Culkin and Eisenberg two are the heart of the film and it’s their final scene together that captures what A Real Pain wants its audience to take home with them. Pain is universal, but what we do with it is personal. 

His Three Daughters is messy in a way that reflects all of our families. The way we fight, the way we grieve, and, hopefully, the way we love. 

All You Need Is Blood is infectious, a zom drom that may not have a pulse on a zombie technicality, but is brimming with life.

The People’s Joker is an explosion of anger, joy, and art. More earnest and important than any superhero movie that came before it.

Venom: The Last Dance isn’t as weird as it should have been, but it’s still sad that this gonzo friendship will no longer be seen on the big screen.

Memoir of a Snail urges its audience to break out of their limits and leave a snail trail of their own.

Dahomey infuses artistic panache into its timely story of the painful reclamation of one’s heritage.

So easy to be swept up in and so easy to fall back down to earth, Anora is a slice-of-life humanist tale told in typical Baker fashion.

Conclave is, beneath its posturings of grandness, a quiet story about faith and confidence in the unknowingness that exists in our reality. It’s the sparring of progress and tradition in a world that is immensely desperate to have something that makes sense when it seems as though uncertainty reigns supreme.

As irate as The Apprentice made the real Donald Trump, it’s a little surprising that it doesn’t make a meaner punch.

Dìdi extends a warmth and kindness to the lost, angry, and hopeful teen we all once were.

Ghostlight argues that it matters less if the art you make is good, and more that you go through the grueling process of making something from your own vulnerability.

The Devil’s Bath is a punishing watch, one whose true horrors are only revealed as the credits begin to roll.

Preservation is an act of rebellion, one that the team of Artifact War continues to fight, even after the camera stops rolling. Our collective histories are worth fighting for, preserving, and learning from. 

The film plays with the idea of blind faith, devotion, and the way violence is used as a tool to keep believers in line. The Line is not a movie that will quickly be forgotten, nor should it be.

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin shows the power of human connection, even when it’s digitized.

Rumours is a dark comedy that makes good on its high-brow premise, while poking fun at the pseudo-intellectualism that exists in the world of global politics.

Smile 2 is far bloodier, nastier, and angrier than its predecessor, but it also unfolds itself in a way that could’ve provided some peace without losing the preceding viciousness.

Shadowland allows the web to untangle itself and the reality to fully differentiate itself from the fantasy, while still being respectful to those whose lives have been upended by these “spiritual narcissists.”

Even beyond the cinephiles, Boutique reminds us that movies have a unifying quality to them. An ability to make our world wider without ever leaving the plush seats of our favorite multiplex.