Matt Singer

Yes, it does have a bunch of Marvel cameos, and a couple of times it feels like it can’t quite reconcile what its creators want with what they have to do to appease their corporate overlords and the needs of the broader MCU. But that’s not enough to ruin what’s otherwise a good story about a friendly Spider-Man and his neighborhood.

This ancient tale, familiar to everyone who passes high school English, is rendered new again by writer/director Christopher Nolan’s craftsmanship and thoughtfulness, which turns this dusty legend into a meditation on what holds civilizations together, and what tears them apart, including our own.

The Invite is a real return to form for Wilde, signaling that Booksmart, not Don’t Worry Darling, was the real template for her directing career. Not that she can’t or shouldn’t make bigger films with more elaborate special effects, but she seems to have channeled her own experience in front of the camera into a real facility working with other actors, and intimate movies like this one really let her show that talent off.

This is what I will miss most about Jackass. Beyond the nauseating misbehavior and the outlandish self-harm (which, okay, yes, I will also miss), this series showed us that the best way to face our own mortality is not with grace and class and stoicism. It’s by laughing at the absurdity of existence while surrounded by the people you love.

Given the splash Alcock made in Superman, and the fact that Supergirl is based on one of the best books DC Comics has published in the last decade, this has to be one of the biggest disappointments in recent superhero movie history.

I would say Toy Story 5 is shockingly successful, but really it shouldn’t be shocking at all that Andrew Stanton, the director of Pixar masterpieces like Finding Nemo and WALL-E and a writer of the Toy Story films since the very first one, understands these characters and this world, and found a way to bring them into the 2020s without sacrificing what makes them special.

The film does not live up to all of his promises of shocking revelations, and in general, the movie is a long (though admittedly very exciting) build-up to an underwhelming payoff.

I laughed occasionally, mostly at Faris and Hall (who should really make a movie together that’s not a Scary Movie) but not enough to recommend the film. But, again, I was almost certainly more sober than its creators intended when I saw it.

In a world where original movies like Obsession and Backrooms are suddenly the hottest films in Hollywood, an expensive spoof of Masters of the Universe already looks nearly as dated as the old He-Man cartoon I watched as a kid.

Power Ballad isn’t just a case of a director rehashing his greatest hits — even though the most famous song from Carney’s most famous movie makes a cameo. While it begins in similar fashion to nearly all of his movies — with an unlikely collaboration sparking sonic kismet and a host of catchy tunes — it also takes those familiar tropes in some welcome new directions.