Owen Gleiberman

To me, one of the most pleasurable things in movies is that moment when you see an actor become a movie star. That’s what happens to Dominic Sessa in “Tony.” I don’t care if the film is a summer indie smash or not (though it deserves to be) — it shows you that Sessa has the goods.

As directed by Brett Sullivan, Hadestown: The Musical transmits the show’s earthy electricity.

There’s no getting around the fact that it’s a greatest-hits compendium. But though Sia’s last major hit was a decade ago, she had such an intuitive gift for crafting powerfully infectious pop songs that it’s hard to understand why she hit a wall.

Mile End Kicks wants to mirror the haphazard freedom of a young woman out on her own, away from her home turf for the first time. To that end, the writer-director, Chandler Levack, establishes an agreeably slapdash attitude of hedonistic adventure, one that’s often intentionally borderline cringe.

"Brand New Day” is watchable without ever being transporting.

I don’t necessarily mind the fact that a Deadhead documentary rambles. But what’s peculiar, and telling, about “Summer Tour” is that the film offers no larger vantage — no sense of who these people are outside their Deadhead wanderings, and no larger perspective on how the whole Deadhead thing now fits into the culture.

Motor City, as its best, qualifies as a true immersive cinematic experience. It’s a movie almost entirely without words, but it speaks.

These two are standard-bearers for the glory of a culture that once was. It’s a culture where criticism is about judging things, but more than that it’s about exploring things — experiencing things, bringing you closer to life.

“Moana” never makes live action more captivating than animation. On some level these movies will always be unnecessary. The remake of “Moana” can’t, and shouldn’t, replace the original. But it earns a place alongside it.

It’s a stand-alone drama of family rancor and family demons — at times, it suggests a Eugene O’Neill play staged by Herschell Gordon Lewis. But on those terms it’s an effective piece of gross-out guignol.