is terrified to discover that her abusive and controlling ex (Tim Roth) is slowly reappearing back into her life after years of absence. Hardly a conventional thriller, Resurrection deserves credit for taking what could have been a very formulaic premise and doing something highly expressive, thought-provokingly complex, and oddly surreal with it. Though it doesn’t fully come together in the end or make its points entirely clear, the film is too unique to be written off without, at the very least, partially appreciating its courageousness and originality.

GRADE: B-

Revealer

A stripper (Caito Aase) and a religious zealot (Shaina Schrooten) must face the apocalypse in ‘80s-set Chicago while being trapped together in a peep show booth. Despite its sometimes-slow pacing and an occasionally unclear storyline, Revealer mostly lives up to its amusing premise and provokes thought while delivering scares and laughs. Aase and Schrooten are both excellent in their lead roles, carrying the weight of the movie and inhabiting their roles with lifelike ease.

GRADE: B-

RRR

This relentlessly kinetic and endlessly inventive Hindi film centers on real-life Indian revolutionaries/freedom fighters Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan Teja). The film’s depiction of their friendship, forced antagonism, and eventual team-up against British colonialist invaders is purely and, in the best possible way, ridiculously fictional, however.

RRR’s many action sequences and its few musical numbers are brilliantly executed and loaded with emotion and imagination. Its protagonists are admirable and likable, and their motivations are always clearly defined. You never feel the film’s three-hour runtime (which is no small feat), and it consistently feels like it is simply bursting with impressive skill, intelligent and amusingly absurd humor, and extraordinarily sincere heart.

GRADE: A

Sam & Kate

A curmudgeonly elderly man (Dustin Hoffman) begins dating a hoarder (Sissy Spacek) around the same time their grown children (Hoffman’s real-life son, Jake Hoffman, and Spacek’s real-life daughter, Schuyler Fisk) begin seeing one another. Sam & Kate is highly affable and emotionally moving without containing a single contrived moment or false note. It presents its complex characters with realism and care, never shying away from life’s harsher realities but never dwelling on them to the point of being depressing. It’s a thoughtful, beautifully acted, and all-around well-made film that is ultimately as heartwarming as it is achingly honest.

GRADE: A

Scream

This self-described “requel” to the Scream series sees a new killer in the Ghostface mask stalking a new group of hip and attractive youngsters, some of whom, like previous franchise characters, participate in the film’s meta-awareness and commentary of horror movie “rules.” The new actors overall do a fine job with roles that are only occasionally interesting or fully developed. The return of Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette is welcome, as they all provide the film with the nostalgia it needs to appeal to fans of the original films.

There’s just not enough inspiration or freshness to its design to make this new Scream movie as memorable as the original films. Though it has a couple of nice surprises and contains sequences of aggressive suspense and brutality that are effective in and of themselves, the overall impact of the film is, unfortunately, rather dull.

GRADE: C+

See How They Run

This endlessly enjoyable, charming, and witty mystery/comedy centers on a backstage murder during a 1950s theatrical run of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap while its Hollywood film adaptation is in the midst of pre-production. Sam Rockwell is simply brilliant as a burnt-out inspector who is assigned to the case and given a new partner in the form of a young constable/sergeant-in-training (an affably naïve, comically uptight, and all-around pitch-perfect Saoirse Ronan). See How They Run is an inventive, fun, and funny film that provides highly amusing and engrossing escapist entertainment.

GRADE: A

She Said

Centering on the 2017 New York Times article that first exposed producer Harvey Weinstein as a sexual predator, this carefully handled, finely acted, and thoughtfully written film is a revelatory examination of the power and courage behind standing up to abuse. Completely avoiding all forms of sensationalism and exploitation, the film matter-of-factly relays its story through conversation and pained, hindsight reactions to the central abuse that drives it. The only downside to the film’s consistent integrity is that it sometimes lacks dramatic punch, something the intellectually stimulating film needs a tad more of to drive its point home on a more emotional level.

That being said, She Said is a highly intelligent and thought-provoking film that examines a very disturbing piece of recent history with endless class, good intentions, and impressive skill.

