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A film that softly reminds through its humor and raw dialogue that the small things get us through the toughest times, and that life - tragic, wonderful, fleeting life - is for living.

Its no Sixth Sense but Shyamalan gives us lots to ponder in his latest thriller. Although admittedly, the entire premise would have fallen through if not for a legendary performance by James McAvoy.

Leave it to Michael Bay to deliver an unconscionably distasteful thriller that doesn't even feign coherence. This is most certainly a ride you'd rather miss.

I wish I had conscientiously objected to seeing Hacksaw Ridge; a lesson in heavy-handed righteousness followed by a seemingly never-ending sequence of limb-flying, gut-splattering violence. Masochists needn't make films about pacifism.

If you laugh at any point in We're the Millers you may walk away feeling somewhat ashamed of yourself. It's predictable, exploitative, unfunny Hollywood drivel.

Macon Blair's dark comedy resonates strongly with the cynicism of the day before it fizzles into a mess of grotesque absurdity and played out tropes.

Most striking of the takeaways from this thoughtful crime thriller is that obsessively neurotic is the only character type Cage can play that will make us laugh with him instead of at him.

This is the worst film of 2016 and demonstrates the collapse of the Hollywood Blockbuster. Totally unoriginal, boring effects, Smith was right to pass on it. If only I had...

If it weren't for Emily Blunt's steller performance Tate Taylor's superficial adaptation wouldn't make it out of the station. Even so, it chugs along at a painfully slow pace.

Rudd is endearing as a ladies man in search of a male friend. The laughs come more spaced out as the premise unfolds but it's nevertheless a fresh summer rom-com.

Don't Breathe's greatest accomplishment; making a blind war vet into a kidnapping and murdering rapist (yes, he is a rapist) is also its rather egregious fault. Its scary alright.

Ron Howard proves his directing chops here. His period drama is every bit as important and carefully maneuvred as the interview it uses as source material.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Tallulah happens when a director cares more about checking various PC boxes than having a compelling or realistic narrative. It's hard to like no matter how hard you try.

Give a monkey Miles Teller, Brian Cranston, and a budget of $10 million and you'll get better results. Get a Job is a full-fledged embarrassment to all involved.

This is a delightfully heartfelt and immensely uplifting flick. Like a catchy song, Pirate Radio is so effortlessly enjoyable you hope it never ends.

Eisenberg and Segal are good together, so it’s a shame that the script is heavier on the eyelids than the heart. You'll be longing for the end of the film.

Levine's holiday bro-medy boasts surprising thematic scope - grappling with pre-parental anxiety, celebrity, loneliness, and an overarching fear of growing out of boyhood mischeivety - that more than make up for its corniness.

A work incredible philisophical scope and one of the best written films I have ever seen, Adaptation is a treatise on what it means to exist, to be alive, to love, and to create.

Bill Murrey and Owen Wilson shine in this seafaring adventure that is very much an Andersonian classic; showcasing colorful and beautifully designed sets, methodical camera choreography and a melancholic story of family redemption.

Young Xavier Dolan's stylized masterpiece is a work of heartbreaking humanism and one of the best films of the decade. I'm not sure whats more surprising, that Dolan is only 25 years old, or that this is already his 5th feature film.

Linklater's cult-classic high school ensemble comedy captures the zeitgeist of 70's Texas without relying on narrative so much as a series of semi-related moments over the course of a night in Austin.

A meandering, hilarious, and ultimately pointless tour of Austin Texas and the lazy souls lost in it - or in other words: a pure Linklater. Raught with rants of conspiracy, anti-establishmentarianism, and existentialism, this foundational piece sets in motion the spirit that occupies his entire filmography.

If Spike Jonze was hoping to capture the power of imagination to a stressed child, he succeeded. He was much less successful in conveying how imagination transcends childhood, which is dissapointing as the books resonance is quite universal.

One of the most underrated films of 2014. Indeed, Filth earns its title, but don't be deterred from riding this raucous rollercoaster steered every which way by the brilliant McAvoy.

Darren Aronofsky pulls no punches as his characters descend the chasms of addiction. Requiem for a Dream is a profoundly bleak film. Watch with caution.

