EO is a stark and oftentimes angry look at humanity’s impact on the natural world. More than the human characters’ treatment of EO, it’s the film’s duality of man-made spaces vs. the open grasslands of nature.

Aftersun is left open-ended, and that’s a perfect conclusion to this portrait of a father and daughter relationship. It speaks to the inability of a child to truly understand their parents, no matter how valiantly they try.

Loneliness is isolating, painfully so. You can be surrounded by people and still feel the stifling ache of being alone. The things that help keep despair at bay (friends, music, animals) are the most fragile and need the most care. And yet, those are the aspects of life that people view as frivolous. The Banshees of Inisherin fluctuates from deeply sad to darkly humorous, a mirror of life itself.

The Fabelmans should feel like a memory, but the images are too crystal clear. There’s no grain, no warm hues, no softness. The film is too digital, too modern, too sterile for the emotion it’s trying to invoke in its audience.

For as gentle and earnest as The Quiet Girl is, the film is full of rage. An angry plea to give a damn about kids and to treat them with as much kindness as humanly possible. That is the bare minimum.

While The Eternal Daughter is an interesting concept, effortlessly supported by both of Swinton’s performances, the relationship between mother and daughter isn’t as developed as one would like.

She Said should have been scathing, a full-blown, overflowing, boiling pot of rage. Instead, it’s lukewarm, never as damning as it could be and never as critical as it should be.

Unlike other franchises that seemingly stick around far longer than they’re welcome, the mysteries of Benoit Blanc have the potential to delight for years to come.

The question of staying or leaving is simple, but the road to the answer is not. Women Talking is a tour de force, a fearless look at the way women lose their voices and the way they fight to get them back.

Devotion is another example of Majors proving that he is one of the finest young actors working today, but he, and Ensign Jesse Brown, deserved a richer script.

As the film progresses, the audience is begging for The Inspection to challenge them on something. Anything. The film doesn’t need to be pro- or anti-military to be successful, but it does need to know what it wants to say.

Bros is too obsessed with its own ideas of grandeur. Like the first-of-its-kind LGBTQ history museum Bobby is trying to open, Bros believes that it will single-handedly save queer cinema. However, queer cinema never needed saving in the first place.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the last-minute surprise of the year. The film has all the charm the audience has come to expect from the Shrek standout, but with a blindsiding amount of heart and humor.

Triangle of Sadness loses credibility by backing off in the film’s final moments. We’re left with a cliffhanger, a reminder of the limits Östlund could have gone to.

Babylon is pure excess, to its own detriment. Chazelle became so lost in frolicking in the playground of the 1920s Hollywood he’s created that he forgot to tie it all together into something meaningful.

Fire of Love is born out of passion. The film’s narration is romantic, merely a reflection of the awe Maurice and Katia have for volcanoes. It’s a love that can be understood by anyone who loves something unbridled adoration.

As with the first film, there will likely be droves of people who will keep showing up to screenings of Avatar: The Way of Water. It’s impossible to deny that they will be treated to a visual feast, but those looking for a more character-driven movie will be left adrift in the open water.

For a film about the necessity for heart and kindness, there’s a hollowness that’s impossible to overcome.

Emergency Declaration is thrilling and hits too close to home, given the world we’re living in now, but the film cannot stick the landing.

My Policeman would like to paint itself as a sprawling love story that’s sensual, emotional, and nuanced, but it’s a slog. The three main characters are too wrapped up in their own melodrama to have a lasting impact on the audience.