Ultimately, See How They Run is a solid ride. To those who find the recent influx of meta genre flicks to be exhausting, See How They Run will not come across as charming. It will feel tedious in its insistence that the film is clever beyond imagination.

At its most basic, To the Moon film is about looking for help. Who are the people who will aid you and who are the people whose assistance actually hurts. It’s not always easy to tell.

A Gen Z, John Tucker Must Die take on Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers On a Train, Do Revenge is a candy-coated tale of, well…revenge. It’s a pastel-colored Machavellian story of teenage subterfuge centered on two unlikely friends, Drea and Eleanor.

To Goodnight Mommy (2022)’s credit, it is not a shot-by-shot remake. Some visuals from the original remain, but they don’t pack the same punch. The Crovetti twins simply don’t loom over a tied-up Watts in the same way Elias and Lukas Schwarz did to Susanne Wuest.

Had the movie not unraveled the way it did, Speak No Evil could have solidified itself as one of the great low-budget horror flicks. The first half still belongs in that category, but the ending needed something more to elevate the themes of parenthood it’s so desperately trying to critique.

Despite stumbles in terms of plot and pacing, The Woman King is a thrilling watch. This story, these women, and the film’s heart deserve to be seen on the biggest screen possible with an audience ready to go along for a wild ride.

The Umbrella Men is a self-assured feature from all parties involved. The performances are charming, with enough nuance that the film is able to lift itself to a smart comedy.

For a film about a wooden boy who wants to become real and learn about what it means to be a person, Pinocchio (2022) is lifeless. Even Hanks, who has spent a good portion of his career playing charming, loveable characters, is bland in this adaptation.

It’s thanks to Hall that Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. stays afloat as long as it does. And it’s because of her intensity that the rest of the film’s shortcomings stand out so much. There is magic in Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., but it’s not ready for a rebirth quite yet.

Carmen is joyous. Despite its setting in a small Mediterranean town in the 1980s, the film feels like it’s a response to the lifestyle upheaval caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Young Plato isn’t flashy. There are no fanciful edits or infographics to get the point across. In many ways, the documentary mirrors its main subject. “It’s caring philosophy. Everyone’s opinion matters,” Principal McArevey tries to drive home.

As magical and trippy as Three Thousand Years of Longing wants to be, it gets lost in its own grand storytelling. Part of what makes stories enduring is their success at creating emotions within the audience, whoever they may be.

Breaking is an angry condemnation of Veterans Affairs, a twenty-first-century companion to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.”

The Daphne Project is La La Land’s weird, non-musical younger sibling. Both movies are about the pursuit of a career that’s unrealistic, yet someone has to do it. Someone has to be the one to make people laugh, and it’s a delight to watch Crews and Tibaldi take that lofty, impossible goal upon themselves.

Look Both Ways tries to cover five years in two separate timelines in less than two hours, but isn’t interested in the minutiae that really make up life. Instead, it’s broad strokes that barely amount to anything of substance.

To truly enjoy Fall is to buy into its semi-unbelievable premise. Hunter and Becky are stranded at the top of a 2,000-foot-tall television tower in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Sure, it takes about twenty minutes of plot time to get Becky and Hunter to the tower, but does that really matter?

Ultimately, it’s very obvious from the onset if Bodies Bodies Bodies will incite a mid-level or rave review from you. For those who don’t fully appreciate its distinct brand of humor, there’s still enough of a twisty, turny good time to make it worthwhile, although the charm wanes fairly quickly.

Mack & Rita is a film you’ve seen before. Sure, the plot and the characters are varied slightly, but there’s nothing new or different here. There are six montages in the meager 95-minute runtime, and that alone demonstrates how surface-level the script is.

Instead of the charming, well-meaning mess of a family in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Easter Sunday is focused on an irredeemably dysfunctional family. It’s no wonder Jo wanted to skip this dinner.

What makes Prey so compulsively watchable is that it does exactly what it promises to do. It’s a frantic fight for survival led by a compelling cast of characters. When the audience finally gets a good look at the Predator, it’s a glorious reveal.