Natalia Winkelman

Brimming with style and spirit up to the final scene, Maddie’s Secret is among the most daring movies I’ve seen this year. That it simultaneously guarantees a giddy good time is a minor miracle.

An often miraculous and occasionally exasperating Japanese anime film.

Forastera is an exquisitely deconstructed ghost story, a muted mystery that beguiles while remaining deeply grounded in its evocative setting.

This is an upsetting film with an abrupt ending, but the feeling of despondence it imposes upon the audience is part of the point.

As its return to the IMAX — I mean, silver — screen, the saga could do worse than this movie. With their main guy’s face behind metal, that’s a more than respectable showing.

A crafty reveal does not a clever film make, and even at a merciful 80 minutes, the device eventually feels more tired than the sullen Erin, who soldiers on through her suffering.

Pelage and plumage noticeably lack the tactile quality of a Pixar extravaganza, but the animation gets a pass for the movie’s purposes — namely, to impart a message that communities should trust each other, whether they’re covered in rotely-rendered feathers or fur.

Ultimately, Two Women is less a message movie than a featherweight comedy, gesturing at big ideas about sexual politics before settling in as an amusingly mischievous diversion.

In his first feature, the writer and director Joel Alfonso Vargas takes a rather unremarkable premise and unspools it with sedulous care.

There is charm in the film’s allusions to New York City indie filmmaking, like the crew member who fibs that he’s shooting a mayonnaise commercial. But that specificity does not extend to Simon and Bruce’s bond, which consists of parallel play or the odd story about getting too stoned.