Lindsey Bahr

It never strays far from the formula, but while often predictable, occasionally implausible and sometimes even straight propaganda, it’s an effectively thrilling adventure and Pitt can shed a tear (actually, many) like the best of them.

It is very much a “dad movie,” which isn’t, in this case, a bad or even limiting thing. More than a few people have compared it to something Clint Eastwood might have done at some point — just a solid, hearty, meat-and-potatoes kind of movie.

Filmmakers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the directing team behind “Game Night” and “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” have made a career out of making genre fare with an irreverent twist. They seem to be both skeptics and fans of macho 80s action movies — playing up the practical hand-to-hand combat and embracing the inherent goofiness of it all.

Here, finally, is a smart, funny and sweet story about young love that moviegoing audiences deserve. Yes, the setup is contrived — it even fits almost entirely into a movie trailer — but it’s in a way that’s familiar and grounded enough, and unlike the insanely dystopian “One Night Only.”

With its minimalist approach, “It Ends” almost feels like a pandemic-era production. It’s a neat concept that wears a little thin after a while, but it’s a movie that shows promise not only in Ullom’s ability to create a sustained, ominous mood, but in his eye for casting a group of talented and essentially unknown actors.

What it’s not really is a grisly slasher; The murders are cartoonish, with blood spurting out of victims’ necks like a geyser. Instead, it’s a thoughtfully constructed fever dream that wears its high and low brow references on its sleeve — a bold and worthy vision that continues Schoenbrun’s exploration of transitioning using the cinematic and pop cultural tools at their disposal and reinventing them in their image.

It is a terrific platform for Wilde, who as an actor Hollywood never quite knew how to use properly. Often, the movies just wanted her to be hot, ignoring her obvious intelligence and comedic prowess. Araki’s film figures out how to use all her qualities in wildly entertaining fashion.

In one version of the world it could have been “The Cutting Edge.” But “The Dink” chose the grounded, goofy route, with memorably eccentric characters and a few high profile cameos that add up to an enjoyable watch.

The only thing this movie takes seriously is its wholehearted commitment to absurdity. No idea is too dumb to explore, sometimes twice. Even when the jokes don’t land, there is still a kind of joy in it all. When

Disclosure Day . . . is a classic, big-hearted Spielberg adventure through and through, with ordinary people rebelling against shadowy secret keepers in the name of the truth.