GRADE: A-

Smile

A psychiatric doctor with a troubled past (the excellent Sosie Bacon) witnesses a patient’s suicide, then experiences horrifying visions that could possibly lead to her demise. Smile is a smart, deliberately paced, and wholly terrifying horror effort that relies on simple but effective jump scares as much as it relies on intelligent, searing, and inescapable psychological horror. The film is, simply put, the best of both worlds.

The film has some minor faults, as it does take a little too long to find its footing in the beginning and its sometimes-sluggish pacing occasionally threatens to hurt its momentum. However, Smile is still an unforgettably creepy and disturbing film that uncomfortably lingers in its viewer’s psyche long after it’s over.

GRADE: A-

Spiderhead

This endearingly strange film offers a unique but messy blend of drama, humor, and science fiction. It is a bit too tonally haphazard to be considered great, but it’s also too interesting and original to be examined without praise. Spiderhead is a fascinating, though sometimes clumsy, film that knows what it’s trying to say but sometimes has a little trouble saying it.

Chris Hemsworth appears to be having a blast with his portrayal of a quirky, eighties rock-loving mad scientist who conducts drug experiments on prisoners. Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett are both excellent in leading and supporting lead roles.

GRADE: B

Sr.

This extremely touching, highly personal, and painfully forthright documentary focuses on legendary underground filmmaker, Robert Downey Sr. The film is an exploration of his provocative and endlessly innovative work, his relationship with his celebrated actor son, and his complex feelings about his life as he reaches the end of it. Sr. is a valuable and heartful exploration of an inescapable artist and a wholly individualistic man.

GRADE: A

The Staircase

This eight-part, reality-based miniseries focuses on Michael Peterson (Colin Firth) and nearly two decades of legal battles to clear his name of murdering his wife (Toni Colette). Creator, co-writer, and director of six episodes, Antonio Campos (The Devil All the Time), delivers a staggeringly watchable story that never ceases to be riveting for the entirety of its over-eight-hour duration. Consistently mesmerizing to the point of being downright hypnotic, The Staircase is a prime example of a richly developed story that benefits from, and doesn’t merely adjust to, its ongoing series format. Its events couldn’t have been conveyed as fully or satisfyingly in any other way.

The simply outstanding Firth delivers a highly complex and appropriately ambiguous performance. He portrays an inherently flawed and painfully human character, never once tipping his hat towards Peterson’s guilt or innocence. Colette, Juliette Binoche, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Dane DeHaan, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sophie Turner, Odessa Young, and the remainder of the supporting cast all deliver equally outstanding and deeply thoughtful performances. On just about every level, The Staircase is a massively impressive achievement.

GRADE: A

Tár

Though it is impeccably crafted and performed, there is little enjoyment to be found in this fictional study of a celebrated, world-renowned composer/conductor (Cate Blanchett). Writer/director Todd Field’s return to the director’s chair after an over-fifteen-year absence (his last effort is the excellent 2006 drama, Little Children) is a welcome one, but it would have been nice if he’d chosen/created material that contains a little more dramatic urgency. Tár has a number of exceptional qualities, but being interesting and engaging for the majority of its duration is not among them.

The film eventually has something to say about cancel culture and the corruption that power often begets. However, it takes far too long to get to its point and runs the risk of losing its audience by the time it does. Tár is the cinematic equivalent of studying for a final exam: it feels much better having done it than it does actually doing it. In other words, there is much to admire about the film after it is over, but sitting through it is nothing short of a laborious and painstaking chore.

GRADE: C+

They/Them

Gladiator and The Aviator screenwriter John Logan makes his directorial debut with this challenging, thought-provoking, and unsettling horror film. Taking place in a gay conversion camp led by a charmingly sadistic Kevin Bacon, the film focuses more on the internal struggles of the camp’s inhabitants than it does the masked killer who seems to be hunting them all. They/Them is a thoughtful slasher film that only occasionally contains slashing. While this allows room for in-depth character study, it also makes the film intermittently lose focus and have minor but noticeable pacing issues.

Though it has its faults, They/Them overall succeeds due to its unique point of view, topical storyline, and the exceptional talent both in front of and behind the camera.