Hopefully the inevitable storm of live-action Disney remakes that follow it will have the same grace and inspired storytelling that makes Favreau's Jungle Book better than the original.

One of the strangest films of the year, perhaps of all time. The Lobster is a highly sylized sci-fi subversion of sexuality, relationships, and the concept of the nuclear family that is at its best when it weilds its bizarre surrealism and absurdist humor but it loses steam in the second act.

Hollywood's comedic stars align for a shamelessly outrageous, suprisingly touching, and infinitely rewatchable rom-com that I can say with confidence is one of the funniest movies ever made.

Step aside Twilight, the wonderfully original, sharp, and outright hilarious, What we do in the Shadows is the vampire film we've all been waiting for.

Most of the chuckles derive from Bateman's unabashed, perhaps misguided, disregard for political correctness, yet the whole thing is much less subversive as it is cheaply provokative.

It's no suprise that Linklater didn't actually have a college experience, as his groovy follow up to Dazed and Confused that showcases a rip-roaring weekend of frat-boy college parties, baseball, and young romance, comes across more as a tribute to nostalgia than real memory.

A bleak and honest portrait of a bitterly controversial tragedy, yet Everest is no witch hunt, rather a case study in the peculiar relationship between endurance and foolishness within the human spirit.

A tense, at times satirical, take on the complexities of modern warfare - no heroes here, but someones got to make the right choice at the right time for the right reasons - and accept the consequences.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Not without moments of intriguing social critique and compelling ventures into backstory, Seven Psychopaths meta-film elements come across as half-hearted and the ending is quite dissapointing.

Caeser's problem is that it offers little appeal or even understanding from the non-hollywood crowd, giving it a by-insiders, for-insiders inaccessability.

Boyle keeps his sci-fi-epic-turned-slasher remarkably contained, offering a glimpse at the socialogy of a space team on a suicide mission and excellent performances by Cillian Murphy and Chris Evans power it sunward.

A high-flying modern musical whose ballad of reckless optimism does not come without darker undertones. And one hell of a soundtrack. It's a joyous film deserving of multiple viewings.

Whatever people saw in this meandering and utterly lackluster sci-fi americana was missed on me. Nichols has steered well off course since the brilliant Take Shelter and I hope he rights the ship soon.

With the heart and humor of Little Miss Sunshine and a Wes Anderson-like attention to detail, Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a wonderfully charming spoof of society's reach into a shrinking wilderness. It's the year's funniest - and most majestical - film.

Excellent acting, edgy humor, careful direction, intense interlocking narratives - it's really hard to find fault in this marvelously modern western that has all the makings of an American classic.

What we have here is something rare - a good sequal. Meet the **** has the same all-too-familiar famililal awkwardness and dysfunctional Jewish hilarity as Meet the Parents while gently pushing the plot to the edges of absurdity. If only they had left it at that...

The soft yet searing humanism Jenkins invokes through his minimalist storytelling and mesmerizingly meditative style make the occasional slips into self indulgence more than forgivable. Moonlight is as personal as it is universal, as hopeful as it is heartbreaking, consistantly genuine, and never gratuitous. It's at the same time one of the most unique, most important, and best films of the year

In his first foray into sci-fi, Villeneuve's lofty ambitions are as over-calculated as they are under-executed. Arrival is far from the promised humanist thriller, coming across as a wannabee Nolan thinker, only less coherent and more pretentious. After the abominations of Enemy and Sicario, this may just be strike 3 for Denis.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Kunis leads a clan of underappreciated and badly behaved moms in a boorish brouhaha spoof of modern day motherhood. Unfortunately the ending credits had more humor and heart than the film did.

Elle has its strengths - Hubbert's fierce lead performance and occasional laugh out loud moments - but its unrealisic plot and strange transgressions are confusing at best and wildly offensive at worst.

By the halfway point nearly all credibility has escaped through the basement hatch, but The Autopsy of Jane Doe remains a claustrophobic little fright.

The Coen bro's melancholic ode to the American folk age is anchored by its soundtrack and Isaac's memorable performance but often falls into the familiar tropes of the agitated struggling artist.