Los Javis' historical epic is a poetic modern classic. A sweeping, formally daring meditation on queer erasure, historical memory and the cost of repression, anchored by a revelatory Guitarricadelafue...

Zach Cregger's take is a compact and enjoyable survivalist horror. Austin Abrams carries a lean, atmospheric zombie thriller that finally cracks the video game adaptation curse, even if the humor occa...

Rodrigo Sorogoyen's heartwrenching latest delivers two masterful performances. Javier Bardem and Victoria Luengo are extraordinary in a father-daughter drama that refuses the comfort of reconciliation...

David Robert Mitchell returns with a vapid creature feature. An original concept and a strong cast can't rescue The End of Oak Street from lazy writing and a finale that undercuts everything before it...

One viewing only: a tepid rom-com with an intriguing premise. Monica Barbaro carries what she can, but Will Gluck's rom-com squanders a genuinely clever setup on generic dialogue and muddled stakes.

A solid Spidey entry, buried under continuity. Tom Holland remains the definitive screen Spider-Man, but thirty-eight films deep, the MCU's obligations increasingly crowd out the story actually being ...

A Nearly Great Adaptation, Missing Its Final GearChristopher Nolan reached what looked like the apogee of his career with Oppenheimer (2023), a film that seemed to fuse every skill and instinct he'd s...

Disney reheats another classic, and it shows. This live-action Moana is a nearly shot-for-shot recreation that dilutes everything that made the 2016 original special, with only Catherine Laga'aia's ch...

A Hollywood Love Letter That Actually Earns Its BananasDespite kickstarting and financially sustaining an entire new animation studio, the Despicable Me and Minions films devolved from Oscar-nominated...

Curry Barker's Debut Lingers Long After the Credits RollIt has been more than a year since yours truly, Young Critic, moved from the US to Spain. While this has allowed me to flourish in certain ways,...

Kara Zor-El Arrives, the Film Around Her Does NotThe DC superhero universe has been immersed in bad timing throughout the last three decades. After jumpstarting the superhero genre with Superman (1978...

A Worthy Toy, Buried Under Too Many BoxesThe original Toy Story trilogy holds a special place in my heart, with the first film being that one movie I would endlessly rewatch on VHS with no sense of fa...

A Familiar Light in the Sky, Dimmer Than BeforeDespite a varied career making iconic films across genres and mediums, Steven Spielberg appears most comfortable and at ease within science fiction, and ...

The Wayans Return, But the Jokes Don'tWhile satirical movies have shown promise under the Lonely Island troupe of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer, with the likes of Popstar: Never Stop...

A Prodigious Debut That Trusts Its Mystery More Than Its MessageAs filmmaking equipment and software have become more accessible, and platforms for content distribution such as YouTube cheap and easy ...

A Brazen Act of Revisionism Dressed Up as a BiopicMusic biopics have been revived and proved largely winning for studios, especially when delivering soft, fan-service narratives that function more lik...

A heartwarming film that has no right being as good as it isEven the best film purists find it hard not to judge a movie by its cover and form an opinion about it beforehand. Yet every so often a film...

A film that plays like a very expensive TV episode. The Mandalorian and Grogu has technical craft to spare, but Favreau and Filoni deliver a timid, inconsequential story that mistakes motion for cinem...

A nostalgic return that fits less snugly than twenty years ago Nostalgia is the main selling point in Hollywood nowadays, whether because executives are yearning for a golden age of cinema gone by, or...

Too many power-ups, not enough story. Illumination's latest is more merchandise than movie: a forgettable corporate exercise that squanders its characters, its budget, and any semblance of creative vi...

A crowd-pleaser to be hailedDespite the success of Andy Weir's novel “The Martian” on the big screen with the Ridley Scott and Matt Damon film of the same name, it has taken more than a decade for ano...

Almodovar Turns the Camera on Himself yet AgainPedro Almodovar has an incredibly distinct style, in both his narrative tone, which plays with the melodramatic, as well as with his visuals and sets, wh...

Nature, Robots, and a Pixar Firing on All CylindersLike much of the other Disney brands, Pixar's reputation was severely hurt by the insatiable quotas for "content" in the Streaming Wars, to populate ...

Young Critic's Predictions for the Academy AwardsBest Picture:Will Win: One Battle After AnotherShould Win: One Battle After AnotherCould Win: SinnersBest Director:Will Win: Paul Thomas Anderson (One ...

