Scott Tobias

Erika may well be a sociopath who would be cancelled a million times over in the real world, but Araki’s candy-coated sex farce reserves an unmistakable affection for a woman who’s trying to use art to pry people from their inhibitions.

So much of Brand New Day is pro forma Marvel action that Cretton and the actors have minimal space to work.

Refn still has an unmistakable visual style, with impeccable colors and compositions that seem to whiff of perfume, and a dry sense of humor emerges here and there, like when Elle makes a reference to Hans Christian Andersen and a young actress says she “doesn’t really listen to European music.” But more often, the dialogue is arch and stilted (lines like “This movie’s gonna be hell” are an aural “Kick Me” sign), and his investment in his characters’ interior lives is purely theoretical. There’s little here to feel but boredom.

The Odyssey is a huge film. It is a small film. It is a great film.

The hit-to-miss ratio in Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is a bit lower than Wain’s better films, and the indifferent digital photography leaves the impression that this is more a let’s-get-the-gang-together project than something more carefully planned. Yet the gang is still hilarious, and the additions to the Wain troupe are mostly a pleasure, from Deutch’s plucky sexual adventurer to contributors on the margins like Richard Kind and Fred Melamed.

The borderless toggle between past and present can make the film difficult to parse, but the time conceit allows Jenkin to suggest the profound grief and loss experienced by a community on the decline. It’s a horror/sci-fi scenario that’s anchored firmly in the everyday.

The romantic relationship in Girls Like Girls flounders the instant it gets going, however, because Sonya’s hot-and--cold (mostly cold) attitude toward Coley is so confusing and poorly articulated. It seems obvious enough that the invisible enemy here is a hetero disapproval that Sonya can’t quite get past, but Kiyoko doesn’t do enough to identify those pressure points, other than shots of Sonya trying to appease her temperamental boyfriend.

It never rises above a superficial treatment of modern relationships, but when the cast really gets popping, it’s lively company.

The politics of Disclosure Day are allusive at best, but Spielberg and Koepp are strongly aware that they’re making a film at a polarizing time, when human qualities as basic as empathy and openness are not something we can expect everyone to possess. Spielberg isn’t the type to succumb to cynicism, even now, but Disclosure Day turns uncertainty into its own level of tension, right through the emotional final moments of the film.

The drama leading up to the event is played at the highest of stakes, and Scott’s terrific performance, understated yet firm in its conviction, gives the film the same sturdy backbone that Stagg provided for the good guys.