GRADE: B

Thor: Love and Thunder

This entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe centers on everyone’s favorite god of thunder (Chris Hemsworth) taking on a new villain, Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), with the aid of his ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman), who has discovered a way to carry and execute Thor’s powers. There’s a lot of potential to be found in Thor: Love and Thunder. While a good deal of this potential is realized, an equal amount of it is squandered by a predominantly silly tone and oftentimes forced humor that don’t organically blend with the overall storyline.

There are still many positives to be found in the film, as it is just as lively, entertaining, and inventive in some parts as it is mildly obnoxious, uninspired, and scattered in others. It’s just too bad that the best and most interesting aspects of the film (Thor’s adventures with The Guardians of the Galaxy, Portman’s realization of her new powers, Bale’s fascinating performance and character) take a backseat to juvenile jokes that only occasionally work, tiring spectacle, and action sequences that are too derivative of Thor’s previous adventures to be noteworthy or memorable.

GRADE: B-

Three Thousand Years of Longing

This variation of the genie-in-the-bottle storyline is quite the antithesis to its director George Miller’s previous film, Mad Max: Fury Road. Since that movie is a masterpiece in just about every way, however, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Three Thousand Years of Longing is an overall sluggishly paced and dramatically flat film that forgets to engage its audience. Stars Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton give committed and professional performances, but the stale writing of their characters keeps them uninteresting and undefined. It being a Miller film, there are some beautiful visuals and some rare moments of stylistic ingenuity, but it’s not enough to save the film from primarily being a hopeless bore.

GRADE: C

Top Gun: Maverick

Tom Cruise returns as Maverick, the iconic character that made him a bona fide movie star in the eighties, in this long overdue sequel to Top Gun. In terms of story and character, the film is essentially a retread of ground already covered in the original film. Its biggest fault involves a very forced romance between Cruise and Jennifer Connelly that falls completely flat and pretty much wastes the latter’s talents.

An otherwise good performance from Cruise, impressive work by the young ensemble cast (Miles Teller, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Glen Powell, etc.), and some truly breathtaking aerial cinematography and choreography make up for the film’s lack of originality. As formulaic and overtly nostalgic as it may be, Top Gun: Maverick still manages to be an overall impressive filmmaking achievement.

GRADE: B

Triangle of Sadness

Centering on a group of rich and privileged passengers aboard a luxury cruise ship, Triangle of Sadness is a refreshingly unpredictable, bold, and scathingly hilarious satire that examines (amongst many things) the flaws of capitalism and upper-class entitlement. The overly-long film’s loose pacing and its sprawling and meandering structure occasionally make it tiresome to sit through, but the otherwise intelligent nature of its screenplay, along with some solid filmmaking and excellent performances, make such faults overall forgivable.

Unfortunately, however, the film’s abrupt ending, which aspires to be cleverly ambiguous, notably hurts it by making it feel frustratingly unfinished. There is still much to admire about Triangle of Sadness, despite it falling short in a few capacities that prevent it from reaching the masterwork status that it comes so close to achieving.

GRADE: B+

Umma

Sandra Oh gives an excellent performance as a woman who is psychologically and spiritually haunted by her deceased mother (MeeWha Alana Lee). Umma uses the horror genre to explore realistic complexities and intricacies that are found in mother/daughter relationships. Though the film contains its fair share of horrific moments, it’s overall more thoughtful and revelatory than it is terrifying.

Writer/director Iris K. Shim is more concerned with the psychology and emotional reality of her characters than she is with pleasing genre fans. This makes for an interesting, relatable, and adult-oriented film. However, Umma only partially reaches its goal to be scary and never fully manages to get under our skin.

GRADE: B

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Nicolas Cage stars as Nick Cage in this wildly inventive ode to the world-famous thespian. The meta film centers on a plot where Cage is paid one million dollars to attend a massive fan’s (a surprisingly hilarious Pedro Pascal) birthday party, then somehow finds himself working undercover for the CIA. The film is exciting, hilarious, and bonkers in all the right ways.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a must-see film that both spoofs and celebrates one of cinema’s most creative and powerful performers.

