Just as Todd Haynes's new film keeps us guessing about Julianne Moore's deceptive ex-con and Natalie Portman's scheming method actor, it keeps us guessing what kind of movie it really means to be.

No, Nicolas Cage is not "funnier than he's ever been." But he's really funny. And while everyone complains about the lackluster ending, let me praise what it does so well.

Alexander Payne's latest has its highlights, even if it holds us a little too long, and strains a little too hard for a crowd-pleasing conclusion.

A double-feature of Priscilla and Spencer might be a fascinating study. Or it might seem merely redundant.

Scorsese's new epic features some of the strongest and most conscientious work of his career. But the fact I'm opening with words about him here hints at what gives me mixed feelings about the film.

My 10,000-word deep-dive on Kieslowski's masterpiece is published in a new anthology.

Here's a high school comedy about hormones and hijinks that goes to violent extremes, afflicting the comfortable and making the uncomfortable laugh until they're sick.

You're probably hearing a lot about Lily Gladstone's performance in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. In fact, she was just as magnetic earlier this year in The Unknown Country, a film worth seeking out on streaming services, and one of my favorites of 2023.

My three-part series on Greta Gerwig's Barbie culminates with my full review.

In a season of intensifying violence — in American neighborhoods, and in battlefields of global significance — some of our best filmmakers are telling stories about gun-wielding villains. I've just published thoughts on The Killer and Killers of the Flower Moon.

In Part Two of my Barbie coverage, I establish some necessary context for my upcoming film review. My history with toy trends is a story of formative influences: Barbies for girls, armed men for boys.

Greta Gerwig's brilliant blockbuster gets us laughing at the absurdity of real-world hierarchies (including injustices often reinforced in Christian circles to the harm of everyone involved).

Christopher Nolan seems to be remaking Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in this profound meditation on America's self-righteous obsession with coercive violence and apocalyptic firepower.

A quick review of my personal Star Wars history and notes on this new animated series, which has a few delightful surprises... and a whole lot of storytelling that might've been ChatGPT'd.

Kelly Reichardt's latest depicts the day-to-day challenges of artmaking with such truthfulness that artists may find it almost too familiar.

David Lowery's "Peter Pan and Wendy" gives us a glimpse of the unconventionally meditative and innovative adaptation that might have been. But what it actually is? That might well be the result of studio interference, judging from these strangely incoherent results.

Most people missed the long-awaited adaptation of "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret." in the theater. That's a shame, as it's one of 2023's most enjoyable films so far.