Maureen Lee Lenker

What makes Freakier Friday so special is that amid the laugh-out-loud humor and welcome fan service, there's also a beautiful film here about parenting, coming-of-age, loneliness, grief, loss, and sacrifice.

From its Saul Bass-inspired opening credits to its callbacks to Saturday morning superhero cartoons, it practically vibrates with its sense of time and place.

With a cast this excellent, there's a capacity for something truly super in a future film — if only Gunn chooses to put the characters' humanity first.

Jurassic Park Rebirth is one of the more successful and satisfying entries in the franchise precisely because it, uh, finds a way to keep Loomis’ mantra close, foregrounding the film’s sense of wonder above a mere blatant cash grab.

There’s honestly no real reason for this iteration to exist. At least, though, it doesn’t cheapen its source material, trusting in the good (dragon) bones that have always been there.

Materialists doesn’t offer any easy answers despite delivering on its romantic premise.

It’s less a Hawaiian rollercoaster ride and more a winsome, feel-good flick about what it is to find one’s family— and to, in turn, be found.

If this sounds a bit complicated, heavy on exposition, and jumbled, well, that’s because it is. It’s never a great sign when a screenplay has five credited writers, as Brave New World does...Still, Brave New World works significantly better than plenty of other Marvel films.

Bathed in a pink-pop glow, its pastiche of romance and horror collide in a viciously mischievous parable of technology and control that speaks to these most anxious times.

The visual effects and animation teams scale a monumental peak here, and their work, at least, is worthy of praise. But Nathanson’s screenplay is a spiral of ever-increasing peril.