Biller’s The Love Witch is a royal, devilishly nasty treat that is as magical as it is potent, the potion the filmmaker has whipped up for all of us to drink going down as smoothly as an expertly mixed cocktail with a tiny pink umbrella as garnish, only here the secret ingredient is cyanide, not grenadine.

Nocturnal Animals doesn’t take prisoners. Its themes are not always obvious, and where Ford is taking things is a constant question he steadfastly refuses to give answer to. But the stories at the heart of the film are primal in their effectiveness, achieving a bristling intimacy I was stunned by.

I have this feeling Rules Don’t Apply is going to grow on me. There’s so much about it that I just plain love, not the least of which is the effortlessness of the relationship that develops between Marla and Frank and the naturalistic way Hughes becomes a part of it. Beatty’s return as actor and director is just plain glorious and, even with its flaws, this rapturously romantic escapade ends up being an insightful lark that has far more on its mind than initially meets the eye.

Disney’s latest CG animated marvel Moana is gorgeous. It is colorfully imaginative, showcasing its Pacific Island and ancient Polynesian landscapes with eye-popping majesty.

Empowering and imaginative, The Eagle Huntress is easy to get excited about…Aisholpan’s story is instantly relatable, crossing cultural barriers with ease, and by the time she’s riding across an icy tundra hunting foxes alongside her father with her eagle shooting across the sky it took all my self-control not to rise triumphantly to my feet and let loose a hearty cheer.

Officer Downe wastes its potential, does nothing of merit with its star and runs in circles searching for a reason to exist for almost every one of its meaningless 88 minutes. It’s just not very good, my disappointment only made palatable due to the fact I’ll likely not have to sit through it a second time at any point in the foreseeable future.

“I have to believe. If I believe, then I know I can make it happen. I can make that world live.”

Pan’s Labyrinth is a dream and a nightmare, both in constant battle for supremacy as Guillermo del Toro’s haunting fairy tale weaves its way towards its shattering conclusion. A decade after its original release, this film has grown to become a bona fide masterpiece, Criterion’s sensational Blu-ray as exquisite a presentation as any it is likely ever going to have.

While the technical aspects of the production are impressive, the psychological ones are anything but. It’s all too tired, too aggressively on point, the entire concept of restraint thrown out with the bathwater just so the director and his screenwriter can make their dryly moralistic points one after the other. It’s all a giant cacophony of artifice masquerading as something important and meaningful, making Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk an annoying bit of social commentary treacle that’s virtually impossible to enjoy and even more difficult to sit through.