GRADE: A

Uncharted

Uncharted is an action yarn based on a popular video game series of the same name. Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, and Sophia Ali star, portraying small-time criminals who go on an archaeological hunt for old pirate ships and lost gold. The actors do their best to add life and humanity to their underdeveloped characters and the screenplay’s overly busy storyline, but they can only do so much. Despite a couple of thrilling action sequences, the cluttered film is ultimately more tiresome and numbing than it is exciting.

Director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) obviously knows how to deliver a funny and entertaining actioner, he just needs a better script with a more unique concept for his next effort.

GRADE: C

Vengeance

A New York podcaster (B.J. Novak) is mistaken by the members of a small-town Texas family to be the true love of their deceased family member that he only casually dated, and soon gets entangled in the mysterious circumstances surrounding her untimely death. Also the writer and director, Novak delivers a quirkily and darkly funny yet, at times, sincerely poignant dramatic mystery that relies more on character development and character interaction than it does on hitting progressive plot points.

The film, on rare occasions, loses focus and it also doesn’t quite reach the full potential of its dramatic impact in the end. However, Vengeance is still, overall, a captivating, surprising, and movingly heartfelt feature debut from an impressively solid filmmaking talent.

GRADE: B+

Violent Night

David Harbour stars as a burnt-out and embittered Santa Claus who rediscovers the spirit of Christmas when he is forced to battle brutal mercenaries who have taken a wealthy family hostage. The easily likable Harbor is equal parts comedy gold and action-movie-badass, successfully conveying a wide range of endlessly entertaining emotions. Though the film’s running time could have been shaved down to create a more consistently kinetic pace, Violent Night is still a gleefully violent, darkly humorous, and amusingly atypical way to enjoy some holiday cheer.

GRADE: B+

Vortex

Though far more toned down and introspective than the aggressive bouts of cinematic psychedelia for which he is best known, this Gaspar Noé film is no less innovative or profound than his previous efforts. Centering on an elderly married couple (Dario Argento and Francoise Lebrun) whose lives are under duress due to the wife’s increasingly debilitating dementia, the film is a brutally honest and lifelike depiction of the devastation that mental decay causes.

The film utilizes long, often interrupted takes that sometimes threaten to be gratuitous but also ground the film in a very deliberately paced reality. Split screen effects are also used throughout to highlight the increasing disconnection between the two characters. Noé’s inventive filmmaking, along with his newfound sensitivity and restraint, makes Vortex an unforgettable experience that bravely explores a very harsh and painful reality.

GRADE: A-

Watcher

A young woman (portrayed by an overall believable but sporadically flat Maika Monroe) moves with her husband (a charming but somewhat too relaxed Karl Glusman) to Romania and soon becomes obsessed with the idea that a man is stalking her. Watcher is the kind of frustrating horror/thriller whose plot progression is far too reliant upon unrealistically convenient story beats and the stupidity and unbelievably poor decisions of its protagonist. Though it is primarily well-made and contains a surprisingly intense and effective climax, the film never fully recovers from its sometimes-lazy writing and slightly uncommitted lead performances.

GRADE: C+

The Weekend Away

A new mother (Leighton Meester) takes a much-needed vacation to Croatia, then soon has to clear her name of murdering her best friend (Christina Wolfe).

The Weekend Away is like a Lifetime movie without the cheesy, guilty pleasure fun factor. There is no life or heart to the film, as it is merely a bland experience consisting of highly implausible events and underdeveloped character motivations. Though the film has a few nice (though highly unbelievable) surprises, they’re not enough to make up for its highly uninteresting and dully executed storyline.

GRADE: C-

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

This exceedingly clever and highly absurd spoof of the biopic format (kind of) tells the life story of parody musician “Weird Al” Yankovic by relaying it through parody. The film, on rare occasions, drags (it probably runs about ten minutes too long) and it doesn’t always take full advantage of its wild premise, but it’s still an overall hilarious and entertaining effort that is ultimately as inventive as it is charming.

Daniel Radcliffe is pitch-perfect and priceless as Yankovic, playing every moment, even the silliest ones, with complete commitment. Evan Rachel Wood steals every second she’s in front of the camera with a brilliant and endlessly amusing portrayal of a sociopathically ambitious and comically exaggerated Madonna.