More Snooze Than ScreamNo franchise is safe from Hollywood milking it for all that its worth. The Scream movies had remained a solid franchise that, despite entries of diminishing returns, had always ...

A provocation that mistakes erotic excess for emotional depthDespite being one of the most iconic love stories ever written, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights has never had a definitive screen adaptati...

A campy survival comedy undone by its own third actWhile bursting onto the scene with the inventive comedy-horror The Evil Dead (1981), Sam Raimi also helped pioneer the superhero craze of the 2010s b...

A breathless con-man epic dismantling the myth of the American DreamThe unmasking of “the American Dream” as one in which people have to con their way to the top is a thesis American cinema has explor...

A Transcendental Take on ShakespeareShakespeare has been a well of material for artists and filmmakers, not just through adapting his works, but his life as well. Shakespeare in Love (1998) was fun th...

A Bleak but Compelling Portrait of MotherhoodMotherhood has been the surprising common theme for many 2025 releases, from Die My Love (2025) to Hamnet (2025), Bring Her Back (2025), The Perfect Neighb...

Jim Jarmusch turns the remake into a quiet family ritualJim Jarmusch is as unhurried an artist as can be, both in his method of filmmaking as in his style. This has made him stand out as the rest of t...

Paul Feig’s thriller goes wildly, watchably off the railsDespite having cut his teeth making some of the best comedy of the last few decades with The Office (2005-2013), Parks and Recreation (2009-201...

Un homenaje que confunde el afecto con la profundidadLas bandas tributo son un cebo nostálgico afectuoso para los aficionados a la música, una forma de revivir en directo a un grupo del pasado. Una de...

Nia DaCosta Brings Moral Weight and Visual Restraint to the Zombie FranchiseMany unplanned trilogies fizzle out by their third entry, as the unexpected success of a first film forces sequels into exis...

A visually staggering saga running out of fireJames Cameron has now devoted close to two decades to his Avatar films, which have revolutionized blockbuster cinema: the first Avatar (2009) through its ...

A harrowing portrait of innocence, bureaucracy, and the human cost of warThe recent war in Gaza was bound to spark art attempting to grapple with the horrors and devastating loss it has caused. One of...

A somber Knives Out trades clever twists for faith and fatigueAfter creating a new charismatic detective to join the ranks of Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes with the Southern-drawling Benoit Blanc...

A compelling yet cautious portrait of the men behind recent history’s atrocitiesThe Nuremberg trials of Nazis were a monumental moment in the collective digestion of the horrors perpetrated in World W...

A haunting study of how homes remember—and how families try to forgetThe poetic question of whether spaces have memory is an intriguing one, and one that spiritually accrues many added layers regardin...

Bigger and busier, this sequel can’t recapture the original’s sparkAfter the return of Bob Iger as Disney CEO, a pivot was made to make less quantity of content for the streamer Disney +,  which had p...

A bold new cyberpunk vision held back by tonal whiplash and a muted leading manEdgar Wright is a beloved director for many film nerds, known for a winking style and frenetic editing, the Brit has deli...

A return to Oz that exposes fascism with clarity but stumbles in storytellingThe phenomenon of Wicked (2024) seemed to work on multiple fronts, launching Jon M. Chu’s musical career as it deserved (af...

A heist without sparkle, the Horsemen return for a trick no one asked to seeIt would be hard to imagine, of all the franchises that studios have sought to prop up, that the one about magicians who pul...

Lynne Ramsay turns post-partum despair into a brutal, intimate portrait of a mind unravelingLynne Ramsay is not a director to shy away from taboo subjects, especially regarding parenting. Her indie hi...

Scott Derrickson's follow-up is a convincing evolution from the first filmHorror appears to be the last remaining genre where filmmakers deliver surprising new ideas. This is due to the small budgets,...

Dan Trachtenberg's latest Predator entry is another solidly entertaining character pieceIt’s a curious yet unsurprising trend, when a franchise has burnt out, studios are willing to give the material ...

Yorgos Lanthimos' latest is a deconstruction of conspiracy theoristsYorgos Lanthimos has developed an idiosyncratic style, in the same way that Wes Anderson or Kelly Reichardt has. You can identify a ...

Kelly Reichardt's latest demystifies the criminal caperIn a time when movies are increasingly loud and boisterous, struggling to capture our ever-shortening attention spans, it’s both refreshing and s...

Alberto Rodriguez's latest thriller is his best in yearsThe film noir had its height in the mid-century, and shortly revived in the 1970s anti-system surge of independent young filmmakers, where they ...