Michael Snydel

The movie is more about how outsiders – whether consciously or unconsciously – exert control. The repercussions of colonialism hover over the text even as these characters have “noble” intentions.

Just as the brothers themselves love to present dialectics about the duality of triviality and seriousness, so, too, does Hail, Caesar! constantly skate back and forth between feeling slight and monumental.

Giannoli’s ease with sugary, poisonous dialogue and the cumulating orbit of characters can’t quite mask the crowded plotting.

Linklater finds a joyful freedom in these men who refuse to discriminate. They’re happy to play dress-up daily, moving from discotheques to honky tonk bars to hardcore shows without worrying that they’re compromising some form of authenticity.

Strikingly shot and politically rich, Aferim! feels important, but too often it also feels like a fiery lecture inflected with moments of poetic grace.

While the story doesn’t always hold together, it remains moving.

River of Grass isn’t able to reach the peaks of Reichardt’s later monumental work, but it’s educational in mapping out her concerns as a filmmaker and a stirring reminder of her abilities as a visual stylist.

There’s a very good love story here, but it needed to be about one relationship, not the nature of romance itself.

As a study of grief, it’s moving, featuring authentic performances and a keen understanding of the receding hibernation that comes with losing a cornerstone person in one’s life. As a romance, it’s slow-going but believable. And as a look at the unfair mythos attributed to the dead, it’s nuanced and incisive. But in attempting to balance these complementary parts, Tumbledown is buried by its own ambitions.

Even at its most transparently manipulative, Risen doesn’t feel punishing. It’s universally good-natured without feeling too conniving.

Race is the rare biopic that needs more of its own main character.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a galling, casually offensive, and deeply unsatisfying film.

While the film becomes a constant test to outdo itself, the raw ambition isn’t nearly enough to make up for the content of the actual film: an ungainly, ugly, nearly interminable monstrosity.