GRADE: A-

Wendell & Wild

Two demons (voiced by Keegan-Michael Kay and Jordan Peele) take advantage of an orphaned teenager (voiced by Lyric Ross) to return to the land of the living after stealing their boss’ magical hair cream and discovering they can use it to revive the dead. The inspired creative pairing of producer/voice actor/co-screenwriter Peele and producer/co-screenwriter/director Henry Selick doesn’t quite live up to its promise, as Wendell & Wild doesn’t seem to fully belong to either creative visionary and never quite reaches either of their standards for greatness. Though it has an inventive story, dazzling visuals, and contains some of the smoothest and most refined stop-motion animation ever accomplished, the film lacks the heart, vision, and character it needs to fully rank alongside its creators’ most noteworthy accomplishments.

GRADE: B-

White Elephant

The exceptional talents of cast members Michael Rooker, John Malkovich, and Bruce Willis can’t help this hopelessly sub-mediocre action/thriller. Though it has plenty of bloody violence, White Elephant is low on excitement and entertainment due to its lack of ingenuity and bland execution. It offers absolutely nothing that hasn’t been seen before and done far better. Willis, whose voice sometimes sounds like it was dubbed by a different actor, deserves much more for what is, quite sadly, one of his final film roles.

GRADE: D+

White Noise

Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig star as a married couple trying to keep their family secure during a potentially apocalyptic scare that involves airborne contamination (or something like that for at least part of the film). Since I have not read Don DeLillo’s source material, I can only assume that writer/director Noah Baumbach didn’t fully utilize what makes the book such a classic piece of literature for his misguided and dull film adaption.

White Noise’s satire is obvious, its obnoxiously quirky tone is overbearing, its forced humor constantly falls flat, its character definitions are unclear, its story is a meandering and confused mess, and its pacing is unbearably uneven. What a colossal waste of time and talent!

GRADE: D

Windfall

Jason Segel stars as a man who breaks into a tech mogul’s (Jesse Plemons) vacation home, only to be interrupted by his and his wife’s (Lily Collins) unexpected arrival. Windfall is a well-acted, well-made thriller that is consistently surprising. The formula-averse film does a fine job of creating the feeling that anything unexpected could happen at any moment. On top of containing large measures of entertainment value, the film also manages to examine and provoke thought on the unfairness of widely separated social classes.

Though it’s a variant of the home invasion scenario that we’ve seen countless times before, Windfall is still an exceptionally intelligent and riveting burst of cinematic intensity that is unpredictable right up to and including its final moments.

GRADE: A-

The Woman King

This riveting adventure tale is inspired by true events that took place in 19th-century Africa. It centers on a teenage girl (the excellent Thuso Mbedu) who refuses her family’s orders to marry a rich man and, instead, becomes a soldier led by a skilled female general (the typically brilliant Viola Davis).

Director Gina Prince-Bythewood successfully balances meaty character drama with historical insight and thrilling, expertly staged battle sequences. Though the film’s momentum is occasionally disrupted by its unevenly paced first half, it mostly makes up for it with its near-breathless second half. The Woman King is an overall entertaining and enlightening film that exhibits many great performances and impressively skilled filmmaking.

GRADE: A-

Women Talking

This thought-provoking and exceptionally powerful film centers on a group of Mennonite women who have suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of some of the men in their community. They then have to decide whether to leave their home or stay and forgive those who did them so terribly wrong. Writer (based on the book by Miriam Toews)/director Sarah Polley delivers a wholly honest, sensitive, and intelligent film that depicts the painful aftermath of male aggression and violence directed toward women. The extraordinary ensemble cast is comprised of such massive talents as Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand, and Ben Whishaw.

Women Talking is a meditative, poetic, and revelatory examination of the unavoidable necessity of female empowerment and independence. It is the perfect antidote to the increasingly overt misogyny found in today’s backward-moving world.

