Next Best Picture

With a smart script that reclaims stigmatized narratives, they’ve made a thoughtful documentary that explores sex work through an imaginative and humanistic lens.

The potential for a much more engrossing venture is sadly bypassed for a merely passable showcase.

Swapped is a perfectly serviceable animated film that younger viewers will connect with. Unfortunately, despite flashes of inspiration, it suffers from dreaded forgettability; it’s too reminiscent of recent, better films with similar plots, tropes, and themes, and never quite finds the spark it needs to stand out.

It may not always be easy to thoroughly enjoy a work like “Blue Film” because of its tough subject matter. Nobody wants to see an entirely sympathetic perspective of a person who has committed some of the most horrible deeds imaginable. But the strength of the film is not in seeking to answer those pure moral questions. It thrives in that gray area, contemplating the pain that leads people to the lives they end up creating for themselves.

While The Devil Wears Prada 2 isn’t too sweet, it could certainly use more sour notes. The callbacks to the first film get the balance mostly right, but outside of those nicely judged moments, the film can sometimes feel like Miranda struggling with the new HR guidelines: Trying to be biting, but turning out toothless.

It’s a tale as old as time, but the filmmaking basks in its luxurious style as the performances do their best to create captivating portraits of their own. There may not be too much distinctiveness from what’s on the page outside of the lack of talking, but sometimes words fail. Action is needed, and this has more than enough to satisfy.

Two Pianos is at once a story about identity, aging musicians, memory (and the loss of it), the dangers of pragmatism, the treatment of young music prodigies and how it affects them as they age, overcoming addiction, and the lies we tell ourselves and others to justify our choices. All of these ideas are connected, but none of them rise to the top to become an overarching theme that unites them all.

Even in a flawed film like this, the action remains inventive.

There are very dark chapters in Michael Jackson’s life that one would not expect a film with the full endorsement of his estate to approve. It’s understandable, even expected, for these kinds of works. But what makes “Michael“ come underneath that generously low bar is that it refuses to paint its subject as anything less than saintly. It truly feels like this version of Jackson has been deified, shown to be consumed by his talent but without any dramatic stakes to accompany his triumphs.

Bunnylovr is another attempt to examine the melancholy that is especially prevalent among the young. What it gleams is an intriguing portrait, but it is also inconsistently engaging.