Nikola Stojkovic

A feast for the eyes if not necessarily the brain, Alita: Battle Angel brings enough wide-eyed, visual splendor to offset its narrative clunk.

Loosing another indie arrow into the target of his career, co-writer/actor Mark Duplass scores another notch on the filmic scorecard.

Boasting dramatic performances rivaling that of the most powdered royal courtiers and with trademark off-kilter humor, The Favourite cements “Lanthimos Style” in the filmmakers’ lexicon.

More interested in its subjects than taking political or ethnic sides, Among Wolves captures life after war with raw, affecting honesty.

A grief story within a ghost story, Personal Shopper simmers slowly, letting its narrative and emotional beats unfurl with measured confidence, anchored in a pinnacle performance from Kristen Stewart.

 

Like a matryoshka doll revealing increasingly twisted craftsmanship in every nesting, Bad Times at the El Royale serves up a dark humored, sometimes disturbed narrative that consistently surprises.

Convincingly emulating modern art for better and worse, Velvet Buzzsaw leaves us with the vague notion that there’s either something substantive we missed, or, like two blobs of paint on a canvas, sometimes the surface is all there is.

Despite being released on competing platforms, Netflix’s Fyre and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud are better viewed as a complete set.