GRADE: A

The Wonder

Set in 1860s Ireland, a widowed English nurse (a typically impressive and committed Florence Pugh) is hired to observe a young girl (an excellent Kila Lord Cassidy) who has, miraculously, managed to survive after not eating for four months. The film’s deliberate pacing is occasionally tedious but its sturdy filmmaking, rich atmosphere, and focused performances prevent it from being a chore through which to endure. Not exactly riveting though far from dull, The Wonder is an overall success that could have used a bit more dramatic power to properly communicate its fascinating storyline.

GRADE: B

Wrong Place

Finally! A latter-stage, low-budget Bruce Willis movie where he is actually in it a significant amount and deserves the top billing he receives. In the film, Willis plays a security guard who witnesses a crime, then has to rescue his kidnapped daughter (Ashley Greene) from the criminal who is trying to keep him silent. Wrong Place is an overall predictable action/thriller but it still delivers some moderately good entertainment due to some solid performances, tight pacing, and engaging action. It’s nothing special and is obviously cheaply made but it’s still great to see Willis doing his thing with a role that is meaty enough to deserve his presence and talent.

GRADE: B-

Stockholm is based on the true story of a 1973 bank heist that inspired the terminology for what is today known as Stockholm syndrome, a phenomenon in which kidnap victims develop positive feelings for their captors. While well-made and, overall, well-acted, the film suffers from an overly quirky tone that obnoxiously attempts to highlight the absurdity of its depicted events.

Ethan Hawke plays a man trying to get his friend (Mark Strong) out of prison by holding a bank hostage. As the drama drags on for days, Hawke develops a strong bond with his captives, namely a married mother (portrayed by the wonderful Noomi Rapace) with whom he starts a romance.

Hawke delivers one of his weakest performances in years, shouting a large portion of his lines with exasperated and exaggerated angst that always lets us know he’s in on the joke. Though his quieter moments succeed with his always-present charisma, Hawke never appears fully or truly affected by the danger or the thrill of the situation at hand.

The film’s overall tone suffers the same problem. Accompanied by a nagging musical score that bleeds forced eccentricity, the film never involves its audience, always keeping it at a distance with a detached sarcasm that needlessly condescends to its subject matter.

The events depicted in the film could have easily and objectively spoken for themselves. Stockholm didn’t need to tap its audience on the shoulder every five minutes, constantly reminding us how silly this all is and how clever it is for pointing it out.

GRADE: C

Director Dexter Fletcher’s musical interpretation of Elton John’s life (all set to his music) is an inventive and exhaustive experience that both overstays its welcome and seems to cut itself short.

Taron Edgerton is unquestionably brilliant as John, successfully exhibiting the musician’s talent (with Edgerton impressively singing all the songs onscreen), weaknesses, and passions. Unfortunately, Edgerton’s talent can’t fully combat the fact that he is fundamentally miscast in the role. He looks nothing like John and is far too masculine a presence to fully exude the pop icon’s flamboyance and quirkiness.

The film skims the surface of many events in John’s life, but doesn’t settle on any of them long enough to fully explore their importance. You get a strong sense of who John is early on, but you don’t fully understand why success turns him into the demon-soaked, narcissistic mess he becomes later in life.

Though the film’s spectacle-driven style makes it stand out from the typical biopic, it dramatically feels forced and relies far too heavily on sentiment in the end to leave a lasting impact. Rocketman could have used a little less flare and a little more earthbound reality to fully humanize its larger-than-life subject.

GRADE: B-

Zac Efron is so naturalistically seductive in his portrayal of Ted Bundy that it’s near-tragic that his performance is not featured in a better film.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile attempts to depict the infamous serial killer through the eyes of his longtime girlfriend, Liz Kendall (portrayed with empathy and commitment by Lily Collins).

Instead of offering an intimate portrait of the madman’s private life, however, the film makes the mistake of trying to depict an enormous amount of already well-documented detail about Bundy’s crimes in under two hours.  Unfortunately, this leaves little room for developing Kendall’s character or her experiences with Bundy. It’s hard to feel anything for her as a result.

Simply reflecting facts about Bundy through Kendall’s eyes doesn’t give them any new insight. Focusing on the smaller, human moments of Bundy’s and Kendall’s relationship could have made for a far more revealing and involving film. Instead, its most interesting aspects are told in mere flashes, and its primary focus ultimately becomes something we’ve already seen and heard many times before.

