Fran Hoepfner

Napoleon is not a complete wash, mercifully, its strengths pooled in extended and gory battle sequences. You can feel Scott’s excitement at this material, how eager the film is to explain military strategy or blast a cannon through a soldier’s body.

With everything a little bigger and the film significantly more beautiful — the wonderful Robert Richardson (‘Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood,’ ‘Casino’) behind the camera — the stakes feel worthy of their larger-than-life star.

Though it ticks all the boxes, there is a lack of surprise and originality.

It’s difficult to accept Barbie as a satire when the filmmakers’ earnest enjoyment of the cars, the houses, the outfits, and even the toy food feels much more indulged than any philosophical reckonings. We’ve never expected Barbie to be a real thinker––why start now?

At times, It’s Me, Margaret the film, just like It’s Me, Margaret the book, feels a little too raw and embarrassing: like going to buy a bra at a department store with your mother, there is something unspeakably intimate and horrifying about existing in its world for too long.

It’s a promising feature with an original focus, handled with romantic dexterity and thoughtful wisdom.

Beau Is Afraid relies on subverting expectations so frequently that its twists become predictable, if not rote.

While it’s great to hear Blume read her own work, such a significant portion of the documentary is focused on excerpting that it might have been more time-saving to assign the books to the audience ahead of time.

80 For Brady is undeniably a shiny piece of NFL propaganda, a film so in love with its own money-making apparatus that it’s hard not to find it at least somewhat evil. But the performances land and are often endearing, with all four women in particularly strong form.

Despite its A-list cast, can’t escape its shoddy writing and worse filmmaking.