GRADE: C

Another Girl is the latest film by writer/director Allison Burnett. It is a continuation of his 2014 cult masterpiece, Ask Me Anything, which is based on his own novel, Undiscovered Gyrl. Ask Me Anything and Undiscovered Gyrl follow the exploits of an adventurous, promiscuous and self-destructive eighteen-year-old girl named Katie Kampenfelt. An exhibitionist of the internet age, Katie blogs about all the salacious details of her private life, making her an unwitting target to just about everyone.

Another Girl, based on a Burnett novella, picks up where Katie’s story ends. A young woman named Elle Overton (Sammi Hanratty) has just finished reading Undiscovered Gyrl and deeply identifies with Katie. She comes across a website that claims to belong to Katie and contacts her out of curiosity. To Elle’s surprise, Katie (or someone who says they are Katie) writes back. The two develop an intimate relationship over email in which Elle confides the many painful details of her tragic past.

For those familiar with Burnett’s universe, Another Girl is cleverly meta and intriguingly complex. Anyone unfamiliar with Burnett’s previous works need not worry, however. Another Girl is a highly satisfying sequel for Ask Me Anything fans and a perfectly self-contained story for those who haven’t seen it.

Another Girl is about the unnatural phenomenon of online relationships—strangers who would never come to know one another under normal circumstances. It is a character-based thriller about a girl who is so broken and in need of human connection that she emotionally invests in a friendship with someone who may (or may not) be a work of fiction.

It’s either a beautiful love story or a cautionary horror tale. The film engrosses its audience by refusing to reveal which until its final moments. Another Girl cunningly sets itself up to go in either direction, making the outcome nearly impossible to predict.

The role of Elle requires Sammi Hanratty to perform solo for a significant portion of her screen time. Much of her performance involves reacting to memories or Katie’s unseen presence. Hanratty meets these and many other challenges head-on. She commands the viewer’s attention with brave vulnerability, disciplined skill and effortless charm. It’s a career-making performance that suggests talent and maturity beyond her years.

On a technical level, Another Girl is nearly perfect. Editor Michael Yanovich maintains a consistently smooth and steady pace. Michael Street’s cinematography is beautifully composed yet unobtrusively observational. Every element of the film is precisely constructed to advance the story while carefully remaining inconspicuous.

There’s truly nothing to compare Another Girl to other than its predecessor. Both films are similar in their styles and executions, but ultimately serve different purposes. Ask Me Anything is a mysteriously haunting film that astutely sums up a generation of lives lived online. Another Girl’s intentions are a bit blunter, though equally effective.

Fully describing the powerful emotions that Another Girl evokes would only spoil it. It’s fair to say that the film succeeds in what it sets out to accomplish. It toys with its audience’s expectations in the most masterful, elegant and mischievous of ways. And being toyed with has never been so rewarding.

GRADE: A

This Gunn family production (produced by James and written by his brothers, Brian and Mark) is a dark, clever, and shocking twist on modern superhero mythology.

Much like Superman, the title character of Brightburn mysteriously crashes on Earth and is discovered by two kind and loving parents (the excellent Elizabeth Banks and David Denman). Also like Superman, as the boy grows up, he realizes he’s not like all the other kids and can do things they can’t—like bend forks with his teeth or fly weightlessly in the sky. Not so much like Superman, the kid’s powers quickly go to his head and he decides to start crushing lowly humans like insects simply because he can.

Director David Yarovesky effectively builds suspense and atmosphere throughout the film, and also shows a great deal of promise for staging chaos before the camera. The film’s primary fault, however, is that it feels like it’s missing a first act.

The kid lands as a baby, then it cuts to twelve years later and he’s starting to act like a demon. Though Banks and Denman’s dedicated performances partially fill in the emotional gaps, it would have helped if the film had actually developed and shown us that innocent little boy they constantly reference throughout the film.

Faults aside, Brightburn is still a nasty and smart horror/superhero crossover that should please fans of either genre.

GRADE: B

Celebrity memoirs can be highly entertaining reads but rarely make for great literature. They are often gossipy fluff pieces that glaze over their authors’ harsher truths to focus on the success and glamour their luck, work, and talent has brought them.

Oliver Stone’s recent memoir doesn’t glaze over his harsher truths, they are the book’s primary focus. Chasing the Light is all about struggle. It is devoid of Hollywood glamour and mystique, opting instead for the brutal and harsh reality of what it takes to make it in such an overwhelmingly cutthroat business. Stone makes it abundantly clear that he wasn’t merely handed his success. The book chronicles his many years of work, pain, loneliness, and rejection before he rose to become one of the most gifted and provocative filmmakers in Hollywood history.

Chasing the Light contains all the elements of a juicy Hollywood memoir: celebrity stories, behind-the-scenes battles, broken relationships, drug addiction, and, ultimately, the kind of success of which most of us can only dream. What sets Stone’s memoir apart, however, is its unflinching honesty and its bold, poetically inclined voice. It’s a Hollywood insider story from the man who brought us Platoon, The Doors, JFK, Natural Born Killers, and many other cage-rattling films. Stone, ever the thunderous dramatist, can’t help but lend the same fiery passion to the story of his early life and career that he does to his films.

Stone’s book reads like an epic poem because he’s lived an epic life, one that is filled with and defined by war. The war of his early home life, where he was raised with conflicting values by a liberal French mother and a conservative Jewish father, set the stage for the wars he would battle throughout his adulthood, both in Vietnam and Hollywood. Chasing the Light makes us understand that Stone’s war, internal and external, is the fuel for his audacious and emotional body of work.

Unlike many filmmakers and writers, Stone’s greatest influences don’t come from other films or books. In reading the details of his life, it is clear that Stone’s biggest inspirations come from his own experiences, political points of view, and atypical philosophies. Chasing the Light makes us understand that the originality of its author’s work comes from his originality as a human being.

There’s much more to Stone’s life and career than is covered in Chasing the Light. Because the book is the story of Oliver Stone’s rise in Hollywood, it ends on the high note of Platoon’s worldwide success in the late eighties. While the book ends where it should, fans of Stone’s, in particular, will no doubt be left wanting more. The remainder of his life and works deserve—practically beg for—an equally thorough and sincere examination.

Oliver Stone’s memoir is alive in the same way his best films are alive. It is amongst his most important works. The book should be required reading, and not just for film students or its author’s fans. Chasing the Light is not another simple Hollywood memoir, it’s an important piece of history and a work of great artistic merit.

Now, all we need is the sequel.

GRADE: A

Glass is the completion of M. Night Shyamalan’s superhero trilogy that also consists of 2000’s Unbreakable and 2016’s Split. While Glass’ screenplay suffers from a number of contrivances that easily could have been fixed, Shyamalan’s execution still manages to make the film an overall success.

Bruce Willis is underused (most likely for budgetary reasons) as the indestructible David Dunn, but costars James McAvoy and Samuel L. Jackson more than make up for it. Playing a character suffering from a fantastical case of Dissociative Identity Disorder, McAvoy is a marvel to witness. He effortlessly jumps from one personality to another in long, single takes, creating something more awe-inspiring than any visual effect could ever produce. Jackson is cold, calculating, and oddly sympathetic as the title character: a criminal mastermind with bones so fragile they could break with only the slightest amount of pressure or force.

As a director, Shyamalan knows how to engage his audience and keep them in suspense with a slowly building and precisely controlled pace. As a writer, he’s still more concerned with catching us off guard and shocking us than he is with creating a script that can’t be picked apart after the movie is over.

(SPOILER ALERT!) The film has two major plot twists that are revealed towards its end. The first is a great and shocking one that pulls the entire universe together. The second is jagged and tacked-on, sloppily sending the film off in an entirely new direction in its final moments. It’s a part of the story that should have been developed throughout the film rather than quickly explained at its very end.

Shyamalan is ultimately guilty of trying to put too many things into one movie with Glass. However, it’s a testament to his talent as a director that the film overcomes its faults and still manages to be a successful and satisfying conclusion to the trilogy he started nearly twenty years prior.

GRADE: B